Eph. 4:22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Col. 3: 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
When Paul tells us to put on the new self, it is important that we understand that Paul is not asking us to put something on that’s outside of us that were now going to make a part of our lives. It’s actually just the opposite; for the words “put on,” literally come from the word that means “to sink into.” Our union with Christ is at the heart of what the new self is, and that union was accomplished at the Cross, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
You and I were born again into total union with Jesus. We do not grow towards union, instead, we grow from union. Simply put, as Colossians 3:3 says, who you used to be before you became a Christian died on the cross of Jesus, and your new life is one with Him in His resurrection, therefore, hidden with Christ in God. That is so much your identity that Paul was able to say “Christ, who is our life.” He is not just “for our lives,” or longs to “have our lives” in surrender, but He is our life.
For us as new creations “Christ is all, and He is in us all.” To put on the new self is simply to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That renewal happens by consciously and consistently remembering that Christ is now your life, by faith just sink into (rest in) that reality, and celebrating that truth and reality when facing every situation and every test and temptation in this fallen world.
He doesn’t just say in Ephesians 4:23 to have your mind renewed; but he says be renewed in the SPIRIT of your mind. Here’s a good explanation from someone else concerning the “spirit” of the mind. “The mind has a “spirit.” In other words, our mind has what we call a “mindset.” It doesn’t just have a view, it has a viewpoint. It doesn’t just have the power to perceive and detect; it also has a posture, a demeanor, a bearing, an attitude, a bent. “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
It is our viewpoint that God wants to transform. He wants us to stop thinking of ourselves as someone independent from Christ calling on him to come help us. He wants us to see ourselves in Christ, to, by faith, mentally and emotionally “sink into that truth,” and to began to manifest it.