Title After Salvation / Ephesians 4:21-27
Contents
After salvation / Ephesians 4:21-27
We use the word saved very often in the church. To be saved by believing in Jesus is God's most principled promise of salvation. However, to be saved if you believe does not mean that you have been saved by believing. In the Bible, there are many more lessons about what to do after being saved. It is full of lessons about how to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ and therefore how to live. When we start something, we need to finish it well. Just as you have to raise a child well after giving birth, if you succeed in something, you have to manage it well and enjoy that success. Making money is important, but it is also important to manage and spend the money you earn. Rescuing a drowning person is important, but it is important to treat the person well after rescue. Likewise in the Christian life, if we believe in Jesus, we will be saved, but how should we live who have attained salvation?
at the Sydney Olympics
take off the old man
The first is to get rid of the old man. When we think about the timing of salvation in this matter, the time difference between believing in Jesus and being saved is that when God grants us salvation, even though we have the elements of the old man in us, God gives us salvation. So it's grace. Even if God believes in us, there are many people who will not be able to achieve salvation if He gives us salvation after arranging the dispositions of the old man within us. But God does not associate the grace of salvation with such an incidental condition. In other words, even after believing in Jesus, there are things that are not human, but God applies salvation to us. What we need to know is that even after believing in Jesus, there are some old people that need to be put off. That's why God's instruction to put off the old self is because it is a message to those who have believed. This is God's exhortation to existing believers who receive God's word and praise and worship Jesus Christ every day.
Just as the umbilical cord must be cut when a baby is born and old clothes must be removed to put on new clothes, there are old clothes and old people that we must take off by believing in Jesus from a spiritual perspective. The character of the old man is said to follow temptation and lust in the text. To be tempted is to be invited to do bad things, to be invited to do good is not to be tempted. But the tendency to follow bad things and to invite bad things as good things are temptations, but he said that temptation and greed are things that one must always control after believing in Jesus. In James 1:15 it says, “When lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” Because there is greed, greed becomes more and more fertile, and we commit sins.
The final and decisive influence that people do badly is that they have emotions. The reason why we have no choice but to do bad things even though we know it clearly is because our emotions are ill. That's why you should purify your emotions and keep your emotions healthy. Greed is an emotional problem, not a knowledge dimension. Not because you are ignorant, but because our emotions are sick and prejudiced. The saints need to pray for spiritual emotions every day, meditate on the Word, and control our emotions with the work of the Holy Spirit, not me, who always borrows objective power.
The second "following decaying old customs" is more specific. Temptation and greed are not revealed as emotions within us, but "following the decaying old habits" refers to actions. It means to stop chasing after the bad habits you had before you believed in Jesus. It means to control the temptations and greed within us and to stop acting outwardly. This is the old one.
put on a new man
Gentlemen, believing in Jesus is by grace through the Holy Spirit's faith, but even if I am unrighteous or have moral flaws that are not humane, my sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. However, please know that it is much more difficult after you are saved. The Bible does not end with "put off the old man", but there are two conditions for "put on the new man". Verse 23 tells us that we must be “renewed in spirit only” and be transformed inwardly. You cannot put on the new garments of righteousness without a change of heart. In verse 24, it says “follow God,” but our thoughts, emotions, and intentions are all based on God and we must follow Him. So, “put on the new man, which was created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” What is the raw material of the new clothes that the new man wears? Righteousness, truth, and holiness. When we say that we are putting on a new person, we need to keep these two conditions in mind and get a definitive answer here. In order to wear a new person, you must have a new center of gravity and your values must be set as the standard that pleases God.
Drivers sometimes look in the rearview mirror when driving a car. Without a rearview mirror, it is very inconvenient to drive. By the way, you look in the rearview mirror not to look back, but to go straight ahead. Our faith life is the same. Why do we have to put off the old man? Just to live. The saints sometimes seem to be worried, and sometimes they seem to retreat and lose money, but in fact, it is not. In order to follow God rightly, we sometimes become weak, but ultimately we go that way to follow God.
I would like to explain this issue this way. What changes when we put on the new person? Your point of view will be different. Even if we believe in Jesus, we always have an old viewpoint, some thoughts are tied to the old things, and even if we meet before and 10 years after we believe in Jesus, there is nothing new, but we always smoke because our viewpoint is not renewed. When I change my heart and the value of following God is established in my life, my perspective changes.
The Boeing 747 Jumbo is the largest plane with a capacity of 400 passengers. But when that big plane floats in the wide expanse, it's just a fly. The world of God is so great and wide. If we believe in Jesus and put off our old self and put on a new one, we will see the wide vision of God. Up to that point, God demands it. "Have you believed and have you been saved? See the blessings I will give you, which I command you."
Don't let the devil take a break
In the third verses 25-27 the lesson goes more practical. “Therefore, put away lying, and speak the truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. After believing in Jesus, I hope that we will live a life of faith that does not give the devil any opportunity. Everyone, even if you receive grace, if you give the devil a chance to take advantage, you will lose all that grace.
closing words
Therefore, it is very important to manage our faith after being saved. I hope that you will put off your old self and put on a new one, and live a life of faith that does not allow the devil to open you up. Not only adults, but children who will grow up in all things faith, character and intellect must grow up right from this perspective. I hope that old things in his personality will be filtered out and he will grow up to be a person of faith who overcomes the devil, not the object of the devil's temptation, by having a new value.