One New Man

By Tammy Lacock

“Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” (Ephesians 2:15 KJV)

In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman continues to explain, through Paul’s epistles, how extremely important having a radical mind-change is to our new life in Christ.

First, we must understand what it means to be in Christ. In Ephesians 2:15, Paul says by Christ’s death on the cross, He abolished salvation by law and ushered in salvation by grace, bringing peace between God and man and Jew and Gentile. By His death and resurrection (His conquering of death), Christ atoned for our sins and the curse passed down to us through Adam by Satan. We are freed from that old life. Even more, we are born again by Christ’s very life within us now. For the first time, through Christ, God did away with the old man and made Jews and Gentiles the same, one new man. By Christ’s work on the cross, and not by our own works, we are all reconciled to God and to each other. By His life within us now, God no longer sees our old identities and what we do or don’t do to be saved. He sees Christ. He is our new life. By God’s grace, we are complete in Christ and now a new race of people.

It’s important to understand that since we are brand-new creations in Christ, we no longer have a past. We are “babes in Christ” now, as Warren puts it. If we are to grow up in Him and live now who God created us to be, our minds must be cleared of our old understanding of who we were. Our minds must understand the radical change that took place within our spirits in that moment we believed in Christ as our Lord and Savior. We underwent a rebirth by Christ’s Spirit now being joined to ours (1 Corinthians 6:17). Yet our minds must undergo this radical change as well. This takes time. The Holy Spirit comforts us and teaches us about our new life in Christ and uses the circumstances and situations of life to help us in this mental transition.

Warren notes that there have been at least four gospels in scripture, all true but each having a significance in its time, place, and purpose. Christ, Himself, raised up only Paul to bring us a new gospel, that of Christ living in every believer. This gospel is for us today. God put the Spirit of His one Son in every believer, speaking to us now through Him (Hebrews 1:2; 1 John 1:5).

Throughout his epistles, Paul tells us how to live our new life in Christ. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, from law to grace, from outer works to His work within us. We now know Him living in us, no longer knowing Him as Jesus of Nazareth but as our Lord of Glory (Colossians 1:27)!

“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24 KJV)