SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/1/2019 8:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Delivered
from the Old Self
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:22
Message of the verse: “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,”
John
MacArthur begins this section with the following: “To demonstrate the transforming nature of
regeneration, the apostle further describes and defines the inherent realities
of the truth in Jesus that his readers heard and were taught at
conversion. He uses three infinitives
(in the original Greek) to summarize what they heard in the call of the
gospel: ‘lay aside,’ ‘be renewed’
(v.23), and ‘put on’ (v.24).”
One
may think that Paul is exhorting believers to do these things, but that is not
the case at all. What these three
infinitives (the basic form
of a verb, without an inflection binding it to a particular subject or tense) describe
is the saving truth that is in Jesus and is not imperatives that are directed
to Christians. These are done at the
point of conversion, and they are mentioned here as only a reminder of the reality of that
experience of conversion.
MacArthur
writes “Lay aside the old self’ is related to ‘have heard…and have been taught’
in the gospel (v. 21). It should also be
noted, although it is essential to affirm that salvation is a divine and
sovereign miracle apart from any human contribution, it must also be affirmed
that men do hear and believe and lay aside the old while putting on the
new. The saving act of God effects such
responses in the believing soul. These are
not human works required for divine salvation but inherent description of
repentance from sin and submission to God, so often taught as elements of
regeneration (see Isa. 55:6-7; Matt. 19:16-22: acts 2:38-40; 20:21; 1 Thess. 1:9;
et al.).
“In
contrast to the unregenerate person who continually resists and rejects God and
lives in the sphere of dominating sin (‘the former manner of life’), the
Christian has heard the call to ‘lay aside the old self.’ The verb means to strip off, as in the case
of old filthy clothes. The tense (aorist
middle) indicates a once-and-forever action done by the believer at salvation.
1.
“Paul’s reference to ‘the old self’
(old in the sense of worn out and useless) is consistent with gospel terminology
in his other epistles. For example,
Colossians 3 describes the fact of salvation using four verbs: ‘for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God’ (v. 3); ‘you have
been raised up’ (v. 1); ‘you laid aside the old self [man]’ (v. 9);
and you ‘have put on the new self
[man] who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the
One who created him’ (v. 10; emphasis added).
All four verbs are in the aorist tense in the Greek, indicating that
they refer back to already completed action and must therefore refer to the
same past event of salvation. In
context, ‘laid aside’ and ‘have put on’ cannot be other than exact parallels to
‘have died’ and ‘have been raised up,’ which are clearly salvific in content.” Salvific means “leading to salvation,” as I
have never heard of this word before so I had to look it up in order to better
understand what MacArthur was referring to.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have to say that this is new territory to
me as the one thing that I learned here was that the putting off of the old man
and the putting on of the new man are a part of salvation, and not something
that I have to continually do. I have to
say something that I am very thankful to learn.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To remember
these new truths that I have learned, or should I say am learning and also to
continue to be reminded of Rom. 12:3 which speaks of humility.
Quotation that goes along with the
unknown quotation from yesterday: “For I
know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in
lovingkindness” (Jonah 4:2b).
5/1/2019 9:20 AM
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