Ephesians 4:24

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) And that ye put on . . .—But this effect of “the putting off of the old man” is at once absorbed in the stronger idea of “putting on the new man.” In the “new man” here is implied not merely youthfulness, but the freshness of a higher nature (as in Ephesians 2:15). To “put on the new man” is, therefore, to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” by that divine process of which we have the beginning in Galatians 3:27, the continuation in Romans 13:14, and the completion in 1Corinthians 15:53-54; 2Corinthians 5:3. For He is “the new man,” “the second Adam,” “formed after God, in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

Holiness (used only here and in Luke 1:75) is “purity” consecrated to God in His “Holy One” (Acts 2:27). It describes the “purity of heart” of which our Lord Himself speaks as a still higher grace, gifted with a higher reward, than even “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6; Matthew 5:8). “Righteousness” is goodness shown to others, to man and to God: “holiness” is goodness in itself, as it is in “the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity.” Stress is laid upon it here in contrast with the lusts and uncleanness described above.

Truth is similarly opposed to the “deceit” of Ephesians 4:22. Christ is Himself “the Truth,” as being the manifestation of “the fulness of the Godhead.” As the corrupting and beguiling lusts belong to the spirit of Deceit, so righteousness and holiness to the Truth.

MacLaren's Expositions

EPHESIANS

THE NEW MAN

Ephesians 4:24We had occasion to remark in a former sermon that Paul regards this and the preceding clauses as the summing up of ‘the truth in Jesus’; or, in other words, he considers the radical transformation and renovation of the whole moral nature as being the purpose of the revelation of God in Christ. To this end they have ‘heard Him.’ To this end they have ‘learned Him.’ To this end they have been ‘taught in Him,’ receiving, by union with Him, all the various processes of His patient discipline. This is the inmost meaning of all the lessons in that great school in which all Christians are scholars, and Christ is the teacher and the theme, and union to Him the condition of entrance, and the manifold workings of His providence and His grace the instruments of training, and heaven the home when school time is over-that we should become new men in Christ Jesus.

This great practical issue is set forth here under three aspects-one negative, two positive. The negative process is single and simple-’put off the old man.’ The positive is double-a spiritual ‘renewal’ effected in our spirits, in the deep centre of our personal being, by that Divine Spirit who, dwelling in us, is ‘the spirit of our minds’; and then, consequent upon that inward renewal, a renovation of life and character, which is described as being the ‘putting on,’ as if it were a garment, of ‘the new man,’ created by a divine act, and consisting in moral and spiritual likeness to God. It is not necessary to deal, except incidentally, with the two former, but I desire to consider the last of these-the putting on of the new man-a little more closely, and to try to bring out the wealth and depth of the Apostle’s words in this wonderful text.

The ideas contained seem to me in brief to be these-the great purpose of the Gospel is our moral renewal; that moral renewal is a creation after God’s image; that new creation has to be put on or appropriated by us; the great means of appropriating it is contact with God’s truth. Let us consider these points in order.

I. The great purpose of the Gospel is our moral renewal; ‘the new man ... created in righteousness and ... holiness.’

Now, of course, there are other ways of stating the end of the Gospel. This is by no means an exhaustive setting forth of its purpose. We may say that Christ has come in order that men may know God. We may say that He comes in order that the Divine Love, which ever delights to communicate, may bestow itself, and may conceive of the whole majestic series of acts of self-revelation from the beginning as being-if I may so say-for the gratification of that impulse to impart itself, which is the characteristic of love in God and man. We may say that the purpose of the whole is the deliverance of men from the burden and guilt of sin. But whether we speak of the end of the Gospel as the glory of God, or the blessedness of man, or as here, as being the moral perfection of the individual or of the race, they are all but various phrases of the one complete truth. The Gospel is the consequence and the manifestation of the love of God, which delights to be known and possessed by loving souls, and being known, changes them into its own likeness, which to know is to be happy, which to resemble is to be pure.

The first thing that strikes me about this representation of our text is the profound sense of human sinfulness which underlies it.

The language is utterly unmeaning-or at all events grossly exaggerated-unless all have sinned, and the nature which belongs to men universally, apart from the transforming power of Christ’s Spirit, be corrupt and evil. And that it is so is the constant view of Scripture. The Bible notion of what men need in order to be pure and good is very different from the superficial notions of worldly moralists and philanthropists. We hear a great deal about ‘culture,’ as if all that were needed were the training and strengthening of the nature, as if what was mainly needed was the development of the understanding. We hear about ‘reformation’ from some who look rather deeper than the superficial apostles of culture. And how singularly the very word proclaims the insufficiency of the remedy which it suggests! ‘Re-formation’ affects form and not substance. It puts the old materials into a new shape. Exactly so-and much good may be expected from that! They are the old materials still, and it matters comparatively little how they are arranged. It is not re-formation, but re-novation, or, to go deeper still, re-generation, that the world needs; not new forms, but a new life; not the culture and development of what it has in itself, but extirpation of the old by the infusion of something now and pure that has no taint of corruption, nor any contact with evil. ‘Verily, I say unto you, ye must be born again.’

All slighter notions of the need and more superficial diagnoses of the disease lead to a treatment with palliatives which never touch the true seat of the mischief, The poison flowers may be plucked, but the roots live on. It is useless to build dykes to keep out the wild waters. Somewhere or other they will find a way through. The only real cure is that which only the Creating hand can effect, who, by slow operation of some inward agency, can raise the level of the low lands, and lift them above the threatening waves. What is needed is a radical transformation, going down to the very roots of the being; and that necessity is clearly implied in the language of this text, which declares that a nature possessing righteousness and holiness is ‘a new man’ to be ‘put on’ as from without, not to be evolved as from within.

It is to be further noticed what the Apostle specifies as the elements, or characteristics of this new nature-righteousness and holiness.

The proclamation of a new nature in Christ Jesus, great and precious truth as it is, has often been connected with teaching which has been mystical in the bad sense of that word, and has been made the stalking horse of practical immorality. But here we have it distinctly defined in what that new nature consists. There is no vague mystery about it, no tampering with the idea of personality. The people who put on the new man are the same people after as before. The newness consists in moral and spiritual characteristics. And these are all summed up in the two-righteousness and holiness. To which is added in the substantially parallel passage in Colossians, ‘Renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him,’ where, I suppose, we must regard the ‘knowledge’ as meaning that personal knowledge and acquaintance which has its condition in love, and is the foundation of the more purely moral qualities of which our text speaks.

Is there, then, any distinction between these two? I think there is very obviously so. ‘Righteousness’ is, I suppose, to be understood here in its narrower meaning of observance of what is right, the squaring of conduct according to a solemn sovereign law of duty. Substantially it is equivalent to the somewhat heathenish word ‘morality,’ and refers human conduct and character to a law or standard. What, then, is ‘holiness’? It is the same general conduct and character, considered, however, under another aspect, and in another relation. It involves the reference of life and self to God, consecration to, and service of Him. It is not a mere equivalent of purity, but distinctly carries the higher reference. The obedience now is not to a law but to a Lord. The perfection now does not consist in conformity to an ideal standard, but in likeness and devotion to God. That which I ought to do is that which my Father in heaven wills. Or, if the one word may roughly represent the more secular word ‘morality,’ the other may roughly represent the less devout phrase, ‘practical religion.’

These are ‘new,’ as actually realised in human nature. Paul thinks that we shall not possess them except as a consequence of renovation. But they are not ‘new’ in the sense that the contents of Christian morality are different from the contents of the law written on men’s hearts. The Gospel proclaims and produces no fantastic ethics of its own. The actions which it stamps in its mint are those which pass current in all lands-not a provincial coinage, but recognised as true in ring, and of full weight everywhere. Do not fancy that Christian righteousness is different from ordinary ‘goodness,’ except as being broader and deeper, more thorough-going, more imperative. Divergences there are, for our law is more than a republication of the law written on men’s hearts. Though the one agrees with the other, yet the area which they cover is not the same. The precepts of the one, like some rock-hewn inscriptions by forgotten kings, are weathered and indistinct, often illegible, often misread, often neglected. The other is written in living characters in a perfect life. It includes all that the former attempts to enjoin, and much more besides. It alters the perspective, so to speak, of heathen morals, and brings into prominence graces overlooked or despised by them. It breathes a deeper meaning and a tenderer beauty into the words which express human conceptions of virtue, but it does take up these into itself. And instead of setting up a ‘righteousness’ which is peculiar to itself, and has nothing to do with the world’s morality, Christianity says, as Christ has taught us, ‘Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God.’ The same apostle who here declares that actual righteousness and holiness are new things on the earth, allows full force to whatsoever weight may be in the heathen notion of ‘virtue,’ and adopts the words and ideas which he found ready made to his hands, in that notion-as fitly describing the Christian graces which he enjoined. Grecian moralists supplied him with the names true, honest, just, and pure. His ‘righteousness’ accepted these as included within its scope. And we have to remember that we are not invested with that new nature, unless we are living in the exercise of these common and familiar graces which the consciences and hearts of all the world recognise for ‘lovely’ and ‘of good report,’ hail as ‘virtue,’ and crown with ‘praise.’

So, then, let me pause here for a moment to urge you to take these thoughts as a very sharp and salutary test. You call yourselves Christian people. The purpose of your Christianity is your growth and perfecting in simple purity, and devotion to, and dependence on, our loving Father. Our religion is nothing unless it leads to these. Otherwise it is like a plant that never seeds, but may bear some feeble blossoms that drop shrunken to the ground before they mature. To very many of us the old solemn remonstrance should come with awakening force-’Ye did run well, what did hinder you?’ You have apprehended Christ as the revealer and bringer of the great mercy of God, and have so been led in some measure to put your confidence in Him for your salvation and deliverance. But have you apprehended Him as the mould into which your life is to be poured, that life having been made fluent and plastic by the warmth of His love? You have apprehended Him as your refuge; have you apprehended Him as your inward sanctity? You have gone to Him as the source of salvation from the guilt and penalties of sin; have you gone to Him, and are you daily growing in the conscious possession of Him, as the means of salvation from the corruption and evil of sin? He comes to make us good. What has He made you? Anything different from what you were twenty years ago? Then, if not, and in so far as you are unchanged and unbettered, the Gospel is a failure for you, and you are untrue to it. The great purpose of all the work of Christ-His life, His sorrows, His passion, His resurrection, His glory, His continuous operation by the Spirit and the word is to make new men who shall be just and devout, righteous and holy.

II. A second principle contained in these words, is that this moral Renewal is a Creation in the image of God.

The new man is ‘created after the image of God’-that is, of course, according to or in the likeness of God. There is evident reference here to the account of man’s creation in Genesis, and the idea is involved that this new man is the restoration and completion of that earlier likeness, which, in some sense, has faded out of the features and form of our sinful souls. It is to be remembered, however, that there is an image of God inseparable from human nature, and not effaceable by any obscuring or disturbance caused by sin. Man’s likeness to God consists in his being a person, possessed of a will and self-consciousness, and that mysterious gift of personality abides whatever perishes. But beyond that natural image of God, as we may call it, there is something else which fades wholly with the first breath of evil, like the reflexion of the sky on some windless sea. The natural likeness remains, and without it no comparison would be possible. We should not think of saying that a stone or an eagle were unlike God. But while the personal being makes comparison fitting, what makes the true contrast? In what respect is man unlike God? In moral antagonism. What is the true likeness? Moral harmony. What separates men from their Father in heaven? Is it that His ‘years are throughout all generations,’ and ‘my days are as an handbreadth’? Is it that His power is infinite, and mine all thwarted by other might and over tending to weakness and extinction? Is it that His wisdom, sunlike, waxes not nor wanes, and there is nothing hid from its beams, while my knowledge, like the lesser light, shines by reflected radiance, serves but to make the night visible, and is crescent and decaying, changeful and wandering? No. All such distinctions based upon what people call the sovereign attributes of God-the distinctions of creator and created, infinite and finite, omnipotent and weak, eternal and transient-make no real gulf between God and man. If we have only to say, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are’ His ‘ways higher than’ our ‘ways,’ that difference is not unlikeness, and establishes no separation; for low and flat though the dull earth be, does not heaven bend down round it, and send rain and sun, dew and blessing? But it is because ‘your ways are not as my ways’-because there is actual opposition, because the directions are different-that there is unlikeness. The image of God lies not only in that personality which the ‘Father of Lies’ too possesses, but in ‘righteousness and holiness.’

But besides this reference to the original creation of man, there is another reason for the representation of the new nature as being a work of divine creative power. It is in order to give the most emphatic expression possible to the truth that we do not make our righteousness for ourselves, but receive it as from Him. The new man is not our work, it is God’s creation. As at the beginning, the first human life is represented as not originated in the line of natural cause and effect, but as a new and supernatural commencement, so in every Christian soul the life which is derived from God, and will unfold itself in His likeness, comes from His own breath inbreathed into the nostrils. It too is out of the line of natural causes. It too is a direct gift from God. It too is a true supernatural being-a real and new creation.

May I venture a step further? ‘The new man’ is spoken of here as if it had existence ere we ‘put it on.’ I do not press that, as if it necessarily involved the idea which I am going to suggest, for the peculiar form of expression is probably only due to the exigencies of the metaphor. Still it may not be altogether foreign to the whole scope of the passage, if I remind you that the new man, the true likeness of God, has, indeed, a real existence apart from our assumption of it. Of course, the righteousness and holiness which make that new nature in me have no being till they become mine. But we believe that the righteousness and holiness which we make ours come from another, who bestows them on us. ‘The new man’ is not a mere ideal, but has a historical and a present existence. The ideal has lived and lives, is a human person, even Jesus Christ the express image of the Father, who is the beginning of the new creation, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. That fair vision of a humanity detached from all consequences of sin, renewed in perfect beauty, stainless and Godlike, is no unsubstantial dream, but a simple fact. He ever liveth. His word to us is, ‘I counsel thee to buy of me-white raiment.’ And a full parallel to the words of our text, which bid us ‘put on the new man, created after God in righteousness and holiness,’ is found in the other words of the same Apostle-’Let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.’

In accordance with this-

III. It is further to be noticed that this new creation has to be put on and appropriated by us.

The same idea which, as I have already remarked, is conveyed by the image of a new creation, is reiterated in this metaphor of putting on the new nature, as if it were a garment. Our task is not to weave it, but to wear it. It is made and ready.

And that process of assumption or putting on has two parts. We are clothed upon with Christ in a double way, or rather in a double sense. We are ‘found in Him not having our own righteousness,’ but invested with His for our pardon and acceptance. We are clothed with His righteousness for our purifying and sanctifying.

Both are the conditions of our being like God. Both are the gifts of God. The one, however, is an act; the other a process. Both are received. The one is received on condition of simple faith; the other is received by the medium of faithful effort. Both are included in the wide conception of salvation, but the law for the one is ‘Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us’; and the law for the other is-’Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.’ Both come from Christ, but for the one we have the invitation, ‘Buy of Me white raiment that thou mayest be clothed’; and for the other we have the command, ‘Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh.’ There is the assumption of His righteousness which makes a man a Christian, and has for its condition simple faith. There is the assumption of His righteousness sanctifying and transforming us which follows in a Christian course, as its indispensable accompaniment and characteristic, and that is realised by daily and continuous effort.

And one word about the manner, the effort as set forth here; twofold, as I have already pointed out-a negative and positive. We are not concerned here with the relations of these amongst themselves, but I may remark that there is no growth in holiness possible without the constant accompanying process of excision and crucifixion of the old. If you want to grow purer and liker Christ, you must slay yourselves. You cannot gird on ‘righteousness’ above the old self, as some beggar might buckle to himself royal velvet with its ermine over his filthy tatters. There must be a putting off in order to and accompanying the putting on. Strip yourselves of yourselves, and then you ‘shall not be found naked,’ but clothed with the garments of salvation, as the bride with the robe which is the token of the bridegroom’s love, and the pledge of her espousals to him.

And let nobody wonder that the Apostle here commands us, as by our own efforts, to put on and make ours what is in many other places of Scripture treated as God’s gift. These earnest exhortations are perfectly consistent with the belief that all comes from God. Our faithful adherence to our Lord and Master, our honest efforts in His strength to secure more and more of His likeness, determine the extent to which we shall possess that likeness. The new nature is God’s gift, and it is given to us according to His own fulness indeed, but also according to the measure of our faith. Blessed be His name! we have nothing to do but to accept His gift. The garment with which He clothes our nakedness and hides our filth is woven in no earthly looms. As with the first sinful pair, so with all their children since, ‘the Lord God made them’ the covering which they cannot make for themselves. But we have to accept it, and we have by daily toil, all our lives long, to gather it more and more closely around us, to wrap ourselves more and more completely in its ample folds. We have by effort and longing, by self-abnegation and aspiration, by prayer and work, by communion and service, to increase our possession of that likeness to God which lives in Jesus Christ, and from Him is stamped ever more and more deeply on the heart. For the strengthening of our confidence and our gratitude, we have to remember with lowly trust that it is true of us, ‘If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.’ For the quickening of our energy and faithful efforts we have to give heed to the command, and fulfil it in ourselves-’Be ye renewed in the Spirit of your minds, and put on the new man.’

IV. And, finally, the text contains the principle that the means of appropriating this new nature is contact with the truth.

If you will look at the margins of some Bibles you will see that our translators have placed there a rendering, which, as is not unfrequently the case, is decidedly better than that adopted by them in the text. Instead of ‘true holiness,’ the literal rendering is ‘holiness of truth’-and the Apostle’s purpose in the expression is not to particularise the quality, but the origin of the ‘holiness.’ It is ‘of truth,’ that is, produced by the holiness which flows from the truth as it is in Jesus, of which he has been speaking a moment before.

And we come, therefore, to this practical conclusion, that whilst the agent of renovation is the Divine Spirit, and the condition of renovation is our cleaving to Christ, the medium of renovation and the weapon which transforming grace employs is ‘the word of the truth of the Gospel’ whereby we are sanctified. There we get the law, and there we get the motive and the impulse. There we get the encouragement and the hope. In it, in the grand simple message-’God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,’ lie the germs of all moral progress. And in proportion as we believe that-not with the cold belief of our understandings, but with the loving affiance of our hearts and our whole spiritual being-in proportion as we believe that, in that proportion shall we grow in ‘knowledge,’ shall we grow in ‘righteousness,’ in the ‘image of Him that created us.’ The Gospel is the great means of this change, because it is the great means by which He who works the change comes near to our understandings and our hearts.

So let us learn how impossible are righteousness and holiness, morality and religion in men, unless they flow from this source. It is the truth that sanctifies. It is the Spirit who wields that truth who sanctifies. It is Christ who sends the Spirit who sanctifies. But, brethren, beyond the range of this light is only darkness, and that nature which is not cleansed by His priestly hand laid upon it remains leprous, and he who is clothed with any other garment than His righteousness will find ‘the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.’ And let us learn, on the other hand, the incompleteness and monstrosity of a professed belief in ‘the truth’ which does not produce this righteousness and holiness. It may be real-God forbid that we should step into His place and assume His office of discerning the thoughts of the heart, and the genuineness of Christian professions! But, at any rate, it is no exaggeration nor presumption to say that a professed faith which is not making us daily better, gentler, simpler, purer, more truthful, more tender, more brave, more self-oblivious, more loving, more strong-more like Christ-is wofully deficient either in reality or in power-is, if genuine, ready to perish-if lit at all, smouldering to extinction. Christian men and women! is ‘the truth’ moulding you into Christ’s likeness? If not, see to it whether it be the truth which you are holding, and whether you are holding the truth or have unconsciously let it slip from a grasp numbed by the freezing coldness of the world.

And for us all, let us see that we lay to heart the large truths of this text, and give them that personal bearing without which they are of no avail. I need renovation in my inmost nature. Nothing can renew my soul but the power of Christ, who is my life. I am naked and foul. Nothing can cleanse and clothe me but He. The blessed truth which reveals Him calls for my individual faith. And if I put my confidence in that Lord, He will dwell in my inmost spirit, and so sway my affections and mould my will that I shall be transformed unto His perfect likeness. He begins with each one of us by bringing the best robe to cast over the rags of the returning prodigal. He ends not with any who trust Him, until they stand amid the hosts of the heavens who follow Him, clothed with fine linen clean and white, which is the righteousness of His Holy ones.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:17-24 The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and carnal affections. Do not men, on every side, walk in the vanity of their minds? Must not we then urge the distinction between real and nominal Christians? They were void of all saving knowledge; they sat in darkness, and loved it rather than light. They had a dislike and hatred to a life of holiness, which is not only the way of life God requires and approves, and by which we live to him, but which has some likeness to God himself in his purity, righteousness, truth, and goodness. The truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus. The corrupt nature is called a man; like the human body, it is of divers parts, supporting and strengthening one another. Sinful desires are deceitful lusts; they promise men happiness, but render them more miserable; and bring them to destruction, if not subdued and mortified. These therefore must be put off, as an old garment, a filthy garment; they must be subdued and mortified. But it is not enough to shake off corrupt principles; we must have gracious ones. By the new man, is meant the new nature, the new creature, directed by a new principle, even regenerating grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is created, or brought forth by God's almighty power.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And that ye put on the new man - The new man refers to the renovated nature. This is called in other places, the "new creature, or the new creation" (see the notes on 2 Corinthians 5:17), and refers to the condition after the heart is changed. The change is so great, that there is no impropriety in speaking of one who has experienced it as "a new man." He has new feelings, principles, and desires. He has laid aside his old principles and practices, and, in everything that pertains to moral character, he is new. His body is indeed the same; the intellectual structure of his mind the same; but there has been a change in his principles and feelings which malco him, in all the great purposes of life, a new being. Learn, that regeneration is not a trifling change. It is not a mere change of relations, or of the outward condition. It is not merely being brought from the world into the church, and being baptized, though by the most holy hands; it is much more. None of these things would make proper the declaration, "he is a new man." Regeneration by the Spirit of God does.

After God - κατὰ Θεὸν kata Theon. In respect to God. The idea is, evidently, that man is so renewed as to become "like" God, or the divine image is restored to the soul. In the parallel passage in Colossians Col 3:9, the idea is expressed more fully, "renewed in knowledge after "the image" of him that created him." Man, by regeneration, is restored to the lost image of God; compare Genesis 1:26.

Is created - A word that is often used to denote the new birth, from its strong resemblance to the first act of creation; see it explained in the notes on 2 Corinthians 5:17.

In righteousness - That is, the renewed man is made to resemble God in righteousness. This proves that man, when he was made, was righteous; or that righteousness constituted a part of the image of God in which lie was created. The object of the work of redemption is to restore to man the lost image of God, or to bring him back to the condition in which he was before he fell.

And true holiness - Margin, as in Greek, "holinese of truth" - standing in contrast with "lusts of deceit" (Greek), in Ephesians 4:22. "Holiness" properly refers to purity toward God, and "righteousness" to integrity toward people; but it is not cerrain that this distinction is observed here. The general idea is, that the renovated man is made an upright and a pious man; and that, therefore, he should avoid the vices which are practiced by the pagan, and which the apostle proceeds to specify. This phrase also proves that, when man was created, he was a holy being.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. put on the new man—Opposed to "the old man," which is to be "put off" (Eph 4:22). The Greek here (kainon) is different from that for "re-new-ed" (Eph 4:23). Put on not merely a renovated nature, but a new, that is, altogether different nature, a changed nature (compare Note,, see on [2369]Col 3:10).

after God, &c.—Translate, "Which hath been created (once for all: so the Greek aorist means: in Christ, Eph 2:10; so that in each believer it has not to be created again, but to be put on) after (the image of) God" (Ge 1:27; Col 3:10; 1Pe 1:15), &c. God's image in which the first Adam was originally created, is restored, to us far more gloriously in the second Adam, the image of the invisible God (2Co 4:4; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3).

in righteousness—"IN" it as the element of the renewed man.

true holiness—rather, as the Greek, "holiness of the truth"; holiness flowing from sincere following of "the truth of God" (Ro 1:25; 3:7; 15:8): opposed to "the lusts of deceit" (Greek, Eph 4:22); compare also Eph 4:21, "truth is in Jesus." "Righteousness" is in relation to our fellow men, the second table of the law; "Holiness," in relation to God, the first table; the religious observance of offices of piety (compare Lu 1:75). In the parallel (Col 3:10) it is, "renewed in knowledge after the image," &c. As at Colosse the danger was from false pretenders to knowledge, the true "knowledge" which flows from renewal of the heart is dwelt on; so at Ephesus, the danger being from the corrupt morals prevalent around, the renewal in "holiness," contrasted with the Gentile "uncleanness" (Eph 4:19), and "righteousness," in contrast to "greediness," is made prominent.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And that ye put on; the same metaphor of a garment as before, to show the intimateness of the new man with us, and its being an ornament to us.

The new man; i.e. a new disposition or constitution of the whole man, called the new creature, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and a divine nature, 2 Peter 1:4.

Which after God; after God’s image.

Is created in righteousness and true holiness; either righteousness may relate to the second table, and

holiness to the first, and so both contain our duty to man and to God; or righteousness may imply that Divine principle in us, whereby we perform our whole duty to God and the creature, and holiness that which denieth all mixture of corruption in onr duty to God and man.

True; sincere and sound. As

righteousness and holiness are opposed to lusts, Ephesians 4:22, so true here, to deceitful there.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And that ye put on the new man,.... Which some understand of Jesus Christ, who is truly and really man, and a new or extraordinary one, Jeremiah 31:22 and as such is God's creature, and is made after his image, and which appears in his perfect holiness and righteousness; and the phrase of putting on well agrees with him, Romans 13:14 whose righteousness is a garment, pure and spotless, and which is put on by the hand of faith: though rather by the "new man" is meant, the new nature, the new principle, or work of grace in the soul, elsewhere called a new creature; and it bears this name in opposition to, and distinction from the old man, or corruption of nature, before spoken of; and because it is "de noro", or anew, put into the hearts of men; it is not what was in them naturally; nor is it any old principle renewed, or wrought up in another and better form; but it is something that is infused, that was never there before: and because it is new in all its parts; such who have it, have new hearts and new spirits given unto them; they have new eyes to see with, and new ears to hear with, and new hands to handle and work with, and new feet to walk with; and they live a new life and conversation: so the Jews says of a man that truly repents of sin, and does not return to it, that he is , "a new man" (d): now to put on this new man, is not to make ourselves new creatures; for this is not by the power of man, but by the Spirit of God; this is God's work, and not man's; it is he who made us at first, remakes us, and not we ourselves; besides, these Ephesians the apostle writes to, were already made new men, or new creatures; but to put on the new man, is to walk in our lives and conversations agreeably to the new man, or work of grace upon the soul; as to put off the old man, respects the former conversation, or a not walking as formerly, and agreeably to the dictates of corrupt nature, so to put on the new man, is to walk according to the principles of grace and holiness formed in the soul: and of this new man it is further said,

which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; the principle of the soul is "created", and therefore is not the effect of man's power, which cannot create; it is peculiar to God only to create; it is a creature, and therefore not to be trusted in, and depended on; for not grace, but the author of grace, is the object of trust: it is created "after God"; by his power, according to his mind and will, and after his image, and in his likeness; which greatly consists "in righteousness and true holiness"; called "true", in opposition to the typical and ceremonial holiness of the Jews, and to the pretended holiness of hypocrites; and denotes the truth and genuineness of the Spirit's work of sanctification upon the heart; unless this should rather be considered as the effect of his grace upon the soul; for so the words may be rendered, "unto righteousness and true holiness"; for the new man is of such a nature, and so formed, as to tend to acts of righteousness and holiness, and to engage men to the performance of them: some copies read, "in righteousness, and holiness, and truth"; and so the Ethiopic version seems to have read.

(d) Tzeror Hammor. fol. 156. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

And that ye put on the new man, which {g} after God is created {h} in righteousness and {i} true holiness.

(g) After the image of God.

(h) The effect and end of the new creation.

(i) Not fake nor counterfeit.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Ephesians 4:24. Observe the change of tenses. The laying aside of the old man is the negative commencement of the change, and hence is represented as a momentary act; the becoming renewed is an enduring process, the finishing act of which is the putting on of the new man, correlative to the ἀποθέσθαι,. Hence ἀποθέσθαι, aorist; ἀνανεοῦσθαι, present; ἐνδύσασθαι, aorist.

τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον] As previously the old immoral state is objectivized, and objectivized indeed as a person, so is it also here with the new Christian moral state. Thus this new habitus appears as the new man, which God has created (κτισθέντα), but man appropriates for himself (ἐνδύσασθαι), so that thus moral freedom is not annulled by God’s ethical creative action.

κτισθέντα] not present, but the new moral habitus of the Christian is set forth as the person created by God, which in the individual cases is not first constituted by growth, but is received, and then exhibits itself experimentally in the case of those who, according to the figurative expression of the passage, have put it on.

κατὰ Θεόν] Comp. Colossians 3:10; not merely divinely, and that in contrast to human propagation (Hofmann, Schriftbew. I. p. 289), but: according to God, i.e. ad exemplum Dei (Galatians 4:28). Thereby the creation of the new man is placed upon a parallel with that of our first parents (Genesis 1:27), who were created after God’s image (κατʼ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος, Colossians 3:10); they, too, until through Adam sin came into existence, were as sinless ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ὁσιότητι τῆς ἀληθείας.[243]

ἘΝ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝῌ Κ.Τ.Λ.] belongs to ΤῸΝ ΚΑΤᾺ ΘΕῸΝ ΚΤΙΣΘΈΝΤΑ, expressing the constitution of the new man created after God; furnished, provided with rectitude and holiness of the truth (on ἐν, see Matthiae, p. 1340). The truth is the opposite of the ἀπάτη, Ephesians 4:22 and like this personified. As in the old man the ἈΠΆΤΗ pursues its work, so in the new man the ἈΛΉΘΕΙΑ, i.e. the Truth κατʼ ἐξοχήν, the divine evangelical truth, bears sway, and the moral effects of the truth, righteousness and holiness, appear here, where the truth is personified, as its attributes, which now show themselves in the new man who has been created. The resolving it into an adjective: true, not merely apparent, righteousness and holiness (Chrysostom, Luther, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, Grotius, and most expositors), is arbitrary and tame. And to take ἐν instrumentally (Morus, Flatt) is erroneous, for the reason that righteousness and holiness form the ethical result of the creation of the new man; hence Beza, Koppe, and others thought that ἐν must be taken for ΕἸς. ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗ and ὉΣΙΌΤΗς (comp. Luke 1:75; 1 Thessalonians 2:10; Titus 1:8) are distinguished so, that the latter places rectitude in itself (ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗ), in relation to God (sanctitas); τὸ μὲν τοῖς θεοῖς προσφιλὲς ὅσιον, Plat. Euth. p. 6 E. See Tittmann, Synon. p. 25, and the passages in Wetstein. With special frequency the two notions are associated in Plato.

[243] Comp. Ernesti, Ursprung der Sünde, II. p. 135 ff., in opposition to Julius Müller, II. p. 487, who calls in question the identity of contents between the κατὰ θεόν and the original divine image.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Ephesians 4:24. καὶ ἐνδύσασθαι τὸν καινον ἄνθρωπον: and put on the new man. For ἐνδύσασθαι the imper. ἐνδύσασθε is read by some authorities of consequence ([448] [449] [450]1[451]2, etc.). The aor. is appropriately used again, as before in Ephesians 4:22; “putting off” and “putting on” being acts, while renewal (ἀνανεοῦσθαι) is a process. For καινὸς ἄνθρωπος see on Ephesians 2:15 above.—τὸν κατὰ Θεὸν κτισθέντα: which after God was created. The aor. κτισθέντα suggests that the “new man” is regarded here not as a nature created anew for the individual, but as “the holy form of human life which results from redemption,” created once for all in and by Christ, and participated in by the individual convert. (See Ell., in loc., and Müller, Christ. Doctr. of Sin, ii., p. 392). The phrase κατὰ Θεόν has sometimes the simple sense of “godly,” “in a godly manner” (2 Corinthians 7:9-11). Hence it is held by some to mean nothing more here than created “divinely” (Hofm.) or “according to the will of God” (Abb.). But κατά is also used to express likeness (1 Kings 11:10; Hebrews 8:8; Galatians 4:28; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Peter 4:6). Here, therefore, it may mean “like God” or “after the image of God”. That this is the sense is confirmed by the use of κτισθέντα (which recalls Genesis 1:27), and by the fuller parallel statement in Colossians 3:10 : τὸν νεὸν, τὸν ἀνακαινούμενον εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν κατʼ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν. The clause, therefore, affirms a new creation of man, and describes that creation as being according to the image or likeness of God. It neither states nor suggests, however, that the image of God in which man was first created was lost and has been restored in Christ. What it does state is simply that this second creation, like the first, was in conformity with the Divine likeness or after the example of what God is.—ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ὁσιότητι τῆς ἀληθείας: in righteousness and holiness of the truth. For τῆς ἀληθείας some few authorities give καὶ ἀληθείᾳ ([452]1[453], Cypr., Hil., etc.). This clause specifies the things in which the new man was created and in which the likeness between him and God consisted. ἐν, therefore denotes the quality or ethical condition in which the creation realised itself. δικαιοσύνη and ὀσιότης are coupled again in Luke 1:75 (cf. also Wis 9:3; Clem. Rom., First Corinthians, xlviii., 4). Plato distinguishes in two ways between the idea of δίκαιος and that of ὅσιος. He defines δίκαιος as the generic term and ὅσιος as the specific (Euthyp., p. 12 E); and he describes the former as having regard to our relations to men, the latter to our relations to God (Gorg., p. 507 B). The latter distinction is also given by other Greek writers (Polyb., xxiii., 10, 8, etc.). It is not easy, indeed, to say how far this distinction holds good in the NT. But both in profane and in biblical Greek the two words, adjective, adverb or noun, are often combined in one statement (e.g., Plato, Protag., 329 C; Theaet., 176 B; Rep., x., 615 B; Laws, ii., 663 B; Joseph., Antiq., viii., 9, 1; Luke 1:75; 1 Thessalonians 2:10; Titus 1:8). In many of these cases the distinction between integrity and piety is certain, and it is suitable to all. The NT also clearly distinguishes between δίκαιος and εὐλαβής (Luke 2:25). It may be said, therefore, that δικαιοσύνη and ὁσιότης are not used vaguely or interchangeably, but that, while both are of grace and both consequently have a new meaning Godward, the former expresses the right conduct of the Christian man more distinctively in its bearings on his fellow-men, and the latter the same conduct distinctively in its relation to God. τῆς ἀληθείας is not to be reduced to “true holiness” as in AV, but is to be taken as the gen. of origin and as qualifying both nouns. Further, ἀλήθεια with the article, contrasting with τῆς ἀπάτης of Ephesians 4:22, seems to be more than Truth in the abstract or a quasi-personification of Truth. It may mean “the truth” par excellence, the evangelical message, the objective truth given in the Gospel (ἡ ἀλήθεια τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, Galatians 2:5; Galatians 2:14; or simply, as here, ἡ ἀλήθεια, John 8:32; John 8:40; John 17:19; Galatians 5:7; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 13:8, etc.). The creation of the new man in the Divine likeness realises itself, therefore, in something better than the ceremonial rectitude of the Jew or the self-contained virtue of the heathen—in a righteousnes and a holiness born of the new truth contained in the Evangel.

[448] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[449] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[450] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[451] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[452] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[453] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. that ye put on] See note on “put off,” Ephesians 4:22. Here again is an aorist infinitive in the Gr.; and we may correspondingly paraphrase, “(you were taught) with regard to the fact that the new man was put on.”

On the meaning of the phrase here, see notes on Ephesians 4:22, where it is explained by contrast and implication. The “putting on the new man” is the inseparable converse to the “putting off the old man.” There is no neutral border; to step out of the old position and connexion, out of Adam, is to step into the new, into Christ.

Meantime, what is in covenant and in principle a thing done, is to be in realization and application a thing doing, a thing repeated. So we have Romans 13:14; “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,” an exhortation to a new act of realization. And cp. Colossians 3:12. The other side, the side (as we believe) of this passage, appears Galatians 3:27; “ye did put on Christ.”

the new man] Practically, the new position and power (legal and moral, see note on Ephesians 4:22) of the regenerated self. In a deeper analysis, we trace (as above on Ephesians 4:22) a reference to the Second Man, the Second Adam, Christ. (See the quotation from St Ignatius, Introd., p. 28. See also, for another aspect of this phrase, Ephesians 2:15). By incorporation with Him His “members” become (in a sense needing reverent caution in the statement) repetitions of Him the glorious Archetype, as occupants of His position of Acceptance, and as “one spirit” with Him, and as enabled in Him to live a life whose principle is His—separation from sin to God. To come to be “in Him” is thus to “put on the New Man” in the sense of part and lot in the standing and in the power of the Lord as Second Covenant Head. But, we repeat it, the practical reference of the verse is to the “newness” of the believer’s standing and power, acquired in regeneration.

which] Better, in modern English, who.

after God] “Answering His great Idea,” His plan and will.

is created] Better, was created. This “creation” was accomplished, ideally, when the new Covenant Head of the regenerate Race was provided, in eternal purpose; historically, when He was “made Man,” in time; actually, for individuals, when each believer “put on Christ,” came to be “in Him.” Cp. on the thought of spiritual “creation” ch. Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 2:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; and especially Colossians 3:10, a close and suggestive parallel here.

righteousness] Of which the essential idea is willing conformity to Law; “the keeping of His commandments.”

true holiness] Lit., sanctity of the truth. We use “sanctity” rather than “holiness,” to mark the fact that the Gr. word (hosiotés) is not akin to that commonly rendered “holy.” Its meaning is discussed by Abp Trench (N. T. Synonyms ii. § xxxviii). He shews it to be the virtue which “reverences everlasting sanctities, and owns their obligation”; the intuitive conviction, e.g., of the sacredness of an oath, or of marriage, or, in the spiritual sphere, of God’s absolute claims, wholly apart from a calculation of results. “Piety” would fairly, though not fully, represent the word. In two places (Revelation 15:4; Revelation 16:5) the cognate adjective is used of God Himself. It there suggests His own inviolable regard for His own truth, in mercy and judgment.

The word (noun, adjective, or adverb) occurs (as here) with “righteous” or “righteousness” Luke 1:75; 1 Thessalonians 2:10; Titus 1:8. It is the almost invariable rendering in the LXX. for the Heb. châsîd; e.g. Psalm 16:10, quoted Acts 2:27; Acts 13:35 (A.V. “thy Holy One”); and Isaiah 55:3, quoted Acts 13:34 (where lit. “the holy things of David,” the inviolable promises given to him[38]).

[38] The lit. rendering of the Heb. of Isaiah 55:3 is “the mercies of David, the assured (mercies).” The LXX. represents, but does not translate, this. In Psalm 16:10 render lit., “Thy godly One,” or perhaps, “Thy favoured, beloved, One.” (Note by the Dean of Peterborough).

“Of the truth”:—so lit., and so, looking at St Paul’s usage, we translate; not “of truth,” as R.V. and marg. A.V. This “sanctity” or “piety” is “of” the truth of the Gospel, because the Gospel explains it, and it characterizes the Gospel; and this is equally so, whether the thought is of its manifestation in Christ or in Christians, in Head or in Members.

Bengel's Gnomen

Ephesians 4:24. Τὸν καινὸν) Τὸν νέον is used, Colossians 3:10, of that which is native [the new man becomes natural, i.e. the true nature] in believers; but here ἀνανεοῦσθαι has been used by him just before. [Therefore he does not repeat νέον, the conjugate]. Vice versa in the passage of Col. just quoted, ἀνακαινούμενον is subjoined [νέον having gone just before] concerning the aims and pursuits of believers.[69]—κτισθέντα, which has been created) at the beginning of Christianity. This new man is created in Christ: comp. ch. Ephesians 2:10.

[69] Νέος, recent, lately originated, in opposition to what was originated some time back. Καινὸς, new, not yet used, in opposition to that which has existed long and been in use: νέον οἶνον, but καινοὺς ἀσκούς, Matthew 9:16-17. So νέος ἄνθρωπος in Col. refers to the ἀναγέννησις, whereas the καινος is one who differs from the former man: the νέος is one who is ἀνακαινούμενος κατʼ εικονα of God.—Tittm. Syn. Gr. Test. Καινὸς more applied to the results of renewal on the Christian character and walk. Νέος, the new nature of believers. Νέος is applied to persons in the sense young, which καινὸς is not. Καινὸς is what is fresh, as opposed to what is worn and trite. It is also said of what is strange and foreign.—ED.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - And put on the new man. As the fruit of inward renewal, let there be outward renovation. A new object is clean, fresh, tidy; let your life have something of the same aspect - let your principles, aims, habits, be new, in the sense of being conformed to Christ, who is your life. Which after God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. "After God," equivalent to "after the image of him that created him" (Colossians 3:10). Some think" the new man" equivalent to "Christ" (Romans 13:14), constituted the Head of renewed humanity, as Adam of depraved. But this would not correspond with the exhortation to put off the old man, nor should we be exhorted to put on Christ after being exhorted to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. In what sense, then, has the "new man" been created? The idea presented itself to the apostle in the abstract - there has been a creation of a new man; but concretely, we have to conform to the Divine creation, in respect of righteousness and holiness; righteousness denoting personal uprightness and fidelity to all social duties; holiness, the state of the spirit toward God. The last words, "of truth," denote the relation of righteousness and holiness to the truth. The words are opposed to "of deceit" in ver. 22. Lust is bred of deceit, but righteousness and holiness of truth. They never deceive, never disappoint, are solid to the end. Ephesians 4:24

Vincent's Word Studies

New man (καινὸν)

See on Matthew 26:29.

Created (κτισθέντα)

See on Ephesians 2:10.

In righteousness and true holiness (ἐν δικιαιοσύνη καὶ ὁσιότητι τῆς ἀληθείας)

Rev., correctly, in righteousness and holiness of truth. See on Luke 1:75. Truth. Opposed to deceit, Ephesians 4:22, and likewise personified. Righteousness and holiness are attributes of truth.