The New Man
EPHESIANS 4:17-24
OF COURSE, “THE NEW MAN” INCLUDES “THE NEW WOMAN.”
IT IS CLEAR FROM THE READING OF THE BIBLE THAT one of the priorities of the Christian life is to live lives that are distinctive from the worldly and godless society in which we find ourselves. I think of Romans 12:2 as a foremost example…
NAS Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
AND 1 PETER 1:15-16…
NKJ 1 Peter 1:15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
THE GREEK WORD FOR HOLY (ἅγιος [ha-gee-os]) MEANS pertaining to being dedicated or consecrated to the service of God [BDAG]. The word could really be said to mean “different.”
“BE YE HOLY” MEANS “BE YE DIFFERENT,” BE DIFFERENT FROM UNBELIEVERS.
THE WORLDLY MAN, THE UNGODLY MAN IS “THE OLD MAN”; the Christian man, the holy man is “The New Man.” As I studied and thought about this passage all week I came to the realization that the best way to communicate “The New Man” or “The New Self” is to spend most of our time together this week defining and discussing the Old Man, the old self. I believe it is only by fully understanding what we were that we come to truly appreciate what we now are.
“THIS LESSON IS ABOUT BELIEVERS LIVING IN WAYS THAT ARE DIFFERENT from the ways of non-Christians. The emphasis is on having a lifestyle that is obviously Christian. This passage encourages men and women to live in ways that show to the world they are Christians.” – Garner
OUR CONTEXT IS EPHESIANS 4:17-24…
NAS Ephesians 4:17-24 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 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, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
“THEREFORE” CONNECTS THIS PASSAGE WITH WHAT PAUL HAS JUST SAID, our previous messages from Ephesians 4, about our high calling in Christ. Back in v. 1 of chapter 4, we read that God wants us to “walk worthy” in accordance with the privilege of salvation we have been given…
NKJ Ephesians 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
EPHESIANS 4:17-24 IS A GREAT PASSAGE. Though written 2,000 years ago in Ephesus, this passage speaks directly to us today in America. We all need to hear this passage. It is a convicting passage, and that is good. This indeed is a great passage, and one most relevant for us today in progressive America.
THE “NEW SELF,” “THE NEW MAN” OR “NEW WOMAN” IS A PERSON WHO is in “the likeness of God.” The Greek text (κατὰ θεὸν [ka-ta Thay-ov]) reads literally “down from God.” In “the likeness of God” is according to God. The “New Man” is a person whose life is ordered according to God.
THAT’S NOT THE WORLDLY MAN, not the person the godless, immoral world incessantly tells us is the ideal. No, this is “The New Man.”
VERSES 17-19 HARDLY NEEDS COMMENTARY. Look carefully again at vv. 17-19.
THIS IS THE WALK OF THE OLD MAN. “Walk” in biblical terms refers to one’s lifestyle, one’s consistent behavior…
NAS Ephesians 4:17-19 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
THAT IS A CLEAR, UNMISTAKABLE DESCRIPTION OF UNBELIEVERS, people who choose to live their lives in rebellion or indifference to God. They think they are free; they claim to be happy, but that is a façade. This is the truth.
“WE CANNOT ACCOMPLISH THE GLORIOUS WORK OF CHRIST BY continuing to live the way the world lives.” – MacArthur
“GENTILES” REFERS GENERALLY TO NON-JEWS, but, I think, here, as elsewhere in Paul’s letters (cf.1 Thess 4:5), “Gentiles” is being used in its particularly pagan sense. Paul is referring here to ungodly, pagan people – unbelievers. One commentator (Snodgrass) said that if you changed the word “Gentiles” to “Americans,” every word in these verses would still apply.
WE WERE ONCE LIKE THESE PEOPLE BEFORE SALVATION. We live in a world populated and controlled by such people.
THEY LIVE IN THE “FUTILITY OF THEIR MIND.” They may be intelligent, sensitive, even relatively good people, but “as far as spiritual and moral issues are concerned, they cannot think straight. Generally speaking, in spite of what may be good intentions, the thinking of the unbeliever is inevitably empty, vain, and void of true substance. The life of an unbeliever is bound up in thinking and acting in an arena of ultimate trivia. He consumes himself in the pursuit of goals that are purely selfish, in the accumulation of that which is temporary, and in looking for satisfaction in that which is intrinsically deceptive and disappointing.” – MacArthur
“THE UNREGENERATE PERSON PLANS AND RESOLVES EVERYTHING ON THE BASIS of his own thinking. He becomes his own ultimate authority and he follows his own thinking to its ultimate outcome of futility, aimlessness, and meaningfulness – to the self-centered emptiness that characterizes our age.” – MacArthur
I’D JUST LIKE TO ADD MY OWN “AMEN” HERE. These words could not more accurately describe my life before I was saved. As I have told you often, I was intellectually-minded. I was always reading and searching and thinking. No matter how much I learned, no matter how hard I tried to learn, no matter how sincerely I may have longed for the truth, I was imprisoned in myself, in the “futility of my mind.”
NKJ Psalm 94:11 The LORD knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile.
MY DEEP THOUGHTS ULTIMATELY WERE FUTILE. Futile means useless, pointless, fruitless, vain, wasted.
NAS 2 Timothy 3:7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
THAT WAS ME EXACTLY, “always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”… And I know I’m not the only one in this church who can identify with 2 Timothy 3:7.
“LIFE WITHOUT GOD IS MEANINGLESS, BECAUSE true life comes only from God.” – Snodgrass
LOOK AT V. 18 OF EPHESIANS 4…
NAS Ephesians 4:18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
THE MAN OR WOMAN APART FROM CHRIST IS IGNORANT OF GOD’S TRUTH, unresponsive to the truth of the Bible. That’s another way of saying the person is spiritually dead. Oh, the unbeliever may consider him or herself spiritually quite alive. He or she may be taking yoga classes and practicing meditation. Or he or she may be involved in some New Age religion like Baha’i that believes in unity, world peace and the brotherhood of all mankind, seemingly good and right pursuits. But apart from Christ, it is all futile. Such a self-deluded person is darkened in his understanding, ignorant of the truth of God, trapped in a heart that has been hardened toward Jesus.
LOOK AROUND YOU IN THE WORLD TODAY: the only word you cannot say in a society so bent on freedom of self-expression is “Jesus.” Isn’t that incredible? Like an avalanche, the political system and the media pour untruth into our hearts, ridiculing the Almighty precious Lord, and us. And the result of all this for the vast majority of people, “darkened in their understanding and hardness of heart,” a heart that is hard, rebellious or unresponsive toward Jesus, the most loving Person in the world.
“GENERAL EDUCATION AND HIGHER LEARNING ARE MORE WIDESPREAD today than ever before in history. College graduates number in the tens of millions, and our society, like that of ancient Greece, prides itself in its science, technology, literature, art, and other achievements of the mind. For many people, to be called ignorant is a greater offense than to be called sinful. Yet Paul’s point is that ignorance and sin are inseparable. Intellectual futility and foolishness combine as part of sin’s penalty.” – MacArthur
NAS Romans 1:21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
PEOPLE TODAY KNOW ABOUT THE TRUE GOD, BUT they choose not to honor Him. How sad, how very sad.
NAS Ephesians 4:19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
“CALLOUS” IS THE GREEK WORD ἀπαλγέω (a-pal-gay-o). It literally means to cease to feel pain for, “to be so injured that one is not bothered by the implications of what one is doing, become callous, dead to feeling, without a sense of right and wrong.” – BDAG. Our English synonyms for “callous” are heartless, unfeeling, cold-hearted, uncaring, insensitive, cold, cruel, hard, hard-hearted.
THE NIV TRANSLATES THE WORD “HAVING LOST ALL SENSITIVITY.”
“ALTHOUGH INBORN, SUCH A CONDITION IS NOT IRREVERSIBLE and might have been removed had they followed such light as came to them. Instead, they steeled their hearts against the truth till they grew altogether impervious to its impact. They can no longer respond positively to moral stimuli. Their consciences are so atrophied that sin registers no stab of pain. They have abandoned themselves to every sort of vice. All this is pursued ‘in greediness.’ The Greek word (πλεονεξία [play-a-nex-ee-a]) means the determination to gratify self-interests at all costs, regardless of the rights and susceptibilities of others.” – Wood
DOESN’T THAT SOUND JUST LIKE MOST PEOPLE TODAY IN AMERICA? America today is overrun with pleasure-seekers, who have, as the NIV says, “a continual lust for more.”
SO, IN ESSENCE IN VV. 17-19, PAUL IS TELLING BELIEVERS NOT TO BEHAVE LIKE unbelievers, or, putting it another way, not to behave as they did before they were saved. When we come to Christ we should exhibit a different walk. We should act differently because we are different; we have been transformed.
VERSES 17-19 PRESENT “A BLEAK PICTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE.” – Hoehner
BUT VERSE 20 SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO YOU AND ME TODAY…
NAS Ephesians 4:20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
VERSES 20-24 GIVE US “THE NEW MAN.”
VERSE 20 IS ANOTHER OF THE GREAT “BUTS” IN SCRIPTURE. Maybe you’ll remember one of these “buts” from chapter 2, vv. 1-6…
NAS Ephesians 2:1-6 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus,
I’M SINKING IN DESPAIR – BUT GOD! I’ve lost my job –but God! I have cancer – but God! Whatever our trial, we can gain comfort in knowing there is a “but God” that we can add to our thoughts and gain comfort from.
HOW CAN WE NOT SEE HOW GREAT A BOOK THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS IS? It tells us plainly and magnificently how wonderful God is in saving us and how we then should live a life that shows forth our love for Him and His grace toward us.
“IN THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE THE WORD ‘YOU’ IS FIRST IN THE SENTENCE; in the ‘emphatic position,’ as we would say in Greek class. The contrast to vv. 17-19 is so stark that we might almost visualize Paul, if he were speaking in the presence of the Ephesians, pointing his index finger at them and, as his eyes stared at one and then the another, saying forcefully, ‘But because of Christ, WE are different!’” – Garner…
CAN WE SAY WITH ASSURANCE THAT WE ARE DIFFERENT? Can we say with assurance that we are living lives that are different? We can if we have responded to the gospel and have been growing in Christ.
NAS Ephesians 4:21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
IT GETS MORE THAN A LITTLE TECHNICAL HERE IN V. 21 TO EXPLAIN THE “IF.” It may sound as if Paul is saying the Ephesians may not have heard or been taught of Christ, even though he (Paul) had been with them two or three years. But that is not the case, of course. It is just one of those cases where the Greek construction is a bit difficult to translate into English. Briefly, let me explain by saying that “if” doesn’t mean maybe you did, maybe you didn’t; it instead means inasmuch as you have heard (concessive). Proof that this is the case is found in Paul’s dogmatic statement of v. 20 where he emphatically says that they did learn Christ.
THIS CONNECTS DIRECTLY TO THE PREVIOUS PASSAGE (vv. 11-16) where we learned, among other important things, that Christ has gifted the Church with gifted men who minister the Word of God…
NKJ Ephesians 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
“TO BE TAUGHT IN HIM” MEANS to have been taught by the Pastor/Teacher or Pastors and Teachers, or the evangelists in the Church. “To learn the truth about Christ occurs not only at conversion but through daily growth by increased knowledge of Him through gifted people ministering in their midst. Believers in Christ not only ‘learn’ Christ at the time they heard the gospel but they continue to ‘learn’ Him as they study God’s Word and as they are ministered to by gifted people in the body” (the Pastor and the Teachers). – Hoehner
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT TO GRASP; this is how we are to do things in the church and in our Christian lives. The work and responsibility of the leaders in the church is to minister the Word, to teach, “for the equipping of the believers for service.” We get so involved in everything else – and much of that everything is worthwhile. But everything else is not the purpose, not the mission statement; Bible study is.
THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF CHRIST IS TO BE OUR PRIMARY FOCUS. With all due respect to those who may disagree, I do not see how it is possible to thoughtfully read this overall passage in chapter 4 and not come to this conclusion. The leaders of the Church are to be about teaching the Word so that the people may learn and be equipped for the work of the ministry and so that the Church, which is the Body of Christ, may be edified, built up. “Edify” means to build up…
OBVIOUSLY, PAUL IS NOT SAYING, NOR AM I SAYING, THAT we all should turn into monks studying Scripture by candlelight at the expense of other worthwhile pursuits. But what Paul is pointing out and I am attempting to emphasize is that the Word of God is the foundation and the focus. The “New Man” has learned Christ and is continually, progressively learning Christ.
IN ORDER TO EFFECTIVELY LEARN CHRIST WE MUST PUT OFF THE OLD SELF…
NAS Ephesians 4:22 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,
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THE CHANGE IN PAUL’S APPROACH HERE. “Up to this point Paul has given the negative, namely that his readers are not to walk as the Gentiles (vv. 17-19). He has shown how they had given themselves over to greed, living with all sorts of impurity and hardness of heart which caused their ignorance of God and His will. Consequently, they were alienated from the life of God and minds through a darkened reasoning process were futile because they could not receive the revelation of God. Now, in vv. 22-24, the context is one of exhortations to believers to live a lifestyle diametrically opposed to selfish purposes and to please the Spirit of God by whom they were sealed until the day of their own redemption from the presence of sin” (which we’ll see in the sermons to follow – TAR). – Hoehner
IN THESE VERSES, PAUL IS EXHORTING BELIEVERS HOW TO “WALK WORTHY.”
THE “OLD MAN” IS PAUL’S TERM FOR OUR SINFUL BEHAVIOR before Christ saved us; the “new man” is the behavior of the Christian, the behavior God demands of His followers.
“PAUL BEGINS WITH A RECOGNITION THAT THE OLD LIFE CONSTANTLY TUGS at us. The old self, the former was of life, can find its way back into our lives through deceitful desires. It is not merely evil deeds that we must watch for, but the old outlooks, attitudes, and corrupt desires.” – Steadman
NOTE THAT THE BELIEVER IS NOT TOLD TO PUT THE OLD SELF TO DEATH. The reason is that the old man has already been put to death. That happened at the moment of salvation as a result of Christ’s work on the Cross. The old self is already dead. In one sense you could say that the rest of your earthly life after salvation is learning to live in the reality of that truth. “Our prayer should not be, ‘Lord, slay the old self within me,’ but ‘Lord, help me to live by the truth that the old self is already nailed to the cross.’” – Steadman
PUTTING OFF THE OLD MAN IS THE FIRST STEP TO GROWING IN CHRIST. Throw it off, lay it aside, like an old, smelly coat…
NAS Ephesians 4:23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
“BECAUSE UNSAVED MAN’S SINFULNESS FLOWS OUT OF HIS REPROBATE MIND (reprobate means degenerate, good-for-nothing – TAR), the transformation of salvation must begin with the mind. Christianity is cognitive before it is experiential.” – MacArthur
“REPENTANCE” LITERALLY MEANS A CHANGE OF MIND. First, the mind must be changed, then the behavior is to follow.
LISTEN TO HOW PAUL EXPLAINS THE SAME GENERAL IDEAS IN THIS PASSAGE in his letter to the Colossians…
NAS Colossians 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
PUT OFF THE OLD SELF…
NAS Ephesians 4:24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
“THE NEW MAN OR NEW SELF IS NOT THE FORMER NATURE REFURBISHEDbut a totally new creation.” – Wood
“THIS LANGUAGE PAUL USES FOR THE NEW MAN OBVIOUSLY RECALLS GENESIS 1:26-27 and the idea of creation in God’s image.” – Snodgrass
NAS Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
“THE IMAGE THAT WAS MARRED IN EDEN IS BEING RECREATED IN US by Christ.” – Snodgrass
“PUT OFF THE OLD AND PUT ON THE NEW!” “The Apostle Paul makes his point abundantly clear with these two statements: ‘Put off” and “put on.” If you have a soiled garment, you put it off and put on something new. He uses the simplest of truths to illustrate a profound truth.” – Steadman
TO “PUT ON THE NEW MAN” IS TO PUT ON THE BEHAVIOR OF AN OBEDIENT, Spirit-filled Christian. To “Put on the New Man” is to live in accordance with what we believe. It is to put in practice what we say we believe.
THERE IS NO GETTING AROUND THIS PASSAGE. This is clear direction from God that any thinking person can read and understand. If we say we are Christian, we are commanded by God to act like Christians.
I THINK, THE “NEW” MAN IS ESSENTIALLY THE SPIRIT-FILLED CHRISTIAN (Ephesians 5:18). Though I don’t remember ever hearing anyone say that, I don’t see how there could be any significant difference. Putting on the new man is basically the same thing as being filled by the Spirit. The evidence of the new man having been put on is the Fruit of the Spirit being displayed in the life of the Christian…
NKJ Ephesians 4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
THE “NEW MAN” MAY ALSO BE DESCRIBED AS “PUTTING ON CHRIST.” For it is the qualities of the character of Christ that we are commanded to put on. Read what Paul says in Romans 13:13-14…
NKJ Romans 13:13-14 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
“A CHRISTIAN’S LIFESTYLE MUST BE PURE AND HOLY, especially in view of Christ’s approaching return. The secret to living chaste lives is for Christians to clothe themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” – Witmer
PUTTING ON THE NEW MAN IS A PROCESS. It doesn’t just happen once and then you’re done. You have to work at it, and you do this not in your own power, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. And because it is God’s power and not your own, the process will end in success.
IT IS CLEAR BY EPHESIANS 4:17-24 THAT GOD WANTS US ALL TO BE ABOUT becoming new men and new women in Christ!
WHAT A WONDERFUL PASSAGE! What a wonderful God!
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
