“Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”
Ephesians 4:18-24 NLT
It is important to remember that sin was our choice in Adam. It is important to understand that sin returns to being our choice, in Christ. Sin, in practice, was the breaking of God’s word in his creation. But it was the emotionality of the affair which was truly repugnant. It was loving the created over the creator. As Paul describes how the gentiles lived as the “old nature,” he describes the pursuit of physical lusts. Lust, though often sexual in presentation, is specifically the pursuit of one’s own pleasure at the expense of another’s benefit. This is expressly Antichrist. This is why a Christian pursuing lust of the flesh, or eyes, or life, cannot truly be Christian. Putting on the new clothing means to stop prioritizing loving the flesh, what the eyes see, and the good things in life. It is stopping the process of living toward their benefit. Instead, it is taking care to preserve and cultivate the image of God through self sacrifice, rather than sacrifice to self. Many Christians have not stopped wearing the old clothes of self. This is simply untenable.
JOSH McGARY. COM 