The Lord’s insight. Carnality is in the old you; godliness can only live where carnality has died.
Colossians 3:9-10: “You have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”
1 Timothy 3:16: “And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.”
I’m ashamed to say that there have been times when I have looked at my life with Christ, and I see no difference in the life I lived without Him. I guess the old me just won’t go away. When we see more of who we are than who we should be perhaps its because we have not shed our old persons so the new person can come forth.
I am reminded of how things unfolded on the old TV program Superman. When Superman the human saw a crime being committed, he would step aside into a quiet place and change into his superman life, cape and all. In a way, he shed his old life for his Super-human life. People always remembered Superman; they never knew the human he was.
Who he was and where he came from was a mystery to the people. He stopped crime. That is what people saw and remembered. None of this would have happened had he not shed his old life for his life with superpowers. Often, we find it difficult to know the new life because we want to do new things with the old life.
But it doesn’t work that way. We are reminded of this in Colossians 3:9-10. We cannot be renewed while we hold onto the old. The Lord doesn’t put polish on our old lives to make us look like we are something different. He makes us something different, so we don’t look like we used to look.
But this is a hard thing for us to understand. In some ways, it is a great mystery to even the most faithful of us because we cannot know where we can change or where we might find the cape that would show we are new. Well, you don’ need an empty room to change from your old to your new.
Godliness and a Godly life do not come from your human life. It comes to the new life the Lord redeemed for you; the life waiting for you to claim. You need only to understand you must shed the old so that the new can come forth.
If you are fighting the crime around you; if you are fighting the sin within you; if you don’t even recognize the crime and sin in and around you, perhaps its because you have not shed your old life. When Superman stepped out into the world in his cape there was no crime or no person who could defeat him. He lived a superhuman life.
If you want to stop living life as a fleshly neighbor to the stronger things around, you then you must learn the mystery of shedding the old and putting on the new. Pray and ask the Lord to reveal these things to you:
- Jesus came and was manifested in the flesh. He must be manifested in your life. He makes you new.
- He was justified by the Spirit. The Spirit told people around Him that He was God. Pray that the Spirit would justify before others your transformation from an old life of flesh to a life in the Spirit.
- Jesus was seen by angels who announced it to the world. Pray that the Spirit would have people see that you are a new person. They will announce it to their world.
- Jesus was preached to the world. When you shed your old life, you will be able to shut your mouth because the world will preach your transformation more than you have to announce your transformation.
And if right now your old self is telling you that you don’t really need to die to the person you are, you should tell that person to shut up. You will never know the person God wants you to be when you know the person you are better. Shedding your old life is one of the single most profound acts of belief you can have in the Lord.
It means you trust that He knows the person He wants you to be is better than the person you know yourself to be. Agree with Him about that. Go into your private place and shed that old person. Step out into the same old world but as a new creation, dressed in the Spirit of the Lord and walking as a light in the darkness all around you.
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