What Does It Mean to "Put Off the Old Self" and "Put On the New Self"? — Ephesians 4:20-24
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In Ephesians 4:20-24, the apostle Paul writes:
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
What is Paul saying about the “old self” and the “new self” and how is this passage connected to a believer’s new life in Christ?
All Christians should strive both to mortify sin in their lives and to grow in godliness.
The Christian life is one of mortifying our sinful desires (also known as the mortification of the flesh) and living unto God by keeping his commandments (also known as vivification).
The Heidelberg Catechism, first published in 1563, is a highly regarded summary of the Christian faith and has the following to say about a believer’s conversion:
Q. What is the true repentance or conversion of man?
A. It is the dying of the old nature and the coming to life of the new. — The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 88.
Q. What is the dying of the old nature?
A. It is to grieve with heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin, and more and more to hate it and flee from it. — The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 89.
Q. What is the coming to life of the new nature?
A. It is a heartfelt joy in God through Christ, and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works. — The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 90.
All who are in Christ have the benefits of justification and sanctification.
Our justification does not come some day in the undetermined future, based on our own works. Every true believer is declared righteous in Christ and has both legal and relational standing as God’s children. All believers are coheirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).
Christians not only have the benefit of being justified in Christ, but they also have the benefit of sanctification. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer and is at work conforming them to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).
Even the thief on the cross, who had but a very short time left to live, showed his repentance (his confession of his unworthiness) and his faith in God’s promises (his request for Jesus to remember him):
But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 20:40-43)
Where there is true faith, there is also mortification and vivification, signs of the Spirit’s work in a person’s life.
Christians should be diligent to “put off the old self” (Eph. 4:22) by mortifying sin, and “put on the new self” (Eph. 4:24), by striving to live unto God. And, as the apostle Paul encourages God’s children, every believer can be confident “that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).