In today’s podcast, Pastor Chuck Allen tackles a struggle we all know too well: the daily pull between good and evil. We’ve all felt like we’ve got an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, each pushing us in different directions. Pastor Chuck uses the words of Paul in Ephesians and Philippians to help us understand how we can truly “put on the new self” and live out our faith daily. By stepping into our identity in Christ, we can overcome life’s struggles with renewed strength.
Hi everybody, this is Pastor Chuck Allen and I want to thank you for joining me on another weekday podcast. You know, we all struggle with the pull between good and evil in our daily lives. I mean, who in the world hasn't just identified with the cartoon of a person with an angel on one shoulder and Satan on the other, each whispering in the ear of our mortality, struggling to make a choice? We've all been there. I've used this example so many times. You may be tired of hearing it, but I feel like most of our life we find ourselves with those voices competing for our attention. But the Bible can truly help us. It always does. It clarifies the nature of the internal spiritual war that tends to rage on within the life of a child of God. In Ephesians, Paul writes in chapter four, verse 24, put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. So when Paul says put on the new self, what he's really saying is live out the new self which you received when you gave your life to Christ when you were born again. That's the same idea that we see in Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 12, where you read, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Paul didn't say work in your salvation, but work out your salvation. The point isn't that we're to work in order to gain salvation. It's not like we can do enough good things to earn anything. But rather Paul is saying we're to express or to live out the salvation we already have. He says that God is working in us. He's prompting us to will his good pleasure and strengthening us to work for his good pleasure. God's good pleasure. He is doing this for Christians, for people like me and you, for children of God. So just to review, when Paul says in Ephesians 4:24, put on the new self, he's saying, begin living like the new person you have already become, which is the same point he's making. Philippians 2 There's two good points of the good news about this. First, there is a new self that we have when we are born again. We are given a new self created in the likeness of God. That's who we are. That's our identity. But second, while we're still housed in this unredeemed body, this outer person, the new person can gain increasing mastery over the old and live in a way that's pleasing to the Lord. The battle can be won day by day. This is what sanctification is, to live out this faith. So when you look at this a little more closely, I trust that you'll join me again in a couple of days and we'll jump in and we'll talk about the fact that the inner man is real. It's not metaphorical. It is a very real new person inside of you. The inner person is real, not metaphorical. So I look forward to talking with you again in a couple of days as we try to work out our faith and our salvation for the glory of God and for the good of our life. Thank you so much for joining me today on this weekday podcast. And I trust in the future that you'll jump over and visit our sister podcast, the Positive Talk Podcast, which rolls out every Thursday, where Julie Homrich, a psychotherapist, and I, a pastor, try to take things like faith and psychology and merge them together so that we might be able to discover deeper purpose and find more peace in our walk with Christ. God bless you, friend. And thanks again for joining me on today's weekday podcast.
