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In these verses, 1. Our apostle acquaints the converted Ephesians, that the saving knowledge of Christ, which they had received, instructed them better than to practice such licentiousness and wickedness as the unconverted Gentiles wallowed in. But ye have not so learned Christ; that is, the gospel of Christ.
Nothing curbs sin, nothing cures sin, in a licentious sinner, like the doctrine of Christ revealed in the gospel; no moral precepts from the school of the heathens, which some so much magnify and applaud, can compare with this, which lays open the root of this accursed disease, and leads us to the remedy which the wisdom of God has appointed for its cure, even the blood of his own Son. Then blessed be God for revealed religion!
Observe, 2. The apostle acquaints them what the truth as it is in Jesus, that is, the doctrine of the gospel, doth direct them to, enjoin and require of them; namely, to put off the old man, that is, their former heathen conversation, and manner of life, say some; but this they had put off already at their first conversion to christianity.
By the old man, then, understand, the old corrupt nature, so called, because it is as old as Adam, and derived from Adam, and which daily more and more corrupts and depraves us by its deceitful lusts, if it be not resisted and subdued. But this is not sufficient, that we put off the old man, unless we put on the new, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds after God; that is, after the image of God, which consisteth in righteousness and true holiness.
Note here, 1. That regenerating grace is called the new man; because the person has a new principle infused into him, (says the pious bishop Fell, upon the place), which enables him to lead a new life. Regenerate men, then, are new men; they have a renewed and enlightened understanding, they have a sanctified and renewed will, renewed affections and desires; old things are passing away, and all things becoming new.
Note, 2. That God himself is the pattern and exemplar, after which, and according to which, the new man is formed in the soul, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
What is Godliness, but Godlikeness? What is holiness, but the conformity of our natures to the holy nature of God, and the conformity of our lives to the will of God? Act_13:1; Acts 20. I have found David, a man after my own heart, who shall perform all my will.
Note, 3. That holiness is not only the reforming of the mind; and not only of the mind, but of the spirit of the mind: by which understand the highest and most refined faculties of the mind, that part which is most free from the dregs of sin, and which comes up nearest to God, as the spirit of the mind and understanding doth.
Verily, not our minds only, but even the spirit of our minds, need renewing, because corruption is got into the highest powers and superior faculties of the soul, and because we must serve God with all our mind; and if so, with the spirit of our mind; and blessed be God that regenerating and renewing grace is a universal principle, as sin was.
Did sin invade the whole soul, all the powers and faculties of it, and deprive us of the divine image?
It is the work of grace to restore our depraved natures to their primitive integrity; the renewed person is sanctified totus, though not totaliter; a new nature is found with him, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.