Put on The New Man

I. The Ignorance of the Old Man

How are the Gentiles Ignorant?

The terms

“Futility of their mind” - their thinking is useless. It doesn’t mean they are dumb, it means that even if their plans are elaborate and complex, they don’t matter because they’re missing the most important things.

“Darkened understanding”/Ignorance. We normally think of intelligence as the ability to recall a lot of facts, and to be able to use those facts in complex and novel ways quickly. That’s not what Paul means. He is referring to Moral Intelligence, knowledge of right and wrong.

“Blindness of their heart” is better translated “hardness of heart.” the idea isn’t that they can’t see, but that they won’t see. Every blind person I’ve ever met would like to see, but this kind of blindness comes because they don’t want to know. One lexicon [Louw and Nida] defined it as “unwillingness to learn, closed mind.” Furthermore, when the New Testament talks about the “heart” they don’t mean what we mean. We usually mean our emotions, but the NT means the entire mental faculty, your mind. So “Closed-minded” would be a rather loose translation but accurately communicates the idea.

Over what were the Gentiles ignorant?

Since this is moral closed-mindedness, the Gentiles did have quite a few problems

Idolatry

Magical Thinking

Infanticide

Rampant sexual immorality including prostitution, homosexuality, adultery

Drunken orgies

How is society today similar

Secularism is setting up man as his own god

Deification of unrestricted sexuality

Abortion

Do we as Christians ever fall into that trap?

Magical thinking applied to God, Bargaining

Various degrees of living like the world.

What are the results of that ignorance? - they are alienated from the life of God. They are still in the awful position that God rescued us from. Eph 2:12-13

Ephesians 2:12–13 NKJV

that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

How does that ignorance impact the rest of their being?

It causes them to be unable to feel shame for actions that they really ought to be embarrassed about. 1 Tim 4:1-2

1 Timothy 4:1–2 NKJV

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

Because they are ignorant of what’s right, can’t feel shame about their shameful actions, they therefore give themselves over to do them greedily.

The lifestyle of the Gentiles, stemming from the uselessness of closed-minded moral ignorance, does not automatically disappear from the Christian. We must choose to “put off the old man, your former conduct, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts.” In other words, when we are saved, our old habits and ways of thinking are not all changed, we still have them.

II. Instruction from Jesus

Paul describes the Ephesians as “Learning [from]Christ, hearing him and been taught by him.” but quite obviously, a large percentage of them have never seen Jesus. So he’s describing his own teaching as “learning from Jesus.” In other words, sitting under the instruction of the apostle Paul is as good as learning direct from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself. And this makes sense as Paul was directly commissioned by Jesus and given the authority to dispense Jesus’ teaching, as well as the direct revelation to be able to do that. But still, it means to hear Paul is to hear Jesus.

But if it’s true that to hear an apostle, the direct representation of Jesus, was the same as hearing Jesus himself, does that go any farther down the line? To an extent, it does. For present-day Bible teachers we must remember that authority to dispense Jesus’ teaching only resides in how accurately they understand and express what Jesus would have said. However, we can say that while present-day Bible teachers almost certainly make some mistakes, faithful teachers of the Word of God get more right than wrong. Because they are fallible, you ought to think about what they are saying. But if it is clear that they get it right, that what they say is a faithful retelling of the Word of God, then most definitely, to hear them is to hear Jesus, and to refuse to listen to them is to refuse to listen to Jesus. That doesn’t mean that Jesus couldn’t have said it better, just that when they get it right, you can most definitely say that it’s the same to God as if Jesus were saying it.

The Obscure story of King Josiah vs. Pharaoh Neco confirms this idea. 2 Chron 35:20-24

2 Chronicles 35:20–24 NKJV

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him. But he sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you.” Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him, and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am severely wounded.” His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

Finally, this instruction from Jesus is ultimately about behavior. Doctrine is important, because you really can’t change your behavior permanently unless you change your thinking, but right doctrine rightly understood will impact what you do.

III. The New Man

If the “old man” refers to our conduct prior to becoming Christians, then the “new man” refers to the kind of conduct we ought to have as Christians. This conduct isn’t merely us turning over a new leaf, it’s created by God. But how exactly do you “create” conduct.

God’s own character forms the standard of morality that this conduct reflects.

God created the psychological rules that connect thinking, feeling, and behavior, allowing us to change our conduct and our feelings by changing our thinking.

God spoke his word, to change our thinking, and established the church, where we would have the social support to make that change easier.

In short, God had to do everything.

The adoption of behaviors that Christians ought to demonstrate is not automatic, rather it must be chosen, just as you have to choose to put off your old clothes and put on new ones.

The way we put on the new man must be more than just a vow to “be better.” It must begin with your mind. You must be renewed, that is, you must decide to alter your thinking about the behavior you wish to change into something more Biblical, then you must search the Scriptures and meditate on the truth to figure out where your thinking is like the old man, and where you must replace it. Then you will have the willpower to change your feelings, and your behavior as well.