Putting on the New Self – The Law of Liberty (10)

Putting on the New Self

The Law of Liberty (10)

…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24

There are some conditions, of course, for our being liberated from our old selves and transformed into the new self in Jesus Christ.

First, Paul says, we have to hope that this glory and transformation can actually occur within us (2 Cor. 3:12). That is, we have to believe that we can meet God in His Law, we can encounter His glory in the holy, righteous, and good teachings of His commandments, precepts, statutes, and rules. That’s going to be a little hard to achieve as long as we keep telling ourselves, “I’m not under Law; I’m under grace.”

Then, second, we must be very bold to come before God in His Law and to linger there, waiting in patient meditation for the Spirit of God to do His work. Here is indicated that daily discipline which leads to righteousness, as we read in Psalm 1.

Then we must go forth unto God’s glory; we must come away from this encounter with God’s glory in His Law, fully determined to be like Jesus, think and feel like Jesus, and do what Jesus would do. As we thus go forward in faith, the Lord meets us in His Spirit, works out our salvation in us, and makes us able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think (Phil. 2:13, Eph. 3:20).

And so, in the daily course of our mundane lives, we are liberated from our old selves into the new selves which are being made according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:17-24). This is why God wrote His Law on our hearts when He sent His Spirit to dwell in us, that, by His inward power and working, we might become more like Jesus.

The psalmist says that the righteous person meditates day and night in God’s Law (Ps. 1). Would you like to get started in this discipline? Order a copy of The Ground for Christian Ethics and The Law of God. The first will explain the importance of God’s Law and will guide you in taking up the practice of daily reading and meditation. The second provides all the statutes, precepts, and rules of God’s Law organized under their proper number of the Ten Commandments.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.