Ephesians 4:17-24
Starting at Ephesians 4:17 and continuing to the end of the book, those things can be found. Paul mentions the difference between the old and new natures ("old man" and "new man") in 4:17-24, and then what follows is a detailed breakdown of the "righteousness and true holiness" that Paul mentions in verse 24. One should not read the commandments that follow as commandments. They really are not. They are merely descriptions of what you already are, descriptions of the nature that you have now within you by the Spirit. Peter said that, in Christ, we become "partakers of the divine nature". Paul describes that nature in the last half of Ephesians. These are God's moral laws written in our hearts by the Spirit. Another way to say it: these are a summary of God’s will, which is injected into our hearts by the Spirit. They are not foreign, outward commandments, as the moral laws of the Old Testament Law were foreign to the nature of man, imposed upon them until Christ came (Heb. 9:8-10). By living according to the "minimum requirements", I mean simply to live faithful to the pure and good nature we now have in Christ, to be true to ourselves now, the way Jesus has made us by the Spirit.
A person baptized with the Spirit and given God’s nature within has to rebel against his own new nature in order to commit sin. Sin is no longer natural to a child of God, as it was before he was born again. When I hear Christian ministers warn their congregations that they cannot live they way they want to live, but must obey God instead, it gives me a sick feeling inside. My whole function, my whole purpose in life, is to get the children of God to live as they now want to live! Their new nature wants "righteousness and true holiness", so why should we not live the way they now really want to live? That is why I said, as Gary mentioned, "Do what you want to do!"
Paul knew what it was like to restrain one's old nature and try to serve God with that old nature still intact. He describes that miserable existence in Romans 7. But at the end of Romans 7, he wrote, "O Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ my Lord!" Then, he proceeds to describe the joy and peace of living with a new nature in Chapter 8, ending that chapter with a flourish of great joy and confidence. The difference between Romans 7 and Romans 8 is the difference between the old nature and the new, the "old man" and the "new man".
It was because he had experienced the transformation that Paul could write so convincingly, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature". We could also translate that, "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation". Either way, the point is made; in Christ, "all things become new."
Pastor John
