In His thirty-three and a half years on earth, the Lord Jesus formed the mold, the pattern, to which all those who believe in Him are to be conformed. According to the record of the four Gospels, the life of the Lord Jesus was a life of truth. Truth is the shining of light. Light is the source, and truth is its expression. As Heb. 1:3 says, the Lord Jesus is the effulgence of God’s glory. This means that He is the shining of God who is light. Because in every aspect of the Lord’s living on earth there was the shining of light, His life was a life of truth, a life of the shining of God Himself. That life of truth was the very expression of God. For this reason Paul says that we learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus. In other words, we learn Christ according to the mold of the life of Jesus. The mold of the life of Jesus is the truth.
After Christ established this mold, He passed through death and resurrection, and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. As such a Spirit, He comes into us to be our life. When we believed in Him and were baptized, God put us into Him as the mold, just as dough is placed into a mold. By being put into the mold we learned the mold. This means that by being put into Christ, we learn Christ. On the one hand, God put us into Christ; on the other hand, Christ has come into us to be our life. Now we may live by Him according to the mold in which we have been placed by God.
Not many of us may realize the influence the four Gospels have on us. When we read in the Gospels of the mold formed by the Lord Jesus, that mold spontaneously influences our living. As we love the Lord, contact Him, and pray to Him, we automatically live Him according to the mold described in the Gospels. In this way we are shaped, conformed, to the image of this mold. This is what it means to learn Christ.
Learning Christ in this way is altogether different from taking Him as an objective example and endeavoring in our natural life to imitate Him. God has put us into the mold formed by the life of Jesus on earth. Simultaneously, Christ as the life-giving Spirit has come into our being as life. The more we love Him and contact Him, the more we live Him according to this mold. As a result, we are spontaneously conformed to the image of that mold. Therefore, with Paul we can say, “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). We live Christ in the form of His own life, in the form recorded in the Gospels.
We must distinguish this kind of living from that according to the modernistic teaching regarding imitating Christ as our example. The modernists falsely teach that Christ is not God, but a man who established the highest standard for us to follow. This teaching requires that we exercise our natural life to imitate Christ and to live up to His standard. Such a teaching is heretical. It has absolutely nothing to do with the truth as it is in Jesus. It denies the fact that a true believer is in Christ and has Christ in him. In contrast to this heretical, modernistic teaching, we say according to the New Testament that when a sinner repents and believes in Christ and is baptized into Christ, God puts this one into Christ as the mold. At the same time, Christ as the life-giving Spirit comes into him to be his life. Thereafter, this believer is to live by Christ as his life according to the mold. The more he lives by Christ, the more he will be spontaneously shaped into the form of the mold. This is a life in Christ and also a life of Christ in us. We are in Christ as the mold, and He is in us as our life. In this way we learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus.
Ephesians 4 covers three items concerning a life worthy of God’s calling: keeping the oneness (vv. 1-14), growing up into the Head (vv. 15-16), and learning Christ as the truth is in Jesus (vv. 17-32). Concerning the learning of Christ as the truth is in Jesus, Paul firstly exhorts us and testifies to us that we should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind (v. 17). Instead, we should walk in the life that is according to the truth in Jesus. The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, but we walk in the reality expressed in the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. In His life we see reality, truth, the shining of light, the expression of God. As the believers in Christ, we are to walk in such a reality.
Verse 21 says that we have been taught in Christ as the truth is in Jesus. Verses 22 and 24 show us what we have been taught: that we have put off the old man and have put on the new man. We were taught this when we were put into the mold, that is, when we were baptized. In baptism we were taught that our old man has been crucified and that he is to be buried by baptism. Furthermore, we were taught that as we come out of the water, we are resurrected into the new man. Therefore, by baptism we were taught that we have put off the old man and have put on the new man.
At this point we need to consider Romans 6:3-5. Verse 3 says, “Are you ignorant that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” To be baptized into Christ Jesus means to be put into Him. Furthermore, through baptism we have been buried into Christ’s death. In verses 4 and 5 we see the mold. These verses indicate that through baptism we were taught that we have put off the old man and have put on the new man. This is the normal Christian experience.
Normally, as we preach the gospel to sinners, we tell them of the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Then we encourage those who are willing to believe in Christ to receive Him into them as their life. The next step is to baptize them. This indicates that we put them into Christ as the mold. Thereafter, they are to live by Christ according to the mold. By baptism they have been taught that they have put off the old man and have put on the new man. By being buried through baptism, they learned Christ as the truth is in Jesus.
We should not try to understand verses such as 4:20-24 through the exercise of our natural mind. Rather, we need to consider them in the light of our Christian experience. If we do this, the light will gradually shine upon us, and we shall see the truth. The truth here is that when we were baptized, we were taught that we have put off the old man and that we have put on the new man. Notice that Paul does not say that we have been taught to put off the old man and to put on the new man. No, we have already put off the old man and have put on the new man. Our old man was buried in the waters of baptism. Hence, we have put off the old man. Furthermore, as we rose up from the water in resurrection, we were clothed with the new man. Hence, we have also put on the new man. Therefore, we have been taught in Christ as the truth is in Jesus that we have put off the old man and put on the new man.
Having put off the old man and having put on the new man is a condition of learning Christ. This is utterly different from the devilish, modernistic teaching which says that Christ established the highest standard of human living and that we must endeavor to copy Him and to live up to this standard. If we would learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus, we must fulfill the condition of having put off the old man and of having put on the new man. This is not a superficial truth.
Verse 22 says that we have put off, as regards the former manner of life, the old man. The former manner of life was a walk in the vanity of the mind. Such a manner of life has been terminated and put away.
Verse 22 also says that the old man “is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit.” The old man is of Adam, created by God, but fallen through sin. The article before the word deceit is emphatic and indicates that the word deceit is personified. Hence, deceit here refers to the deceiver, the Devil, from whom are the lusts of the corrupted old man. The old man is corrupted according to the lusts of the Devil, the deceiving one. Outwardly, the manner of life of the old man is a walk in the vanity of the mind. Inwardly, the old man is corrupted according to the lusts of the Devil, the lusts of the deceit.
This old man was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6) and was buried in baptism (Rom. 6:4). Hallelujah, we have put off the old man in baptism!
Between the word regarding the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man, Paul wedges in the thought of being renewed in the spirit of our mind (v. 23). Based upon the accomplished facts of the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man, verse 23 tells us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. To be renewed is for our transformation to the image of Christ (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). The spirit here is the regenerated spirit of the believers mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God. Such a mingled spirit spreads into our mind, thus becoming the spirit of our mind. It is in such a spirit that we are renewed for our transformation. In this way our natural mind is conquered, subdued, and put under the spirit. This, of course, implies a process of metabolic transformation. As this process takes place, the mingled spirit enters our mind, takes over our mind, and becomes the spirit of our mind.
By the spirit of the mind we are renewed to fulfill in experience what was accomplished in the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man. The putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man are accomplished facts. Now we must experience and realize these facts by being renewed in the spirit of our mind. As these facts are realized in experience, we live a life that corresponds to the life of Jesus. This means that we live a life of truth, a life in the shining of light and in the expression of God. When we are renewed in the spirit of our mind to execute the fact of having put off the old man and having put on the new man, we live a life according to the truth that is in Jesus.
The new man is of Christ. It is His Body, created in Him on the cross (2:15-16). It is not individual, but corporate (Col. 3:10-11). The fact that the new man is created of two peoples proves that it is corporate. Furthermore, Colossians 3:10 and 11 reveal that the new man is a composition of many different peoples. In this corporate new man there is no Greek or Jew, no bond or free, no barbarian or Scythian, but Christ is all and in all. In Colossians 3:11 the word “all” refers to people. This means that in the new man Christ is all the people and is in all the people. Therefore, in the corporate new man Christ is all and in all.
The book of Ephesians reveals that the church is the Body of Christ (1:22-23), the kingdom of God, the household of God (2:19), and the temple, the dwelling place of God (2:21-22). It reveals further that the church is the new man. This is the highest aspect of the church. The Greek word for church, ekklesia, means those called out for a gathering, hence, an assembly. This is the initial aspect of the church. From this the apostle goes on to the aspects of fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God and members of the household of God. These are higher than the initial aspect, but not as high as the aspect of the church as the Body of Christ. Yet the new man is still higher than the Body of Christ. Thus, the church is not just an assembly of believers, a kingdom of heavenly citizens, a household of God’s children, nor even a Body for Christ. It is in its uttermost aspect a new man to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. As the Body of Christ, the church needs Christ as its life; whereas as the new man, the church needs Christ as its person. This new corporate person should live a life as Jesus lived on earth, that is, a life of truth, expressing God and causing God to be realized as the reality by man. Hence, the new man is the focus of the apostle’s exhortation in this section (vv. 17-32).
Verse 24 says that the new man was created according to God. The old man was created according to the image of God outwardly, without God’s life and nature (Gen. 1:26-27). But the new man was created according to God Himself inwardly, with God’s life and nature (Col. 3:10).
Furthermore, the new man was created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Righteousness is being right with God and with man according to God’s righteous way, whereas holiness is being separated unto God from anything common and being saturated with God’s holy nature. Righteousness refers to the outward acts, whereas holiness refers to the inward nature. Outwardly everything related to the new man is righteous; and inwardly everything related to the new man is holy.
The righteousness and holiness of the new man are of the truth. The article before truth in verse 24 is emphatic. As the deceit in verse 22, related to the old man, is the personification of Satan, so truth here, related to the new man, is the personification of God. This truth was exhibited in the life of Jesus, as mentioned in verse 21. In the life of Jesus righteousness and holiness of truth were always being manifested. It was in the righteousness and holiness of this truth, which is God realized and expressed, that the new man was created.
Deceit is the Devil, and truth is God. The old man is according to the lusts of the Devil, but the new man is in the righteousness and holiness of God. It is a serious mistake to render the Greek word for truth here as an adjective. The King James Version made such a mistake in adopting the rendering “true holiness.” Here Paul’s concept is not that of true holiness but that of the holiness of the truth. Holiness here is the holiness of the divine Person. The new man was created according to God in the righteousness and holiness of God Himself.
In order that we might learn Christ, Paul presents a sharp contrast between the old man and the new man, between the Devil and God, and between lusts, on the one hand, and righteousness and holiness, on the other. We have been taught that we have already put off the old man and have put on the new man. This means we have put off the lusts and the falsehood of the Devil and have put on the righteousness and holiness of God. This God is the truth, and this truth is seen in the living of Jesus on earth. The human living of Jesus was according to the truth, that is, according to God Himself, full of righteousness and holiness. Praise the Lord that we have learned Christ as the truth is in Jesus!
If we learn Christ by putting off the old man and by putting on the new man, we shall be in the church life, for the new man actually is the church. If we learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus, then we can have a genuine, proper, and practical church life.
