Good morning. It's good to be with you guys this morning. I was saved as a college student. I was about 19 years old. I'd been in church for six or so years before that, but I had a very works-based, legalistic kind of understanding of the gospel. My thinking was, if I didn't drink, smoke, have sex, or do drugs before I was, you know, well, do drugs or have sex outside of marriage, I was in good shape. God was going to let me in. Because that was substantially better moral behavior than much of what I was witnessing from friends of mine. I don't know where I got that standard, but I just kind of invented it. I don't know. I just grabbed a hold of it. Being saved that late, kind of as a young adult, there was plenty of time for me to observe the ruinous effects of sin coming out in my life. There were plenty of things for me to witness and bear witness to about how bad I really am by nature. Um, but even if you were saved at a young age, even if that's not your story, if you were, you know, if you're one of those that, Hey, I don't even remember I was so young. The reality of who you are by nature from birth, um, is, is here in this text in Ephesians. And so I want us to start this morning just by asking the simple question, who are we by nature, not in Christ, but by nature, who are we? Well, in verse 17, Paul says that our minds are futile. We have futile minds. What is this futility that he speaks of? Well, it's a preoccupation with utter meaninglessness. It's a preoccupation with utter meaninglessness. Because the Gentile or the natural man lacks relationship with God, he is completely preoccupied with stuff that just doesn't matter. That's not to say his mindset is as debased as it could possibly be. It's just that his mindset is completely godless. God is not in the equation anywhere. Everything that he thinks about, everything that he's focused on, everything that he talks about is completely devoid of God. Why is this futility? Well, because The God who is is the center of everything. He ultimately is the only one who really matters. Everything derives its value and meaning from him. And to exclude him literally sucks the meaning out of life. And so all this person, all the natural man thinks about is complete meaninglessness. That's his total focus. In verse 18, we find that we're darkened in our understanding. And this is not a temporal condition. It's the perpetual state of every person by nature. Our understanding is darkened. We can't see. It's walking blind. And in fact, this word for darkened sometimes is translated blindness. It literally means you can't see where you're going. You have no understanding of your surroundings. God and his gospel are foolishness. to the natural man. To borrow from Christ, he sees, but he does not perceive. In verse 18, we also find that the result of this is that we are alienated from the life of God. Life with God is the promise of the gospel. That's what we get. John Piper wrote a book. I've not read it, but I probably should. D.A. Carson swears it's the most important book John Piper ever wrote, but it's called God is the Gospel. God himself is the good news. What is the good news? You get God. But the person who's the natural man is completely alienated from the life of God. They don't know God. They don't get to fellowship with God. It's the difference between Adam and Eve in the garden and Adam and Eve after they were put out. If you look at what happened to their lives, there's a reason. that in Genesis chapter 4, the first chapter after the fall of man in the garden, you've got murder taking place. I mean, complete ruin ensued the moment that relationship with God was broken. The moment humanity was alienated from the life of God, complete ruin ensued. Verse 18 also says that we are ignorant. This does not mean they're ignorant of everything. It certainly doesn't mean that, you know, this is not a commentary on what they know about mechanical engineering or auto mechanics. Um, this ignorance is related to the things of God to borrow from Paul's own language in second Corinthians four, six. Um, the God who said, let light shine out of darkness has not shown in these people's hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They've not seen that. They're ignorant of that. In verse 18, we also find that the natural man is hard hearted. In the deepest core of the natural man is a stubbornness that refuses to acknowledge the God they already know exists. That's the folly of the whole thing right there. No one is confused about whether God exists. Atheism in its true form is not a thing. Not that you can't delude yourself so much and eventually get there, but no one starts that way. You have to work to actually believe God's not there. It requires effort. You don't assume that naturally. So in the deepest core of us, there is this hard-heartedness, this stubbornness, this insistence upon deifying ourselves that makes us refuse or that leads us to refuse what we already know to be true or to deny what we know is true, namely that God is there and He is in charge. And this isn't an unintentional thing. Again, it requires effort. It takes practice. It's willful. We are to blame for this. In verse 19, this is the expression of all this. Where is all this internal? So if we're ignorant and we lack understanding, if we're alienated from the life of God, if we're futile in our thinking, how does this express itself? What does it look like when it comes out? Well, Paul tells us in verse 19, that they've become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. They've become callous. The idea of callousness here, it means that they suppress their shame. There's an effort at convincing themselves that what they're doing and who they are is really A-OK. It's all good. They suppress their own shame that they feel. They try to get rid of it. Convince themselves, justify their behavior, justify their thinking. There's a callousness there. But he also says that they are given up to sensuality. They've given themselves up. Again, this is an assignment of blame. Who did this? Why are they in this condition? They have given themselves up. We did it to ourselves from birth, by nature. We give ourselves up to sensuality. And what is this sensuality that he talks about? It is doing whatever I feel like doing. It is wanton pleasure. It's a life that's driven by the question. What do I feel like doing? What do I feel like doing? What do I want? This is the sensuality that he speaks of. It's a life that assumes I'm on the throne and God is not. I'm in charge, not God. My pleasure and my glory is the aim of life. That's why I'm here. And that's who we are by nature. This is not fun stuff to think about. There's a reason that I suspect most of us don't spend tons of time here thinking about this kind of stuff. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable to acknowledge. There's no pride in acknowledging that I am this way by nature. There's nothing virtuous here, but we want to feel virtuous. We want to feel like we're good people. That's just human nature. We want to feel good about being evil. That's the nature of the whole thing. But here's the truth. Is it until we see ourselves as the treasonous, foolish, willfully ignorant, stubborn self-worshippers that we really are by nature. We will never truly feel our need for Christ or His forgiveness. The person who embraces the good news, the person who feels their need for Christ, it's the person who is aware of their own sin. They know how bad they are. They see it. They feel it. They know it. And then when they're told that there is a Savior, This is the best possible news. I say it all the time, but I love Before the Throne of God Above. I think I've said that a thousand times, but I legitimately think that's the best hymn, best song probably, that's ever been written. I can't imagine anything more awesome than that. Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea. Well, why do I need one of those? Because I'm this guy. I am just like this by nature. A great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me. And then he goes on and he says, when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there who made an end of all my sin, all of this mess that I've made. He made an end to it. And it's because the sinless Savior died that my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. You can't make this stuff up. Who in the world would do that? Why would he do that? This is who I am. I am this person. It's mind boggling that he would have anything to do with me at all. And yet he does. That is shocking. Shocking. So Paul gives instructions to the believer. The encouragement here is, hey, this is who you were, but this is no longer who you are. We must put this person off. This person must be put to death. It's not that we should put him to death. There was a huge debate right around the time I was starting seminary. Well, it went back before that, but it was kind of, I guess, ending when I was in seminary. this lordship salvation debate. The big question was can you have a Savior who is not your Lord and the answer is biblically speaking absolutely not. That does not exist. That is not a thing. There is no Savior who is not also the Lord. And so this is a command Paul says put off this old man and put on the new. Well how do we do that? How do we put off the old self and put on the new. What's even involved there? What does it mean to put off the old self? Well, it's not merely a reference to morality. This is not a clean your behavior up text. That certainly would be included. But this is a holistic thing. This is putting off your attitudes, the old man feelings, the old man desires, the old man actions, all of it. It's a total putting off. I've heard John Piper, I think, refer to putting off the old self as changing your clothes. It's a completely new wardrobe. And so how do we do that? Well, Paul gives a couple of things here. He tells us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on this new self that's created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. So he starts by telling us to renew, to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. There is a knowledge component here that unfortunately sometimes gets taken to extremes. There are certainly those, and I think it's commonly associated with reform circles, and there's certainly some truth to this, but there is a danger in being too heady, or being heady, knowledge-oriented to the exclusion of heart transformation and life change, real practice. There's an extreme where you can go that way. There's another extreme, and it's often, this has a Bible verse that people quote with it, and you just go, what are we doing here? People love 1 Corinthians 8, where Paul says that knowledge puffs up. What they leave out is that he was referring to diet, And what's also left out of that is that it seems pretty obvious that the knowledge here is a theoretical, it's an alleged knowledge, a supposed knowledge, not a true knowledge. Interestingly enough, if you read out of the ESV, they actually put knowledge in quotes right there. It's a supposed knowledge, and that certainly is the feel of that text. But if knowledge really puffed up, if knowledge just as a category made people arrogant, why in the world would Paul write letters filled with knowledge, with information to people? It's like he's handing them the thing that's gonna make them arrogant. That would be self-defeating. And so we know that knowledge as a category doesn't puff up. Now why do we need to make that clarification? Because to miss that, is to not have your mind renewed, which is the gateway. It's the way that we put off the old self. It starts in the mind. It starts with information. The gospel, after all, is information. I've said before, but you hear people say, preach the gospel always, when necessary use words. That's a load of garbage. The gospel is a message. If you're going to tell the gospel, it is words. You always have to use words. That is the message. And so it's information that gets into the head and seeps into the heart that comes out in the life. That's the order of events there. Information goes into the head, it seeps into the heart, and then out of the heart comes the life. You're living. Um, and so there has to be a knowledge that's taken in. This parallels Paul's comment in Romans chapter 12, verse two, where he says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so as we take in God's word, what's the starting point to putting off the new man? It's taking in God's word. It really is hiding God's word in our hearts that we might not sin against him. That's where it starts. There's a renewing of the mind that has to happen. And that's the, that's the pathway to putting off the old self. Um, And so you see the difference that's here. If you look at what characterizes the new man, where the old man was corrupt, the new mind is being continually renewed. So where the old mind was completely bankrupt, corrupt, the new mind is being renewed. Where the old man lived to satisfy his carnal cravings, that sensuality, the new man lives to conform to the image of God. That's verse 24 there. That's what we're putting on. And where the old man loved sin, that's really where the heart of the thing was, his hard heartedness. It's really a love of sin. It's a failure to love God, and instead the love of sin. So where the old man loves sin, the new man loves God. This is what we're working to be like through the renewing of our mind. And I am using the word work and not earn. And we'll get there in a little bit. But it's important. We are to work at this, to work at it, not for the purpose of earning, but for the purpose of reflecting who we really are. We are not this old man anymore. And so we work to put that old man to death. So what does this look like? So if a person is to have his mind renewed in order to properly reflect the image of God, what would this look like? Well, Paul spends the remainder of the chapter just giving examples of this. And you'll notice for each one that Paul gives the what, the morality, what are you to do, and the why, a mind renewal component. So there's a what and a why, a morality and mind renewal for every one of these. You'll notice in verse 25, what does it look like if someone is renewing their minds and being conformed to the image of God? Well, they don't lie. He says, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. for we are members of one another. So what's the what? The what is if we know Christ, we tell the truth, period. That's the what. What's the why? Well, we know from Proverbs 30, verse five, that every word of God proves true. In other words, God does not lie. And since the new man desires conformity to God's image, he puts off lying. But the reason that Paul states here, he gives another reason. He says we don't lie because we're members of one another. In other words, when we lie to another believer, we hurt ourselves because we're members of the same body. It's the foolishness of the nerve endings in your hand telling your brain that that 275 degree stovetop is really not hot. It's the foolishness of that. Why in the world would we do that? If our nerve endings do that, it hurts the whole body. Next, he tells us to be angry and do not sin. So what's the what? When you get angry, don't sin and don't hold grudges ever. Just period. Don't hold grudges ever. So how do we identify sinful anger? Well, Chad will admit that's a complicated thing at times. I often run around in my mind, when I feel myself getting angry, I have to kind of start to go, okay, what am I doing here? Okay, what, you know, am I, is this a righteous anger? I certainly want it to be righteous, because that'll make me immediately feel better. But I need to give more careful consideration than that. So is my anger righteous or is it not? A diagnostic I try to run myself through is, am I angry because I was hurt or because God wasn't honored? And I think that's a pretty important question to ask. Is it because I'm hurt or is it because God was not honored? And a second diagnostic question, is my anger sinful, is am I holding a grudge? Have I let the sun go down on my anger? Or am I seeking to put off this grudge and legitimately forgive the way that I've been forgiven? And what's the why here? The why is, one, that sinful anger and grudge holding fails to reflect the image of God that the new man wants to reflect. So again, this is all anchored, all of these what's, all these examples, that Paul gives are anchored in us reflecting the image of God. So that's always a motivation here, is that the new man actually desires that. We want to reflect the image of God. That's what we're asking in life, not what do I want to do, but how do I reflect the image of God? How do I make much of Christ? That's the question that the new man is asking. The second why is that According to Paul here, sinful anger and grudge holding give opportunity to the devil. So what opportunity does wrongful anger and holding grudges give to Satan? I think the list is probably innumerable. I bet Amy Waters could spill the beans on all of the things that anger can do to destroy. But a couple of things would be, one, it portrays that we don't know how much we've been forgiven by God. If we are super quick to anger, then we don't understand how quick God is to love us and how much more massive of a gap that is. I will never wrong anyone more than I've wronged God. No one will ever wrong me more than I have wronged God. It's just not possible. It is not possible. And so if God has forgiven me this, and I'm not willing to forgive someone this, that's a clear commentary that I don't understand this forgiveness. I don't get it. It's a clear commentary on that. How else does wrongful anger give an opportunity for Satan? It can spiral other people into despair. I mean, you think if you've ever had someone hold a grudge against you, they're just not willing to forgive you. And you can feel the relational tension there that literally is so thick it seems you could cut it with a knife. If you've ever felt that, then you can know that it legitimately can lead other believers into total despair. It really can. It can just crush the spirit. Next, Paul tells us, do not steal. Verse 28, he says, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor. doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. So what's the what? Don't steal stuff. If it's not yours, don't take it. There you go. Simple enough, right? He says instead of doing that, work to earn your own money. Okay? So what's the why here? Again, it's image of God. God doesn't steal. He doesn't take from us. God's not out to harm us, to take, so we don't steal because that's not what God is like. But there's a second reason. Positively, we work so that we can give to those in need. Why? Again, that's image of God. Not only does God not steal, but what he does is work to be a blessing to us. He has given to us. And so as this new man, he wants to make much of Christ. He wants to reflect the image of God. And so he's asking, hey, I've been given more than I could possibly tell you about. How can I give in some way that might be the smallest little reflection of that to somebody else? Is there something tiny, minuscule that me and my little person can do here to somehow put a glimpse of what I've been given on display. That's why we don't steal, but instead work so that we can give to those in need. It's because we are those who are in need, and God has given to us. Next, he says, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths. He says, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. This text has caused me so much trouble over the years, figuring out what exactly does he mean here? What all is included? What qualifies as corrupting talk? Because I talk a lot, which the Proverbs say is what the fool does, so perhaps I should be quiet. When you talk a lot, especially, I think you need to go, man, is this stuff that's coming out of my mouth all the time, is this really useful for people? Is this helping people? Is it good? Does it give grace? Does it build up? So what sort of speech fails to meet the standard of building up and giving grace to those who hear? Well, in chapter five, if we were to read ahead, we would find that joking coarsely about sex fits the bill. that sort of speak is out. There's a reason that Chad does not watch movies that say crude humor on the bottom, and it's because it's announcing to me, hey, we're going to help you engage in the kind of joking, precisely the kind of joking, it even uses the same language, precisely the kind of joking that Paul says, don't do that. do not be part of that. So I just go, OK, well I don't need to do that. So joking coarsely about sex is on the list. Two, I would submit that unnecessarily harsh criticism would be on the list. If the aim of our criticism is to crush the person we're criticizing, then we've totally missed the mark. And I think we really need to give careful consideration to that. What is the purpose of this criticism? Are we legitimately trying to help them? Or does it somehow make us feel better to crush this person with our words? I think a third type of speech is misguided criticism. As a parent, I can assure you there's a huge difference between saying that stupid and you're stupid. Huge difference between those two. I'm certainly not saying there's no place for name calling. After all, Jesus and Paul do it. somewhat regularly, but their name calling is carefully placed and it's entirely accurate. It really is. It's a pinpoint diagnosis. It is not meant to tear down. It's meant to be an accurate, carefully placed diagnosis. That's not what I'm doing when I see that my children have left their toys out in the yard. And I say, hey, you're stupid. What kind of idiot would do something like that? If I ever say something like that to my kids, that's not the carefully placed rebuke. That is a misguided criticism. That's me essentially saying, you're stupid, instead of, hey, that's stupid. We purchase toys, and when water gets on them or the sun beats down on them, they break down and decay, and they don't work as well, and the basketball doesn't bounce, and blah, blah, blah. So it is foolish. It is stupid to do that. Let's not do that. But that's a far cry from, you're stupid. So Barnes kids, y'all are in the clear on that part. Just please don't leave your stuff out in the yard. The fourth thing is condescending or belittling speech. If you're frequently shocked that others can't take a joke, it's more likely that you don't know how to give one. Really. That should be considered. If other believers, especially those closest to you, are regularly hurt by your words, it's probably not everyone else who's wrong. It really isn't. And I think that's something that needs to be considered. Do people always seem to look at me and go, I can't believe you would say that. And I have to go, what, you can't take a joke? If I have to say that all the time, I'm probably not doing it right. And then I think the final one I would point to is one-upping or boastful speech. The implication of one-upping or boastful-type speech is, let me make sure you know where you are in relation to me. I'm here. You're not. That's the purpose of that kind of speech. It's not meant to build up. It, just by its very nature, it's meant to put, to show people where they really rank in the hierarchy, substantially below you. What's the why? Why, why is our speech so important? Why does this new man, why is it that the new man must let no corrupting talk come out of his mouth? Well, Paul opened his letter to the Ephesians with this. He said, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In God's grace, he sacrificed himself to establish peace with us. And that graciousness is God's settled disposition toward his people. And as those who love him and are being conformed to his image, that should be our settled disposition toward people as well, grace. What's the other why? We aim to build up and give grace to those who hear us talk. The goal of the new man in his speech is that when people leave our presence, they should be more encouraged in Christ when they walk away than when they arrived. So that's the goal of our speech. If, if, if when people walk away from us, they are more built up, more encouraged, more focused on Christ, um, more aware of their, of the love that we have for them. That's a win. I think that is reflective of letting no corrupting talk come out of your mouths. And then he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. I'm not gonna spend tons of time on this. You could, you could really delve into this. But I don't think the purpose here was to spend a ton of time on this. I think this is Paul's catch-all statement. Because I think all he's been doing is just giving a few examples. And I think he says this kind of as a summary. Hey, in your life, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Do not do the things that you know God hates. That's what it is to put off this old man or that's part of what's involved. Don't be and do the kind of thing that God hates. And so then he kind of just rattles off a few here just to say, hey, and if I left something out, let me just, let me throw in a few other types of things for you to consider. He says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, clamor is like an enraged shouting. and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." Malice is aiming to harm. That's the goal of what we're doing. We're aiming to harm. So it says, let all of that stuff be put off. And then he says, on the other hand, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. We can legitimately spend all day on these. But I think what we need to note here is that putting off the old man and putting on the new cannot be distilled to mere behavior change. Put off bitterness, that's an attitude of the heart. Wrath, that's an expression of a heart attitude. Anger is obviously internal. Enraged shouting comes from a heart that's not doing well, to say the least. Slander is again an expression, it's an outward expression of what's in the heart. Malice speaks clearly to the intent. He says, on the other hand, be tender hearted. Tender hearted. As a man, I don't know if this is common male struggle, but as a man, I am on the struggle bus with that. Tenderhearted. I really can be so quick. to become frustrated unnecessarily, completely lacking any sympathy at all. I can't even understand. I mean, Jacob sits next to me at work. I can't tell you how many times he's heard me just kind of like, I can't believe such and such would do something like this or do that or blah, blah, blah. This is ridiculous. I mean, just sympathy out, anger and massive frustration in. Tender-hearted though, gosh, I need to be tender-hearted. Forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. So these are heart things. But all this is costly, isn't it? I mean, all this stuff that Paul's talking, this is costly stuff. This means that I have to fight against what I most naturally wanted to do. And that old man seems so powerful at times. He really does. I mean, there have been seasons of my life where there have been certain sins that I'm legitimately convinced I just cannot stop right now. I really, I just cannot. I would even, and I would be so in such a dark place, I might even say that out loud. I just cannot, cannot. This old man can feel so powerful sometimes. He really can. So what makes this kind of effort worth it? If it's such a battle, if it's such a challenge, if killing that old man seems so difficult, why do it? I mean, why not just go, hey, I am what I am. I've heard people say things like, you know, God and I have got a deal worked out. And I just go, you do? I mean, is it? Where is it? But it's basically the deal is God understands that I have my vices, but he knows overall that I'm a good guy. In other words, God doesn't expect me to actually struggle against or wage war against the things I love more than him. He's OK with me embracing those things, and it's just an understanding that we have. That's not an understanding that we have. But it's hard work. It's hard. I understand why the person would want to think that because it's hard. So what makes this so worth it? One from verse 24, we noted it earlier. We actually have a new nature. The old man is enslaved to sin. The new man that's a gift of God in Christ, he is not enslaved to sin. He does not have to sin. All that cannot stuff that I would let creep into my mind, that is a load of garbage. load of garbage. We do not have to continue in sin. Christ has not only freed us from the eternal power of sin, death and hell and judgment, but he's freed us from the temporal power of sin, the day-to-day. We do not have to continue in that and in fact we must not because we have a new nature. The second reason we must put off the old and put on the new, and the second reason it's worth it is, look with me in Ephesians chapter five, verse one. He says, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. That is mind boggling, isn't it? You go, man, Paul, do you not know what you just wrote like 12 verses ago? We are awful by nature. We are awful. God was not getting a good deal when he found us. He really wasn't. We are horrific by nature. And yet you read right there in the scriptures that we are beloved children. We have a new nature, but we also have a new identity. Our nature is changed. We've been recreated, made new. We also have a new identity. We are children of God. And not in some universal sense, like the Brotherhood of Humanity kind of stuff. We are actual adopted children of God, legitimate sons and daughters of God. Seats at the table, seats on the throne next to Christ. We are legitimate sons and daughters of God. Mind-boggling. And we learn that this nature and identity change came at a high cost. We read in verse 2 of Ephesians chapter 5 that Christ's love led Him to give Himself up for us. He forfeited His divine privileges. He took on flesh. He fought and conquered temptation, living a life of perfect obedience. Then he was flogged, whipped, crucified, and speared through the side, costing him his life. And why did he do that? Well, Paul tells us it's because he loved us. In his own freedom, not out of obligation, in his own freedom, he chose to love you. You had not earned that. but he chose in his own freedom to love you and to call you his own, and more than that, to make you his own. In love, Christ was accomplishing for us everything that God required of us. In his life, he perfectly lived out the image of God. That's what we failed to do in our natural man. We completely marred the image of God. But Christ did not. He succeeded in reflecting the image of God perfectly. And how about this? Then He transferred the credit for that to us. Who does stuff like that? That's shocking. I mean, can you imagine giving credit for what you did to anyone else for anything? That is one thing as people we do not like to do. We want the credit. But Jesus gave the credit for His obedience to us, as though we did it. That's ludicrous. I mean, that is just completely crazy to me. And then in His death, He legitimately transferred the guilt of our sin to Himself so that in effect, He became sin for us. He became guilty of our sin, actually guilty for it. That's why it's not, I've heard parenting advice where they say, well, you know, I struggle to know when to show grace and when to discipline. Those are not at odds with each other at all. You give the grace of discipline when a child disobeys. That's what you do. Discipline itself is grace. But you go, well, but no, but that means the kid's getting the consequence. And so that sounds like a judgment of sorts, doesn't it? So isn't that contrary to grace? Not at all. If I let someone go, if I let my kid sin and just let it go, that is injustice because no one, the guilt for that sin wasn't ever punished at all. It was just, just let it go. That is not what God did at all. He did not let sin go. He transferred it to Himself and Himself was punished. He took the laser of the wrath of God and pointed it on Himself. And He received it in our place. There is no injustice at all. Was my sin punished? You better believe it was. Was it punished in me? Thank God, no. It was punished in Christ. My sin did not get brushed under some rug. It was paid for in full. Punishment fulfilled. And so this love that God has for us, this adopting us as beloved sons and daughters, it cost him something. And for Paul, that's the motivation for putting off the old man. You look at Christ. and you understand who he is, what he has done in light of who we are and what we have done. And that really puts you in a spot where you just go, Oh Lord, I don't know why you would do this for me, but thank you. I love you have my life. That's the natural response to that. When you know someone has literally given up their life for you, You feel the indebtedness. You know there's a debt there you can't repay, but you love the person. You go, hey, man, I know one thing for sure. You are obviously looking out for my good here. I love you. Thank you. Have my life. I mean, that's kind of the natural response if we think that way. But as we close here, notice the one thing that Paul did not mention as motivation for the renewal of our mind and the pursuit of moral uprightness in this putting off the old man and putting on the new. Here's the one thing he did not say as a motivation. Earning. We don't earn anything, and that is the most subtle cancer that can creep into the mind. is that in my obedience, what I'm really doing is I'm positioning myself to maintain God's favor. Or more blatantly, God will forgive me if I do this, this, this, this, and this, if I'm obedient in these ways. We don't pursue the renewal of our minds in God's word and the reflection of God's character and our morality in order to earn salvation or improve our standing with God. In Christ, God has already earned for us everything that's required. This is not an earning thing. The motivation here is love for God. That's the motivation. We love God. We want to obey him. Why do we love him? Because he has sacrificed himself to adopt us as his own children. And he's given us a new nature so that we're not enslaved to that old man anymore. We don't have to continue in that stuff. We can honor him in the way that we live. So if you're sitting here and you don't know Christ, If you're still this natural man, please don't stay there. Please don't stay there. And don't put it off. Don't think on it for a while. The Scripture says today is the day of salvation. It's now. It's right now. If you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Don't do that. And so what do you do? You trust that Jesus transferred the guilt of your sin to himself and was punished for it in full. And you trust that all of the righteousness that God requires of you, the moral perfection he requires of you, was already accomplished by Christ and has been transferred to you as a gift. And then you put off the old man and you put on the new. You live this life where out of love for God, you are constantly working to reflect His glory, His nature, to put on display who He is and what He has done. The scripture calls that believing and repenting. So please do that. If you don't know him, if you've been in something for 20 years and you don't know him, if this is your first day here, if you don't know him, please believe and repent. It is a shocking thing that God himself would make us beloved children. That is a shocking thing. Don't graduate from that shock. Don't move past being completely awed by that. It is an unbelievable thing. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, I pray that by it, we will renew our minds, that we will seek to submit ourselves to you, not to earn from you, but out of love for you. Lord, I pray that we will more accurately reflect your image to the world. I pray that when people see us and see the way that we treat each other, that they will get even the tiniest glimpse of the way that you have treated us. Lord, thank you for empowering us to honor you, for giving us real victory over sin so that we don't have to continue in it. And Lord, thank you for the grace that covers all of our sin, past, present, and future. And we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.