Ephesians 4.24d-Jesus Christ is the Truth of God Incarnate
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 23, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:24d-Jesus Christ is the Truth of God Incarnate
Lesson # 281
Ephesians 4:24 Specifically, each and every one of you as a corporate unit were taught to clothe yourselves with the new man, which has been created in conformity with God’s image by the one and only truth exemplifying righteousness, indeed by exemplifying a holy righteousness (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:24 is composed of the following:
(1) infinitival clause endysasthai ton kainon anthrōpon (ἐνδύσασθαι τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον), “each and every one of you as a corporate unit were taught to clothe yourselves with the new man. (Author’s translation)
(2) attributive participial clause ton kata theon ktisthenta (τὸν κατὰ θεὸν κτισθέντα), “which has been created in conformity with God’s image. (Author’s translation)
(3) prepositional phrase en dikaiosynē kai hosiotēti tēs alētheias (ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ὁσιότητι τῆς ἀληθείας), “by the one and only truth exemplifying righteousness, indeed by exemplifying a holy righteousness.” (Author’s translation)
Syntactically, the infinitival clause completes the protasis of a first class condition, which began in Ephesians 4:21 and whose apodosis appears in Ephesians 4:20.
This infinitival clause also defines what Paul means when he asserts in Ephesians 4:23 that the recipients of this epistle were taught to replenish their human spirit, which is their regenerate mind or mind of Christ.
It reminds them that they were to replenish their human spirit or regenerate mind by clothing themselves with the new man, which is the new identity because of their union and identification with Jesus Christ.
This infinitival clause is modified by a participial clause, which serves to describe the new man as being created in conformity with God the Father’s image.
The prepositional phrase modifies this participial clause by presenting the means by which the Father created the new man in conformity with His image and it also presents the agency through whom the Father did this.
Namely, the Father created this new man in conformity with His image by perfectly exemplifying His holy righteousness by means of the one and only truth, who is His Son, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Paul is reminding the recipients of this epistle that the new man was created by the Father through the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ in the sense that His Son became the head and prototype of the new creation as a result of His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at His Father’s right hand.
The noun alētheia (ἀλήθεια) means “the truth, the one and only truth” and refers to Jesus Christ who is the truth of God incarnate (John 14:6, 9-10).
This is indicated by the fact the referent of the nouns dikaiosune (δικαιοσύνη), “righteousness” and hosiotes (ὁσιότης), “holiness” is Jesus Christ perfectly exemplifying divine righteous and holiness during His First Advent.
It is also indicated by the contents of Ephesians 4:21, which asserts that the recipients of this epistle were conformed to an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Specifically, it asserts that they were taught about Jesus Christ through personal experience because obedience to the truth corresponds to an experiential knowledge of Jesus.
This teaches that an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ is contingent upon obedience to the truth and thus associates obedience to truth with an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Consequently, obedience to truth is to obey the teaching of Jesus Christ, which His apostles, prophets, teachers and evangelists communicating to the members of the body of Christ, the church.
Jesus Christ is the absolute truth of God because He manifested this divine attribute of truth during His First Advent thus demonstrated that He is the incarnate Son of God.
Therefore, to know Him experientially is to know the truth of God.
Thus, we can infer that the believer can experience the personal presence of Jesus Christ by exercising faith and obedience to the truth of God revealed in the Word of God, i.e., the gospel.
From this, we can infer that Jesus Himself is the absolute truth of God.
Lastly, the new man is a reference to the head and prototype of the new creation who is Jesus Christ and specifically the nature of Jesus Christ that resides permanently in the church age believer.
Ephesians 4:23 asserts that it needs to be replenished, which is accomplished by the believer exercising faith in and obedience to the Word of God, which is the absolute truth of God and the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
The articular construction of this noun alētheia (ἀλήθεια) is monadic, which is used to identify one of a kind nouns.
Here it indicates that there is only one truth emphasizing this truth is “unique.”
Therefore, this indicates that the truth mentioned in Ephesians 4:24 is “unique.”
The context would indicate it is “unique” to Jesus Christ because Paul reminds the recipients of this epistle in Ephesians 4:21 that they were conformed to an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Specifically, he reminds them that they were taught about Jesus Christ through personal experience because obedience to the truth corresponds to an experiential knowledge of Jesus.
This teaches that an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ is contingent upon obedience to the truth and thus associates obedience to truth with an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Consequently, obedience to truth is to obey the teaching of Jesus Christ, which His apostles, prophets, teachers and evangelists communicating to the members of the body of Christ, the church.
Jesus Christ is the absolute truth of God because He perfectly manifested this divine attribute of truth during His First Advent thus He demonstrated that He is the incarnate Son of God.
Therefore, to know Him experientially is to know the truth of God, which was communicated of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the recipients of this epistle.
The noun alētheia (ἀλήθεια) functions as a subjective genitive, which takes place when the genitive substantive functions semantically as the subject of the verbal idea implicit in the head noun.
In this context, we have two head nouns, namely dikaiosune (δικαιοσύνη), “righteousness” and hosiotes (ὁσιότης), “holiness.”
The verbal action implicit in the former is exemplifying righteousness and the verbal action in the latter is perfectly exemplifying holiness.
Both were accomplished during Jesus Christ’s First Advent.
Therefore, the genitive form of the noun alētheia (ἀλήθεια) expresses the idea that the new man was created by the Father in conformity with His image by His Son, the incarnate truth of God, perfectly exemplifying His righteousness and holiness.
The reason Paul does not explicitly use the name of “Jesus” in Ephesians 4:24 as he did in Ephesians 4:21 is that he is reminding the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia that they were to possess a personal experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ through obedience to the truth, which is one of His divine attributes.
In other words, to obey the truth of the gospel is to obey Jesus Christ.
