Ephesians

No Excuses

At this point, many people object and say, “Well, I’ve tried this, but it doesn’t work for me. I can see that it works for other people, but not for me.”

That is the old nature speaking, the old self putting the blame for failure onto God. It is really a subtle way of saying that God shows partiality, giving some people help while denying help to others. That is a lie of the old nature within you. When we make that excuse, we are denying to ourselves the fact that we never really wanted to put off the old self to begin with—we enjoy it too much. We cling to the pleasures of the egocentric old nature. And as long as you cling to the old self, you cannot put on the new life that God wants you to have.

“Well, I do my best,” is another excuse. Again, that’s the old self speaking—and the best of the old self is hardly better than the worst. You cannot tie a pink bow on a pig’s tail and pass it off as a poodle. If you want to win a prize at the dog show, you need to trade in that pig for a pooch! There’s no point in prettying up and disguising the old self. You have to put off the old and put on the new.

There’s no room in the Christian life for halfway measures or self-justifying excuses. The choice is either/or, all or nothing—not a little bit of both or, “Well, I tried.” God has given us an absolutely sure and foolproof pattern for achieving dramatic change in our lives—and His plan is not subject to halfway results. It works.

Put off, and you can put on. Put on, and you must put off. There is no other way. The choice is extreme; it is black and white; it is utterly simple. And it is your choice to make.

Study Questions

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