May 31st | Put on the New Self

A SERIES OF DEVOTIONS BASED ON PAUL’S LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS 

PUT ON THE NEW SELF  

Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” 

Fixer-Upper takes a run down, often dilapidated home, tears out much of the interior, refreshes the exterior, making a virtually new home out of an old one. The transformation is often awe inspiring. 

That is exactly what God has done with you. He took you who, as the Bible says, “. . . were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all (your) trespasses, When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.” (Colossians 2:13) God renovated your heart. He removed your sins and your propensity, readiness, and inclination to sin filling your heart with His love through the power of His Spirit to do that which is pleasing to Him. 

God has given you a new wardrobe to wear. Isaiah writes, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10) In the Bible, the righteous robes of Christ refer to the removal of our filthy garments of sin and replacing them with Christ’s righteousness. 

Today’s devotional verses exhort you to “ . . . to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” God provides you with Christ’s robes of righteousness to replace your sin stained, soiled, old attire. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, 21 “. . . if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ . . . God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

Prayer: Thank You, heavenly Father, for the new life You have given me in Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior. Amen. 

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head. 

Bold shall I stand in that great day,
Cleansed and redeemed, no debt to pay;
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. 

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which at the mercy seat of God
Pleads for the captives liberty,
Was also shed in love for me. 

Lord, I believe, were sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full atonement made. 

When from the dust of death I rise
To claim my mansion in the skies,
This then shall be my only please;
Jesus hath lived and died for me. 

Jesus, be endless praise to Thee,
Whose boundless mercy hath for me,
For me, and all Thy hands have made,
An everlasting ransom paid.  (LSB 563)