A New Creation Through Christ

We are getting to a part in Ephesians that we could easily just skip over if we wanted to stay the same.  If we wanted to go the easy route and just let our relationship with God be a casual thing, but we don’t want to do that.  Paul talks about how our relationship with Christ does more than change us.  Let us take a quick look at what Paul says here in chapter four starting at verse 17-24; “With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.  But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ.  Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception.  Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.  You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness—righteous, holy, and true.”

Paul very bluntly says stop listening to what the world is telling you on how you should live your life.  The world is full of sin so just stop being foolish and trying to figure out how you should live by buying self-help  books, watching Dr. Phil, or where ever you get advice, just stop.  Why? Because these people do not know God, they have hardened their hearts.  We must come to the understanding that if we want to grow in God we must put the world behind and live for God.  As Paul puts it we “must put the new man on and get rid of the old.  The Greek word Paul uses for new means having a different quality or nature.  This means we are no longer the same, God enters into us and changes us from the inside out.  We are to no longer live as we used to, we are to take on the nature of God.  Christ says that we are to be born again, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.”(John 3:3)  Peter tells us the same thing, “For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.”(1^st Peter 1:23)

We are to no longer live as we lived before Christ, we are to allow God to change and recreate us. Paul says if you lived as a thief, stop, if you lived deceiving others, stop.  So how do we live then?  “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”(Eph 4:32)  We are to live in love with God we must put all hate, all sin behind and live a life that that no longer puts us in the center but puts God and His love in the center of our lives.  We no longer get mad at people but instead we love them.