Ephesians 4:22-24
This is such a difficult concept to fully grasp as a Christian, yet it is probably the most crucial part of our walk with Christ. I, myself, have been a Christ follower for almost 6 years now, and I feel like I am just now truly realizing the truth, the hope, and the power behind this scripture.
Like everyone else, my past contains many choices I'm not proud of, even some that I deeply regret. My life over the past 6 years has been a gradual process of recognizing and confronting some of these selfish ways I was living, the sins I was allowing in my daily life, and the distortions that culture and worldliness implanted into my thinking. I believe (from what I know about my own life and from what little wisdom God has given me) that we are all created with a strong inherent need, and I believe that God alone can meet that need in us. Yet, we look to everything else in this world… money, sex, alcohol, drugs, job title, social status, acceptance from people, Facebook, new car, 3D TV, video games, iPhones… ok, you get the idea.
When I decided to add God into the mix of "things I thought could meet my need," my life began to turn upside down. As I witnessed God meeting this need more and more, everything else started being pushed out of the equation. In addition to that, when we open ourselves up to receive Christ as our salvation, we are given the Holy Spirit which gives us discernment and convicts us of the junk in our lives and shows them for what they are… "rubbish" (as Paul says in Philippians 3:8). This began happening in me and I became convicted to give up these things that I allowed into my life.
This is a process, and it can be difficult and painful to recognize how bad our sins were. It's the exact shame that Adam and Eve experienced after they had sinned and felt the need to cover themselves and hide from God in Genesis 3. However, Psalm 103:12 says "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Only God is capable of this… of completely pardoning you from anything you have done through His grace, of removing any ounce of guilt or shame through His forgiveness, and of transforming a person from old to new through His power. This paints a basic picture of the cross, which was God's demonstration of all of this for all of us.
I designed the image below as a "visual interpretation" of this scripture from Ephesians. As I was thinking and praying about this scripture one day, this image just came into my head. It represents the transformational process of a person through salvation, from old self to new self, and there is a fixed barrier between the two that distinguishes and separates. The cross is conveniently formed in the middle and stands between the old self and the new self.
Nothing from the side of the old self can take away from the new self, because the cross stands in the way.
At the same time...
Nothing from the side of the new self can be obtained by the old self, because the cross stands in the way.
