Reading: Ephesians 4:17-24
IN the Epistle to the Ephesians great stress is laid on the importance of the Christian's walk, and the walk is seen to be the result of an enlightened mind. The word 'walk' is a lovely one. It describes our manner of life and tells us that there should be a visible distinction where the people of God are concerned. The new man is not like the man of the world and does not walk like him for he is created in the image and likeness of God.
What is man? What constitutes someone a truly human being? The answer to that question is that man is in the image of God. This is something which could never be arrived at by logical reasoning, but it is the real truth which can only come by divine revelation. It seems to me that we can almost sum up one line of teaching in this letter by saying that what God has done in Christ is to make it possible for us here and now to live out what is our true nature and to be seen for what we really are in Christ. I know that there are other lines of thought in the Letter to the Ephesians and that the main stress seems to be on the Church and its fellowship, but this is certainly one of the aspects of truth in it, namely that God has planned and wrought and then applied a salvation which has as its great overriding effect that we should be renewed into the image of Him who created us, and so be the distinctive people of God among all others on the face of the earth.
The opening word in the passage under consideration is, "therefore". This refers us back to the earlier part of the letter where we find how God planned, accomplished and supplies this salvation for us. He planned! "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (1:4). Here, in simple words which a child could understand, we are given that which is quite beyond our understanding. It may be plain, but it is most precious, and we hold on to it by faith. You and I are in Christ today because there was a transaction in the mind of God before the world was founded. He accomplished it. This eternal scheme of God came to fruition in the cross of Christ: "In him we have redemption through his blood ... according to the riches of his grace" (1:7). How did God the Father bring His plan to pass? By sending the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Christ saves the world by standing in for us and accepting unto Himself all our demerits, our offensiveness and our failures, and by bearing them in His body on [45/46] the tree. So the counsels of God which go back before the world was, took effect in time and history in the cross of Christ where the blood of Christ was shed for our redemption.
He applies this salvation. The full drawing back of the veil reveals to us that it was the Father who planned, the Son who accomplished and it is the Holy Spirit who is the bearer to us of all the blessings which come to those who believe in Christ: "... having believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is an earnest of our inheritance ..." (1:13). In the work of saving sinners, God reveals Himself in His total way as God the Holy Trinity. Not till Jesus came was God fully, truly and utterly known. Not before Jesus came and not until Jesus, were men permitted to know the glory of the eternal Trinity. And further, this God wished to come and dwell in His redeemed. In this work of salvation which God planned and accomplished and applied, His intention is that in all His fullness, Father, Son and Holy Spirit should come to reside in His people. This intention is described in Paul's prayer (3:14-19), where he tells us that God's great purpose is that the Holy Spirit should reside in our inner being, so that we may be "filled unto all the fullness of God". So God's purpose in salvation is to impart Himself, to come and take up His residence within those who believe, so that they may bear His likeness.
All this brings us to the "therefore" of 4:17. We have had a lovely vision -- first the vision of God in His full reality as God the Holy Trinity, and then the vision of God residing in us so that at long last we might be rescued from all the corruption and inhumanity of fallen man and the sub-human condition which has been brought about by sin, and that through the indwelling Spirit we might become renewed humanity, the ideal human people in whom the image of God is seen. How is that vision to be realised? How can we pass from seeing God's plan to having it realised in daily life? These verses tell us.
The word "therefore" bridges over to this point, connecting the provision in Christ with the daily experience of the believer. Paul now begins to spell out the mechanism whereby the glorious vision can become a daily reality for you and me. The verses which follow are therefore most important, and they deserve much prayerful consideration.
They focus on one distinct aspect of our lives which is the mind, and they show that this is central to the whole idea of the realisation of the image of God in our everyday life. If we look for the difference between the walk of the unredeemed Gentiles and of the redeemed people of God, we find that it is in the mind. The unredeemed walk "in the vanity of their mind" (v.17). There is no lasting meaning and no true fulfilment for them, but the blight of vanity is over all their thinking. Further, the unredeemed are "darkened in their understanding" (v.18). Their way of grasping things is different and no light from heaven penetrates their natural darkness. Then they are "alienated from the life of God", having no vital basis of communication with Him. We are told the reason for this alienation; it is again a matter of the mind, being "because of the ignorance that is in them". This constitutional ignorance keeps them cut off from any vital fellowship with God.
Believers, on the other hand, have a different mind. They have been delivered from natural ignorance for it is said of them that they have "learned Christ" (v.20). This different mind has delivered them from having to wander around in the vanity which formerly governed their walk; they are not alienated as the others are, but are plugged into life, animated and governed by the power of the gospel. They have "learned Christ", they are "renewed in the spirit of their mind" (v.23) and they are "created in righteousness and holiness of truth" (v.24). So, if it is the mind which makes the Gentile, it is also the mind that makes the new man.
How much do we know of this new mind? How do we find ourselves in our daily walk? Do we despair of ever losing the image of the world and enjoying the image of God? Do we constantly wonder how we can ever shuffle off this likeness to the unredeemed and receive the blessed image of the Redeemer? Or, are we like Peter, in our best moments saying, "Lord I will follow Thee to prison and to death" and yet ending the day, as he did, with failure and bitter weeping? Often it is not that we do not know all about Satan's assaults. It is true that they are subtle, but they are often quite predictable. And yet we find them overwhelming, and once more we go down before them. What can we do about it? [46/47] Well, we can at least note from the Scriptures that the battle lies in the area of the mind. If we are seeking progress in sanctification, it is the mind that matters. That may not be the whole story, but it is certainly a major factor.
We may find help in Romans 12:1-2. We find there that we are exhorted to present our bodies a living sacrifice to the Lord. There is no problem about such an action. I have heard preachers try to make a great crisis out of it, but it seems to me to involve a very simple committal. The act of consecration is relatively easy; it is what follows which makes heavy demands, for we are then commanded: "and be not fashioned according to this world; but be transformed ...". Ah, that is different. That demands a constant crisis of experience, as is shown by the present continuous tense -- "Do not go on being fashioned according to this world". We may make the presentation of our bodies quickly enough, but it is what is meant to follow that is hard and often painful. We are always being pressurised by the world and must maintain a firm resistance to this pressure. What is more, the rest of the verse tells us that we must "go on being transformed". The same word is used here as is employed in the Gospels concerning Christ's transfiguration. We are to go on being transfigured!
Stop being like the world! Go on becoming more and more like the Lord Jesus! A lovely thought, but how can it be realised? The verse goes on to explain: "... by the renewing of your mind". This is not so much a call for a single act of an emotional transaction with God which solves all my problems at the moment of total committal, as a call to a lifetime of discipline under God's Word. The act of consecration may be the beginning, but the middle and the end of this work of sanctification consists of going on in a progressive withdrawal from the likeness of the world and a progressive attachment to the likeness of Jesus. And this can only happen by a renewing of the mind.
On the way to Emmaus, the two disciples began with slow hearts and ended with burning hearts. How different was the end from the beginning, and all because of a conveyance of biblical truth to the minds: "He interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). These old, stultified, wayward hearts of ours can be lifted up out of their natural foolishness and made to burn for God, if only divine truth grips the mind. Later on we read that the Lord Jesus "opened their mind, that they might understand the scriptures" (v.45). It was as though the one cardinal thing that He needed to do before He could go back to heaven and leave an effective working Church here on earth was this ministry of the Spirit in opening their minds.
In Ephesians 4:17 we noted that the Gentile mind was a mind of vanity. Its state is such that it can never, never grasp divine truth. It can never arrive at it, nor see it, nor hold it; it is a mind of vanity. As to capacity, it is darkened; as to its effect, it brings alienation from the life of God through ignorance. What a sorry picture! Well, it must have been sad for the sisters of Lazarus when they saw their brother in the darkness of death. All the old animation had gone: those eyes of the loved one with whom they had lived and whom they loved were now quite lustreless. But Jesus came, and through His restoring work, Lazarus came out of the tomb, now with eyes that were full of freshness and animation. That is how renewal works. It will be so in the future, and the words of the hymn are justified by God's Word when they look to the day of full renewal:
That brimmed with tears of late;
This is a true expression of our prospect of heaven, but we do not have to wait until the future. It can happen now, There can be animation and renewal here on earth.
Sanctification begins as the mind is engaged in the truth of God and grasps it. This, however, is not just a matter of things in the intellectual realm. Please do not imagine that I am calling you to take high degrees at a university. No, I simply point to the possibility of a mind illuminated to know God in His Word. If you are troubled by constant spiritual defeat, and you wonder how to overcome, enter into the university of Jesus. Take the higher degrees which He Himself took. When He was put under test, His reply to Satan was simply: "It is written". Then Satan came a second time with a further testing, and once more Jesus replied: "It is written ...". That was His first higher degree. But Satan came again, and this time he quoted Scripture, but only to receive from Jesus the further reply: "Ah, but it is also written". That was His [47/48] research degree. His triumph was not just intellectual but moral and spiritual. He just knew and used the Bible, and Satan went packing. If you are inclined to regret that you cannot quote Scripture as accurately as Jesus did, may I say that I have discovered that sometimes Scripture is even more effective when it is not quoted aptly. That seems to confuse Satan! The power is resident in the Word of God and not in our aptitude for selecting the right verses.
We must see, however, that becoming like God is much more than a mental exercise. The mind is to determine the quality of the life. The proper function of the renewed mind will bring us into the reality of the transformed life. The darkened state of ignorance is said to produce "uncleanness with greediness" (Ephesians 4:19), but the renewed mind leads to "righteousness and holiness". The renewing of the mind is in fact placed in the context of "putting off" and "putting on". We are told to "put on the new man which is after God" (v.24 mar.), as though it were a garment. In the Bible, garments are a visual picture which speak of capacity and committal. You remember the story of how Joshua was in great straits before the city of Jericho, wondering how he was to lead his army and crack open the stronghold which stood at the entrance of the promised land. God met him there in the form of a Man in armour with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua needed a God who was a soldier, so God came to him in a soldier's garb. Garments are a picture of capacity and committal. Being dressed in this way, therefore, was God's way of telling Joshua that He Himself had all the military capacity that was needed and that He was committed to fulfilling that capacity. It was as though He said: 'I come to you as a soldier, Joshua, because I have all the power needed for this task and My drawn sword confirms that I am fully committed to it'.
It is in this way that we are commanded to "put on" the new man. The garments speak of what we truly are. If you are a Christian, God in Christ has made you a new man. He has supplied those garments for you. Put them on! That is your real nature in Christ, so live in the good of it. Note, however, that by doing so you commit yourself to the pursuit of holiness, for the dress speaks of committal as well as capacity. The new mind must have practical expression in a transformed life.
This passage in Ephesians 4 calls us first to the new mind and secondly to holiness. But there is a further call, the third, that directs us to the Lord Jesus Himself. What is the difference between the unredeemed Gentile and the redeemed? The mind. What else? A holy life. What else? "The truth in Jesus" (v.21). Here is the secret of everything, a personal experience of Jesus Christ. You learned Christ (v.20). It was He who made all the difference. Moreover you heard Him, and were taught in Him, even as truth is "in Jesus". It is nowhere else. Here is the very quintessence of the new man -- Jesus, the One who is the exemplar of this new way of life. He saves you and shows you the way, so that what you have to do for the rest of your life is just this, to learn Christ and be taught in Him.
To learn, speaks of a pupil relationship while to hear, speaks of a listening relationship and to be taught, points to educational progress. All is focused on Him. Day by day we are to be in the School of Jesus; day by day we are to come to the One who is anointed as Christ to save sinners, and is Jesus, the Exemplar of the whole new man. "Even as truth is in Jesus." The Bible does not just say "the truth" but insists that truth itself can only be found in Him. Be like Jesus, and you will be made in the image of God, as you were always meant to be.
A full salvation has been wrought out at Calvary. At that point, Father, Son and Holy Spirit revealed Himself. There is nothing more that God has to reveal of Himself, though there is very much more that we must apprehend. But it was all done at Calvary. When God brought me into relationship with the cross, He brought me into a full, final and finished work of salvation. It is mine, and it is mine now.
Do not acquiesce in a lower standard of life than God intended for you. Do not say to God: "I have had fifteen or more years of experience to show what I am like and will remain like that till I die. I cannot change now, so there is nothing that can be done about it." Listen, rather, to what He says and obey His command to put on the new man. Engage your mind to Jesus. Listen and learn in His school. How wonderful to find your true manhood or womanhood in Jesus, the One in whom is the reality of truth. [48/49]
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