The Activity of the Spirit in the Lives of Church Age Believers, Part 20

The Activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Church Age believers, part 20.

2CO 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

So God has done EVERYTHING HE CAN
to rescue His children from SIN…

…so that we can get on with becoming His adult sons and daughters.

So that our body as a manufacturing plant for sin might be put out of that business.

That power is the cross of Christ.

And each victory comes by the Holy Spirit taking of Christ’s and disclosing it to us, so that the surpassing greatness will be from God and not from us.

When getting into the nitty gritty of our lives and of sin and struggle, …realize that our eyes must always be on Christ. The Holy Spirit is inside us to reveal who Christ is and make us into His testimony!

There is no basis for concluding that the expression “lay aside the old self” in Ephesians 4:22 means “confess your sins”.

ἀποτίθημι apotithemi;
to put away (literally or figuratively):
to cease doing what one is accustomed to doing - 'to stop, to cease. 'stop living the way you did formerly'

apotithemi

to put or take something away from its normal location - 'to put away, to put out of the way, to remove.'

Paul then goes on in chapters 4 and 5 to give 16 or so examples of how this works! Of what he means by laying aside the old self. And parallel examples of putting on the new self.

One is associated with laying aside the old self: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

The other is associated with putting on the new self:
Be filled or completed by or in the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is grieved when a member of the body is not functioning according to God’s design but rather functioning in the opposite (destructive) manner.