In today's Footsteps, David Beltran of Young Life-Spain tells the story of Mara who was a former atheist.  Mara became a believer at a Young Life camp, but when she went home, she was confused about her new identity.  David said that around her friends and parents, "she was pretending to be the old Mara, but she wasn't anymore." 

I'm sure it's difficult for a lot of new believers who have made a dramatic conversion to Christianity.  Whether a new Christian like Mara is experiencing a crisis of faith or is struggling to turn from sin, I think Colossians 3:9 (NKJV) is appropriate: "Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him..."  What exactly does the apostle Paul mean? 

I think the note in my Nelson Study Bible puts it well: "Paul describes our former unredeemed life as the old man, and our life as God's child as the new man.  The new man has the image of the new creation in Christ, just as the old man bears the image of our fallen nature.  The old man is under an old master, Satan, while the new man has a new master, the Spirit of God living within."  As believers, may we all "put on the new man" daily as we come to understand what it means to be a true child of God.

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