and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.
It is one long sentence from verse 22 to 24:
You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.
It’s like there are three points of action here:
to lay aside
to be renewed
to put on
We are on the put on level.
This new man is the one you are meant to be; the old man is one you were.
The call is to reject the old life to take on the new life. And the new man did not come from nowhere, and it is not about losing your uniqueness. This is actually the new you.
It is created in God’s image; it is the new you. It is uniquely you, because it is God creating a new you, just as he created Adam and Eve.
He formed him from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the Holy Spirit (Genesis 2:7).
The same has happened to you too; you have been made alive in Christ to a new life (Ephesians 2:5). This is the real you.
The challenge comes when we do realize that this is an ongoing call to be “laid aside,” to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and put on the new man.
We are quick to point at the others as those who need to “lay aside.”
Treating those three items as one-time deals is the error, in my opinion.
Jesus said all authority in heaven and on earth is given to Him, and that we should make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18–19).
But “Disciple” is not a box we check; it is a life we live. It is a way. Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24), so it is a process.
It is not a ladder to climb, where we say, "Yes, I am done.” But a walk, where the endpoint is not seen; it is a race. The writer of the book of Hebrews spoke of a race set before us and the need to lay aside every weight and sin (Hebrews 12:1).
This is a three-pronged truth we should embrace. Lay aside is the call to reject; be renewed is the call to check your inner life, and put on is the action to take.
It's a lot of work, and it never ends. But you need to be aware of the need for that work. It's work to lay aside, work to be renewed and work to put on.
created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.
Paul is saying it is not about putting on an act. The real you is infused with holiness and righteousness, and that is what you should be about. The point is, God is not expecting from you what He has not made available to you. That is the truth.
The new creature is not a blob. It is a new you, different from a new me. But there is a common denominator, according to Paul: righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.
That is interesting, because it is not enough to have the right presentation/expression; we need to ask where it is coming from, whether it is founded on the truth of Christ or not.
That is why some people will say the unbeliever can behave better than the believers, but they forget that we are looking for the source of it; the righteousness and holiness have to be sourced from truth.
What is righteousness and what is holiness? Righteousness is about what you are doing; holiness is about what you are refraining from doing. Holiness is about avoiding defilement and being kept pristine, while righteousness is active.
There is a sense in which you are already holy. That is not the sense in this passage. There is a sense in which you are already righteous. That is not the sense in this passage. Because we don’t just take one definition of the word in one place in Scripture and assume that is the absolute meaning in other places without allowing the immediate context to inform our understanding. That is a major miss of biblical interpretation. If we do not put that in mind, it can lead to what I call vandalizing the Bible.
Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Jesus is righteous.
Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.
Therefore, we cannot focus only on not doing the wrong thing; we also need to do the right thing. We should not just focus on doing the right thing and think that we are okay if some wrong things slip in sometimes.
Remember, it is about God's image; the new creature is about God's image. God's image was borne by Adam, but now the new creature is also God's image. It is not God and cannot be God; it is God’s image. Let’s not forget that.