A Changed Life

In my opinion, the best view is that the infinitives explain the changes that took place when we trusted in Christ, but they also have the force of ongoing commands. At the moment we trusted Christ, we did in fact lay aside the old life and put on the new life, much as a baptismal candidate took off his old clothes and put on a new, white robe for his baptism. We began the process of inner renewal. But, day by day we must continue to put off the dirty old life and put on the new life in Christ, as we are renewed in the spirit of our mind. In other words, we must live daily in light of the truth of what God says we now are.

We are new creatures in Christ 2 Cor. Live each day in light of that truth by decisively putting off the old life, being renewed in your mind, and putting on the new life. Paul uses the same phrase in Romans 6: In Romans 6 and in Col. When Christ died on the cross, we died with Him positionally.

When He was raised from the dead, we were raised up with Him. We are to reckon these facts to be true in our daily practice, so that we will not yield to sin Rom. Because in those passages Paul clearly states this putting off of the old life as a done deal, some argue that it is not something that we have to go on doing now. They contend that it was a once and for all matter that happened at the cross.

But, although we died with Christ, in other places Paul commands us to put to death our members that are on the earth Rom. Why do we need to put to death our members if we already died?

My understanding is that we must daily apply experientially the facts that are true of us positionally. So, yes, at the moment we got saved, we put off the dirty clothes of the old life. But, every day we must reckon that this is so by putting off everything associated with the old life and putting on the new life in Christ. When Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, they were officially free from their many years of servitude, but some of them went on living as if they were still slaves. It was a done deal—they were no longer slaves. But, out of habit and way of thinking, many of these poor people still lived like slaves.

So, they needed to live in accordance with the new facts.

Even so, our old life involved a process of being corrupted by the lusts of deceit. Sin only defiles, enslaves, and ultimately destroys the person who is deceived by it. When Christ saved us, He liberated us from bondage to sin. We died to sin by virtue of His death on the cross. We were raised to new life in Him. Now, we must daily put off the dirty clothes of sin and put on the new clothes of righteousness and holiness in Him, because He freed us. There is still in us a strong tug toward the old life, but we do not have to yield to it.

The changed life involves putting off the old man. Why does Paul here refer to the spirit of your mind?

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Why not just, be renewed in your mind as in Rom. Perhaps the best view is that it refers to the principle that regulates or controls the mind. Paul means that our entire way of thinking and what controls our thinking needs renewal. This means that true biblical change must not bypass the mind. Sometimes, evangelists use emotional stories or music or a dramatic setting and then appeal to people to make a decision for Jesus.

But they have bypassed the mind. Such decisions, made on the basis of emotions, will not last. God reasons with us through the truths of His Word. Any change that bypasses the spirit of the mind will not last. So, the changed life begins by coming to know Christ personally. It requires putting off the old life of corruption and deceit, and being renewed in the spirit of our minds. Again, I believe that the sense is that we did put on this new man once and for all at the point of conversion, but we must continue putting on this new man every day by making true in our experience what is actually true of us positionally.

In other words, we must live by applying the truth of the new man in every situation that we face. Paul will make this very specific in 4: Note several things about this new man. First, while Paul is a p plying it individually here, it also has a corporate aspect. Whereas the old man lived for self, the new man considers others ahead of self.

Whereas the old man was full of racial prejudice and pride, the new man erases those distinctions and views others in the body equally as brothers in Christ. This corporate aspect of the new man implies that if you are not involved with a local church, where you are being built together with other believers, then you do not understand a major part of the new way in which you are supposed to live. Second, God is the creator of this new man. As we saw in Ephesians 2: God created us anew in Him.

A Changed Life

But, at the same time, we must walk in the good works that He has prepared for us. Third, God is the pattern of this new man. See, also, Luke 1: Both qualities are the result of the truth, namely, the truth as it is in Jesus. In other words, the truth of sound doctrine results in holy living. Many of us that were raised in Christian homes may not know exactly when we came to faith in Christ. But no matter what our experience of conversion, we ought to know that God has changed our hearts. Formerly, we did not know Christ, but now we do, however imperfectly.

Formerly, even if we maintained an outward veneer of virtue, we lived for self. Now, we live for Christ, to know Him and serve Him. Formerly, we were being corrupted by the evil desires of sin that deceived us into thinking that they would bring fulfillment. Now, we are new creatures in Christ, living for righteousness and holiness, which come from the truth that is in Jesus. While it is a lifelong process of renewal, you should be able to see the distinct difference between the old person that you were and the new person that you now are in Christ.

Change was sweeping through the lives of people around the Mediterranean in the first century. Christianity was advancing, and transforming both individuals and communities. The churches there were facing problems stirred up by opponents of the true Gospel.

It was having an influence that weakened their control over the people. The historian Josephus confirms that these groups became fierce persecutors of the Christians. At first, the man we know as the Apostle Paul was among the Jewish attackers. His becoming a Christian presented a serious problem for these opponents of the Gospel.

His careful reasoning from the Scriptures pointed out their misunderstanding of the Bible. His obviously transformed life was evidence that was hard to discredit. So they often focused their attack on the Apostle Paul in particular. They saw the struggles believers went through not as growth but as a weakness.

There were problems from within the new Christian churches too. As the truth of God spread, ideas in the churches had to mature. They attacked his Apostleship by denying his special authority from God. They tried to discredit him by implying that he got his authority from the Jerusalem Apostles, then that he turned against them, and got into arguments with Peter and James.

These distortions were confusing the members of the churches. In this next part of his letter to the Galatians Paul answered back. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

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For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. It came by direct revelation from Jesus Christ. The great persecutor of the church became its primary promoter. It was one of the top news stories of the day. Paul evidently told about it often in his visits to local congregations. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

In the early days of the church, a Christian named Stephen was put to death for his faith. Acts 6 tells how his message about Christ was misunderstood by the Jewish leaders. They said in Acts 6: The same false accusations were being made against the Apostle Paul which is why he wrote Galatians.

But back in the time of Stephen, when Paul was still known as Saul of Tarsus, Paul was a supporter of the attacks on that first Christian martyr. He clarified his support for Moses and the Temple. He brought the promises of the law to their fullness. He told them that their Temple worship had become corrupted from what God originally said it should be.

It was Jewish abuses that brought God judgments down on them in the past — and will again. Acts 8 tell us about that man named Saul of Tarsus. He supported the attacks, and the killing of Stephen. He persecuted the church relentlessly, and tried to silence the message of Christ. Then Acts 9 tells about the conversion of Saul, whom we know as the Apostle Paul. When he wrote this letter, these same distortions that had confused him before his conversion, were now troubling the Galatians.

Studies in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie. It was three years later that he went to Jerusalem to see Peter for 15 days. It was the same God who gave him physical life, that gave him spiritual life through Christ.

Since he was directly called by the Savior, this made him the last of the true Apostles. Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.