A young man sold his recently deceased parents’ farmhouse and land to a developer. Having received an unusually good price for his inheritance, he wanted to do something special in return for the generous buyer. And so he made some needed repairs and put a fresh coat of paint on the old place. Upon seeing the new look, the now owner said, “Son, I wish you had not taken the time or effort. You see, my intention is to tear the old down and start all over again.”
I have spent a large part of my Christian life trying to patch-up what God condemned, trying to whitewash the dry-rot in my old Adamic nature. In spite of the fact that I am told over and again in scripture, God by-passes the old nature, condemning it, for the new. Every time I have put new wine into old bottles, they burst; and each time I patch an old garment with a new, I look ridiculous!
We need to cease striving to change the “old man.” It can’t be done, anymore than an Ethiopian can his skin or a leopard his spots. Change comes, not by trying, but in applying. It is not in attempting by works to change the old, but in appropriating by faith what we already have in the new. You might say, “It’s a done deal.” Our appropriation makes a fact a reality.
To put a garment on or off is a physical act. To put the “old man” off and the “new man” on is a spiritual act of faith.
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