Old Man vs New Man

7/9/2017

 

While looking through the internet the other day I saw a paragraph by Brenda Golden and I thought it made a statement that many Churchgoers need to read. It tells one way that a person can tell if you are a Christian or someone who wants to be that fence straddling person that John talked about in Revelation 3:16 (KJV). “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” In Texas where I grew up the preachers called “fence straddlers” because they were on the fence but could not or would not make up their mind on which side of the fence they wanted to be.

Ms. Golden stated: You know someone is serious about their faith when they change their ways. If someone continues to repeat the same bad actions over and over again, and actually thinks it’s COOL and brags about “Having too much fun by doing bad things,” then . . . they are not of Christ. They have not been convicted. Not saying one has to be perfect. None of us are. But, Christians STRIVE to be more like Christ. We try to improve . . . to change. We feel so bad about things we have done in the past that it makes us sick to our stomach to think about it. We certainly are not proud of our past actions nor brag about them.

You hear people say, “I am a sinner saved by grace.” To me that states: “I am the same person that I have been since I was born and I will remain this way.” However, Colossians 3:10 states: “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” To me this is saying that after we have accepted Jesus as our personal Saviour that we will be a new person. We will look almost the same from that moment on however; as we learn more about Jesus and let Him work in our lives, we will change. That look that we wore or the expression on our face will start looking more loving and less stern, more caring and less disinteresting and finally people will look at you and see someone who cares about them. Colossians 3:11 at the end says it all, “but Christ is all and in all.”

We need to become more Christ-like then we have ever been before. That should be our goal. In Genesis 3:19 it states, “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” Continue reading and you will get to Genesis 5:24 were it states, “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” If we want to experience one of the greatest things recorded throughout history, walking with God, then we are going to have to have a determination that does not fail us. We must put God first, no matter what others think. Then we have to live the life that God wants us to live. The way we act, walk, talk, dress and what we read, watch, eat, drink and where we go will change from what we were to what Jesus wants us to be.

If all this happens then we will be a “new man” and one day we will be able to walk with God in Heaven.

C. I. Wilson