An Act of Creation
and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:24 NASB
Put on the new self – Paul is an orthodox Jewish thinker. Among other things, that means his theology is rooted in the Tanakh, interpreted by the rabbinic traditions. When he writes, even if it’s in Greek, he uses words and phrases that connect us to Jewish paradigms. When we read his letters, we need to have the same perspective. With all the talk about the “new man in Christ,” we must remember that this “new man” is intimately connected to the original man of Genesis. That should be obvious when Paul speaks of the new self as a likeness of God, reminding us of the Genesis 1:26-27 description of the creation of Man in God’s image and likeness. But there’s more to this connection than simply word reminders.
First, let’s look at the whole thought:
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 the truth.
Here the Greek term for “self” is really ánthrōpos, literally, “man.” The NASB translation uses a modern psychological replacement implying identity, but Paul isn’t that sophisticated. His choice is a direct link to Genesis. He intends that we understand this transformation not as some kind of inner identity reconstruction but rather as a new creation in the same terms as the original in Genesis 1. Soloveitchik extends the metaphor to the experience of repentance:
Repentance, according to the halakhic view, is an act of creation—self-creation. The severing of one’s psychic identity with one’s previous “I,” and the creation of a new “I,” possessor of a new consciousness, a new heart and spirit, different desires, longings, goals—this is the meaning of repentance compounded of regret over the past and resolve for the future.[1]
This can only be attained if the sinner terminates his past identity and assumes a new identity for the future. It is a creative gesture which is responsible for the emergence of a new personality, a new self.[2]
I want to incorporate this elaboration into the exegesis of Genesis 1:26-27. Man is created in God’s image, and that image includes continual renewal. God, or course, is in no need of repentance, but that doesn’t negate the similarity between the creative acts of God and the creative acts of men. What if we read the Genesis passage as the endorsement of continuous re-creation of ourselves? What if each choice to increase the dominance of the yetzer ha’tov was in fact a re-creation of who we are? The same creative act that brought us into existence is employed over and over, making us new (i.e., in Hebrew ḥādāš—not never before existing “new” but, like the new moon, seen again as if it were something recreated). What if the “new” man is really the living example of Man re-created, self-created? The past no longer determines me. It is overcome, removed in this recreation. What if every act of repentance actually remakes us? No longer do we think of Paul’s wording as if we are just changing clothes (“putting on the new”). Now we see that Paul is transporting us back to the original—and we start over, clean, fresh, different.
Topical Index: new Man, ḥādāš, renewed, creation, Genesis 1:26-27, repentance, identity, Ephesians 4:24
[1] Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man (JPS, 1983), p. 110.
[2] Ibid., p. 112.
