“Something Old, Something New”
Text: Ephesians 4:17—5:2
8-11-2024
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Some of you older folks are probably familiar with an old rhyme that instructs a bride on what she should be wearing for her wedding day. It goes, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” You may not know this but that list was based on a myth that these items would bring good luck to a marriage. Thankfully, most brides simply looked at this ditty as a charming old tradition. But on a more serious note, if anyone is counting on lucky tokens in order to have a happy marriage they’re in for big trouble. It takes hard work, commitment, and most of all, faith to have a good marriage. But that’s a sermon for another day. The reason why I mentioned that rhyme is because in our Epistle lesson St. Paul presents us with a contrast between something old and something new. In verses 22 and 23 he talks about “putting off your old self” and putting “on the new self.” He’s referring to our inner, spiritual being. In order to understand what that means for us as Christians we’ll need to unpack it a bit. Paul gives us a good description of both the old and the new self, along with his admonition to keep living in the grace which makes us new, beloved children of God.
What he says about the unconverted mind is spot-on and fits our contemporary world perfectly. He says they are darkened in their understanding, which conjures up the image of blindness. Due to the sinful desires that consume their minds, they are spiritually blind and therefore can’t comprehend the truth and wisdom of God’s Word. It’s the reason why you get that “deer in the headlights" look when you try to explain to an unbeliever that you’re opposed to any behavior God says not to do, no matter how popular it might be. The hedonistic, sinful nature scratches its head and wonders why. They can’t figure out why their sensual desires, that feel so good at the time, can possibly be wrong. And so, because of that, St. Paul says that within them there is a greedy desire “to practice every kind of impurity.” It’s not a passive urge. Rather, it’s a strong, insatiable hunger for them. It’s a desire for more and more satisfaction of their evil passions.
But it’s worse than that. Paul goes on to say that due to the hardness of their hearts they have become callous. Most of you know what it’s like to have that thick, hard skin build up on your hand or foot. A calloused area literally loses all sensation to hot or cold or pain. It’s insensitive to those warning signals from the nervous system. That’s what the heart of an unbeliever is like when they’re separated from God by a lack of faith. It’s not surprised or pained by vile and sinful behavior. We could come up with quite a lengthy list of such things, but just do a brief scan in your memory of things that were considered unacceptable 50-75 years ago. Back then, both the Christian Church and our society identified them as wrong and rejected them. But today we’re encouraged to accept and celebrate them. Here’s a short list: Homosexual relationships, believing that your gender is based upon what you identify as, living together without marriage, any sexual activity outside of marriage, foul language and cursing in public including on TV and in movies, easy accessibility to pornography, late-term abortion and actually abortion in general, motherhood and parenting being treated as inferior life choices that interfere with a person’s dreams. On and on the list could go. It makes you wonder how people could become so calloused. But then we read what Paul says in our text and it makes perfect sense. Due to the hardness of their hearts, the unconverted mind has lost all sensitivity to disturbing and disgusting things. Sad to say, even some Christians have become calloused and uncaring about many of these matters. And it seems that our whole society is in a rapidly, descending spiral of being unmoved by these various sinful behaviors that were taboo not all that long ago.
As if that’s not bad enough, this hardness of heart is not something superficial that can easily be trimmed away like a callous on your foot. No, it goes deep down to the core of a person’s being. It can’t be fixed. It has to be removed and replaced. That’s why Paul says the old self has to be “put off.” Not like changing clothes, but rather, like a heart transplant. Which is precisely what God promised to do back in Ezekiel 11:19. The Lord said, “I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” Now, I’ve never known a cardiologist who could perform a heart transplant on himself. And neither can people remove their old, sinful nature that they were born with and replace it with a new one that trusts in God. Only God can do that delicate, spiritual surgery. As Jesus said in verse 44 of our Gospel reading, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” It is the gracious work of God that makes this vital change possible.
Paul explains that this is what happens when we “put on the new self.” That too may sound like an action that humans perform, but read on. He says this new self is “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Back in chapter 2 of Ephesians, Paul lays the foundation for this when he says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” That’s how the heart of the new self is transplanted within an unconverted person. And that includes you and me because we were all born with an unbelieving heart of stone. If you’ve been Baptized then you’ve experienced this wondrous putting on of the new self. Paul says in Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” The holy righteousness of Christ is what we received when He washed us clean in those waters. And in this way, we “put on the new self.”
There was a beautiful practice in the ancient Christian Church that was meant to illustrate this very thing. Our modern sensibilities may be a bit uncomfortable with this but it sent a powerful message to everyone. When a person was to be Baptized, they went into a private room attached to the Church and took off all their old street clothes. Totally naked, they stepped into a large pool to be Baptized. Upon exiting the water, they were given a clean white robe to put on. That robe symbolized the putting on of the new self in Christ Jesus that had just taken place in the Sacrament. They were then led into the Church and introduced to the congregation as a totally new person, a newborn Child of God.
Okay, but Baptized believers still sin. Does that mean that they’ve put off the new self and put on the old again? Not at all. Yes, it should alarm us when the traits of the old self begin showing up in our lives. If we ignore those sinful behaviors and attitudes, our hearts can gradually become calloused and hardened. Eventually, you can become desensitized to the will of God, which leads to unbelief and damnation. You should never be comfortable with even the most seemingly small sin. Like that little white lie, outbursts of anger, that little bit of cheating to get ahead in life, the foul words that occasionally creep into your language, those random lustful thoughts, the beginnings of bitterness and malice towards others along with an unforgiving attitude—all of them need to be repented of because they are the old self creeping back in. Paul says these are to be “put away from you.” The only way to stop that hardening of your heart is through confession. That’s why it’s a vital part of our worship services. In it, we humbly repent of all our sins. And as you hear Christ’s forgiveness announced by the Pastor, your new self is made clean and your mind is renewed in the likeness of God. His righteousness and holiness are rejuvenated in the new heart that He created within you.
And so, with this in place, Paul can urge us to be imitators of God. It’s true, this side of heaven you will never be totally perfect like God is perfect. But in your new self you now have a heart that is sensitive to God’s will. You have empathy for others and are tenderhearted. You have a genuine desire to be kind and forgiving toward one another as God has forgiven you for Christ’s sake. You have a passion for doing the things that please God. By faith you are enabled by the Lord to walk in love as a Child of God. That’s all possible because Jesus was willing to go to the cross on our behalf and sacrifice His life as a fragrant offering to God. His death and resurrection were pleasing to God because it freed us of our damning sins. Through His sacrifice, He made it possible for us to receive the new self in place of our old, sinful self. That new inner being is sealed by the Holy Spirit in the constant renewing that He works within our souls through Word and Sacrament.
And so we gather regularly in worship to receive these gifts of God which renew the new self that He has given us by grace. We gather to praise and thank Him for replacing the damning “something old” with the holiness of “something new” within us. Living in that new self, may we be encouraged to speak the truth in love to those whose hearts are still blinded by sin and calloused to God’s love and His will for them. We pray that the Holy Spirit would work mightily in their hearts to bring about the crucial change that will lead to eternal life rather than eternal death. May He use the words and actions of our new, inner self to touch their lives. May He draw them to Himself that they too may receive His gracious gift of salvation and a new life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!