On a blazing hot North Carolina September day, I became a mother. Six years of waiting later, a car with two social workers and one blonde-haired toddler pulled into my driveway. And just like that, I was a parent. Over the six years of waiting, I had built up all of these expectations of what I would be like as a mother and of what my child would be like. In my idealistic fantasies, I never lost my temper. I always made the right decision. I always put my child first. But there was one thing that all of my imagining neglected to consider—my own sinful flesh. Welcoming children into my home has opened up my understanding of my own sinful nature more than any other experience in my life. Because I don’t always get it right. I don’t always die to the flesh. I often indulge the very sin struggles that I hate and desire to put to death. Yet as a believer redeemed by Christ, I am called to new life and to the putting off of sin.

C. S. Lewis provides a brilliant example of putting off the old self in his book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  For those not familiar with the story, it is about King Caspian who goes on a journey to find Aslan’s Country in the Far East. He and his crew set out in a ship and sail through uncharted waters, landing in unmapped and unknown territories along the way. Aslan brings three children from our world to join them: Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace. Edmund and Lucy have been to Narnia before. In fact, they are a King and Queen of Narnia. Eustace, on the other hand, is full of ugliness and selfishness. When they make landfall on a certain island, he becomes a dragon for a period of time.

In his dragon form, Eustace finally meets Aslan. Aslan comes to Eustace at night and leads him to a garden. Inside the garden is a huge bubbling well. More than anything, Eustace wants to get into the well and soothe his arm that aches. But Aslan tells him that before he can enter the water, he must undress. Realizing that dragons are snakey creatures who might be able to shed their skins, Eustace uses his claws to rip off a layer of skin. As he begins to descend into the bath, he looks down at himself and realizes that his skin is just as ugly and scaly as it was before. So he scrapes off another layer. This continues time after time. Yet each time he has stepped out of one skin, another lies beneath it. The lion speaks: “You will have to let me undress you.” Utterly desperate to be rid of his skin and enter the water, the dragon Eustace allows Aslan to take off his skin. With his lion’s claws, Aslan tears the dragon’s skin off. It is painful, the claws cut deep, and he removes layers far deeper than Eustace ever could. Then he tosses Eustace into the water, and Eustace turns into a boy again. But he doesn’t turn back into the same Eustace. He is changed by his experience as a dragon and, ultimately, by his encounter with Aslan. His transformation back into a boy is not just external. It is also internal. He is kinder. He thinks less of himself and more of others. He is changed.

The story of Eustace makes me think of my experience entering motherhood. In all of my life, nothing has made me more keenly aware of my sin than being a mother. Nothing has brought my ugly selfishness into laser focus more than parenting children. And I realize that, like Eustace, I need help beyond myself to peel off these ugly layers of sin and be washed in the soothing water of cleansing that brings change. I am in need of the Lion of Judah to cut deeply through my flesh and work change within me by the renewing power of his Spirit.

The tearing of the flesh is painful. There is a part of me that desires to feebly pick at the flesh with my fingernails rather than submitting to the sword of the Word that pierces through both joints and marrow (Hebrews 4:12-13). In my own weak efforts, I will never be stripped of the flesh. The battle between flesh and Spirit rages in my heart daily. But as a believer, I am called to submit myself to the Word of God that divides in order to make whole, that cuts in order to heal, that breaks in order to restore.

Consider the words of Scripture:
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” — Colossians 1:1-4

Here lies the key. You have been raised with Christ. Apart from the completed work of Christ, you have no hope of lasting change. You cannot make yourself good. You cannot make yourself righteous. Your hope must rest securely in the completed work of Christ on your behalf. You have been raised with Christ. Let that truth sink in. Bask in the warmth of it. Because you have been purchased by the washing of renewal through the precious blood of Christ, you have been raised from the deadness of your sins.

But don’t miss the next part. Because you have been raised, you are to seek the things above. You are now to bend your will to the upward call of becoming transformed into the image of Christ. Your mind should be set on the things above, on the truth that is revealed through Scripture. Because you have been redeemed, you need to discipline yourself to rip your eyes off of this temporal earth and fix your eyes steadfastly upon the hope of future glory that is to come. Your mind must be renewed in truth and your gaze fixed upon the resurrected and glorified Christ.

And why do you set your mind on things above? Because you have died. You have been crucified with Christ and your life is no longer your own (Galatians 2:20). Your old ways of life must be left far behind you. Your former self, who you were before Christ, has been buried. You have died to that way of life and are now raised with Christ. Your life is hidden with Christ. The imagery used here is that of a seed planted under the earth. A seed cannot bear fruit unless it falls into the earth and dies (John 12:24). The seed is split open, divided, broken. Yet in the darkness of the earth, it grows. Likewise, you must submit to die to self in order to yield the fruit of righteousness. You cannot produce a harvest of fruit without the death of self.

Yet what hope you have! Christ, who is your life, will one day appear. You labor and toil in the putting off of the flesh because you understand that your King is returning. This glorious and resurrected one will one day call you home to glory. You will one day behold him as he is and will become like him. Understanding that he is returning should impact the way that you live your life today.

This passage goes on to say:
“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” — Colossians 3:5-10.

Did you catch those words? Put to death what is earthly in you. Live like a new creation. Hate sin. Fight against the flesh. Don’t give up the struggle against what is earthly. Putting sin to death is not a casual, happenstance occurrence. It requires effort. It requires work. It requires peering deeply into the mirror of Scripture in order for your sins to be exposed and revealed. The apostle Paul provides a list here of things that are earthly. These are things that are opposed to the nature and will of God. These are things that incur the wrath of God upon mankind. These are things that are displeasing to him. These are things of the flesh that need to be killed.

But what hope you find! You once walked in these things. You once lived in these things. BUT NOW. These are such beautiful words in the pages of Scripture! But now you must put them away. Why? Because you have been raised with Christ! Because you now have newness of life. Since you have been raised with Christ, your desires are changed. You should no longer want to walk in your former way of life. You should desire to put that way of life to death because Christ has raised you up from the grave of your sins and causes you to walk in the newness of life.

You put these things off because they belong to the old self, the self who has now been buried in the grave. You put these things off because you desire to cultivate Christlikeness. You put these things off because the Holy Spirit is renewing you. But the putting off is painful. The putting off requires submission the sharp sword of the Word. The putting off requires the tearing and the removal of the flesh. This putting off requires honest admission of your sin and a desire to be transformed. Yet though the putting off is painful, you have the promise of renewal. Your new self, your raised self, is being transformed into the image of Christ. Your new self is being made into the likeness of its creator. You were created to image God on this earth, and your growth displays his glory to a watching world. Though the putting off of the flesh is painful, the result is a promise of renewal and transformation. This is work worth doing.

Submit yourself to the painful practice of dying to the flesh. Submit yourself to the Word that divides and heals. Be honest about what you need to put off. Seek the help and strength of the Holy Spirit to die to sin in order that you may live to righteousness. Stop picking at your flesh with feeble fingernails and instead submit to the sharp sword of the Word. Put off the old in order that you may be transformed into the image of Christ.