Put on the New Self!

Ephesians 4:17-5:2 I’m sure by now most of you have seen-- or are at least aware of-- the investigative videos made of leaders of Planned Parenthood.  In these videos, doctors who provide abortions can be heard discussing the best ways to murder these unborn children so that their organs can be sold for medical research. 

When the leader of Planned Parenthood was asked about the content of these videos, she was not ashamed, she was not scandalized.  Just the opposite!  She said, “These videos show that we did nothing wrong.”  In these images and in this attitude, can there be a more compelling illustration of what John Paul II called “the culture of death”?!  Can there be a more vivid example of the words of our text that describe those who don’t know Jesus?!

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

            Dark. Ignorant. Hard. Callous. Greedy. Impure.  That is life apart from God.  Now I want you to contrast the horrific images in those Planned Parenthood videos with a sign that Caroline and I saw while we were on vacation.  It was in front of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  I want you to consider the attitude of the people of God in that place-- compared with those of Planned Parenthood.  The sign read:

 “Pregnant?  Need help?  We the members of this church community, see in the birth of each baby a fresh expression of God’s unfailing love.  For the love of God and each and every one of his children, we offer immediate and practical help to any woman faced with what might seem to be a crisis pregnancy.  The only condition is that the child be allowed to live.” 

Love.  Life.  Concern for others.  A caring community.  That is life with God.  Can there be a more vivid example of what the apostle Paul is talking about when he says that the child of God is “renewed in the spirit of our minds, having put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”.  

            There are stark, vivid differences between the Planned Parenthood videos and the sign in front of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral! There are stark, vivid differences between the people in those Planned Parenthood videos and the people of the Christian community in Bossier City, Louisiana!  It is the difference between darkness and light, between death and life, between a child of God and an enemy of God.  It is the difference that Jesus Christ makes.

Paul describes that difference in the opening verses of our text.  He said that that those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are “darkened in their understanding and futile in their minds”.  He says that they have “hard hearts and are callous attitudes towards others and have given themselves over to every kind of impurity”. 

Most significantly—most damning—Paul says that those who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior are alienated from the life of God.  But that is not us!  Praise God for his gracious love and tender mercies and the help of the Holy Spirit--that is not us!

We have learned the way of Christ.  We have heard of him and been taught of him.  We know the truth of salvation:  that the bloody cross and empty tomb, mean forgiveness and peace and salvation and new life.  We have been renewed in the spirit of our minds by the powerful help of the Holy Spirit who has made us God’s child in the waters of Holy Baptism and instructed us from the Word of God and fed us with the Body and Blood of Christ.

And because this is the way that we have learned Christ, the Bible says that we must no longer live as Gentiles.  In other words, we must no longer live as unbelievers. 

Instead, the Bible says that we are to ^“put off our old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

This “putting off of the old” and “putting on of the new” is not a one time thing.  It happens every day of our life as a child of God—morning and evening-- when the Spirit works in our heart through word and sacrament to bring us to repentance and faith so that at bedtime we make the sign of the cross and ask God to forgive our sins.  In the morning we make the sign of the cross and ask God to help us live as his beloved children.

Putting off the old and putting on the new is what the Bible calls “sanctification”—the ongoing work that God is doing in our lives to shape and mold us into what he has already graciously declared us to be, and that is his dearly loved children.

As God’s children, our lives are to stand in sharp contrast to the lives of those who are alienated from God—as vivid and concrete as the difference between the Planned Parenthood videos and the sign in front of the cathedral—as vivid and concrete as those who kill the innocent and those who save the innocent—a contrast so that everyone who is looking at our life can know exactly who we are and whose we are and where we stand.  The Bible says: 

Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

            If you remember your confirmation instruction, you will remember that Luther explains the Ten Commandments both in terms of what we should do and what we shouldn’t do.  He didn’t invent that way of talking about the will of God for our lives—that’s the way the Bible talks about our life as God’s children:  the evil we avoid and the good we do. 

We don’t worship idols—instead we fear, love and trust in God above all things.  We don’t misuse God’s name-- instead we call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks.  We do not despise preaching and God’s Word-- but instead hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

That dynamic of avoiding sin and doing good is what we find in these verses that have to do with the second table of the law and how we (as God’s children) treat our neighbor. 

We can have a righteous anger about those things that are opposed to God like abortion-- but we do not hate people or harm the innocent.  We don’t take things that belong to others-- but instead we work so that we can provide for ourselves and have something to share with others.  We don’t speak ill of others-- but we say things that build them up.

Every moment of every day we are to put off—in repentance-- the old self that is angry and bitter, the old self that loves to speak ill of others, the old self that is unconcerned for the needs of others.  Every moment of every day we are to put on—in the power of the Spirit-- the new self, created in the likeness of God—the new person we are in Christ who is kind and caring and encouraging towards others.  The Bible says:

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 

            The attitudes and activities and attitudes contained in the Planned Parenthood videos are an abomination in God’s sight and his holy righteous wrath will be poured out upon all of those involved if they don’t repent and turn to Christ.  They grieve God’s heart.  That is easy for us to see and understand—we have a moral clarity about that.

What is much more of a challenge for us is to recognize that the anger in our hearts and the bitterness towards others and our unkind speech are also an abomination in God’s sight and deserving of his wrath.  The Bible is clear:  these sins that still exist in our flesh, in our old man, grieve the Holy Spirit and we must be put off in repentance.

The Good News for us is that God forgives us those sins and all our sins in Jesus Christ.  His death on the cross is a completely sufficient sacrifice for all our sins and his blood shed there has washed them away forever. 

It is that sacrifice that was made for us—that life that was raised for us—that love poured out upon us that changes us forever and makes us new people who love others.  And so we are kind to one another because Christ is kind to us.  We are tenderhearted towards one another because Christ is tenderhearted towards us.  And we forgive others because we are forgiven.

You see, it is our relationship with Jesus Christ that makes all the difference in how we live our lives.  It is our status as children of the heavenly Father that makes such a sharp contrast between us and those who are alienated from God.  The Bible says:

Be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

            If you have ever seen a little boy working with his dad in the yard you know exactly what Paul is talking about.  That little boy is constantly watching his dad so that he can copy what dad is doing.  But he is not afraid of getting it wrong.  He is not worried that somehow he won’t measure up.  He is not concerned about losing dad’s love.  He just wants to be like dad.

            So it is with us in our relationship with God.  Jesus has sacrificed himself so that we can be a part of God’s family.  His death on the cross was a perfect, once-for-all sacrifice that reconciled us to God so that we really are God’s children.  And because we are God’s children we want to be like our heavenly Father.

            We grow in that new life by imitating Jesus.  We learn what it means to love others by walking in his steps.  And we daily put on the new self which is nothing other than Christ.  May God the Holy Spirit grant us his help so that we can imitate our heavenly Father and follow the examples of our elder brother, Jesus Christ!  Amen.