Vs. 23, 24: “be renewed by the Spirit… and put on the new self.” The transformation process is when we shed the old man and put on the new. The new life is crafted after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. The transformation process is also described in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This is one of the most beautiful illustrations of the new life in Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians that if anyone considers themselves to be a follower of Jesus then He has become a new creation. The old ways of living are gone and behind and the new has come. What I find most beautiful about transformation is we become a NEW CREATION. Not a better version of the old self. I did not become Jeff 2.0, I am a completely new creation transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Jesus now becomes evident in the believer. A person who has truly been transformed by the power of the Spirit is indeed a changed individual. People will notice you are different by the way you act, talk and treat others. I often hear people say things like, “Do you know if so and so is a Christian?” The usual response is, “I don’t know. They have never said they made a commitment to Jesus.” Well the true litmus test for the Christian is evident in their transformation. If there is no transformation then there is no new life in Christ.
I always find it funny when I talk to someone who remembers me the way I used to be before I became a believer. They notice that I still have the semblance of the old Jeff; I am still the same person they knew many years ago but I have something drastically different about me. I have the new life in Jesus Christ which brings joy, contentment, and true faith in God.
I think what may linger in so many minds is, “If the old has passed away does this mean the old or former life will no longer affect or haunt me?” The answer is no. No matter what has happened in our past our "old man" will always be etched into our lives. There is no way we can make the past not be part of our lives. Who we are at the core is deeply connected to our past. However the past no longer has control over you. You have been freed from the old self and you are now made alive in Jesus Christ.
I remember when I became a Christian, one of the hardest things as a new believer was to “put to death the sinful things of the past”. The old self was still haunting me. I struggled daily (and continue today) with the sins of my life as a non-Christian. The Bible constantly reminds me that I am a “new creature” and the sinful things I used to do have passed away. I really try to keep reminding myself this, but it was very hard to live this way. I pray every day that God will deliver and protect me from this battle, so I can continue to live a life of purity and holiness. In Colossians 3:5 the Apostle Paul tells the Christians in Colosse to put to death all the sinful things that lurked in them. The words “put to death sinful things” also means to mortify or kill the sinful things in our life. Matthew Henry, a Bible commentator, wrote this, “(We must) mortify them (sinful things), kill them, suppress them, as a weed or vermin which spread and destroy all about them… It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them then they will kill us.” These are strong words, but I believe them to be effective in getting the point across. Our battle against sin is a battle that must be fought daily. We cannot just pray a prayer and God will take all sin out of our lives. He will, however, give to you help or resources to endure and win the daily battle. “The Spirit provides us with energy and power to continually and gradually be killing our sins, a process never completed in this life.” The old and new self are constantly battling one another. Yet we must be encouraged because the new self is empowered by the Spirit of God that can and will mortify the old self so we can live in the power of his Spirit.
Are you struggling with the old self? Do you find that the new you doesn’t really feel like a new you? Have you even put off the old self and put on the new you? These are deep questions that I believe need to be answered and prayed through. I challenge you today to take these questions to the Lord and ask him to empower you through the Spirit to live the new life and put away the former ways of life so you can live as a fully alive child of God.
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