Put Off the Old Man and Put on the New Pt. 1
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20 But you have not so learned Christ,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
But you have not so learned Christ
“This is not how you have learned Christ”
“What is not how we learned Christ?”
We refer to the previous verses
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
So what Paul is saying is that we have not learned that we should continue to walk as the Gentiles walk. In fact this is so far from what Paul, the apostles and Christ had taught that this idea is not compatible with faith in Christ. What Paul is referring to here is the issue that he was teaching the Romans in Rom 5:20-6:2
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
The issue is that when we teach the overwhelming truth about the grace of God which abounds towards us in Jesus Christ it always raises the question of how we ought to conduct ourselves under such grace. Shall we continue in sin? Shall we continue to walk as the Gentiles walk and just rest in the superabounding grace of God?
whether we ask the question out loud or not we all wrestle with it in one way or another. When we feel over come with temptation, when it’s just easier to lie rather than tell the truth, when we don’t want to forgive someone who has hurt us, when we just want to give someone a piece of our mind and we can just taste how satisfying it would be to really put them in their place. We face this very issue. Do I yield to this temptation or not? If we yield then we have convinced ourselves that God’s grace will cover this. After all, when I sin his grace abounds more than my sin. And yet every time we yield to sin we are concluding “I will continue in sin that grace may abound.
What a foolish game we play. We only play this game because we have not learned Christ.
You Have Not so Learned Christ
You Have Not so Learned Christ
What is it that Paul means here? It’s a strange thing to say. In fact it has been noted by several commentators that there is no where else in Greek writing where a person is the subject of this Greek word for learned.
He goes on to say
If you have indeed heard Him
or heard the apostle’s teachings about everything concerning Christ. The life death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. His atonement for our sins, His teachings about life.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—
2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Have been taught by Him
They had been taught by Christ through the words of Christ which were the testimony of the apostles, but also they were taught by Christ through the Holy Spirit who indwells them .
11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
The truth is in Jesus
Finally, Paul uses this phrase you have not so learned Christ because Christ is not only the source of all truth, He is truth.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
So the answer to the question of should we continue in sin that grace might abound is found in learning Christ.
Learning him through conversion, learning him through the Word of God (or the apostles testimony) learning Christ through the Holy Spirit within us. learning Him through faithful pastoral teaching and preaching. Learning Him through the ministry of the saint to one another.
What are some ways that learning Christ might help us to understand this particular question?
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!
16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
20 But you have not so learned Christ,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: