Shortly before I started here at Cornerstone in 2001, I joined a group from my previous church on a summer missions trip to the town of Lircay, Peru. Lircay is a small town hundreds of miles southeast of Lima on the eastern side of the Andes mountains. Our accommodations in Lircay were provided by renting out a tiny local hotel, but since there were about twenty of us on the mission team, we ended up taking over the entire hotel. Peruvian hotels are a little different than American hotels. For one thing, there are no bathrooms in the rooms. Instead, there was one shower and only two toilets that the whole hotel shared. And there was no housekeeping service which changed our sheets and provided towels. The only housekeeping which took place while we there was that each day the courtyard patio was mopped, and the one shower and two toilets were cleaned. Instead of a housekeeping service, the owners of the hotel had hired a young boy who looked as if he was probably one of the homeless street children. He was probably about ten years old, his face was always covered in mud and dirt, his hair looked as if it had not been washed in months, and he smelled worse than anyone else I have ever come across. My wife will tell you that I have a horrible sense of smell, so if I could notice how badly he smelled, you can imagine how bad it must have really been. Well, our mission group was really concerned about this boy. It really did not matter to us how badly he smelled, considering there were twenty of us sharing one shower, most of us did not shower too frequently either. His smell simply fit right in with the rest of us. What concerned us was why he smelled. Each day this boy showed up at the hotel wearing the exact same clothes. We were there in Lircay for ten days and after day five he was still wearing the same clothes. We concluded that one reason he smelled so bad was that he had no other clothes to put on. Fortunately, I had brought an extra shirt and an extra pair of pants, so I gave them to that young boy. You should have seen the look on his face. He was so excited that he looked like a young child at Christmas. The next day, day six of our trip, we all woke up expectantly and hurried out into the courtyard to where that boy was working. And what was he wearing? Instead of his new clothes, he was wearing the exact same, old, muddy, stinky, smelly clothes he wore on day one, day two, day three, four, and five. I have to admit, I was pretty confused. He had new clothes, so why wasn’t he wearing them?

Here in Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul uses that same idea of clothing in verses 22 and 24, when he says put off the old self and put on the new self, or literally take off the old self and dress yourselves with the new self. Using this metaphor, he seems to have a similar thought for the church in Ephesus that I had for that young boy in Peru. Paul seems to say “You Ephesians claim to have put on a new self in Christ, so wear it? In verses 19 Paul says the Gentiles have become callous and given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” And the temptation for many Christians is to live in this same way. Instead of being clothed with Christ, we acted as if we are still wearing the same old, muddy, stinky, smelly clothes as we had before as unregenerate Gentiles. But Paul says to us and the Ephesians in verse 20 “That is not the way you learned Christ!” Paul’s argument in these verses is simple, going back all the way to the beginning of this chapter and verse 1: walk in a manner worthy, equivalent to, in keeping with the calling with which you have been called. You have been called to Jesus Christ, the truth, so Paul says in verse 17 “you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.”  You’ve been called to the truth, you claim to be clothed with Christ, so act like it!

In many ways, this passage is quite similar to Leviticus 18 which we read earlier, the introduction to what is commonly called the Leviticus holiness code. Just as God told the Israelites not to do as they do in Egypt or Canaan, Paul says the Ephesians should not do as the Gentiles do. Just as Leviticus gives a list of behavior which should identify the Israelite people, Ephesians 4:25-32 gives a list of behavior which should identify Christians.

But there is a major difference between Leviticus and Ephesians. In Ephesians, right in the middle of this mini-discussion of holiness, Paul talks about two very important changes: a change of clothing, putting off the old self and putting on the new; and a change of thinking, being renewed in the spirit of your mind. Leviticus mentions no change, there is simply a list of commands. It simply says “If you are God’s people, live this way.” As Paul points out many times in his letters to the Romans and the Galatians, the law was incapable of actually making anyone holy. The Old Testament prophets, though, looked forward to a time when change would take place. Jeremiah 33 says “I will make a covenant with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord, I will put my law in them and I will write it on their hearts…For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Ezekiel 36 says  “I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.” Paul knows from Israelite history and the promises of the prophets that in order for there to be any hope that the commands he gives in verses 25-32 be kept our self and our thinking must be changed. We need a change of clothes and a change of thinking.

Paul first talks about changing our clothes in verse 22 when he says “put off, take off your old self” and then in verse 24 “put on, literally, clothe yourself with the new self.”

Paul has already done a good job in describing the old self in verse 22. He says ‘it belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” Back in verse 19, Paul describes that former way of life by describing non-Christian Gentiles, callous and sensual, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. We also saw the old self pictured in Ephesians 2 “living in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” The old self was one that was controlled by the old sinful nature. Pastor Vogel recently preached on the degradation of humanity in Romans 1, with the pursuit of idols, lies, and the unnatural. Paul calls his readers to put off this old self and put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

What is unusual about Paul’s command is that he uses words which have only a one time reference. He says put off/put on. We would expect him to say keep putting off the old self and keep putting on the new self. Instead, Paul says, one time, put off the old and put on the new. This seems somewhat odd in a passage talking about changing our behavior. Does Paul really expect us to change overnight?

The reason for our confusion is that if we are simply content to refer to the new self and the old self in terms of behavior, in terms of sinful actions versus righteous ones, we miss the greater depth of what Paul is saying. Paul actually does not even use the word “self,” although almost every English translation renders it as such. Instead, if you look down at the footnote in most Bibles you will see that Paul uses the word “man.” He is actually calling for the Ephesians to put off the old man and put on the new man. Paul is using theologically loaded words, words he describes in greater detail in Romans 5 and 6, which you may want to look at later. There, Paul tells us that the old man is the fallen nature of Adam and the new man is Jesus Christ. The old man brought sin and death into the world, but the new man brought righteousness and life by sacrificing himself on the cross. The climax of Paul’s argument is in Romans 6:6-8. “We know that our old self, literally our old man, which in the context of Romans 5 refers to our nature in Adam, that self was crucified with Christ in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him.”

The old man, our nature as descendants of Adam, died on the cross with Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, our new nature is one of life. This is why Paul can speak of a one time putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man because it is only done once. The old self, the old man, is only crucified once. The new man, Jesus Christ, is only put on once. Paul says this is how the Ephesians learned about Christ. They were taught to put on Christ by placing their faith in Him to clothe them.

This is also why the new man in verse 24 of Ephesians 4 is immediately followed by a passive action. We are created. Paul does not say “create yourself” after the likeness of God he says we are created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Again, a one time action done by God. It is God who creates us after His image. Paul is fully aware of God’s ongoing work in making us righteous and holy, but he is here emphasizing the one time decisive act of God on the cross. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, we are clothed with Christ, with the new man. Our old man is crucified; it is dead and powerless. We are now recreated after God’s image.

Paul’s message is so much deeper then simply “change your behavior.” That was the command in Leviticus and we know how well that worked out. Instead, Paul is calling his readers to understand something very important: if you are not currently wearing Christ, if you are not clothed with Him, then you are not in Christ. This is why Paul is so upset in verse 20: That is not the way you learned Christ. It is likely, especially given the tendency for us to do the same thing today, that some of the Ephesians claimed to put their faith in Christ as fire insurance to escape Hell but continued to act and think like the Gentile non-believers in verses 17-19. They claimed to have Christ but had Him in a closet or dresser somewhere. Paul is not calling a group of Ephesians Christians to put on Christ. His assumption is that if they are not clothed with Christ, they are not Christians!

But the great news is that the reverse is also true. If you are in Christ, if you have recognized the sinfulness and death of your old self and have put your faith in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, then you are clothed with Christ. You are alive with Christ. If you are in Christ, then right now, where you sit, you are wearing Christ, and nothing can change that. Paul is presenting being clothed with Christ as a one time, either or proposition. You are either in Christ and clothed with Him, or you are not clothed with Christ and thus not in Christ. There is no middle ground.

The goal of this passage is to call the Ephesians and us to realize what we are wearing. Are you wearing Christ or is He like a set of new clothes in dresser at home. Do you claim to be clothed with Christ but you are really wearing your same old, muddy, stinky, smelly clothes?

If you have put your faith in Christ, this passage is not a call to put Him on again but to realize what you are wearing. It is not so much a call to change your behavior but a call to realize you have been changed. You have new clothes, a new identity. You have been created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul is not calling us to change, but to live knowing we have been changed. Live in confidence knowing that if you are in Christ, then right now, at this very moment you are clothed with his righteousness, with the new man, and absolutely nothing can change that. Not even your own sin and failure to keep the commands in the rest of this passage can change the fact that you are wearing Christ. There is both a passive and active part of this passage. The passive is that you have been clothed, you have been created after the likeness of God. The active is for you to live that out, not because it affects what you are wearing, but because you are wearing Christ. Live in confidence of what you are wearing.

I gave that Peruvian boy new clothes and on day six, he didn’t even wear them. To my surprise, he showed up wearing them on day seven. He proudly strolled in wearing his new shirt and pants, which he wore again on day eight, and day nine, and ten, and eleven. He had new clothes and he wore them; they never came off. When I left, he was still wearing his new clothes.

That’s the kind of confidence we can have. We have new clothes and they aren’t going to come off. So don’t walk like the Gentiles do because that is not what you are wearing! They are clothed with the old man, but you are clothed with the new man. You are clothed with Christ, after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness! Live out in confidence the fact that you are wearing Christ. And when you fail, which you will, remember, you are still wearing Christ, and nothing can ever change that. Put your faith in Christ, put on the new man, and then remember what you are wearing. Your clothes have been changed forever. Live like who you now are in Christ.

The commands which follow in verses 25-32 are a description of your new identity. That’s why verse 25 starts with “Therefore.” You are in Christ; you are wearing Christ. You have been recreated in the likeness of God. So live out your new identity!

In the late eighties and early nineties, my parents adopted two baby girls from South Korea. Shortly after my sister Corrie was adopted, we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant with my Aunt who is from Taiwan. She was so excited that we had this new member of our family from Korea that she decided to order my sister Corrie Kimchee. For those of you not familiar with Kimchee, it is a spiced cabbage dish that is buried in the ground for months until it ferments, then it is eaten. My sister Corrie was horrified and refused to even try it. She was completely opposed to it. Had Corrie been raised in Korea, though, she would have loved Kimchee. But having been raised in America, she has changed. Her identity has been changed, she is Korean by birth, but her identity is as an American, and she lives that out even by the food she prefers.

That’s what Paul is calling for in this passage. You have a new identity. You’ve been clothed with Christ, now live that out. Don’t walk like the Gentiles do, you’ve been clothed with Christ. You are created in the likeness of God, now live that out.

If we just stopped there, we would only have half of the story. You’d also leave feeling pretty frustrated. You might think “I’ve tried to live out my new identity but I don’t always. I know I’m with Christ, but I don’t seem to live like it.” But Paul says that not only do we have a change of clothes, we also have a change in thinking. He says in verse 23 “be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” While putting off the old self and putting on the new self were one-time actions, Paul uses words here which call for ongoing action. He chooses a verb here which contains the idea of continuing in something. Literally “continually, constantly be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” And not only that, this verse is completely passive. We are not called to renew our own minds but to have our minds renewed. Paul is calling for action that is not done by us, but by God. It is God who renews our minds.

Romans 12:2 is another commonly known verse which contains this same idea “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” There, Paul makes explicit what is implicit in this verse in Ephesians. A change of behavior, a transformation, can only take place through a renewing of the mind.

Paul is probably not using the word mind to only refer to one part of the body, but to summarize the inner being. Hebrew thinkers would have been most familiar with the term heart. We even use the phrase “invite Jesus into your heart” to mean our inner being, not the organ of our body that pumps blood. Paul, though is writing to Ephesus, to those who thought more in terms of the Greek idea of the inner being as the mind. This then is the place where the inner being is transformed.

Paul was speaking before of the one time act of our being clothed Christ and given a new identity, but he is now focusing more on the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit sanctifying us and renewing us in the very center of our being. We have been clothed with Christ, and it is through the renewing of our minds that we come to grasp more and more what that means and how it impacts the way we live. As we come to a deeper understanding of the gospel and the work of Christ on our behalf, we grow in faith and the obedience that flows from faith.

Paul places this in opposition to the way Gentiles think in verses 17-19. There he said that they are darkened in their understanding, in the futility of their minds. This is the same language Paul uses in Romans 1 when it says God gave them up to a debased mind. They suppress the truth. This leads to an ignorance, a hardness of heart, greedy to practice to every kind of impurity. But we are having our minds renewed in the truth, which is Jesus Christ. Paul says in verse 20 that we heard about him and were taught about him as the truth is in Jesus. We have an understanding. God has taken away the hardness of our heart. But we also continue to grow in that understanding. As Pastor Vogel said two weeks ago “The gospel is for Christians too.” We must be renewed in our thinking. We must realize “it is not about me.” Instead, I must realize I’m clothed with Christ!

You may notice that Paul does not place these three ideas in a logical order. In verses 22-24 he does not say “put off the old self, put on the new self, and be renewed in your mind.” Instead, he sandwiches the renewal of the mind in-between the putting off and putting of the old and new self, because all of it is part of our salvation. It is not a step-by-step process where we do one, okay, check that off, what’s next. We have put on Christ but we also are being renewed in our minds to understand what that means. We are being renewed in the spirits of our minds to understand the gospel. It’s a process, an ongoing procedure and work of God to help us grow in the knowledge of Christ, by his grace, by his spirit, through his word. That’s why Paul has repeatedly prayed throughout the book of Ephesians that we might grow in the knowledge of Christ. We need to know what we have in Christ, and that can only happen as our minds are renewed.

We all have part of our thinking that are still darkened, that still need to be renewed by the grace of God. What parts of your thinking need to be renewed? Maybe you think you have to cheat in order to get the grades you need in school, or you have to do things you know are wrong or your friends will not like you. We lose our tempers thinking it’s the only way to get through to our kids, or that manipulation is the only way to get our spouses to respond like we believe they should. Maybe you think you have to lie because it’s part of your job or you can look at what you want on the internet, it doesn’t hurt anyone. It’s okay, no one will know. That’s darkened thinking. But we have minds that are being renewed. We have minds that are grasping who we are in Christ. Clothed with Christ, I don’t have to cheat on my school work, that’s not who I am. I can have confidence that I am clothed with the righteousness of the Son of God regardless of my grades. I don’t have to sin to keep my friends, I am clothed with Christ. That’s who I am and if my friends can’t respect who I am, then they aren’t my friends. I’m clothed with Christ, I don’t need to lie to keep my job. This job doesn’t line up with who I am in Christ. I don’t need to scream at my kids or manipulate my spouse. I can take confidence that I am clothed with Christ and that he can renew their minds and change their hearts just as he has mine. I can be renewed in my thinking that what I look at online does hurt others, I am in Christ, which means I am in community, and hurting others is not who I now am. Not only that, I need to understand that pornography strikes at the very heart of my relationship with Christ, because Christ and the church is the picture of intimacy. I am in Christ, I am in a relationship with him.

That is the type of change that by God’s grace is slowly taking place in us. We are being transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are developing an inward aversion and hatred of sin and a desire to strive after righteousness. We don’t always see it, but the change is taking place in the very center of our being, in our minds. We are coming to understand more and more who we are and what our new identity is in Christ and how that impacts how we live. God renews our minds, our way of thinking, so that we can grasp who we are in Christ. We are clothed with him, and understanding that in the center of our being changes the way we live. Rather than being greedy to practice impurity, through the sanctifying work of God we have a deepening desire to please God, to live out our identity in Christ.

So realize who you are in Christ and live like you are. Not by our own effort, but in faith that God has clothed you and continues to clothe you with Christ, and is currently at work in renewing your mind. Don’t walk like the Gentiles do. They do not have renewed minds. They are clothed with the old man. What are you wearing? You are wearing Christ. What are you thinking? You are thinking with a renewed mind, so walk in the calling you have received. Live like you are in Christ, living in faith, living by God’s grace, living in confidence knowing God has worked in you and is at work in you right now.