We are Newly Created Like God in Righteousness

Ephesians 4:24

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Will you turn loved ones to Ephesians 4:24, it brings home to us the other worldliness and the
powerfulness of God. “Put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness
and holiness.” And the issue is that we take that verse and we think it’s try harder read more
how-to books, improve a little our own character, deal with our little irritability or our funny
ways of responding to things, and we just under interpret the thing completely.

We think, “Put on the new nature,” is a way of saying – God saying, “Try harder. Be better. Pray
more and read the Bible more, and deal with the vices that you have,” and of course it’s not that at
all you know. The Greek verb is ridiculously literal, it’s the word that becomes our ‘endue’ in
English, it’s “enduo” and it means put on, there’s no way that you can get away with it. It doesn’t
mean try harder, it doesn’t mean improve yourself, it means put on, put on. Literally, go and
there’s a coat hanging there and you put it on, that’s what it means. That it’s a miraculous thing
that you do, you put on this new nature, this – actually, it’s not even nature in the Greek, it’s
“anthropos” which you know is anthropology, it means man so it’s literally put on the new man. And
of course, it’s the man that is as it says, “The man that was created after the likeness of God.”
“Kata theos”, it means in accordance with God. It means the new man who is like God. It means put
on that new man that is like God created like God.

So it’s a new nature that’s already created. That’s it. So in no way is God saying, “Create a new
nature for yourself.” Even the word new is different, it’s “kainos” and it means absolutely fresh,
new. Not new in age, not just young, fresh and new, absolutely fresh and clean. It doesn’t mean
renewed. It doesn’t even – there’s a word in Greek that means renewed, it doesn’t even mean
renewed. It means absolutely new. A new being that has never been sick and I mean, how Plato ever
got it, I don’t know, I guess he just got it through God’s goodness you, because of course in
Plato’s Republic he has a whole exposition of – there’s a – we learned it in Philosophy One, that’s
a table but there’s a perfect table in heaven, you know, a perfect form. And he said that there’s a
perfect of everything in the great good that he called God. And of course, that’s it, there’s this
Martha, this Martha with all that we know of it and then there is a new Martha that has been created
in Jesus.

And of course we have a tendency to listen to that too and to think, “Oh yes, that’s a nice idea,
such a nice idea. Such a wonderful thought, like a kind of guardian angel, you know, and there’s a
nice new Martha out there. Oh, how nice.” But that’s what Jesus’ resurrection is about. That’s
what it’s all about. God destroyed us all in his Son in eternity and made us all new so that
there’s this Jesus, and there’s this little bit of his finger that is Joanne, that’s the new Joanne.
And there’s this little bit of his hand, that’s the new Joe. It was all created by God and the
beauty and the wonder of this life is that you have the adventure of discovering that and expressing
it for the first time in creation and that’s what it means.

God is saying, “Put on the new person that I made you absolutely fresh in my Son. After I destroyed
that old person that you have round you at this moment, put on the new person I have made you and
I’ll reveal it to you day-by-day through the Holy Spirit,” and that’s what it means. But we turn it
on ourselves and we make it a whole introspective thing and a whole self-control thing. We

self-manage the whole business of our sanctification because we misinterpret all these things. The
fact is the work has already been done. The creation has already been brought about. You have
already been made in Jesus and now you have the opportunity, that’s why you’re here.

It’s not one size fits all. You’re the only one that size – you’re the new creation that will fit,
you’re the only one with your fit. I’m the only one of my new creation. If you don’t put it on the
new Christ in your likeness will not be seen. That’s it. So it’s a miraculous thing, so you know
when we think back to – maybe that’s what I’m aware of, whether it was the beauty of the lady
playing the hymn, or whether it was the tune of that number two hymn, it brought home to me again
whatever was partial, and I’m sure it was very partial, whatever was partially wrought in
Minneapolis, it was wrought by God, the little partial bit that was wrought by God and this has to
be wrought by God. We need our Father to do this work in us. It needs to be the Father that will
make this real in us. With all our praying, and all our talking, and all our teaching, and
encouraging each other, and all the situation and environment that we have only God can do that work
in us. Only he can make this real in you and me and we have to open up our hearts and our eyes to
him and see that putting on this is putting on a miraculous creation that he has already brought
about. And it’s created in righteousness and holiness.

You know righteousness in our attitude to other people and holiness in our own personal attitude to
God and our own awareness that it’s Christ in us. But that has all been created and it’s ours to
receive from his hands. So with every prayer time, every opportunity we have to look up to God,
that can be the moment of reality and we need to see that it’s his work that we need done in us and
he alone is able to make this real. He alone is able to enable us to put on this creation, this
wonderful new being that even your mum and dad didn’t see. So it is real and of course, when you
get into righteous and holiness you find that – you realize that it has to be a miracle because
righteousness, I don’t know about you, I was always bewildered by that and I couldn’t find it, I
tried to look it up before I came here and – before I came to chapel, and you – maybe one of you can
remember it immediately, but it’s the verse in Romans that says, “He is faithful and just to
forgives us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Yes, he’s faithful and just.

I thought, “faithful and just to forgive us our sins,” justice means as Plato said, “It’s giving
everybody what is his due so if he’s just with us we’re finished, you know.” But the word just, I
believe, is tied up with righteous, “He is faithful and just, he is righteous.” But it’s faithful
and just to forgives us our sins. Anyway, my baffle – my bewilderment was it regarded God as
righteous because he forgave us our sins and I thought, “What’s righteous about forgiving a lot of
nits their sins? That’s indulging them.” And of course, gradually I’ve come to realize, God’s
righteousness is his mercy, and his forgiveness, and his readiness to take the towel and to wash our
feet and to wipe our feet, and that is God’s righteousness. And eventually Barth got it through my
thick head that, that’s what we mean when we talk about God’s righteousness.

We always think – at least I always thought, when you talk about God’s righteousness, he’s saying,
“Truth is truth, you know, you must be honest, you must be, etcetera, etcetera. You must not be
slothful, you must be energetic, you must be industrious.” But his righteousness is his dear mercy
and readiness to put up with us year after year and keep coming back at us. I mean, the more you
read the Old Testament the more it’s just bewildering how the dear Father puts up with the dumb Jews
who were continually rebelling against him, continually letting him down, continually making great
vows about what they would do and then breaking the vows. And it’s just – I mean, if it weren’t so
dreadfully serious it would be funny because it’s just – you think they hardly turn around after
making vows to him, but they break the vows back and forth, back and forth, building the idols,

throwing the idols down, building more idols, you know. Then mixing the idols up, mixing the high
places up so that at times they worshipped Jehovah on them and at times they worshiped Bale. And he
is content day after day, his steadfast love never ends, it endures, it lasts forever, and that is
God’s righteousness.

And then you see – you can see how possible it is. You put on the new nature created in
righteousness. That’s the righteousness that it’s created that you and I would live that kind of
merciful life never losing faith in each other, never giving up on each other, never becoming
impatient with each other, never, never, never doing anything but continue to love each other, and
believe the best for each other, and want the best for each other day after day whatever the other
person is like. Well, that’s supernatural. That has to come from the new creation that God has
made us in Jesus. So it’s just a different kind of being. When we look at this verse, it’s just an
absolute – it’s a supernatural angel and that’s what God is saying, “Put on the supernatural angel
that I have made you in my Son. Put that on and live in the midst of that.”

Great apologies for the stupid tears, but I know that is God speaking to us. Let us pray.