What Paul has described to this point in the book of Ephesians is the remarkable transformation that has occurred if you have been saved. We were Gentiles who did not know the promise and now we have received the fulfillment of the promise. We should have no right to this. We were also dead in our sins, following the course of the world, under Satan’s power, and by our very nature children of wrath. Now, however, much more than just a decision has occurred in our lives; we have been transformed. Our heart that once loved darkness and hated light now loves the light and has come to it. Paul writes to the Corinthians that nothing less than us becoming a entirely new creation in Christ has occurred.

These first three chapters of Ephesians are rich to us. We have been called into eternal life as we have been called into Christ. That’s remarkable, and that is why we treasure these first three chapters. But what do we do now as new creations in Christ? Paul tells us in short at the beginning of chapter 4 that we are to walk worthy of our calling – walk worthy of the saving work of God that has occurred in us. But what does that look like? What does that mean? Paul will get more specific in answering that question. And he does so in the verses that we look at this morning, even as he is setting up to be more specific in the next verses, which we will look at this week.

So let us ask the question that is answered in these texts: “Now that we have been born again, becoming an entirely new creation, no longer lost and without God but saved from his wrath and his child and friend, what do we do?”

Paul gives us the answer simply and then clarifies what it means. The answer in short is:

No longer live as one who is without Christ (17-19)

He writes in verse 17, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk [or live] as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.”

Okay, so we’re not to live as we once lived. We are no longer to live as those who are futile in their minds. We are to live a life that demonstrates Jesus Christ and not as those who are still depraved in our thinking. But so that we’ll understand the state that drives how we’re not to live, Paul drives home the picture of lost men in verses 18-19, writing, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of heart. They have become callous and given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

If you are a believer, this is who you once were. If you are not a believer, this is a description of you right now. And the picture is a bleak one.

Lost men have become darkened in their understanding. They have hardened their hearts to the gospel, which has led to their ignorance and consequent darkening of thought, of what is right, good, and true. They are incapable of grasping the truth of God and his gospel. They have abandoned what is true to sin. And they are alienated from the life of God. This absence of life from God is death. For we know that our true life is from God. So the non-believer walks around in ignorance and darkness of understanding because of their hardness of heart, and they are dead in their sins, without the life of God in them.

Paul also tells us that they have become callous, losing all sensitivity to what is right. They have lost ability to feel shame and therefore are flying off into a world without self-control. Because they have grown callous, they have lost restraints and are plunging into all kinds of degrading activities. This idea is echoed in Romans 1:21-25 as God has given them over to their debased behavior even as they have gladly chosen it. God’s judgment and man’s self-judgment becomes one in the same act.

And man spirals into an out-of-control plunge into all kinds of evil, actually growing in greed for every practice of evil. They have an insatiable desire to participate in more forms of immorality. It is not enough that they do not see it as wrong or are ashamed of the immorality, but they are greedy to practice it more and more in different forms.

This is a description of the lost man. Again, non-believers, this is you now. And for believers, this is what you once were. But, believers, this is not you now.

As Christians, we have believed, been transformed, and have been instructed so as to know and live different than that (20-21)

A great change has occurred in you if you are saved. Something more than a decision out of that kind of mind has occurred (though nothing less than a decision to walk after Christ) – you have been transformed. You heard and believed the gospel and have been instructed as how to live. Paul, therefore, makes a contrast to his description of the non-believer and the believer in verses 20-21, writing, “But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.”

One of the deepest needs in the life of the believer is to realize that you are different and therefore should and can live different than you once did. That description of the lost person’s state is not you, if you are a believer. You are not darkened in your understanding. You should not be spiraling in an out-of-control, continual lust for more ways to practice immorality.

You need to realize who you are. And then realize that you have been taught differently. It is like a pig having his mind and thoughts and desires replaced with that of a cat. He should no longer be rolling around in the mud and dirtying himself. And when he does, it should make him sick in his inner being. If you are a believer and you’ve tried to linger in your old thoughts and practices, you know what I’m talking about. You need to realize an even more drastic transformation has happened in you, and you should therefore live differently.

So what exactly do we do in order to live as we should?

We need to “put off” our old selves (22)

Paul says, “You were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires” (21-22).

You should make a harsh break with your past thoughts and actions, declaring a passion and drive to live an utterly different life. It is foolish to let this former, destructive way of life play any role in your present life.¹ It is foolish to live as you once lived in your corrupt and darkened state. Therefore, quit identifying yourself with and throwing yourself into these same kinds of manner of living.

Quit feeding yourself on what is wrong so that you are again gaining the greed and lust to practice every kind of evil. You must break with that kind of thinking and life altogether. You should fight against those kinds of thoughts and actions as if they will kill you, for they will. Do not evil toy with that former manner of living. As Preston reminded us on Wednesday night, “Make war on sin.”

Treat these thoughts and actions that describe the pagan way of living as foreign and destructive as something flying into your eye to destroy it, for that is one of the closest analogies I can come up with. Think of that, when something is coming into your eye, you don’t pause to contemplate whether or not you’re going to let it in, you don’t think a little bit is okay, you don’t hope it just grazes your eye; rather you do everything you can as quickly as you can so as to avoid even the thought of something coming into your eye. We should treat the mindset and actions of our former lives the same way. Put off the old man by making a clear break with that life.

We need to renew our minds to the truth (23)

Paul writes not only to put off your old self, but adds, “and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds” (23).

What is clear in Paul’s description of the non-believer is that wrong thinking leads to wrong behavior, which leads to more wrong thinking and more wrong behavior as a pattern which is an out-of-control spiral. Therefore, if as a believer we are going to “walk worthy of our calling” in our lives, we must change the pattern of our thinking.

We need, as Christians, to be renewing our minds constantly to what is true and right so that our behavior will begin to reflect it. I know you understand how easy it is to train your minds wrong and have your actions follow. We’ve all experienced it as we think wrongly and lust, covet, and are selfish. We’ve all bought into the lies of the world and have sought after sinful behavior in our lives that stems from that lie. In the same way, as Christians we need to be reshaping our minds constantly to what is true, right, and good. We need to expose ourselves constantly to the Scripture to feed our minds with how we are to live. For unless we are renewing our minds to right thinking, right practice will not follow.

A changed life demands changed thinking which will only come about by constant renewal of our minds according to the Scripture. An attempt at better behavior apart from constant renewal of the mind according to the Word will be short-lived at best. We must put off the old man, and then we must renew our minds to the Word of God. And then we may continue to the third aspect of how to live …

We need to "put on" the new self (24)

Paul writes, “and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (24).

Just as we put off our old behavior, we must put on (or practice) behavior that matches with who we are and in accordance with the Word of God. Even as God is the one creating our new self, we are responsible to live it out. This is much the same as the command in Philippians 2:12-13, “Work out you own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work within you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

In the same vein, here Paul says that God is making you a new creation, so live out who you are. The human response and divine activity are shown perfectly compatible. So now strive to let your life reflect your status. You are different internally and so live different externally. Do what your learning of Christ, the truth of Scripture, demands.

So here is what we must do: 1) put away our old thoughts and behavior, 2) renew our minds to who we are and what is right, as we renew our minds to the Word of God, and 3) live in accordance with who you now are and what the Word demands.

This is what we must teach new converts so as to disciple them and it is what we ourselves must be doing. Therefore, may we make this our passion and live lives worthy of our calling so as to honor our Lord. Amen.

¹Peter O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians: The Pillar New Testament Commentary Series (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999), 328.

LIVING AS A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST