Ephesians 4:24
Ephesians 4:24
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
When we come to faith in Christ, we are called to put off our old man and put on the new man. This means that we leave behind all of the things of the flesh and sin and put on the righteousness that we have newly obtained through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. We are not to go back to our old selves but instead are to live new lives through Jesus' power and strength. However, many of us find ourselves going back to our old selves. We find ourselves playing with old sins and looking back, much like Lot’s wife in Genesis 19:12–29, a disobedient woman who was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back to see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as she and her family were fleeing. This is not what Christ has called us to do. Instead, we are to look forward and see in glory the life that Jesus has made possible for us to live, one of glory to God, not shame in our sin. As you step into a new year, leave your old self behind. Do not go back to it. Look forward instead and consider how God is shaping you into the likeness of His Son through what He has done in your life and will do in the future.
Psalms 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Galatians 5:24
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
1 Peter 1:23
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.