Last night at FUSE Brad Cooper spoke to the seniors who graduated last spring and were attending their last FUSE. Many are preparing to leave home for college and he was emphasizing the need for followers of Jesus Christ to exhibit discipline in their everyday lives.
As I read Ephesians 4 this morning, this teaching was reinforced for me. In verses 21-24 Paul writes, "assuming you have heard about [Christ] and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (ESV)
My salvation is a free gift to me from God because of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. But my sanctification, my growing in holiness requires work and discipline on my part.
That is evident in these verses as Paul talks about putting off my old self and putting on the new self. At the moment I confess Jesus as Lord and ask him to save me all my sins are forgiven. But breaking the old sin habits can be hard.
I have to make choices about how I will use my time, who I hang out with, where I go, how I spend my money. It takes discipline to walk a new path, to say no to old choices and yes to new ones.
Right in the midst of the putting of and putting on, Paul says I am to renew the spirit of my mind. I do this by being disciplined in making time to spend with God through Bible reading and prayer; by going to church to hear the word of God taught; by surrounding myself with other believers. This is the work I must do to grow in holiness and to be ready to engage the lost world around me.
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