The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 188

=in-ii a.s rbore who bad hl'srd Christ, Here a,,crain Christ is the Lesson-" taught in him,"_ ss ~-e mi,:::ht ~y t~u~ht in lan~~c-es or _in ~phy. And not merely so, but th,:, brt,,r1c-..'ll ,l('si.ts 1s lX>mtro to as the embodfrd - " e,cn ns truth is in Jesus.0 IIe c,,:;rnins all the truth of C'>Od, and especially a.s he is brou,.ht before us in tho G,·sr-•l,-. l!.11 that we need to know for sah-:-ition. He is a Le.si!on ,~ can.not learn in a fa:· ,,r in a lifetime, E,en eternity will not suffice to oxhaust its contents. But Jet us icam Christ as we c= now, in the excellence of his character, in the gre:itness of his w,,~k, and in the purport of his doctrine. 1. Christianity in its negative aspect. "1hat ye put away, ss concerning your former manner of life, the old man, which waxcth corrupt after the lusts of deceit." He has in view, it will be seen, their former, t".e, their Gentile or pre-Christian manner of life. In this he sees what he calls the old man, viz. the sinful type of humanity. Originating in opposition to God, there is a type (such as there is in the development of a tree) according to which the corrupt' <levelopment goes forward. There is a necessity of nature or of Divine government by which, as sinners, we grow worse and worse, and in the way in which we grow worse and worse. There is a law (appointed order) of sin and death under which we are placed. With the Slime essential type in all sinners, the corrupt development takes a i,pecial form from the lust (or desire in a sinful state) that is dominant, whether it is what is called lust, or the lust of money, or the 1ust of power. These lusts all agree in being intimately connected ,nth or in the service of deceit. That is to say, under different dis,,o-nises, we are promising ourselves independence and satisfaction, or making ourselves believe that we are pleasing God or benefiting men while really all our relations are wrong. The old man, then, as truth as it is in Jesus requires, is to be put away. That is better thsn the old translation. We are not merely to put 1t off, as we put off our clothes :lt night; but we are to put it away, as an old garment never to be put on l½,<'llin. 2. Ohrisfianity in its positive aspect. "And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and pnt on the new man,'which after God bath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth!' The new man is the type of redeemed humanity, or, as it is put, "the holy form of human life which resnlts from redemption." A condition of thls is renewing in the spirit of the mind. We are not to 'interpret this as thongh it were renewed by the Spirit in the mind. The spirit is the centre where we appropriate the blessing of redemption, where we choose Christ instead of self, where we put ourselves in a right relation to the holy type of humanity. We are taught that renewal must be from within outwards. If there is only life lingering at the outside, it will never penetrate from thence to the centre. But if there is still life at the centre, though the old forms may have to be cast away, it will clothe itself in new forms. The new man is described as that which hath been created. In one view of it, this is what Christ did in his work. He created a holy type, which may be assumed by us sinners. And that was snrely creation by pre-eminence. It was creation after God, even as man was created at fu,;t in the image of God. And we are here helped to the understanding of what that image was. It did not consist in anything accidental, but it consisted in what is most essential (what presupposes free-will), viz. rightness of moral disposition. It is here referred to as rigldwu$ness and holiness of truth. " Righteousness betokens a just relation among the powers of the soul within and towards men and duties without. But holiness betokens the integrity of the -spiritual life, and the piety towards God of which that is the condition.n There is a truth in such relations upc,n which righteous- ness ::i.nd holiness are founded. We arc made with a subordination of our lower powers to our higher. We are made to be mutually helpful. And we are made to be dependent on God and to trust in him. In all these respects man was rightly dispositioned at first. And what we lost in .Adam we have more than regained in Christ in the creation of the new man. '!'his new man, then, let us put on as that which we are never to put off. Let us pray for a constant renewing in the spirit of our mind, that, after God, wo may have righteousness and holiness of truth-that every relation which God has made for us may be honoured by ua.-R. F. Vera. 25-32.-Vices. The apostle here enumerates five vice8 pertaining to the old man, or Gentile state, and shows how they are contradicted by Christianity. I. LYING. 1. The negative of Ohristianity. "Wherefore, putting away falsehood." Lyiog eufficiently indicates what is meant, if we take it as including falsehood in act CH. IV, 1-32.] 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 187