In this message we shall see that the church as the new man needs to be put on by the believers.
Ephesians 4:24a and Colossians 3:10a both speak of putting on the new man. Although the new man has already been created, we still need to put him on. We need to put on the new man who has already been created in Christ. This new man is the Body of Christ. Hence, to put on the new man means to live a life by the Body. Before our salvation, we were living in the old man, in the old society, but now we are members of Christ, living in His Body. We should put off the old man with the old social life and put on the new man, the church. In this new man there is nothing natural, nothing of social rank, for everyone is full of Christ. Christ is everyone and is in everyone (Col. 3:10-11). There is nothing but Christ in the new man. Our life is Christ, our living is Christ, our intention is Christ, our ambition is Christ, our will is Christ, our love is Christ, and everything else about us is Christ. He saturates our entire being.
According to Ephesians 4:17-32, the new man lives a life by grace and truth. These are the two main factors in the living of the new man to fulfill God’s purpose. God needs such a new man on earth to fulfill His purpose, to carry out His intention.
The believers put on the new man by the renewing in the spirit of their mind. In Ephesians 4:23 Paul says that we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind. To be renewed is for our transformation to the image of Christ (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). The spirit in Ephesians 4:23 is the regenerated spirit of the believers mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God. Such a mingled spirit spreads into our mind, thus becoming the spirit of our mind. It is in such a spirit that we are renewed for our transformation. In this way our natural mind is conquered, subdued, and put under the spirit. This implies a process of metabolic transformation. As this process takes place, the mingled spirit spreads into our mind, takes over our mind, and becomes the spirit of our mind.
By the spirit of the mind we are renewed to fulfill in experience what was accomplished in the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man through baptism. The putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man are actually accomplished facts. Now we need to experience and realize these facts by being renewed in the spirit of our mind.
The way to put on the new man is for the spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit, to become the spirit of our mind. Our mind dominates and directs our whole being. For the spirit to become the spirit of our mind means that the spirit directs, controls, dominates, and possesses our mind. When the spirit directs our mind, it governs our entire being. When this is the case, our being is under the control of the spirit. It is in this spirit of our mind that we are renewed, and by means of this spirit we put on the new man experientially.
It is crucial for us to see that the new man has already been created and, by regeneration, has been put into our spirit. The need now is for our spirit to become the dominant part of our being. This means that our spirit mingled with the Spirit of God must become the spirit of our mind. If our spirit is the spirit of our mind, then all our living will be by the spirit, and whatever we do will be according to the spirit. This spirit of our mind will then become the renewing spirit. As we are renewed by this spirit, we put on the new man.
How much in experience we put on the new man depends on how much our spirit directs our being. Therefore, experientially speaking, putting on the new man does not take place once for all. On the contrary, it is a life-long matter, a gradual process that goes on throughout our Christian life. When we were regenerated, the new man, created with Christ as the divine essence, was put into our spirit. Now day by day we need to put on this new man by permitting the spirit to control our being and renew our mind. Every time part of our mind is renewed, we put on a little more of the new man. Hence, the more we are renewed through the spirit controlling our mind, the more of the new man we put on.
Home | First | Prev | Next