With the next Sunday being the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, the 3 readings in Series B are 1 Kings 19:1-8; Ephesians 4:17-5:2 and John 6:35-51. Chosen to preach on is Ephesians 4:24, “…and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.”

It’s a verse like this that gives a bad name to the Christian faith. How so? Because a cursory reading results in an interpretation that is decidely contrary to Holy Writ. In fact, the Reformation came about because of the living under the Law understanding of this verse as follows. “Now that we have been forgiven our sins, we are to put on the new man and thus act in true righteousness and holiness.” In other words, the thinking is that while being saved was a gracious act, it is now up to us to put on the new man and with the help of the Holy Spirit become more and more sinless in our personal lives.

Working out for you, is it? Or, is the pesky law still moving you to conclude that even filled with the Holy Spirit we still need to confess that most times we are poor, miserable sinners deserving nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. What then, does it mean to put on the new man? Perhaps we can explain that by understanding first what it would mean not to put on the new man. That would result in the old man still having the upperhand in our lives. However, because we continue to be sinners whether saved or unsaved, keeping on the old man cannot mean to just keep on sinning anymore than putting on the new man results in a sinless life of works, thoughts and words!

So, what is the difference between the old man and new man? The difference is found in verses 17 through 19 when the old man is described as walking in the futility of our minds, having our understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of our ignorance and the hardening of stubbornness of our hearts, while being beyond sensitivity to the ways of God giving ourselves over to licentiousness, uncleanness and greed. That’s more than just being a sinner. That is being an unrepentant, unbelieving sinner.

Here we find the essence of the old man and new man in that the Christian life is not one of perfect sinless works but one of repentance. And what is repentance? Biblical saving repentance is not just contrition over sin but also faith in the promises of Jesus the Christ! The Christian in his new man is one who sincerely desires to put away lying and not give place to the devil and through fruit of the Holy Spirit does achieve that at times. But when we fail, as we do everyday, we no longer need to rely on our own righteousness and holiness but the received righteousness and holiness won for us by Jesus Christ in our new man.

In our baptism the glorious exchange takes place whereby we give God our sins and He gives us the righteousness of Jesus Christ won for us by His perfect obedience to the Will of the Father while He was here on earth prior to His ascension. Through the power of the Holy Spirit the Christian can indeed walk in a loving relationship with others not possible for the unbeliever. And when we do fail, our life is characterized primarily as one of repentance in returning daily to the cross, the empty tomb and our holy baptism in which we were adopted as forgiven children by God into the family of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.