◄ What Does Colossians 3:10 Mean? ►

The moment that we are born again, we are made a new creation in Christ. The second we are saved we are given a new nature, the resurrected life of Christ within. But also the Holy Spirit of God comes to indwell our body to teach and train us, to guard and guide us, and He also disciplines, chastens, and corrects our new life in Christ.

Oh! He will never teach and train the OLD sin nature that we received as a member of the old creation in Adam, for we are now part of a new creation in Christ. Our 'Old Man' as the Bible calls it, which is part of our old Adamic nature, is riddled with sin. It is dead in trespasses and cannot be reformed or trained into godly righteousness.

When our old man tries to carry out the Law through self-effort, it tries to reform itself - but this is a self-righteousness that is unacceptable to God, for all our righteousness is as filthy rags to Him. Our old sin nature is dead in trespasses and sins and is to remain nailed to the Cross of Christ. It is the new, born again life we received at salvation that must grow. And God has given us all that we need for that new life to grow in grace and in a knowledge of Jesus, but we must do it God's way and not man's way. We must be clothed in Christ's righteousness and not seek to cover ourselves in self-righteousness.

We have been made a new creation in Christ, and are to grow spiritually and mature in our faith. But we have to grow and develop the way that God has determined, not by reforming, refining, or repairing the old nature through self-effort, but by yielding our new self to the Holy Spirit so that He works in us and transforms that new life into the image and likeness of Jesus. We do not mature spiritually by carrying out works of self-righteousness which will burn up as wood, hay, and stubble, but by the works of righteousness that God Himself has prepared for us to carry out in our new nature. The Spirit carries out these righteous works in our lives as we submit to Him, and they will result in eternal rewards which equate to gold, silver, and precious stones.

We have put on the new self, and it is this new life and not the old sin nature that is being renewed, day by day, by the Spirit. The new life that we received at rebirth is being renewed in knowledge, according to the image of Christ in Whose likeness we were made as a new creation. Our new nature is being renewed in knowledge, according to the image of Him who created us anew and gave us His life, by grace through faith.

All that is connected with the old creation in Adam is eternally doomed, which is why God is not going to transform the old sin nature but the new life in Christ, which we received when we were born again. God's purpose and plan is that the new creation and not the old creation will grow more and more Christ-like. As Christians, our conduct should reflect the new life and not the old - and this is achieved as we come to know the Lord Jesus more and more. Outwardly we are perishing - the OLD is winding down, but inwardly the NEW is being renewed, day by day, as we come into a deeper and more intimate knowledge of our Saviour. THIS is eternal life that ye might know HIM and Jesus Christ Whom He has sent.

We are to walk in spirit and truth as guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and He will teach and train our new self which is being renewed, day by day, into even greater knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, thank You that I am a new creation in Christ. Thank You that old things are done away with and all things have been made new in Him. I pray that I might walk in spirit and truth, submitting to the working of the Holy Spirit so that, day by day, I come to know You more and love You better. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.