Putting Him On:
Your Jesus Suit
TCF Sermon
June 22, 2008
How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets real thing, it is irresistible. C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady
With that quote, let me begin what to some of you may be a dull sermon. It may be dull because you think holiness is dull. It may be dull because you’d rather hear something more like what Joel spoke about last week – heaven. Now that’s exciting, huh?
Holiness is not something we about hear often in the church at large, and perhaps not often enough even in this church.
We did hear a sermon just a few weeks ago on the sinfulness of sin. That definitely relates to what we’re going to look at this morning. An opposite of sinfulness is holiness, and righteousness. It’s precisely when we don’t take seriously the sinfulness of sin, that we don’t take seriously our need to attain to holiness in our lives.
I read about in USA Today, a recent survey by Ellison Research in Phoenix, which finds 87% of U.S. adults believe in the existence of sin, which (they) defined as "something that is almost always considered wrong, particularly from a religious or moral perspective."
Topping the list are adultery (81%) and racism (74%). But other sins no longer draw majority condemnation. Premarital sex? Only 45% call it sin. Gambling? Just 30% say it’s sinful. "A lot of this is relative,” says Ellison president Ron Sellers. “We tend to view sin not as God views it, but how we view it.”
Isn’t it good that sins aren’t subject to majority votes?
David Kinnaman, president of Barna Research, draws a similar conclusion: "People are quick to toe the line on traditional thinking" that there is sin "but interpret that reality in a very personal and self-congratulatory manner" — I have to do what’s best for me; I am not as sinful as most. USA Today
Another thing we see in the church today is what one theology professor calls “moral therapy.” That’s defined as changing your lifestyle to receive God’s favor. In other words, "It’s not heaven in the hereafter, but happiness here and now. But it is still up to you to make it happen."
Michael Horton, professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in Escondido, Calif., finds a sad truth in an old newspaper headline he once saw: " ’To hell with sin when being good is enough.’ He says, “That’s the drift of American preaching today in a lot of churches. People know what sin is; they just don’t believe in it anymore. We mix up happiness and holiness, and God is no longer the reference point."
Holiness is the real key to understanding sin. The reference point is not how good we can be, or how good we are, compared to those other miserable sinners who commit much worse sins than we do. It’s not about being good enough to make us good citizens or happy people. It’s about what David confessed to God in Psalm 51:
Psalms 51:4 (NIV) 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
Albert Mohler said:
Even some people who say sin is real, still steer by a compass of "moral pragmatics," not a bright line of absolute truth. "People say, ’I have high moral expectations of myself and others, but I know we are all human so I’m looking for a batting average.’ "We find a comfort zone of morality, a kind of middle-class middle level where we think we are doing well. We cut the grass. We don’t double-park. But we ignore the larger issues of sin. "Instead of violating the law of the Creator, it becomes more a matter of etiquette. … We want our kids to play well in the sandbox and know their place in line. We want people to do things decently and in order. But it’s etiquette of morality without the ethics. The end result is that when we do things we wish people wouldn’t do, there’s no sense of guilt or shame."
How we think about ourselves has clear implications for how we understand the process of growing in Christ, of being molded into His image as followers of Jesus. If we think we’re basically good, then Jesus becomes for us a sort of life coach, a good guy who will help us be better people. Seen this way, Jesus is a lot like Oprah.
But if we understand that we are deeply flawed, then we can understand better what the apostle Paul means when he writes that those who are in Christ are new creations. Is our goal to reform ourselves into the best possible people we can be? At first blush, we might say, sure – that’s a worthy goal. Or is our goal to become completely new persons?
Do we treat the symptoms of this problem with five steps to financial freedom, or six ways to divorce proof your marriage? Do we think of it as avoiding sin most of the time? Do we think of five easy steps to getting porn out of your life? r lust? Or greed? Or any other kind of sin you can think of? Do we think that all we need are tips and strategies for dealing with our flaws (not that there is anything wrong with tips and strategies understood in the proper context), or is radical transformation what we really need?
The apostle Paul urged the church in Ephesus to take sin seriously, so much so that he “insisted” that they take it seriously, and issued it as a word from the Lord to the church. Turn with me to:
Ephesians 4:17-24 (NASB77) 17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, (NIV says: insist on it in 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.
Here we see a clear contrast between believers and unbelievers. One the one hand, we have the Gentiles. In the context of this passage, Paul means unbelievers, the unsaved, those who are not Christ-followers. He calls their thinking futile. This means: incapable of producing any result; ineffective; useless, trifling, frivolous, unimportant. Anyone here want your thinking described like that?
He says their understanding is darkened. He says, because they’ve hardened their hearts to the truth, they are separated from the life of God. He adds that they’ve lost all sensitivity – they’ve become calloused to sin. The original language here for callous or sensitivity is the word from which we get our English word analgesic – meaning, something which takes away pain.
These people have lost the ability to feel bad about sin and recognize it for what it is. If that’s not a description of our culture, I don’t know what is. Because of that callousness, that spiritual and moral insensitivity, they seem to be unable to deny themselves any sin – it says “every kind of impurity.” Why would they deny themselves any sin? They can’t even see that it’s wrong anymore – they’re not sensitive to its wrongness. They can’t even relate the sin to the pain it causes themselves or others. You might say they are without a conscience – or certainly without a moral or spiritual compass.
On the other hand, Paul says as he writes here to the Ephesian Christians, you’re different. Ephesians – you are followers of Jesus, and you are different, or at least you’re supposed to be. You didn’t learn about Jesus that way. But rather than give a similar list of ills, and problems with their way of thinking, as he did in the first section, Paul instead appeals to the reality of the new self, the new creation that they are.
Rather than appeal to a simple opposite, a simple contrast, Paul appeals to a new reality. He says – put on.
Verse 24: put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Paul says Put Him On. Put on the new creation in Christ.
That’s the contrast, and the answer to futility of mind. That’s the answer to darkness in understanding. That’s the answer to being excluded from the life of God. That’s the answer to ignorance and hardness of heart. That’s the answer to callousness toward sin, that lack of sensitivity born of a continual rejection of the Holy Spirit’s conviction. It’s the answer for the continual practice of every kind of impurity and greediness.
Put Him On. Put off, take off, the old self. Put on the new self.
It’s an important thing to note Paul’s appeal to the Truth in these verses. Now, Boston Celtics fans may call Paul Pierce the truth, as his nickname.
But the apostle Paul knows, we know, that the truth is in Jesus. In fact, Jesus says He is the Truth – John 14:6 - He’s the embodiment of Truth. Paul references the truth twice in this passage from Ephesians. First, beginning in verse 20 and 21:
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.
Then, we see truth again used in verse 24: put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
There, and only there, only in Jesus, is Truth, with a capital T, to be found.
The truth thus is the origin of the righteousness and holiness, in which the new man was created. What is the truth? Verse 21 informs us on this question. Given that truth is in Jesus, the truth must refer to the truth of the Gospel of Christ (Galatians 2:5, 14) as well as the truthfulness of Christ (John 8:32, 40; etc.).
James W. Garrett commentary on Ephesians
This is an important thing to grasp. Because remember, we’re talking about putting on a new self. Not just a new attitude, though that’s part of it. Not just a reformation, which may be included in the idea.
But it’s so much more than that. It’s a completely new, completely re-created thing we’re looking at. This new self. This is what we are to put on.
And this new self, this new creation, finds its origins in the Truth. The truth of the gospel. The truth of Christ, the truth of God incarnate – the Word become flesh, the embodiment of the Truth, Jesus, the Truth.
So, Paul is telling the Ephesian Christians that they should distinguish themselves from the Gentiles, the unbelievers. He’s telling them that they should know better than to behave like, to live like, to think like, Gentiles. You’re different, he tells them, so act like it. Be different. They learned the truth. Those who’ve learned Christ are saved not just from eternal judgment, but from darkness, futility of thinking, insensitivity.
Because Christians know these things, because we know more, Paul says, it should be revealed in our lives, in our behavior, in our attitudes.
Learn Christ! Is Christ a book, a lesson, a way, a trade? The meaning is, "You have not so learned Christianity—the doctrines of Christ and the rules of life prescribed by him. Not so, as to do as others do. Christ is the lesson; we must learn Christ: and Christ is the teacher; we are taught by him. Matthew Henry
Doctrines are taught. Jesus taught us doctrine. We think of doctrine as dry and boring, another reason you might think this morning’s sermon dull. Here’s Paul telling us that the result of sound doctrine brings life, it brings meaning, it helps to fight lusts and deceit, it renews our minds, and leads to righteousness and holiness in life. Not doctrine alone, of course – and well get to that in a minute.
But this passage is very clear that there’s an absolute connection between doctrine and our daily lives, our behavior, our attitudes. Learn Christ, it says. Paul here is intent on teaching holiness, not as a dry, ethereal, unattainable idea. He’s telling us that holiness, righteousness, is something we can live out in our daily lives, exhibit, reveal in our attitudes, our lifestyle, our behavior.
True it is that nothing is more lifeless than a theory of life without practice. But nothing is more living than a life really lived with a strong, sure, theory (doctrine) behind it.
Hodge Commentary on Ephesians
Now, again it’s clear that Paul is writing to Christians. But Christians, apparently then, apparently now, need these reminders. Why else would Paul feel the need to remind the Ephesians to “put off” the old self, and “put on” the new, if in fact they consistently were living like their new selves rather than their old selves? People looking at us should be able to see a difference between Christians and non-Christians. We are to live as children of the light.
A chapter later, in Ephesians 5, Paul continues this idea of our life reflecting our doctrine:
Ephesians 5:8 (NIV) 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
Again, if they were consistently living as children of the light, if they were consistently walking in their new Jesus suit, and not their old fleshly suit that stinks of sin, there would be no need for these exhortations, for them, or for us.
Romans 13:14 (NASB77) put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
This makes it clear to me that sanctification, that is, being made progressively more holy and righteous in this life, is a process. Although we have this new nature, the new creation, this new Jesus suit that we’re supposed to put on and live our lives in, we apparently don’t automatically live in this Jesus suit when we’re given this wonderful gift.
We see this theme of exhortation to live in our new selves in many other places in scripture. Let’s take a minute to review some of these:
Romans 6:6 (NIV) For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--
Romans 8:9 (NIV) You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
Galatians 5:16-26 (NIV) 16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Colossians 3:3-10 (NIV) 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Galatians 2:20 (NIV) 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
So this is a consistent theme in the New Testament. In Jesus, you’re different people. Act like it. Live like it. I wish it was automatic, but apparently it isn’t. We must cooperate with what God has already provided in His grace and mercy.
The 70s and 80s Christian rock group Petra had a song called Killing My Old Man – which came out in 1981.
It reminds me that words can be taken differently in different contexts. Like the flyer that’s out on the literature table with the headline: Available Women’s Bible Studies. Think about it.
But here are the lyrics to the Petra song:
I think its gone far enough
I can’t take it anymore
I’ve got to even up the score
Before he sweeps me off the floor
I’ve really got to find a way
Of taking care of him for good
I know he’d kill me if he could
So I’ll nail him to the wood
(Chorus)
Killing my old man
You may not understand
He’s a terrible man
Got to make a stand
And kill the old man
Every time that I think he’s gone and I’ve finally won
He just keeps coming back, puts me on the run
I think I’d better do it now
Get my hammer and a nail
Pray to God I that I won’t fail
Lest he’ll keep me in the jail
And I don’t wanna stay in jail!
Some rich Biblical themes in this rock song. First, there’s what we’re recognizing in this passage in Ephesians today – we need the admonishment to live what we believe, and to put off our old selves. There’s the recognition that our old selves will eventually kill us if we don’t put our old selves off, and put on our new selves. There’s the understanding that sin is like a prison or jail – a trap that binds us with deceit. There’s the recognition that this is a battle – it’s what Paul’s writing about in Romans 7:
Romans 7:15-25 (NIV) 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
We see in Ephesians 4 a clear choice. There’s the old self – which when we’re in Christ, is in fact dying, yes, but it’s not totally dead, it’s apparently still alive and kicking. In Christ the battle is won, but our old self doesn’t seem to know it yet, or at least hasn’t accepted it and gone to the grave where it belongs. This is the self that’s prone to futile thinking, to callousness toward sin, to hardness of heart. Then there’s the new self. This new self is a thing of beauty. This is the self Paul writes about in Romans 6:
Romans 6:2-4 (NIV) …We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
We too may live a new life. This is the new self – the one whose life we want to nurture. But how do we do that? Could it be a concept as simple as Paul makes it out to be in our primary passage this morning? A concept as simple as taking off one nature, and putting on another? Could it be what Paul tells us in Ephesians 4, beginning now with verse 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.
Paul says it’s about laying aside, or putting off, or taking off the old self, and putting on the new self. And though the concept may be relatively simple, it’s clear that the practical outworking of it in the lives of Christians is not. If it was, I can’t imagine why we’d see this idea presented as something we need, so often throughout the New Testament. But simple or not, it’s what we are called to do as followers of Jesus.
The Scottish preacher Alexander MacLaren said of this passage:
The ideas contained seem to me in brief to be these —
1. the great purpose of the Gospel is our moral renewal;
2. that moral renewal is a creation after God’s image;
3. that new creation has to be put on or appropriated by us;
4. the great means of appropriating it is contact with God’s truth.
That is, the Word made flesh – His truth is found in the person of Jesus, and in His Word. Our moral renewal is the process of sanctification. We are changed, we are transformed, into His image and likeness. That image and likeness is, as it says in verse 24:
Ephesians 4:24 (NASB77) in the likeness of God… created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
What’s more, this likeness that we are to put on is created. Think about that for a moment. God created a new person for us, in the likeness of God, which means it’s created in righteousness and holiness of the truth, the truth which we’ve already identified as Jesus.
So, though it’s clear that sanctification is a process, transformation into the image and likeness of Christ, from our standpoint, is a process, and we will hopefully see that process, ongoing in our lives from the moment we receive the free gift of eternal life from Jesus.
The likeness, the new self we are to put on, is already there. It’s already been created. That’s what MacLaren means when he says that the new creation has to be put on, or appropriated, by us.
So we can’t earn this new self. We can’t make it ourselves by our efforts. But we do have to put it on. It’s kind of like the initial gift of eternal life offered to us – salvation…
John 1:12-13 (NIV) Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
It’s interesting how often we hear people say, well, we’re all children of God. I think this verse says that’s not true. Yes, we’re all His creatures, but we’re not His children until we receive Him, until we accept the free gift of eternal life from Him.
Perhaps this process of putting off and putting on is similar. After our salvation, the new self is there for the putting on. We have this Jesus suit. We can leave it in the closet, and by default continue to live in our suit of plain old sinful flesh, corrupted, deceived, as it indicates in verse 22 of Ephesians 4.
Or we can take this Jesus suit, created for us to wear, to walk in, to live by, and we can put it on. In putting it on, we can be renewed in our minds. In putting it on, we can experience more and more the effects of this Jesus suit on our lives, on our character.
We can experience righteousness. We can experience holiness. We can experience and live out the truth.
So, what are we waiting for? Why do we delay? Or, why don’t we do it every day – and some days instead choose to put on the old self, when this new self is there for the putting on, created in the likeness of God, created in righteousness and holiness of the truth, who is Jesus.
And when we do have our Jesus suit on, it’ll show. It’ll show in our actions. It’ll show in our attitudes. It’ll show in every area of our lives, and it will impact the world around us.
Put Him on. Put on your Jesus suit today, and walk in it.
