Lie not one to another, seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds. And have put on the new man (the garment of salvation and robe of righteousness, Isaiah 61: 10–11) which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. (Col. 3: 9–10).
The new man is expected to have many new clothes for different occasions and circumstances in the Kingdom (Rev. 16: 15).
All our old clothes must be put away and burnt off as we prepare and get ready to use the new clothes which are made up in our spiritual wardrobe (mind and personal decision of living a transformed moral life).
A believer’s garment of salvation and robe of righteousness must never be put off him.
It is his royal garment, given and meant for the wedding between him and his Saviour at the wedding supper of the Lamb.
As he grows in the Lord, his garment must be enlarged by his good works which God has ordained for him to walk in.
He must increase, be filled, perfected, and established in all good works which will follow him to heaven and are at the same time waiting for him there.
To put off the old man and put on the new man is a daily spiritual practice we must engage in and improve upon.
The old man is the old habit which must not be lived out again.
The riches of Christ’s grace empower a believer to desire putting on the new clothes daily, abhorring the old ones as worn out, unfit to be worn for outings.
It is the corrupt, dirty, worldly, and unclean life.
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for from henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. (Isa. 52: 1–2)
The old man or lifestyles should be treated as worn and torn old clothes not useful for outings or other ceremonious occasions again, while the new man is renewed and growing to maturity in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
Two weeks ago, I received an elderly woman in her early sixties in my office for ministration. She had recently started following her daughter to our church after the water baptism of the latter, and she was touched by the Lord and developed the interest of coming every Sunday. She’d been having this chronic and long-term persistent backache for a while – for approximately a decade or more, which could not be cured even after a lot of medical treatments. The doctors had given up on her and told her to live with the pain.
What a medical conclusion and retreat! This is to tell you that some sicknesses are spiritual in origin; they cannot be diagnosed or cured by medical practitioners, just as the oppression of the Devil can only be broken by the anointing.
God would never give up on us or forget us.
Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and I will build them, as at the first.
And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me (Jer. 33: 6—8)
Where the strength and wisdom of man fails and ends, there God shows up as the very present help in the time of trouble.
In the cause of my ministering to her, I saw a revelation of her coming out of a prison house. At the entrance of the prison house, she was given some new clothes to change and more to be kept with her to be used in the city.
I narrated this revelation to her at the end of our ministration.
She needed to change her lifestyle and completely turn to the Lord, surrendering all to Christ.
She had been in the prison of Satan and sin, but needed not to continue to be a prisoner if she so wished.
The Lord would give her new clothes and set her free from the prison, for Jesus has come to set the captives free.
She had given herself to wine and young men – the unjust doesn’t know shame (Zeph. 3: 5).
She’d been tied on her waist for so long by a serpentine spirit, which, at times, walked around her body as well. Note: Sin and sickness are twin sisters; and when the Lord forgives your sins, he shall heal your sicknesses and diseases as well (Ps. 103: 3).
The ministration was so strong and powerful as the Lord confirmed his Word and the old lady was set free. She spat, shook violently, vomited, and fell down (Mark 9: 26).
She testified of a breaking, loosening, and cracking on her waist and some lightness and emptiness in her body, which signified the departure of the serpent.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! (Isa. 14: 3–4)
She was one of those born-Catholic, die-Catholic professors.
I witnessed to her about the need for Christ’s liberty and salvation from sin to a new life in Christ Jesus.
It was so amazing when she agreed for baptism of water by immersion.
‘We have to postpone it until the weather is good. It is winter and very cold out there and we do not have baptistery in our church,’ I said to her.
The new cloth is the symbol of the fruit of a new life, which we must put on and live daily by the new life and conduct in total conformity to the gospel of Christ. Only let your conversation be as it becomes the gospel of Christ . . . (Phil. 1: 27).
The new man is from within (in the heart), but his influence and beauty can be seen on the sanity or dirtiness of the cloth (Christian characters) we are putting on.
But let it be the hidden man of the earth, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God a great price. (1 Pet. 3: 4)
All of us were once in the bondage and prison of one sin or the other before coming to Christ.
All are prisoners of hope, redeemed and freed by the blood and the Spirit of Jesus Christ, groaning and waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body if you are now in Christ Jesus.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee. (Zech. 9: 9–12)
We must live as we’ve been taught of Christ, walking and manifesting humility of mind, truthfulness, self-control in words and in deeds, compassion, forbearance, forgiveness, gentleness, kindness, love. These are the garments of the new man.
In the natural world, some people find it difficult to part with or throw away their old clothes they fell in love with so much. They try to keep their old clothes for years. In the Lord, we must put away all our old clothes; they are old habits, works of the flesh, and sinful lifestyles. We must put away the old, dirty, and sinful prison clothes from us, that is, our old way of life and living, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4: 22–24).
We must learn, by way of dutiful prayer and self-discipline, how to yield ourselves daily and constantly to the application of the Word of God through the help of the Holy Spirit in any confrontation and enticement to sin and evil.
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the price? So run, that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery (contest for price) is temperate (disciplined and careful) in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an-incorruptible crown. I therefore so run, not as uncertainty; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body and bring it under subjection; lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Cor. 1: 24–27)
The liberty of Christ or liberty in him is not a license to sin. For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh (not to sin, for he that sows to his flesh, that is, walking in the new life in the old, broad way and wide gate, shall reap corruption, which means second death in hell for eternity; but he that sows to the Spirit – he that lives the new life with a new mentality through the straight gate and the narrow way, shall reap everlasting life) but by love serve one another (Gal. 5: 13).
The liberty of Christ or the liberty in him is the freedom from the old master, slavery, and chains of sin which once enslaved us and held us fast in darkness. Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin, and the servant abides not in the house forever, but the Son abides ever.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8: 34–36).
The security and assurance of a believer’s liberty is in the exercising and obligation of his duty; using his will power, by the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit, to walk daily in the light and truth of God’s word, shunning all unrighteousness (sin) and shining as light in the world.
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him.Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3: 4–9)
The new cloth is our garment of righteousness given us at conversion by the Lord.
We must cautiously be walking in it such that its cleanliness and whiteness is constantly maintained every day and at all times.
If by carelessness and distraction in our daily walk the new cloth gets stained or dirty by sin, we must quickly go down to the fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness to get it washed.
If our sins are sincerely confessed and forsaken, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness through the blood of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Zech. 13: 1).
Extract from the book-The purposes of the cross. With your seed-gift of 100 Euros or more into the ministry I will send you this powerful book full of revelation and life in a volume of 380 pages in soft or hard cover design. Write now to contact@yemiadebiyiministries.org or follow this link to order http://www.prweb.com/releases/DrApostleEmmanuelAdebiyi/PurposesoftheCross/prweb10820740.htm.