8/20/06 - Pentecost 11 - Eph. 4:17-24 - A Work in Progress

A WORK IN PROGRESS
- Off with the old
- On with the new

Isn’t it disheartening to see a “work in progress” sign when you’re driving? Things have been going great, traffic is light, you’re making good time, when all of the sudden you see that bright orange sign: road work ahead. And oh, what a terrible sign to see, right? Because any of those work in progress signs mean that you’ll inevitably have to slow down, and you’ll have to pay more attention because the road may narrow, and you’ll have to concentrate a little harder because workers are standing right on the side of the road. And on top of all that, you don’t always know how far this work stretches. It could be 50 feet or it could be 15 miles, you just don’t know how long you’ll have to suffer through this “work in progress.”
My friends, I want you to slow down. I want you to pay more attention to road ahead of you. I want you to concentrate a little harder on avoiding the dangers on both sides. Because your life is a work in progress. You are a work in progress. And so am I. It is critical that we see that bright orange sign in front of us. We can’t just fly through life and think everything is fine. Everything is not fine, it’s not perfect. Because although we know we are Christians, we don’t always act like Christians, do we? We are always striving to be more like Christ. We are constantly trying to live, like Peter says, “as servants of God.” We continually attempt to be a brother or sister to our fellow family members in Christ. But we fail. All the time. We are a cracked highway, a road under repair. We are a work in progress.
We are a work in progress because we are missing something. We are missing the image of God. In Genesis we read, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.” Adam and Eve were created in the image of God and that’s the way it was always supposed to be. And the image of God is not a physical appearance. Adam and Eve were not made to look like God – because God the Father doesn’t even have a physical body. The image of God refers to an inner image. What God thought, they thought. What God wanted, they wanted. Adam and Eve were perfectly in tune with God when they were in his image. They were on the same page with the Lord’s will in every situation.
Until they threw that image out the window by eating from that infamous tree. Then it was over. From then on no human being has possessed the image of God because God’s image in us has been mangled and disfigured by sin. And we can’t just blame Adam and Eve for that. We take our own shots at the image of God. We do just as much damage. Think about how many sins you’ve committed in your lifetime. Think about those sins you commit without even thinking about them anymore. Every one of those sins mutilates the image of God in you – to a point where the image of God is sometimes unrecognizable in your life.
Because those sins, especially the ones you commit without thinking, have calloused you. If you work with your hands you get calluses on them and you can’t feel the pricks and pinches anymore. If you cook or wash dishes your hands are no longer affected by the heat or the hot water because they have become calloused. And the same thing happens to our consciences. We all have different sins that have calloused us. We talked about this a little bit last Sunday in Bible Class. The sin that you’ve been calloused by may be gossip: saying something about another person that gives them a bad name – even if it’s true! Or maybe your lingering sin is coveting: wanting something that you cannot have, whether it be a person, or a possession, or a talent, or a different life. Maybe your sin is hatred. You don’t like that person, you never will, and you’re not going to try. All these things are sins. Gossiping, coveting, hatred. Sins that can callous a heart and destroy the image of God. Sins, by the impression they give to others, may call into question the sincerity of your Christianity! We are Christians, but sometimes we don’t act Christian at all.
It must pain God to see us act in this way, but that’s exactly why he sent the one we are named after. That’s why he sent Christ. Because when Christ came to this earth he was not a work in progress. He wasn’t lacking anything. He had it all. In fact, Paul says in 2 Corinthians that Christ actually “is the image of God.” So Jesus thinks as his Father thinks. He wants what his Father wants. He does what his Father wants him to do. “I have not come to do my will,” Jesus said, “but the will of him who sent me.” And what is God’s will? That all people “be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” So that’s exactly why Jesus came to this earth. To save you. To reinstate you in the image of God you lost. And because of the fact that Christ is the image of God, he is able to include you in that image. He stepped up in your place. He was your substitute. He transferred his glory and perfection to you so that he can “present you before God’s glorious presence without fault” in eternity. Even though you are not able to regain the image of God on this earth, Christ has gained it for you in heaven. Which is all the better.
So as far as your salvation is concerned, that work is done. But as far as your Christian life on this earth concerned, that is still a work in progress. We don’t need to live God-pleasing lives to regain that image, because we already have it guaranteed to us by Christ. Instead, we strive to live God-pleasing lives out of thanks for what Christ has guaranteed to us. And that is what Paul uses in our text to motivate a Christian life. “You heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self.” Put it off. Take off your old self like a dirty pair of clothes. That really is the picture that Paul is painting for us here. Take off your old self.
When I worked in the Nebraska cornfields for 8 summers, I would come home with my clothes just covered with mud and dirt and sweat. It was always a relief to take them off at the end of the day and put some clean clothes on. But the next day, I’d have to do again. And the next day. And the next. I couldn’t avoid the mud and the dirt and the sweat. Every day I would come home with my clothes covered in filth.
Every day we are covered in the filth of sin. And so every day we must take off our old self again. It is constant. It is continual. It never ends. And the way you take off our old self is by repenting of those sins and clinging to the cross of Christ for your forgiveness. That is taking off your old self. That is what you must do every day because every day you get that robe dirty again. So the trick is: avoid that filth. Stop wallowing in the mud of gossip. Stop playing in dirt of covetousness. Stop covering yourself in the sweat of hate. Avoid every sin that stains the Christian clothes you are wearing. And I know it’s easier said than done. I struggle with my own sins. We all do. So we must constantly be at work, taking of our old self day in and day out because we all are a work in progress.
But we can’t stop there can we? We can’t just take off our old self and hope to hide from sin as spiritually naked Christians, can we? No! We have to also put on our new self! Paul says, “Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Your new self is created to be like God! Your new self is as close as you can come on this earth to the image of God that we will only regain in heaven. Put it on! Every time you take off that old self, put on the new! Because if your old self is you the sinner, then your new self is you the saint. It is you the Christian. That Christian that we all strive to be out of thanks for what Christ has done for us.
But how do you do that? If taking off your old self is repenting of sins and avoiding them, how do you put on the new? Fortunately, Scripture tells us: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” If these are the fruits of the Spirit, they are the fruits of the Christian. The fruits of you new self. Put them on. Clothe yourselves with these things. Especially the first. The first fruit of the new self mentioned is love. Love means no more gossiping. Say things that will improve your brother’s or sister’s reputation instead of harming it. Love means no more coveting. Thank the Lord for what he has given you instead of wishing you had something else. Love, of course, means no more hate. Go out of your way to be nice. Give someone a shoulder to lean on even if they give you a cold one. Love them like they are your own children. That is the love of your new self that is to be put on every day. And every fruit after love stems from it: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Put on this clothing. Even if it’s not all that easy. Even if it doesn’t feel all that comfortable. This is the clothing of a Christian. A Christian who is, nonetheless, a work in progress.
The Lord knows you are a work in progress. He knows you strive to put on your new self and take off the old. And he knows that you will sometimes fall. So that is why he is right here with us. He is by our side every day giving us the strength to battle on. And that is what verse 23 says in our text. We are being made new. We aren’t doing it to ourselves, we aren’t making ourselves new. God is making us new. And it is a process. It is an ongoing thing that will not end until we go home for good. But be assured: even though you may be a work in progress, God will not give up. He will guide you, he will help you, he will forgive, because he has already saved you. So you will go home. You will receive that lost image once again. You will be presented before the throne by your Savior himself “in true righteousness and holiness” – absolutely clean in the blood of the Lamb.
Amen.

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
- Jude 24-25