You heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus. You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. Eph. 4:21-4
When we heard about and were taught by Jesus, and came to Him in faith, what did we do? We took off our old self. How is the old self described? It is corrupted by deceitful desires. It is decaying and dead because of sinful desires. It was infected with sin and ruined. So Christ got rid of it on the cross by taking us down with Him in death. The old self died with Christ and didn't rise! When we come to Christ, this truth becomes our reality and we put off the old self. What is happening in our minds? They are being renewed in the truth of what Christ has done for us! And when we came to Christ, what did we put on? We put on the new self. When Christ came out of the grave, He rose as the firstborn of the new creation. He brought us up with Him! Thus we were re-created as part of the new creation in Him! The old self didn't rise with Christ, a whole new self did! In whose likeness is the new self? It's been created in God's likeness! We are godly now! We are like God! We are not God, of course, but we are made in His likeness. How is that described, how is the new self in God's likeness described? As being righteous and pure. We have been made in God's likeness in being made in righteousness and purity, in accord with God's truth!
Think of what this means: there is nothing wrong with us now! We are not messed up, ruined, unfixable, with too many issues to be repaired, no! That described the old us. The old us was irreparable, so God ended that old creation at the cross and started a new creation at the resurrection! The new us that rose with Jesus has nothing wrong with it! The new creation is perfect, pure, lovely, righteous, and good! There is nothing wrong with us now; instead, there is everything RIGHT with us! We are not weird, messed up, or off-kilter. We are set right, complete, and normal! We are 'as we should be' and 'as we ought to be'! There is nothing wrong with us!
If we're thinking something is wrong with us, that's just a
devilish lie! Because how could anything be wrong with you, when God
RE-MADE you perfect forever as a new creation in Christ? And how could anything be wrong
with you when God RE-BIRTHED you into the perfection of the Son?
I guess you don't have any
problems then! I guess you're not a messed up person! I guess you are pretty
wonderful, pretty amazing, because you're a new creation in Christ, and He
is pretty wonderful and amazing in you!
We need to always remember that any failures are
not the real us anymore! They are only the flare-ups of enemy activity
that Satan tries to put on us! These failures flare up because we may
be distracted into thinking we are not new. The more we look at the
failures and think we need improving, the more we focus on changing and
getting better, the more we are believing the lie that we are not and
that we need to become. The fact is, we already ARE and can simply BE
who we are!
When I am looking at my failures, He is looking at the perfection of Christ in me and the new creation He has made me already! He has truly made me righteous, good, complete, and new! When we are thinking we are messed up and need to 'get better' or improve ourselves, He is looking at the new creation and calling us perfectly made in Christ!
I am not the old man but the new man, so why think of myself according
to something I am not - sinful, deficient, shameful, lacking,
incomplete, needy, unacceptable, failing...
I will think of
myself as I really am - the new man, created in Christ Jesus in
righteousness and true holiness! I am the new man, complete,
acceptable, full, a success, pure, and righteous!
If sickness, depression, anxiety, confusion,
bitterness, fear, loneliness, doubt, agitation, envy, judging, and
addictive behavior is a work of the evil one (not something that belongs
to me as a new creation, but something foreign coming from the enemy),
then I don't have to condemn myself as if those things are 'mine' or
struggle against these things, I can just use my authority in Christ to
tell the enemy to go, and he must go!.. I
can just renew my mind to the truth of grace (submit to and align
myself and my thoughts with the truth of God's love and acceptance of me, that I am a new creation,
and that I am righteous as a gift forever) and the enemy will
flee..Haha, he will flee! Like a scared dog with his tail between his
legs! Thank You, Jesus, that we don't have to fight the lying junk the
enemy tries to put on us, trying to make it seem like it is 'us' - thank
You for showing me that not only is it foreign and belonging to the old
man who is dead, but that it is also just a flare-up of enemy activity
and I can tell that evil entity to go!!
We're not trying to get straightened out, not
trying to improve, not trying to be changed, not trying to fix ourselves
up or clean ourselves up..why try to repair a corpse? The 'us' with
the problems is dead and gone. That person was beyond repair, so
infected with sin and all, so Jesus took it to the cross and it has
died! Time to say goodbye and ignore that old corpse! Time to leave
the cemetery and get on with LIFE! We are new, not improved or fixed!
All things have become new, and we are complete and whole and free right
now!
