What do 2+2=4, Water is H2O, George Washington was the first president of the United States, and Jesus is God have in common? They are true. These are truths that are always true.
In our culture today we seem to have trouble recognizing, accepting and communicating truth. We seem lost as a culture as to what truth is.
In Ephesians 4:20-21 Paul says, “You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.”
Paul has just described people without Jesus as the Lord of their lives and he reminds the believers in Ephesus that they were to be different because they did have Jesus as Lord.
What these Ephesian believers had been taught was the truth. It was the truth found in Jesus.
Paul then outlines three things that the truth found in Jesus teaches us about our life before our surrender to Jesus’ authority.
Ephesians 4:22b
To put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.
We are first to put off our old self, the self before our surrender to Jesus.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we are told that we become a whole new creation in Jesus. Everything in our lives becomes new. Surrendering our lives brings a total transformation.
Why is a transformation needed?
It is because the old self, the self before Jesus, is being corrupted by our deceitful desires.
In Romans 3:10-12 it says, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Before Jesus there is nothing good about us. That means our thoughts and desires are not good; they are corrupted.
They need to be changed so that they can be desires and thoughts centered in truth and goodness. If we don’t have Jesus as Lord then they can’t be.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is be transformed by the truth in Jesus.
Ephesians 4:23
To be made new in the attitude of your minds.
In Romans 12:2 we are told not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by renewing of our minds. Only then can we know to test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
If our minds are not made new by Jesus, then we cannot know God’s will. If we cannot know God’s will, then we cannot live as God wants us to live.
In Isaiah 42:9 says God will declare new things.
In Isaiah 43:19 God says He is doing a new thing.
If we are going to experience and be a part of the new things God is declaring and doing, we have to allow Him to make us new in Jesus.
The new is:
Different
Fresh
Alive
Wholeness.
Being made new is being transformed into the people God created us to be.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being made new by the truth in Jesus.
Ephesians 4:24
And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
We are to put on the new self.
It is not enough to put off the old self, doing away with the negative. We have to put on the new self, the positive.
The new self is the image of Jesus.
We were created according to Genesis 1:27 in the image of God. Jesus came in the form of a human to show us what real humanity is. Jesus came to show us the perfect image of God in a human.
When we surrender our wills to Jesus’ will we put on the new self that reflects the image of God reestablished in us by the presence of Jesus.
The new self will reflect the righteousness of God.
The new self will reflect the holiness of God.
God wants the world to see His righteousness and His holiness and He has chosen to do it through us.
The old self reflects us before Jesus.
The new self reflects us after Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to form the image of Jesus in us.
The truth is we need Jesus.
The truth is that without Jesus we have no hope.
The truth is that God’s Word is truth.
The truth is that we have to build our lives on these three truths.
Remember that truth is not a concept; truth is a person - Jesus.
In the Truth of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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