"Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him 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. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."Because God has regenerated our hearts, we get to be continually transformed and can put off the old life, nature, self, because the Holy Spirit replaces those old things with new, glorified, redeemed ones. We now (because of Jesus) have been created after the likeness of God and therefore have the ability (through the working of the Holy Spirit) to live a new and transformed life of faith. This is all part of the regenerated work that the Holy Spirit is doing in us, while progressive sanctification is continuing to take place.
We must remember that our struggles and sins no longer have control over us. When they do creep up on us, we need to take them to God through prayer, while continuing to search the Scriptures, remembering that Jesus died to conquer all sin, separation from God, and all death (which is what sin ultimately leads to). We must remember that Jesus has accomplished our salvation and has reconciled us back to God, Jesus is our continual advocate to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is continually working out our salvation and sanctification, so that we can be new creations that worship God and Glorify Him with our redeemed lives.
The encouragement today is to believe that we are new creations in Christ. Start to practice the truths found in the Scriptures, and live as though these truths are actually TRUE. Forget the past, forget what we used to be (before Jesus), and remember that God sees us washed by the blood of Jesus. While we often fail and don't see ourselves whole, God sees us in the light of Jesus, completely spotless and sin free. Live in the moment and truth that God is working everything out through the power of His Glory and Grace. Believe that you are changed and new, and let that truth be lived out in radical submission to the mortification of sin and the Glorification of God.
