#DailyDevotion We Have Not Been Saved To Sin But To Lead A New Life In Christ

Ephesians 4:17—24 ¹⁷So I tell you and call on you in the Lord not to live any more like the people of the world. Their minds are set on worthless things. ¹⁸Their understanding is darkened. Their ignorance and their closed minds have made them strangers to the life God gives. ¹⁹Having lost their sense of right and wrong, they’ve given themselves up to a life of lust to practice every kind of vice with greed. ²⁰But that is not what you learned when you got to know Christ, ²¹if you have heard Him and in Him have been taught the truth as it is in Jesus. ²²Strip off your old self, which follows your former ways of living and ruins you as it follows the desires that deceive you. ²³Become new in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and put on the new self, which is created to be like God, righteous and holy in the truth.

Ok, so for like 4 chapters now, Paul has been one gospel statement after another, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Evil people may think, “Well if I am forgiven freely by God for all my sin in Christ Jesus then I can just go live and do whatever I want,” thinking in fleshly terms unfortunately for them.

But we have been forgiven of our sins and given the gift of eternal life and the Holy Spirit not so we can continue in sin but rather we would put away the sinful life we used to live. We truly have been freed from our sins. Sin no longer can command us. We certainly may struggle with it because it still inheres in our flesh and tempts us to no end but with the Gospel of Jesus and the Holy Spirit we do not have to obey it.

So Paul tells us here to not live like the people of the world whose minds are set on worthless things. The people of the world, their mind is darkened by sin and their mind is closed to the life of God. They give themselves to every form of sin and practice lust in one form or fashion. They say today, “Love is love.” These ignorant people do not even know what love is. “Lust is lust” is the reality of their lives. Many people seem nice but given the opportunity they will greedily follow and fall into every sort of vice. Sex, stealing, coveting, dishonoring parents in all its various forms are excused under the worship of “my happiness.”

But living this way is not the way of knowing Christ. We have a different truth and knowledge, which is in all actuality they only truth. Our old self was a life of self-destruction. It deceived us making promises of happiness, peace and joy. It delivered only sham appearances of it. We are called to become new in in the spirit of our minds which is created to be like God in righteousness, holiness and truth. And what is that like? The LORD tells us in Ex. 34, “merciful and gracious, slow to get angry, rich in love and faithfulness, ⁷continuing to show mercy to thousands, forgiving wrong, rebellion, and sin, without treating it as innocent, but disciplining the guilty…” It is to be of humble mind and seeking the good of others. All sin is selfish and self-centered. In the life of Christ who sacrificed himself for all, we follow in his life to make sacrifices to help others, particularly for our fellow Christians but also for our neighbor and our enemies. Have you found yourself lacking here? Then go to confession and receive the absolution from your pastor which will conform your mind to the mind of Christ and start over for the day. For only the good news of Jesus can create in us a new life to live today.

Heavenly Father, by the gospel of your Son Jesus Christ, grant us new hearts and minds that are conformed to your image and live out your life in this world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.