Pauls's Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter One
RENEWAL BY LEARNING CHRIST.
"But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus : That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." EPH. iv. 20-24.

THE apostle is here warning you against a walk that is unworthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, having previously exhorted you to a walk worthy of it, and having put that worthy walk before you in a very noble ideal of the Christian church. The walk against which you are warned is the walk of "other Gentiles." It is the walk of all men naturally. It is your own natural walk, to which, even though you have received grace to enter on another walk, you are still too prone. You need, therefore, to be warned against it, as the apostle here warns you, with the utmost possible earnestness. For his language is very strong. This I say; I am always saying this; I must needs be ever saying this. And I say it with all the solemnity of an appeal, as it were, upon oath. I adjure you in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles walk. The adjuration is not too emphatic; for the risk of your relapsing into the walk of other Gentiles is very great. What is it? At first sight, or in its beginning, it is not a very alarming evil. It is "walking in the vanity of their minds." A vain or vacant mind would seem to be the worst of it; a mind or soul empty, frivolous, unoccupied; aimless, or only aiming at what is sure to disappoint.

But why is the mind thus void or vain? Because it has not in it the "life of God." For the life of God alone can fill and fix the soul, so as to make it proof against other suitors for its favour. You must be full of God; having in you the life of God; if you would he safe from the danger of vanity of mind, or an unfurnished soul, ready, like an empty and open room, to admit all, or any, intruders. For intruders will not he wanting. Lasciviousness is on the watch, and greediness; lust of pleasure or of profit. Vanity of mind, with alienation from the life of God, opens the door for these two great tyrants of a worldly and godless soul to enter in. They do enter in, and soon they gain the mastery. The power of self-restraint and self-command is paralysed. Feeling, sensitiveness of conscience, tenderness of heart, dies away, gets blunted, hardened ; until at last there comes a sort of passive yielding, a giving up of the struggle, a throwing of the reins on the neck of the rampant steed; a self-abandonment to sloth and sensuality and sin. That is the walk, so insidious at the outset, as if it were mere idleness or emptiness, so fatal in its inevitable issue of self-surrender to evil, against which you are solemnly warned in the Lord.

Now it is with reference to this walk that the apostle says, "But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him." There is no insinuation of a doubt here; but rather a generous confidence expressed. Ye have learned Christ. That is taken for granted; and more than that. Ye have so learned Christ as not to walk as other Gentiles. That is and must be the effect of your having learned Christ, if, as I suppose I may assume, it is he whom you have heard, if it is in him that you have been taught; if you have learned him by hearing him, himself personally, and have been taught in him, in union and communion with himself personally. So it is emphatically in the original. A knowledge of Christ thus acquired, an acquaintance with Christ thus formed, cannot fail to keep you from a vain and worldly walk; for it ensures your being taught according to the full measure of the truth as it is in him; in him as Jesus, so called because he saves his people from their sins.

Hence these three results follow - First (ver. 22), you put off and put away, as regards the past, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, your old natural self. You may well do so, for it is corrupt or corrupted, ruined, rotten. Its corruption is according to your lusts, in the line of your carnal, worldly, selfish desires. And these lusts are lusts of deceit. They are the vassals and ministers of deceit; the tools or instruments by which deceit, falsehood, the old lie of the devil, prevails over men to their ruin. Then again, secondly (ver. 23), you undergo and are ever undergoing a present renewal, inwardly, in your mind. The renewal is in the Spirit, the Holy Ghost. He becomes the spirit of your mind, and in him, as the spirit of your mind, you are renewed. Finally, in the third place (ver. 24), you put on the new man, a new nature, a new self; remade, by a creative act, after God. It is created after God in righteousness and holiness ; and the righteousness and holiness are of the truth, the truth as it is in Jesus. They are the righteousness and holiness which the truth specially claims as its own, and by means of which it triumphs in your final and complete salvation.

Such would seem to be the fair exegesis of these pregnant verses. Thus viewed, they suggest two general inquiries: -
I. How are you to learn Christ ? And
II. How is your learning Christ connected with your putting off the old man and putting on the new man, through, or by means of, a process of renewal in the spirit of your mind?
I. (vers. 20, 21). To learn Christ is something more than to learn about him. The expression is peculiar. It is not a truth, a fact, a science, an art, a trade, that is to be learned; but a person. And it is not certain particulars concerning him and his history; but himself personally. Now, when a person is the object to be learned, the learning, one would say, must itself be very personal. It must be the fruit and recompense, not only of close study and observation, but of intimate and confidential personal intercourse, relationship, familiarity. So, at all events, it will be found to be in this case, whether we consider the beginning of it, "hearing him," or the progress of it, "being taught in him." Its beginning is hearing him (ver. 21). You have heard him. With the Samaritans, therefore, you can say, "Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." There is much in this little phrase "ye have heard him." The hearing meant is that of intelligence and faith, of the opened understanding and the willing mind; it is your hearing so as to follow and obey. Christ speaks; you listen, the Lord, the Spirit, opening your hearts as he opened Lydia's; and, listening, you are drawn to him. Christ speaks. He tells you of his coming forth from the Father, and of the purpose for which he is come; to lay down his life for you, to atone for all your sin, and obtain its complete forgiveness, and so to bring you back, as his ransomed ones, to the Father's home and the Father's heart. You hear, and hearing you consent. You suffer him to take you into his arms and bless you. Christ speaks. He cries, Come unto me, ye weary, and I will give you rest. You hear, and hearing you comply. You rush to his embrace, and are welcomed to his bosom. This is the first step to your learning Christ. This is your first lesson in the school in which you really learn him, the school of experience, of experiment and trial. For let it be noted, it is himself that you are to learn, himself personally, his very self. That is his own wish. It is not learn of me, or from me, as your teacher or pattern ; but learn me. It is not learn my words; but learn myself. Learn to understand me, to appreciate me, to know me so as to do me justice and think rightly of me. Learn to interpret my looks, my sighs, my tears. Learn the meaning of my weeping at Bethany, my groans in Gethsemane, my loud cry on Calvary. Learn to see into my heart, my heart of hearts, as it breaks in the agony of my sore travail of soul for the satisfying of my Father's dishonoured law and the effecting of my people's righteous deliverance. Learn me. Ah ! it is a great thing for you to learn Christ.

And there can be no beginning of your learning him unless you hear him; hear him speaking personally to you; hear him lovingly with all your heart. You make progress in learning Christ through your being taught in him. The teacher here is not Christ but the Holy Ghost. He teaches you to learn Christ; to learn Christ more and more. And he teaches you in Christ. You are taught by the Spirit and taught in Christ. It is your oneness with Christ, your being in him and abiding in him, that the Spirit makes the effectual means of your being taught. Through your real and living personal union to Christ, and in your real and living personal communion with Christ, you are taught by the Spirit to learn him. Instruction thus got must surely be very full and complete; for it must correspond to the fulness and completeness of the volume or book in which you get it. The volume, the book, is Christ. It is in him that you are taught. You are taught therefore up to the full measure of the truth that is in him ; the saving truth that is in the Saviour Jesus. And it must be instruction, moreover, very lively and very influential. For it is as being in Christ consciously, in actual lively fellowship with Christ, that you are taught. Truth as in Jesus, all truth. The truth, all the truth, is in him, as Jesus. If it is in him that you are taught, you are taught as the truth is in him; taught according to the standard of the whole truth that is in him. And you are taught in the way of a most living, loving experience. For the truth that is in Jesus has for those who are themselves in him a most winning attractiveness, a most commanding power, a marvellous charm to elevate and refine the soul into its own pure light and beauty. Dwelling in him; habitually, constantly dwelling in him; confidingly, affectionately dwelling in him; so dwelling in him as to be ever leaning on his bosom, and ever holding converse with him; how, under the Spirit's teaching, can you fail to be making ever new and fresh discoveries of that wondrous heart of his, which your hearts now have got some ability, through sympathy, to understand? The grace and truth of which he is full, as you are ever receiving out of his fulness grace for grace, may well grow more and more clear, bright, fair in your eyes.

Especially the truth that is in him as Jesus, saving you from your sins; the truth respecting God's unsullied, immaculate righteousness and holiness, and his love passing knowledge, which shines so conspicuously in his manner of saving you; the truth that God is light and that God is love, which so emphatically is in Jesus, in Jesus saving you by dying for you; the whole truth of God in him; must more and more, the more you grow up into him, and abide in him, and are enlarged in fellowship with him, open in all its glory to your eye, and ravish your hearts as you thus increase in grace and in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; that knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ whom he has sent, which is life eternal.

Now, if indeed you have thus heard Christ, and have thus in him been taught; if it is he whom you have thus heard; if it is in him that you have been thus taught, as the truth is in Jesus, is it any wonder that Paul should make this appeal to you: "Ye have not so learned Christ" as to walk as other Gentiles walk (ver. 17). Surely all that you have learned of him through hearing him, and being taught in him, must enforce the apostle's solemn obtestation, "I say then, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk." Nay, rather, it points altogether in the direction of a very different course.

II. "That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (vers. 22-24). There are here three things included in your being thus taught: a putting off (ver. 22), a putting on (ver. 24), and between the two a being renewed (ver. 23). 1. There is a putting off (ver. 22), or putting away, of what is inconsistent and incompatible with your having learned Christ in the way described. And what is that? It is something that has to do with "the former conversation." It is something that concerned "the former conversation" lay in the line of it, and was in accordance with its character. But "the former conversation" is to be identified with "your walking in the vanity of your minds." What is to be put off, or put away, is what pertains to that former manner of life, and is its animating motive and ruling principle. And what is that? It is "the old man." It is old self ; and the whole of old self. It is not the former conversation, or any of its outward forms. It is not the former manner of life, or any of its customary practices, that is to be put off. What is to be put off relates to that former conversation or manner of life; but it is itself a far more closely fitting garment. It is far more intimately and essentially identified with you. It is part and parcel of your very nature. It is your nature, your old nature, yourself, your very self, your inmost and most natural self. That is what you have to put off.

And you may well consent to put it off, because it is corrupt. It is undergoing a process of corruption. It is fit only to be put off; not only because it is judicially doomed to destruction, but because it is morally subject to a corrupting influence. It is under the power of a debasing, depraving, hardening, and demoralising spell, which is continually operating in the way of strengthening its inherent selfishness, as the old man, and giving to it, as such, more power to mould the former conversation. The spell which thus operates is to be found, in the last resort, in the lusts of deceit. These are the lusts, the inordinate desires and affections of the old man; which deceit or falsehood, the deceit or falsehood of the father of lies, enlists in its service, and uses as its own, for its vile purpose of betraying men to destruction. They are the likings and longings which incline men to listen credulously to the insidious insinuation "Ye shall not surely die." They are such hankerings after the forbidden thing as made Eve willing to believe the devil's lie. These lusts, thus ready to become the instruments and the dupes of Satanic falsehood and fraud; these lusts of deceit, pollute and destroy the very essence of the old man; that old man which rules and regulates the former conversation.

Therefore the old man is incurable. There is no mending it, or patching it up. It needs to be wholly put off and put away. This implies an inward spiritual renewal (ver. 23). Not otherwise can you put off the old man; not by your making some superficial change in your conduct; not by your mere abandonment of some customs and companionships of the outer life. No; not otherwise than by your submitting to be inwardly and spiritually renewed; renewed in your mind, your inner nature; and renewed there spiritually, in or through the Spirit; the Holy Ghost entering into your spirit; and so becoming virtually the spirit of your mind. It is very relevant here, and practically most important to bring forward this great thought, this vital truth; that you are passive as well as active, needing to be acted upon as well as acting, in this whole work of your sanctification. Between your putting off the old man, and putting on the new; both of which are represented as your own doing; there comes in most appropriately your being renewed. No doubt it comes in, as it would seem, under the form of a command. It is an instruction to you, as taught in Christ, to be renewed. That, however, is a familiar scriptural usage, and it is one of great practical significancy. "Repent and be converted." " Make you a new heart and a new spirit."

For though this renewal is not effected by you, but upon you, it is effected upon you as beings capable of volition and choice. In one sense, you are passive, as being acted upon. But in another view, from the first touch of divine power, you are active. For the renewal is a renewal to activity. It is to be actively recognised, actively realised, actively followed up and followed out. As hearing Christ, and being taught in him, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Nothing short of your being renewed, and your actively apprehending your being renewed, will duly meet and fulfil that teaching. No putting off of the old man which does not imply that, will at all come up to the mark. You may in in some sense, and to some effects, so divest yourself of the worn-out rags of your old self as to begin a new conversation, a new mode of life. And it may seem even as if you had to a large and very creditable extent got rid of the corruption of the old nature, its lusts, and the deceit, or deceitful dealing with conscience and with God, to which they ministered and gave occasion.

But it is a mere change in the old man, in your natural self, from one mode of manifestation and action to another. Radically, and at bottom, you are the same as before selfish, worldly, carnal, godless. No such mere outward and partial putting off of the old man will suffice. There must be a thorough inward renewal. As taught in Christ you feel that this is quite indispensable; that in fact there can be no such thing as your really putting off the old man unless there be this renewal in the spirit of your mind. There must be a new spirit breathed into your mind; into that very mind of yours in the vanity of which you once walked, as other Gentiles walk still. Then, that mind, your inner man, was a void, a vacancy, a blank; ready to let in all sorts of unclean spirits. But now, see to it that there be in it a new spirit; the Holy Spirit of God making your spirit new; himself dwelling as a new spirit in you. Only thus can you really put off the corruption of the old man : only thus can you be clothed in the beauty of the new.

This new man which ye are to put on is (1) created after God; (2) in righteousness and holiness; and (3) in righteousness and holiness, viewed as the righteousness and holiness of the truth.
(1.) What ye are to put on is something thoroughly new. It is something expressly and of new created for you to put on. It is a newly made human nature; a nature newly made after God. Where is that nature, that new man, in its first manifestation, to be found? Where but in the pure and perfect humanity of Christ? He is the new man, created after God. It is he, therefore, that you are to put on. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. xiii. 14). You are to put on Christ as the new man created after God. But you are to put on Christ not as an outer, but as an inner garment; not as an outward covering of the court of the temple, but as an inward ornament of its inmost shrine; receiving him into your deepest heart; receiving him there as the new man, created after God; and as in that character really and truly taking the place in you of your old self, according to that saying of Paul - It is not I who live; but Christ liveth in me. So the king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold (Ps. xlv. 13). It is not her outward body, but her inner spirit, that is thus gloriously clothed in wrought gold. She wears, in her soul, as her life and warmth and beauty, her glorious royal spouse. So you, as taught in Christ, are to clothe yourselves inwardly, to fill yourselves, with Christ. Let him be to you and in you the new man created after God. Let Christ thus dwell in your heart by faith.

(2.) The new man that you are to put on is created after God in righteousness and holiness. These are the attributes, these the qualities, in respect of which the new man resembles God, and is created in his image and likeness; righteousness and holiness. Let it be still kept in mind that it is Christ who is the new man created after God in righteousness and holiness. No doubt Adam was originally created after God in righteousness and holiness. And it is a legitimate enough application of the text to cite it in explanation or in illustration of what the image of God in which Adam was made really is. There is a sense also in which our putting on the new man, created after God in righteousness and holiness, may be represented as our becoming again such as Adam was before he fell, when the image or likeness of God, after which he was created in righteousness and holiness, was unbroken and entire. But that, I am persuaded, is not really what is here set before us. It is not the unfallen Adam but the sinless Christ that you are to put on as the new man created after God in righteousness and holiness. And hence, if you would know what this righteousness and this holiness really are, in respect of which the new man you are to put on is created after God, you must look not to the unfallen Adam hut to the sinless Christ. You can know little or nothing historically of the righteousness and holiness in which Adam resembled God. But you may know enough of these godlike qualities as they characterised the man Christ Jesus. You scarcely get a glimpse of Adam as righteous and holy, after the pattern of the righteousness and holiness of God. But you have a full view of Christ the holy one and the just. You can be at no loss to see and understand what the righteousness and holiness are in which he is like God. And therefore you can be at no loss to judge what must be the righteousness and holiness of the new man created after God that you are to put on.

You are to put on Christ as one with the Father in his righteousness of administration, and holiness of nature. You are to put on Christ as thoroughly of one mind with the Father in all that concerns the interests of justice and purity; of uprightness and innocence and goodness. You are to put on Christ as equally with the Father determined to uphold the claims of the holy and good law; and equally with the Father intolerant of all evil. You are to put on Christ's righteous zeal for the honour of his Father's name and the sanctity of his Father's house. You are to put on his holy habit of praying always to his Father. You are to enter into his mind when, by the sacrifice of himself, he made righteousness and holiness meet with love in your redemption. You must "let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man : and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

(3.) The righteousness and holiness in respect of which the new man you are to put on is created after God are the righteousness and holiness of the truth. This does not mean merely that these graces or virtues, these attributes or good qualities, are true, in the sense of being genuine and sincere; but that they stand related to truth, or the truth, as the lusts of the old man you put away stand related to deceit; to the great lie or falsehood which corrupts the world. The lusts of the old man are the instruments of deceit; by means of them falsehood prevails. The righteousness and holiness of the new man are the instruments of the truth; in them the truth illustriously shines forth; through them it gloriously reigns. The contrast is very striking, when we thus personify on the one hand the deceit which has the lusts of the old man to work upon and work with, and on the other hand the truth which claims and uses as its own the righteousness and holiness of the new man. But in fact no figure of speech is needed.

For have we not seen that the truth is in Jesus? It is not abstract truth, speculative truth, dead truth. It is not the truth expressed in a verbal formula or proposition. It is the living truth, embodied in the living person of the man Christ Jesus. And so also the deceit is no mere abstraction. The lie that rules the world and slays the souls of men has a father. He who is a murderer and liar from the beginning is the father of it. The lie as well as the truth has life, for it is embodied in the living person of him whose lie it is. What then have we here? Two mighty rival potentates, the prince of darkness and the prince of light and peace, stand over against one another; the one the impersonation of all deceit; the other of all truth. They are both striving for the mastery. And they have their appropriate weapons. The lusts of the old man are at the service of him who is the living lie. The righteousness and holiness of the new man are in the interests and on the side of him who is the living truth.

Have you indeed learned him? Is it he whom you have heard? Is it in him that you have been taught as the truth is in Jesus? Ah! what room is there for hesitancy as to putting off the old man, undergoing renewal, and putting on the new man? What, can you still dream of compromise or accommodation between the two? Can you still cling to the fancy of its being possible to serve these two masters? Consider, O my brother, consult your own experience. Call to mind any occasion on which you have made provision for the flesh to fulfil some lust thereof. Alas, no child of God can be at a loss here. You yielded yourself up for a time, shall I say, to the seductive influence of sloth or self-indulgence. Or you suffered some unruly appetite, some unholy or uncharitable passion, partially to regain its ascendency ; or you began to walk in some doubtful worldly way. Some lust of the old man was somehow again corrupting you; tampering with the righteousness and holiness of the new man; shaking your stedfast integrity; sullying your purity of soul. What, ere long, has been the issue? Ah! Have you not too soon found yourself fain to listen again, as you have listened before, to the devil's soothing lies? Evil is not so very bad, sin is not so exceeding sinful, the world is not so very wicked; nor is God so very strict, or his law so very stringent, or his gospel so very exacting of complete separation, as you once were taught to believe. It is the old, old story. Allowance will be made. The tree will make you wise. Ye shall be as gods. Ye shall not surely die. Oh, my friends, put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the lust of deceit. Hold fast the righteousness and holiness of the new man created after God. They are of the truth. They are no vassals of deceit; or of the father of lies - the prince of darkness. They are the free ministers of the truth ; of him in whom the truth is ; who is himself the truth. They shrink not from his calm and loving eye. They solicit his inspection. They win his approval. In righteousness and holiness you have fellowship with him who is holy; him who is true; hearing him; being taught in him; and so learning him as to be no more conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove, as he did before you, what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
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