The Way You Learn Christ

Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

1. Who are the Gentiles being spoken of here?

2. What is meant by the term “walk,” in this context?

3. What is the definition of the word “sensuality”?

4. What is the truth in Christ Jesus being taught here?

5. What is the “old self”? What is the “new self”?

The Gentiles were all people who were non-Jewish. Back before Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and he was resurrected from the dead, and he ascended back to heaven, and he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell his followers, it was the Jews who were God’s chosen people, not the Gentiles. So the Gentiles were also a people group who were considered unholy and ungodly. But many Gentiles were now believers in and followers of Jesus Christ. And so the term has to be speaking of all those who were living ungodly lives.

So, what is this teaching us? It is teaching us that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are no longer to live like the ungodly do. We are not to walk (in conduct, in practice, by habit) like the ungodly of this world. Their habits and their practices which are ungodly and unholy are not to be our habits and practices. We are not to have hardness of hearts against God and against his commandments like the ungodly do, and we are not to give ourselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

So, what is sensuality? Another word for this is licentiousness, and it means “immorality, depravity, shamelessness, wickedness, corruption, dishonesty, wantonness, self-indulgence, outrageous conduct, conduct shocking to public decency and lewdness – smut, obscenity, impurity, pornography, and the rejecting of restraint.” And it is expressed in so many different ways in our society today. But we have to remember here that Jesus said that even to look at another with lust is adultery. So, don’t downplay the sin, please!

For, when we trust in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, by God’s grace, through God-given and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, we who are of genuine faith in Christ are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So we are no longer to let sin reign in our bodies to make us obey sin, for if sin is what we obey, it will end in death, not in life eternal (see Romans 6:1-23).

Therefore, the truth that is in Christ Jesus is not that we can make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ one time in our lives, and now all our sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and heaven is guaranteed us when we die, and nothing can take that away from us, but regardless of how we live. Yes, we can do nothing in ourselves to earn or to deserve our own salvation, but the salvation that Jesus provides involves us dying to sin and living to God and to his righteousness, as a matter of life practice.

So, the way in which all of us should have learned Christ, which is the truth that is in Christ Jesus, is that we all must put off (put away from ourselves) our old sinful selves (our flesh natures). For they belong to what should be our former manner of life (not our present manner of life), which is corrupt through deceitful desires. This is called “repentance.” We must now deny self and take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow our Lord Jesus in obedience to his ways and to his commands (see Luke 9:23-26).

And then we are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, which only comes through God-given faith in Jesus Christ. This is our new birth. This is what is entailed in being “born again,” this transformation out of our old lives of living in sin and for self to now living holy lives and obedient lives to God. For we are crucified and buried with Christ in death to sin, and then we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness (again, Romans 6:1-23).

Then we put on Christ and his righteousness. We put on the new self that is in Christ Jesus which has now died with Christ to sin so that we can now live to Christ and to his righteousness, and all because of God’s grace – all because of what Jesus Christ did for us in dying on that cross so that we might die with him to sin and live to his righteousness, and that we might now live for him and no longer for ourselves, and so that we might now honor God with our bodies (with our lives), and no longer live for self.

For, if we are truly in Christ Jesus, by genuine God-given faith in him, and this is not of ourselves, not of our own doing, then we were and are created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10), and so that we would no longer walk according to the flesh. And we are being made to be like Jesus in character, which is why we are to be living separate (unlike, different) from the world.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Seek the Lord  

An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him. 

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you, 

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

https://vimeo.com/379408296