Putting On the New

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A few months ago, my 2-year-old learned to dress herself from head to toe and was exceptionally proud of this accomplishment. To practice her new skills, she insisted on changing clothes every 15 minutes throughout the day for weeks, leaving a trail of clothes all over the house.

One day, she was given a brand-new pink shirt that she fell in love with. Much to our surprise, she actually wore it all day long. However, she then wanted to wear it the next day, and the next day, and the next.

Eventually, the rest of us became quite embarrassed by this shirt and all its stains. So, we banned her from wearing it in public, but at home, it was the only shirt she considered.

I tried my best to keep it washed frequently for her, but one day last week, I didn’t get the job done fast enough.

As soon as she woke up and her little feet hit the floor, she raced to check the drawer for her favorite pink shirt. When she didn’t find it, she quietly snuck to the dirty clothes basket.

“Yes!” I heard her whisper.

I could hear the struggle of a tiny girl taking her pajamas off and fighting to put her head and arms through the correct holes in the T-shirt. Then suddenly, I heard her cry out, “Mommy!”

When I peeked in to check on her, her head was fully covered inside the shirt, and she couldn’t seem to take it off fast enough.

“Mommy, this shirt stinks like yesterday! I need to be new!” she exclaimed.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I helped her out of her dirty little shirt and into a fresh one. As I did, I realized how much her words remind me of the Christian life and how often we do the very same thing she did.

Although we know that Jesus gives us His Spirit, delivers us from the power of sin, and calls us into a new way of life, we are still tempted to return to what we know is not good for us. Whether it’s pride, lust, anger, doubt, bitterness, jealousy, discontentment, or sinful behaviors we fought to overcome, we still have a tendency to reach back to our old familiar habits.

Even when we know an attitude or action is dishonoring to God and damaging to us or those around us, we find ourselves returning to it for the temporary comfort it offers. We know it’s wrong, yet somehow, we find ourselves pulling yesterday’s clothes back out of the basket.

In Ephesians 4:20-24, Paul speaks directly to this struggle:

But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Paul reminds believers that following Christ means leaving behind the person we once were. We aren’t called to continue wearing the same old clothes and simply try to make them look clean or smell better. We are called to take them off and put on the new self.

Romans 6 reminds us that those who belong to Christ are no longer slaves to sin. Though sin may still tempt us, it no longer owns us. Through Christ, we have been given new life.

As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Yet even though we have been made new in Christ, putting off the old man is not always easy. Because we are imperfect humans, we will still stumble and struggle. There will be days when we put yesterday’s clothes back on before we realize what we’ve done. But thankfully, our identity is not found in our failures, temptations, or our past. Our identity is found in Jesus. Because of Him, when anger arises, we can put it off. When bitterness feels justified, we can put it off. When we are tempted to return to our former way of life, we can turn instead toward the One who has made us new.

Our Savior gives us a new heart, a new identity, and a new direction. He calls us to repentance when we drift and patiently continues His work of making us more like Him.

The next time you find yourself digging through the dirty clothes for something the Lord has called you to leave behind, remember a little girl with her head stuck in a pink T-shirt.

You don’t have to stink like yesterday.

Cry out to the Lord, and He will help you take off the old and put on the new.

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