+I. Must break thoroughly away from the old life of sin.+
+II. Is evident in temper and speech.+
+III. Is the interpretation of all that is pure and true.+
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-11.
_The New Spiritual Nature._
In the primitive Church it was customary for the new converts, after
putting aside their heathenish vestments, to array themselves in
white garments, that they might indicate, in the most public manner,
the great change which had taken place. It was perhaps in allusion to
this custom that the apostle bases his exhortation. A courtier would
not dare to insult his sovereign by appearing before him in squalid
and tattered garments but would be specially studious to attire
himself in a dress every way suited to his rank and character. So,
the believer would not dishonour God and disgrace the religion he has
embraced by exhibiting the vices and passions that characterised his
former unrenewed state but is the more solicitous to magnify the
grace of God in a life of outward consistency and purity. In the
former verses the writer has insisted on sanctification in its
negative aspect--the mortification of sin, the putting off the old
man. In these words, he deals with sanctification on its positive
side, and shows that it is the putting on the new spiritual nature,
in which the believer is ever advancing to a higher knowledge.
Observe:--
+I. That the possession of the new spiritual nature implies a
complete change of the whole man.+--"Seeing that ye have put off the
old man, with his deeds, and have put on the new man" (vers. 9, 10).
The believer has a twofold moral personality. There is in him the old
man--the sinful principle; and there is in him also the new--the
God-like, spiritual nature. Whatever we bring with us from the womb
of our mother is the old man; whatever we receive by the grace of the
Holy Spirit is the new. In the great spiritual transformation
experienced by every believer there is a twofold and coincident
operation--the putting off of the old and the putting on of the new;
there is an act of renunciation and unclothing and an act of
reception and investment. This change is complete; it pervades the
whole man, ruling every power, fashioning the character, and
inspiring the entire life. This change is Divine in its origin and
outworking. Man has no power of himself to effect the renewal of his
nature. It is "not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God." It is the triumph of Divine grace, and to God only all
praise is due.
+II. That the new spiritual nature is ever advancing to a higher
knowledge.+--"Which is renewed in knowledge" (ver. 10), which is ever
being renewed unto perfect knowledge (_Lightfoot_). The present tense
is used, and it is indicated that the new spiritual nature does not
reach perfection at once but is in a state of growth and development.
The realisation of the new life in man is bounded by the amount and
character of the knowledge he possesses, and by the clearness and
tenacity with which that knowledge is apprehended and maintained. The
experience may be below the actual knowledge possessed but cannot be
beyond it. Whatever degree of holiness the soul attains, it is still
susceptible of advancement. The process of renewal is continually
going on, as the statue grows, under the chisel of the sculptor, into
a more perfect form of beauty. The knowledge referred to is the true
knowledge of Christ as opposed to the false knowledge of the
heretical teachers. The process of renewal increases the capacity of
the believing soul to appreciate the knowledge of Divine and heavenly
realities, and the increase in the knowledge of the highest things
reacts advantageously on the renewed nature. The higher we ascend in
the knowledge of God, the more like Him do we become.
+III. That the new spiritual nature is refashioned after the most
perfect model.+--"After the image of Him that created him" (ver. 10).
Man was originally created in the image of God, that image consisting
in a moral resemblance--"in righteousness and true holiness." Christ
is Himself "the image of the invisible God," and conformity to Him is
the pattern of our renewal, the all-perfect standard towards which we
are continually to approximate. The moral image which we lost in the
fall of the first Adam is more than regained in the second Adam.
Redemption places man on a higher platform than he would have
occupied if he had remained the moral condition in which he was
originally created. It brings him nearer to God, gives him a broader
and more sympathetic insight into the Divine character and purposes,
and makes him more like God. In the spiritual region into which the
believer in Christ is transferred all minor distinctions vanish. Not
only do they not exist, they cannot exist. It is a region to which
they are utterly unsuited and cannot therefore be recognised.
+IV. That the new spiritual nature is superior to all earthly
distinctions.+--1. _It is superior to all national distinctions._
"Where there is neither Greek nor Jew" (ver. 11). To the Jew the
whole world was divided into two classes: Jews and Gentiles--the
privileged and unprivileged portions of mankind; religious
prerogative being taken as the line of demarcation. But such a narrow
distinction is antagonistic to the broad and generous spirit of the
Gospel. Let a man be but renewed in Christ Jesus, and it inquires not
as to what country he belongs.
2. _It is superior to all ritualistic distinctions._--"Circumcision
nor uncircumcision" (ver. 11). It matters not whether a man is born
in a Christian country and brought up in the midst of the greatest
ecclesiastical privileges, or whether he is cradled in the darkest
paganism; in either case a change of heart is absolutely necessary.
No branch of the universal Church can claim the exclusive right of
admitting souls into heaven; and it is intolerable impertinence to
insist upon the necessity of ceremonial observances in order to
salvation--as was the case with the false teachers of Colossæ, and as
is the case with the pretentious ritualism of the day. "In Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but
a new creature."
3. _It is superior to all political distinctions._--"Barbarian,
Scythian" (ver. 11). Like the Jews, the Greeks divided mankind into
two classes--Greeks and barbarians--civilisation and culture being
now the criterion of distinction. The Scythian was the lowest type of
barbarian. Christianity acknowledges no such distinction. Whether
gathered from the most refined or most barbarous nation, all are one
in Christ Jesus. The Gospel has broken down the narrow and arbitrary
classification of the race, maintained the right of all nations of
the world to be classed as one genus, and replaced the _barbarian_ by
the more humane and unifying title of _brother._ Max Müller writes:
"_Humanity_ is a word which you look for in vain in Plato or
Aristotle; the idea of mankind as one family, as the children of one
God, is an idea of Christian growth; and the science of mankind, and
of the languages of mankind, is a science which, without
Christianity, would never have sprung into life."
4. _It is superior to all social distinctions._--"Bond nor free"
(ver. 11). The diversities of condition which divide men in the
present world are unknown in the sphere of this spiritual renewal.
The grace which changed the heart of Philemon the master also renewed
the soul of Onesimus, his slave; and often the bondman is the first
to enter into the liberty of the children of God. Here the rich and
poor, the nobility and peasantry, meet together, and form one common
brotherhood.
+V. That the new spiritual nature recognises Christ as
everything.+--"But Christ is all, and in all" (ver. 11). All belongs
to Him; He originated and sustains all, and He is in all. He is
everything to the believer--the Source and Centre of his life, the
Ideal after which he continually aspires, the Possession by which he
will be enriched for ever. The believer is a living, speaking, active
expression of the Christ within him. Christ, without the exclusion of
any nation or sect, unites all; and so, through His indwelling in
all, is Himself all.
+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is the Author, Pattern, and End of the new
spiritual nature._ 2. _To put on the new spiritual nature it is
essential to believe in Christ._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._