Topic: TAKE OFF THE OLD AND PUT ON THE NEW – Right From The Heart Daily Devotional by Bryant Wright Ministry  6 January  2024

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TAKE OFF THE OLD AND PUT ON THE NEW

January 06, 2024

“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. 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.” 

Ephesians 4:20-24 

We are called to live differently from the world – to stand out as light in a world that desperately longs for hope and peace. 

I’ve got great news for you. Jesus is better than anything the world has to offer. In Him, we are invited out of the darkness and into the light, into real life, into forgiveness and grace –  to be made new. When you receive this good news, it changes you from the inside out. 

Paul describes this new life in Christ as a new wardrobe or uniform as if you have switched to a new team. You put off the old and put on the new. Paul is saying the gospel gives you a new heart, a new way of thinking, and new desires to live for the glory of God.  

There is an incredible picture of this in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Even if you have not spent much time in church at all, you are probably familiar with the parable of the prodigal son. 

Here’s the story: A man has two sons. The younger son demands his inheritance from his father. He is sick and tired of living under Dad’s roof with Dad’s rules, but he just wants the “blessing” or inheritance. So, the father grants his son’s request and gives him his share of the family estate. The younger son then leaves for a distant land and lives it up, spending frivolously and partying hard. He quickly burns through all his inheritance, and then the country where he lives is struck with a severe famine. The only job he can find is feeding pigs. In a kosher culture, this is the lowest of the low. He has no money, place to sleep, food, or clean clothes. He longed to fill his stomach with the pigs’ food. 

At this rock bottom moment in his life, he finally comes to his senses and says, “If I go home and get a job as a servant for my dad, I will live better than this.” 

In his embarrassment and shame, he heads home. 

Luke 15:20-22 says, “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.” 

This is the message for us:

Take off the worn-out, tattered clothes covered in mud that smells like pigs. Put on the best robe, a ring, and new shoes to show that you belong with me! Take off the shame and put on my grace! Take off the unworthiness and put on acceptance! Take off the unlovable and put on my love for you! You belong here because you are my son! 

This is what Jesus Christ says to each and every one of us who know him as Savior and trust Him as Lord! 

This is why the Gospel is so important for us every single day and why we are called to renew our minds in what God has done for us! 

Even though we so easily revert to the old self, the Gospel reminds us that these clothes are no longer ours to wear. We have received clean, new clothing in Jesus Christ in God’s love and grace. 

Take off the old and put on the new!

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