Submission or Rebellion?

Two ways to die and be born again 

In Ephesians chapter four, and starting in verse 17, the Apostle Paul tells us to live no longer as the world does in their alienation from God but to put off the old self, be renewed in the mind, and put on the new self, which is created to reflect God’s perfect and holy nature. 

I was drawn to how the secular West has hijacked the concept of the old self and new self but has turned it on its head. The secular West talks of becoming a new person by having “dead names,” changing pronouns, and dressing in ways that do not conform to gender norms. This change is so fundamental to their worldview that using their dead names or old pronouns will make them angry. If you don’t refer to them according to their new identity, they will brand you toxic, accuse you of erasing their existence, and claim you are harming them. 

The belief in being re-created is a fundamental component of Christianity. The Bible teaches that one becomes a new person through faith in Christ; the old self dies, and a whole new person arises from that death. We even physically practice the act of Baptism, which graphically depicts the death to self and resurrection with Christ. The Christian is baptized into the death of Christ and rises with the expectation that all will hate him and with the command to love all, even his enemies. 

But the fundamental change between these two deaths of the old man is that in the secular West, this death is an act of rebellion against authority and a declaration of complete autonomy. In contrast, in Christianity, it is an act of total surrender to God and submission to his will. The Christian says, “I no longer live. It is Christ who lives in me. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). 

Secular Westerners have hijacked the idea of the old and new man but have bastardized it making it about absolute autonomy. “I make the rules. I reject my parents naming me. I reject anyone telling me who I am or should be. My life is mine, and I submit to no one. I name myself. I decide my gender. I determine my pronouns. My identity is absolutely bound up in me alone. I am my own master. I am free from all expectations and bound by no one.”

The Christian experiences a renaming and a radical change of identity, but it’s the opposite of how the world understands identity. Where we used to live for ourselves, we now live to the glory of God. We have died to our old identity, and God, not ourselves, has given us a new one. We belong to a new family, but not one we chose, but one God adopted us into. We have a new name but did not name ourselves; God has placed his name on us. We died to our old self, not to live to a new self, but to God. We consider our old life to be slavery to sin and our new life to be true freedom in submission under the royal law of Christ.

Both worldviews, secular and Christian, have a kind of dying to the old self and being re-created. The secular worldview is one of rebellion to all authority and a declaration of total autonomy. The Christian worldview is one of complete surrender to God and letting him tell us who we are and how to act; a new birth and a new mind.

May God be praised.