SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/2/2019
11:40 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 Delivered from the Old Self
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:22
Message of the
verses: “22
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self,
which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,”
I mentioned in our last SD that this
was kind of knew territory for me, that is the things that John MacArthur has
written about this section of Scripture.
It has always been my belief that I am the one who had to take off the
old self and then put on the new self, but it seems that this was done when I
became a believer according to John MacArthur and he, as always, makes a
convincing argument. Let us continue to
look at some of the things that he has written in this section to help us
understand what he is talking about.
Now affirming the truth of these
four aspects of conversion is the basis for the exhortation in the Colossian
passage that we looked at yesterday, we will see that Paul is describing salvation
to the Colossians in the very same way as he does to the Ephesians. However in Ephesians he does not refer
specifically to the believers union in the death and in the resurrection of
Christ, he does allude to that reality when saying that the one who believes is
“in Him.” The reference that Paul refers
to when talking about both the old self and the new self in both of the
passages are obviously parallel.
We
can see more evidence to help further prove this in Paul’s writing to the
Romans in chapter six where he describes the nature of salvation, with the
emphasis on once again verbs: “we…died to sin” (v. 2); all of us…have
been baptized into Christ Jesus” (v. 3); “have been buried with Him…into death” (V. 4); “we have become united with Him in…His death” (v. 5); “our old self was
crucified with Him” (v. 6); “our body
of sin might be done away with” (v. 6);
“he who has died” (v. 7); and “we have died with Christ” (v.8). John MacArthur writes that “eight of those
nine verbs are aorist in the Greek, looking back at an already accomplished
event. One is the perfect tense (v. 5),
seeing the result of that past event.
Again, Paul gives his exhortation on the basis of this description of
the complete transformation of the believer at conversion (cf. Rom 6:12-23).
“The inescapable conclusion from
what Paul says in Romans and Colossians is that salvation is a spiritual union
with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection that can also be described as
the death of the ‘old self’ and the resurrection of the ‘new self,’ who now
walks in ‘newness of life.’ This union
and new identity clearly means that salvation is transformation. It is not the addition of a new self to an
old self. In Christ, the old self no
longer exists (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17). That is
what the Ephesians heard and were taught according to the truth in Jesus
(4:21). The old self is the unconverted
nature, described as ‘being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.’ The ‘old self’ of the unbeliever not only is
corrupt but is increasingly ‘being corrupted’ (present passive), because it is
the tool for evil desire which is controlled by ‘deceit’ (cf. 2:1-3). The gospel invitation is to lay the ‘old self’
aside in repentance from sin that includes not just sorrow about sin but a
turning from sin to God.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I heard
the story of a native Indian who became a believer in Jesus Christ and after a
while the man who led him to the Lord asked him how he was doing in his walk
with the Lord. The Indian told him that
there was a fight going on inside of him between two dogs, a white one and a
black one. The man asked him which one
won and the Indian replied “the one I say sick him to.” Whether it is the flesh, which I am leaning
towards to, or the old nature, there is a battle that seems to always go on
inside of me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to
learn humility in my walk with the Lord.
Today’s quotation
is from St. John Chrysostom who says “The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that
we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our
hearts.”
5/2/2019 12:16
PM
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