(Audio/Video/Text)
Title: You are NOT the Powerless Victim
Intro:
How do you want to held accountable, by what manner. Here’s how I want it, straight to my face, call me to duty/honor/show me how angry and disappointed in me you are.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
“Put off”
Variant English translations:
“Put off” (KJV, NKJV, NIV, RSV)
“Rid yourself” (NASB 2020)
“Lay aside” (NASB 95)
“Put away” (ASV)
Others?
Greek: apotithēmi (ap-ot-eeth’-ay-mee)
Definition: to put off or aside or away
Apotithemi used 8X in the N.T. including:
Acts 7:58
And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
Heb 12:1
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Conclusion:
This is about us. This is about sanctification. This is NOT something God does FOR us, it is something God has ENABLED us to do.
What’s the problem with these statements?
“If only the Lord would cause me to stop getting high…”
or
“If only the Lord would give me strength to resist this temptation…”
These statements (made by a believer) suggest a helplessness, when Paul is indicating, quite clearly, that for those who are IN CHRIST, the power to resist is already in us…we just have to do it!
And how can I prove this? Because of what Paul says in the second half of the verse:
“concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts…”
Paul says this is who we USED to be, (the old man).
It is clearly NOT who we ARE IN CHRIST (the new man).
Now, practical question here, can we still ACT like the OLD MAN, even while actually being the NEW MAN?
Yes, and what do we call that?
Sin, foolishness, backslidden, etc.
And why is it so tempting to do so? Even though we know better, why is it that we fall back into old sinful patterns, even as saved, regenerate people? (Look specifically at verse 22)
Because these lusts are deceitful…they promise something they are incapable of delivering…satisfaction.
And, if we do not master these desires, then they “grow corrupt” like a cancer and they will destroy us.
PB, are you saying you can lose your salvation? NO, I’m saying something almost as bad…you can be save and yet waste your life!
So what is the solution to this conundrum?
(take answers)
Next week I’ll present my answer, from this very context, and it all has to do with what Paul says next: Renew Your Mind.