When we silence our souls, we set ourselves up for growing our souls. This daily devotional looks at the importance of creating this new self.
Nuggets
- We are called to take off our old outward life.
- We put off our old self off through regeneration.
- We are asked to give up our sinful ways, but we gain so much more when we choose to live as God wants us to live.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
When we were going through the Silence of the Soul series, I put some things in an overflow file. (It is slightly different than the drafts file, but it is on the same order.)
When I was looking at it to see what to do this week, I pulled out five files that seemed to hang together. They struck me as talking about growing our souls.
I know we have talked about all of the topics and, probably, all of the verses. I think God is wanting me — and, by extension, you — to take stock as to how far we’ve come on the journey.
Let’s also switch this and look at this more through the lens of inward and outward.
Let’s Put It into Context #1
We’ve specifically looked at this passage before.
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Glossary
But we’ve also looked at the topics before. In fact, renewing our minds is part of our job description. It is part of being a living sacrifice.
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Glossary
The Disciple’s Job Description
Let's Put It into Context #2
What jumpstarted this reflection on inward and outward changes was Beecher’s sermon entitled Morality the Basis of Piety. It talks about God’s full work in the soul. Beecher wrote, “Truth, in opposition to lies; honesty, in opposition to craft and stealing; purity, in opposition to all manner of corrupt desires; general integrity and uprightness — these are inculcated as the indispensable prerequisites of Christian life.”
Resource
What Paul and Beecher were calling us to do is to give up our sinful passions and replace them with passions pleasing to God. We are to be faithful to Him, changing our old lifestyle and opinions. In our dealings with others, we need to be equitable with all. We need to love them as God does.
We are talking more than reputation here. We are talking character. Reputation is who others think we are; character is who we really are. Beecher called reputation the shadow of our character.
Getting Rid of Our Old Selves
“to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires” (Eph. 4: 22 ESV)
We are called to take off our old outward life to replace with with an inner life.
We all know the concept of taking off and putting on clothes. It may get a little fuzzy when we think about taking off the old person and replacing it with someone new.
Paul had just gotten done with telling the Ephesians in Ephesians 4: 17-20 that he was talking about a Gentile lifestyle. His audience would have known that he meant living without God.
What Paul was trying to tell the Jews was that they, too, had been living without God. Yep, they probably had a hissy fit on that.
The problem was that they were banking on the ceremony and rituals to be enough for salvation.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with good and eternal life.
- The consequences of sin are spiritual death and physical separation from God.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
• Eternal life is the promise of living eternally – even if we have died in this life – because we have admitted our sins, believed Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, and confessed God as Sovereign Lord.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
Changing Our Selves
“to be renewed in the spirit of your minds” (Eph. 4: 23 ESV)
We put off our old self through regeneration.
It may be called renewing your mind, but Eadie reminds us that it is the renewing of the spirit of the mind.
We’ve talked before that it is still the same us after conversion. God doesn’t suddenly flip a switch and make us into a totally different person.
The spirit of our mind undergoes regeneration. Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
I am not even sure I am going to be able to do an Elaine-speak on this one. Eadie said that the change “… is ‘in the spirit of the mind,’ in that which gives mind both its bent and its materials of thought. It is not simply in the spirit, as if it lay there in dim and mystic quietude; but it is ‘in the spirit of the mind,’ in the power which, when changed itself, radically alters the entire sphere and business of the inner mechanism.”
Resource
Well, that makes sense. We are to worship God in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4: 24).
I am reading this as it changes the mind control room. It is the power source. It changes what our inclinations are.
This change has to be made. If we don’t change, we need to go over the steps again and make sure we genuinely ABCDed.
Putting on Our New Selves
“and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth” (Eph. 4: 24 ESV)
We are asked to give up our sinful ways, but we gain so much more when we choose to live as God wants us to live.
We don’t just make the decision to believe in God and are done with it. Neither are we expected to renounce everything.
Watkinson wrote, “It is felt that Christian life is chiefly occupied with sacrifice and resistance; what we forego is the main matter, the great idea being that of renunciation throughout. Out of this negative view, constantly set forth and exaggerated, sprung great evils.”
Longing for the sinful things we are to give up keeps our eyes off of all that God will open up for us. Watkinson also wrote, “For all that we give up for Christ’s sake, a new world opens to us of fresh interests, activities, and pleasures, and this world we must forthwith claim and realize.”
Resource
Asking Jesus to be our Savior and God to be our Sovereign Lord changes our focus and our wants and desires.
If we do not put on our new selves, we haven’t made a genuine profession of faith. If we don’t focus on God, we may be tempted to slip back into a sinful lifestyle.
The Weekly Pulpit gives us a list of the new things with which we are now to fill our lives.
- New thoughts.
- New motives.
- New dispositions.
- New enjoyments.
Resource
Martin reminded us that we are not just changing our appearances to the world. We are getting a renewed heart as well as a renewed mind.
Resource
True, Martin does say that we have to not neglect our outward character. But that has to stem from a heart changed by God.
Martin discussed how we sometimes justify our sinful actions even after conversion. I know I have had someone tell me that “that is just how I am made” when she acted in an unChristian-like way to me.
I thought to myself, “It may be. But that is not how God wants us to act.” We have to change our habits and temperament to reflect God’s.
Making the Connections
In the past, I told you that I thought regeneration was one of those past, present, and future words. For example, we are saved at the moment of conversion, but we aren’t perfected. We have to work through our salvation in this lifetime. Once we get to Heaven, we will truly be saved because we will be perfected and no longer sin.
I thought regeneration had a similar progression. Now, I don’t think it does.
We have to make a concrete decision as to whether we are for God or against Him. Are we going to submit to Him or not?
Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive. Our character being changed to be like God is what happens on the Sanctification Road.
Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with the perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness. The perfected state indicates the combination of the spiritual graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Glossary
Watkinson reminded us what we have to gain. He wrote, “The Christian life begins with renunciation, but renunciation leading to possession — possession of higher and nobler qualities and characteristics.”
Resource
How Do We Apply This?
While holiness is a gift of God, we have to do our part to cultivate it.
- Benson reminded us of the Beatitude which says we have to crave righteousness. That means we have to put a priority on doing the morality-graces-holiness progression.
- If we hunger for the righteousness, that means we eat by having a good prayer life. We need to cultivate a spirit of prayer.
Resource
Salvation is not about the do’s and don’ts. Submission is. By following God’s laws and commandments — and asking for forgiveness when we break them — we are growing holiness.
That growth starts and conversion and goes until we are perfected in Heaven. Happy growing!
Father God. We know we were so far from what You wanted us to be when we were sinners. Now, we confess You as our Sovereign God and Jesus as our Savior. Grow us to be more like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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