The Thirty-third Lord’s Day

33 The Thirty-third Lord’s Day
Ephesians 4:20-22
But you have not so learned Christ, if it is so that you have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: That you put off, concerning your former conversation,1 the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
The Apostle is here taken up in that most weighty exhortation, whereby he began at the entry of this chapter to stir up Christians to that conversation which agrees with their calling to Christianity. And he began this exhortation in Ephesians 4:17,2 to illustrate from a comparison of unlike things. And the parties that are compared are Christians, and other people. The quality in which they are compared is their manner and way of living. The unlikeness in this quality is either in the principles and causes of living, or in their effects. As to their principles, Heathens are said to have all their faculties corrupted; and as to the faith, all their actions and motions3 are deformed. On the contrary, all the faculties of Christians are renewed, and their motions are holy and honest. The reddition,4 or second part of this comparison, which belongs to Christians, is contained in these five verses, in which the unlike condition of Christians and unbelievers is explained: 1. From its external cause, which is the Doctrine and Discipline of the Gospel, Ephesians 4:20-21. 2. From the internal causes, which are Conversion and Sanctification. This again consists of two parts: 1. The mortification and laying off of the old man. Its vivification5 and putting on of the new man; that is, the renovation of the whole man, each part illustrated by its description, which is from their effects. The effects of the old man are corruptions and errours, Ephesians 4:22. The effects of the new man are righteousness and holiness, Ephesians 4:23-24.
Doctrine 1. There is a great unlikeness of condition and life between regenerated men and unregenerated men.
This is gathered from the scope of the Text, and these words, the old man, and the new man, as if a man were not the same man after regeneration that he was before. To this belong all those comparisons which, through most of the Proverbs of
 Solomon, are made between the godly and ungodly. It is also pointed at everywhere in the New Testament, and also in the Old, by the difference between light and darkness, and between a quick man and dead, and between one that is being defiled with all sorts of uncleanness, like the Sow that wallows in the mire, and one that is washed and cleansed.
1 That is, your former conduct.
2 Ephesians 4:17-19 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
3 That is, inclinations of the heart; motivations.
4 An explanation or representation; here it is given by comparison. 
5 Quality of being active, spirited or alive and vigorous.
Reason 1 . Because they have a different nature; believers are made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Peter 1:4; and unbelievers are scarcely said to have a man’s nature in a moral consideration. To this it belongs that the Apostle everywhere teaches that believers are led and governed by the Spirit of God, to walk after it;1 and unbelievers are led by their own flesh.2
Reason 2 . Because, as the internal principle of operations is quite unlike, so also the outward rule of all their conversation is quite contrary; the regenerate orders his whole life after the will of God revealed in his Word; the unregenerate orders it after his own suggestions, and corrupt imaginations, or worldly opinions.
Reason 3 . Because the end to which they tend is unlike and contrary; the regenerate breathes after God and Heaven, as he is called to the hope of eternal life; the unregenerate seeks himself, and this present world. To this it belongs that the unregenerate are said to be of this world; but the regenerate are Citizens of Heaven itself, Php_3:20, and often elsewhere.
Use 1 . Of Reproof: of those who will be thought, and perhaps think themselves true believers and regenerate, when yet in their whole conversation scarcely anything can be marked which is not common to them and unregenerate persons.
Use 2 . Of Comfort: for the godly that lead a life worthy of a Christian profession, but are sometimes troubled from infirmity, because most with whom they live or deal become strange towards them; and make it plain that they are offended in some way by the strictness of their conversation. This offense arises properly from this unlikeness of conversation, whereby the corrupt walking of others according to the fashions of the world is tacitly reproved, Ephesians 5:11-13.3 Now this unlikeness ought to be our greatest comfort, as it is a sign of our regeneration.
Use 3. Of Exhortation: that by the change of our life and conversation, we may more and more study to show to others, and confirm to ourselves, this grace of our regeneration, to which we are called in Christ.
Doctrine 2. The cause of this unlikeness of regenerate from unregenerate is the Doctrine of the Gospel. 
It is clear enough in the Text. 
Reason 1. Because the Doctrine of the Gospel teaches us to deny all ungodliness, and worldliness, and to live holily, Titus 2:12.
Reason 2 . Because the mighty and powerful operation of the Holy Spirit is present with the preaching of the Gospel, for producing this change in man; for this cause it is called the Ministry of the Spirit, and the Law of the Spirit of life, and the Arm of God.
Reason 3 . Because the proper power of faith is to cleanse the hearts of those that it is in, Acts 15:9; and to make us, from our hearts, hearken to the Doctrine to which we were delivered, Romans 6:17.
1 Romans 8:1; Romans 8:14.
2 2 Peter 2:10.
3 Ephesians 5:11-13 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatever makes manifest is light. (KJV)
Use. Of Admonition: that we beware lest by hearing in vain the preaching of the Gospel, without this fruit of conversion and change of life, we perniciously deceive ourselves. 
Doctrine 3. One part of this conversion made by the Gospel, is mortification of all our corrupt dispositions and habits.
It is gathered from Ephesians 5:22, where the old man means all the corrupt dispositions, because they possess all the parts and faculties of the man from our birth, and have dominion and power over us to keep us still under them; therefore they carry the name of the old man justly, and for these reasons: 1. Because they thus possessed us from the beginning of our conception. 2. Because they ought to be considered by Christians as old things, and useless, and be put off, and laid away. And that is,
Reason 1 . Because the end of Christ’s death, and of the Gospel itself, is to dissolve the works of the Devil, 1 John 3:8.1 And these inordinate dispositions and habits are among the first and chief works of the Devil.
Reason 2. Because by these corruptions we were separated from God, and the Gospel calls us and draws us to God again; and therefore calls us to lay these aside.
Reason 3. Because life and obedience have no place in those things which lusts and habits have power in; and the Gospel calls us to a spiritual life, and a new obedience. 
Use 1. Of Reproof: of those who would have themselves thought regenerate, when yet they are the servants of such carnal lusts. 
Use 2. Of Exhortation: that we manfully set ourselves not only to repress such lusts, but quite also to root them out. Now the old man is mortified, 
1. By that firm and constant purpose of changing our life, which is effectually begun in our first repentance, and ought to be renewed and extended daily to all new emergences.
2. By the virtue of Christ’s death applied to us by faith, from which our old man is said to be crucified with Christ; and it may be rightly added, with the same nails that Christ was crucified. For Christ was fastened to the Cross partly because of the guilt of our sins; partly out of the love of the Father to us, that we might be saved; and partly out of Christ’s own love to us, whereby he was willing to lay down his life for us. By earnest meditation on these things, the power of sin is most diminished in us.
3. By the power of the Holy Spirit, to whom we ought to surrender ourselves, in the use of all the means ordained by God, which he uses to put forth his powerful working. 
Doctrine 4. The other part of this conversion is vivification, or renewing the inward man.
By the terms inward, new, or renewed man are understood the new dispositions that are agreeable to the will of God. They are called the man, as these other dispositions were, because they should be diffused over the whole man, as they were. And they are called the new man partly in respect to order, because they follow the other; partly in respect to their excellence, because they are so much better than the other, as new things are better than old, worn-out, and decayed things. In this respect, many things of greater excellence than others are called new in comparison to the other. And this new man is said both to be repaired, and to be put on, because as these inward dispositions in the spirit of our mind are acquired, they are the renewing of the man, and the inner man, verse 23. And the same is said to be put on as a garment, as both outwardly and inwardly it has full hold of us, and wraps us wholly up in itself; so that it contains not only imputed righteousness, but also inherent righteousness, which consists in the actions of a new obedience.
1 1 John 3:8 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.

Reason 1 . This new man must be put on, because it is according to God, or the image of God, as it is in Text. For it is our duty during our whole life to live to God, and to aspire to be like the image of God according to which we were created, and to which we are now called again.
Reason 2 . Because our spiritual perfection consists in this new man, or in this image of God, and so these are almost the chief parts of our glorification.
Reason 3. Because, as by this image we please God who delights in his own image, so by this image alone we are made fit, and apt to glorify God as we ought to.
Reason 4 . Because we cannot be freed from the corruption and perverseness of the old man, except by virtue of this new man — just as darkness is not removed out of this or that place except by letting in light.
Use . That with all care and by all means, sanctified by God for this end, we may more and more labour to put on this new man. Now he is put on, 1. By virtue of that effectual desire and purpose we have to please God in our first repentance. 2. By virtue of Christ’s resurrection applied to us by faith. 3. By virtue of the Holy Spirit given to us in the word of Christ, and in his Sacraments.
Doctrine 5. The old man brings in errours and corruptions; and the new man brings forth righteousness and true holiness, Ephesians 5:22-23.
The old man corrupts, 1. The understanding, with all secret errours. 2. The other faculties, by all sorts of lusts and concupiscences. 3. The life and conversation, by all sorts of misleadings from the right way. In all these there is corruption, properly so-called, because there is lack of such a life and perfection as should not be lacking; and a perturbation of that order that belongs to the state of perfection. Now, that the new man produces works of righteousness and holiness, is apparent for these reasons:
Reason 1 . Because he observes the rule of righteousness, which is the Law of God.
Reason 2. Because he belongs to our spiritual perfection, in which we resemble the divine nature according to the proportion of our holiness. 
Reason 3. Because he always brings forth kindly fruits, or fruits like unto himself, seeking both his own conservation and improvement from the common conspiracy of all our inclinations.
Use . Of Exhortation: that with the same care and zeal we may labour for the mortification of the old man, and vivification of the new, by which means we desire to shun corruption and death, and to attain to a holy and blessed perfection.