I was talking with some friends from the States this week and explaining Ontario’s graduated licensing system for new drivers. Of course, we’re very much aware of the system because Sharon is in South Africa and if she doesn’t pass her G2 exit test by July, she’ll have to start the whole process over again from scratch. Not a pleasant prospect.
I don’t know if you’re aware of it but, before Ontario's graduated licensing system was in place, 16-year-olds were in three times as many crashes as the general public. Not only that, three times as many of those crashes were fatal. Since graduated licensing came in, the fatal crash rate for 16-year-olds is about the same as that of the general public. And, since 1995, the overall crash rate for 16-year-olds is lower than that of the general population. That means that the average 16 year old in Ontario is probably a safer driver than their parents! Think about that for a minute!
Now why do suppose that is? It’s because people finally realised that there is more to driving a car than having a pulse and a driver’s license. Driving is not something that people are able to do without training. You have to coordinate your hands and your feet doing things they weren’t really designed to do. You have to look well ahead and check your mirror and be aware of traffic around you and the old lady that’s about to step off the sidewalk and the kids playing with a ball on their front lawn. And you have to do all of that while hurtling along the road at 50 km/hr in a box of steel and plastic that is a very effective lethal weapon. That’s why we have to learn to drive.
In verses 20 and 21 of chapter 4 of Ephesians, Paul talks about “learning Christ.” He’s just finished talking about how the Ephesians used to live; and it isn’t a very flattering picture. He talked about “futile thinking,” “darkened understanding,” “separated from God,” “hardened hearts,” “insensitivity,” “impurity,” and “lust.” Then he says, “You, however, did not come to know Christ that way.” That word that the NIV translates as “come to know,” almost every other English translation gives as “learn,” because that’s what it means. “You, however, did not learn Christ that way.”
That’s a strange thing to say, isn’t it? I first met my friend Jack, who was visiting us this week, in 1998, but I wouldn’t say that I learned him in 1998. I might say that I “came to know” him then, but I wouldn’t say that I learned him.
But I still think it’s right to speak of learning Christ, because the very next thing Paul says is, “Surely you heard of him and were taught in him.”
Teaching, learning; they go together.
Because, you see, Paul isn’t talking about getting to know about somebody. (Some of the English translations do stick an “about” in there to make it better English. “You, however, did not learn about Christ that way.”)
Paul isn’t even talking about meeting somebody, like I met my friend Jack in 1998. What Paul is talking about is much more profound than that, much deeper than that.
In Acts 11:26 it says that it was in Antioch, in what is now Syria, that the disciples were first called “Christians.” It doesn’t say that they called themselves “Christians.” Other people called them “Christians,” and it wasn’t meant as a compliment! It meant, “Little Christs.” The disciples in Antioch were so devoted to following Jesus and to modelling their lives after his that people who didn’t like them would say, “Oh, here comes one of those “little Christs.” Here comes one of those Christians.”
That’s what Paul is talking about; not learning about Christ, but learning to be like Christ, so much so that he can talk about “learning Christ” in the same way as you might talk about “learning guitar” or “learning French.” Because true learning changes how you are in the world. When you learn something, rather than learn about something, you are forever changed – you become a different person.
[Little kids understand that about learning. When they learn to do something they’re really excited about it. When the kids were little we had a book that we read with them called “I can do it myself.” Doing up buttons, putting on shoes, tying their laces; each accomplishment was a milestone in the process of growing up.]
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever learned anything instantaneously; because learning is a process that takes time and effort.
When I first “learned guitar,” I would spend hours just playing until my fingers ached, until the tips of my fingers were so sore I could hardly use them.
When I “learned to drive” it took time for me to get the hang of something as simple as making the car go round a corner without either hitting the curb or ending up in the wrong lane.
When I “learned Persian” it took a long time before I could do something as simple as go shopping in the language, never mind manage a project or share my faith.]
So don’t be discouraged if you aren’t the next Billy Graham yet. It takes time to “learn Christ.” In Ephesians 1:13 Paul tells the believers in Ephesus that they, “also were included in Christ when [they] heard the word of truth, the gospel of [their] salvation.” They heard the gospel, they responded and they were included in Christ (they were saved) all in one go.
But being included in Christ is not the same as “learning Christ.” One is an event. The other is a process. There’s parts to the process of learning Christ. Paul calls them; “putting off,” “being changed” and “putting on.”
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. (Eph 4:22)
“Put off your old self.” When Marilyn and I were dating we were both members of a Christian community in the countryside about an hour from Amsterdam, Holland. One of the things about running a Christian community with very little money is that the community members do most of the work around the place. Marilyn worked in the laundry room. I worked in maintenance.
One of the jobs I had to do over a period of months while we were dating was to try and fix the sewage system. We’re talking old clay pipes and no-one had accurate drawings for where they went or where the septic tanks were. So, I would spend every morning digging up sewers and trying to clean them out.
You can’t do that kind of thing for long without your clothing developing a certain aroma! So, every lunch time, I would get changed before I went into the dining room to have lunch with everybody else. I would “put off” my old smelly work clothes. That’s what the word means. It’s the word that you would use to talk about changing your clothes and Paul is saying that our old identity, what we were before we became Christians, is like smelly old clothes that need to be gotten rid of if we’re going to grow to be like Christ. He describes the smell in verses 17-19.
17 So I tell you
this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the
Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened
in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having
lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to
indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Not pretty! But how do you “put off” your old self? It’s not like your “self” is an overcoat that you can just hang up at the door. In fact your “self” isn’t one thing. It’s made up of lots of little bits.
Who am I? Well, I’m a father and a husband. I play guitar and I teach Bible. I run down stairs and I bite my fingernails when I watch tense movies. My “self” is made up of hundreds of little things like that, things that distinguish me from other people. And some of those things need to change if I’m going to become more like Jesus.
Paul says that “learning Christ” means that at least some of those things need to be laid aside, like old smelly clothes. The writer of Hebrews calls it “repentance from acts that lead to death.” (Heb 6:2)
You were taught… to be made new in the attitude of your minds. (Eph 4:23)
The second part of learning Christ is “to be made new in the attitude of your minds.”
I want you to notice something here that’s very important. Even though there are some things in our lives that we need to stop doing, and others that we need to start doing, that’s not what makes us Christians. It says, “be made new.”
[In 1985 I became a Canadian citizen. I stood before a citizenship judge and answered some questions and took an oath and I was made a citizen. I didn’t make myself a citizen, even though I did take part in the process. I didn’t have the power or authority to make myself a citizen. I was made a citizen by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.]
If I am made new, then it means that someone else is doing the work, not me. That someone is God the Holy Spirit. He’s the one who makes us new. Paul says the same thing in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
When we give our lives to God something happens at the core of our being. The Holy Spirit comes in and transforms us; he makes us new people at the very core of our being. He makes us new in “the attitudes of our minds.” That’s not something we can do by ourselves. Only God can give me a new heart and mind so that I want to be like him.
And that’s what the third part of the
process is, “to put on the new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4:24)
One of the problems with the way that that gospel has been presented in the West, at least since the 19th century, is that it is often presented as a set of “don’ts.” Don’t do this, don’t do that. The classic picture of a Christian minister in Hollywood is someone with a long face who goes around telling people what they can’t do.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The Christian life is much more about positively doing good, than it is about negatively not doing bad. People didn’t follow Jesus because of what he didn’t do, but because of the good that he did do. We put on our new identity as Christians by living as Jesus did. Doing good and serving others.
[One of the things that would often happen at baptisms in Pakistan was that the new believer would be given a white suit after the baptism service. They would come to the service in old clothes, be baptized, then when they dried off after the baptism, they would change into (put on) a brand new set of white clothes. (That’s not as weird as it might sound. White shalwar chemise were quite popular as dress clothes for special occasions like weddings.)
It was based on a similar practise in the early church and it helped to symbolize a change that would be outward as well as inward.]
Like the Christians in Antioch, people should be able to look at us and see that we behave like Jesus, that we have a new identity, that we are created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
That’s a pretty high calling, “to be like God.” We can’t be like God in terms of power or glory, but we can be in terms of righteousness and holiness. God calls us to have our lives reflect his character to the world. And if we need to figure out the content of that, we look in the Bible, because “16All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, 17so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.” (2 Tim 3:16)
There are two major mistakes that people make when it comes to understanding what it means to live as a Christian. One mistake is to focus only on what God does, to focus on being “made new in the attitudes of your minds” and to claim that there is no need for us to “put off” or “put on” anything, no need to change our behaviour. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who was executed by Hitler because he spoke out against Nazism, called this “Cheap Grace.” In a book called “The Cost of Discipleship” he wrote, “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
The other mistake is the opposite of this. To focus only on what we do, to focus only on what we need to “put off” or “put on” without recognising that none of that makes any difference without God’s work in our hearts to make us new people. The result is that some churches make up lists of behaviours that are supposed to be the mark of “real Christians.” And for many churches, the mark of being a “real Christian” is keeping the rules, even when the “rules” aren’t particularly biblical. (Don’t play card games, drink alcohol, smoke, or go to movies.) If we’re going to “learn Christ” then we’re going to have to avoid both extremes.
Finally, Paul gives a little list of some of the things that we need to be seeking God for the grace to “put off” and “put on.”
25 Therefore each of
you must put off falsehood (lying – OFF) and speak truthfully to his
neighbor, (telling the truth – ON) for we are all members of one body. 26
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you
are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He
who has been stealing must steal no longer, (stealing – OFF) but must
work, doing something useful with his own hands, (working – ON) that he
may have something to share with those in need. (Giving – ON)
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, (bad language – OFF) but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, (upbuilding language – ON) that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. (all that stuff – OFF) 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (kindness and compassion – ON)
There may be something in that list that you
are personally struggling with right now. Let me assure you that it is much
easier to say “yes” to Jesus than “no” to the devil. By that I mean it is
easier to follow Jesus positively and ask him for the grace to be truthful,
honest and kind than it is to strive not to lie, steal or be nasty. As you turn
to Jesus and ask him to help, he will. He’ll help you “put off” those things
that aren’t like him, and “put on” those things that make you look like him.