The Activity of the Spirit in the Lives of Church Age Believers, Part 19

The Activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Church Age believers, part 19.

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.

His method is substitution – substituting the New Man, Jesus Christ, for the old man, and substituting the new life in the Spirit for the old life of sin and death.

Our active concentration should not be on ourselves and our sin.
It should be on Christ and His accomplishments.

Romans 6 is a mixture of commands and statements, but mostly it consists of statements of facts about us in relation to the cross and resurrection & session of Jesus Christ.

You have been identified with the death of Christ. You have been placed in the death of Christ. You are included in that.

This is not redemption, the payment for our sins. This is not even justification, although it depends on that as well.

We died with Him. This is by means of the baptism by the Spirit into Christ at the time you first believed in Christ.

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.

** Lay Aside The Old Self CHART **