Month: June 2023

When a man is regenerated, he might not be different from others in the way he attends to the common business of life. He could be behind the same counter as other men, selling off the same lot of goods, at the same prices; yet one is there doing his own will, and the other doing God’s will; the one pleasing himself the other pleasing his Master. It is possible that both the regenerated and the unregenerated man may be following the plow, each to raise the same crop, yet each with a perfectly opposite ultimate end in view; the one to gratify self, the other to gratify God.

By the renewal of the mind, selfishness is put away and Christ is put on in all things. This is the very essence of the Apostle’s meaning. The putting on the new man is also taking on the yoke of Christ, as well as having the Spirit of Christ imbibed, and acting out; the law of love, supreme to God, and impartial to man. Thus a spirit of self-sacrifice ensues, and the individual no longer asks what will gratify him, but what will please God.

When the old man is put off, he dies. This does not mean the annihilation of the appetites and the physical constitution: no, the former body still exists, and you must eat and drink, for its support, no less than before. It only means that all these appetites and propensities are held under the control of God’s revealed will, and to be indulged only following that will. They are no longer our masters; we have no master but God.