God gives us the gift of eternal through faith, but the kind of life we have as a Christian is the result of what we do with this gift we’ve been given by God.

Christians have been raised with Christ because He was resurrected from death. In chapter two Paul declared that in Christian baptism we are buried in Christ and also raised to eternal life with Him. Our baptism is like our birthday. But what kind of life we have from then on is our doing. If nothing changes from that point forward, there’s something terribly wrong.

We die to our past through baptism. The old life isn’t good enough anymore. We don’t want the past. We accept God’s offer of grace and we’re born again to eternal life. That’s why we Put On the New Self, but what is it that we need to do?

Drastic action is called for against the sins of the flesh listed here. He says, Drastic action is required because these sins have drastic consequences.

It’s not just the casual hook ups, the pre-marital and extra-marital affairs you need to stop altogether, but also to put an end to impurity, lust and unclean passion. “Kill it,” he says. Don’t let it have any kind of life in you. Don’t give these activities a single breath. You’ve got to intentionally and proactively stop their presence in your life. You’re playing with fire when you let yourself enjoy the excitement of a lustful thought. If you allow yourself to imagine sexual activity or view sexual images and allow your emotions to be stirred, you’re fueling a blaze. You must quickly declare to yourself that those thoughts are sinful and stop them, or they will find a home in your heart. It only takes a spark to destroy your marriage, your home and your life.

Those are destructive behaviors of the body to just stop. If you have said ‘yes’ to God’s offer of relationship with Him and were baptized to unite with Christ’s life, you have been forgiven for all your sin past, present and future. You have the hope of life with God for eternity, but in order to have the new self now, you’ve got to do the work of burying the old earthly nature.

And there are destructive expressions of emotions to get rid of as well—anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language and falsehood. These are practices of the old self the way you were before you knew Christ. Putting on the new self means putting away these patterns of reacting.

Some of us need to grow up spiritually. We need to take off the old, dirty t-shirt stained by anger, rage, slander, malice, obscenity and deceit. We need to put on the new clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and love. But how do we do this?

It is God’s Word that does the work of transforming us and creating the new self in us. We cannot do it ourselves. God’s Word is living and active and powerful.

Are there any areas of my life right now that are not currently reflecting the lordship of Christ?

Have I declared war on my sin?

When I stumble and fall, where do I run?