I.　Since the new man in Ephesians 2:15 is a corporate man, the new man in 4:24 must also be corporate; according to 4:24, we need to put on the very new man that has already been created in Christ.

II.　When we were regenerated, this new man was put into, or born into, our spirit (cf. 2:22); when we believed in the Lord Jesus, the life-giving Spirit came into our spirit, bringing with Him the new man as a finished product:

A.　The addition of the Spirit and the divine life to our spirit produced a new being, the new man—cf. 2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 3:16.

B.　The new man is in our spirit, and the Spirit witnesses with our spirit—Rom. 8:16:

1.　The words our spirit include the spirits of all the saints (Paul's spirit, Martin Luther's spirit, John Wesley's spirit, Brother Nee's spirit, your spirit, and my spirit).

2.　The way to put on the new man is for our spirit (which is mingled with the Spirit), in which are found God, God's dwelling place, and the new man, to become the spirit of our mind.

III.　To be renewed in the spirit of our mind is the way to put on the new man—Eph. 4:23:

A.　For the spirit to become the spirit of our mind means that the spirit directs, controls, dominates, and possesses our mind; when the spirit directs our mind, it governs our whole being—cf. Rom. 8:6; 1 Cor. 2:15-16:

1.　How much we put on the new man depends on how much our spirit directs our being.

2.　When our spirit dominates and directs us, there is no ground for opinions or ordinances; there is no room for our way, because our whole being is dominated, controlled, governed, and directed by our spirit.

3.　Day by day we need to put on the new man by permitting the spirit to control our being and renew our mind.

B.　The new man must spread into and saturate every part of our being; the spreading of the new man is both the putting on of the new man and the renewing.

C.　Putting on the new man does not take place once for all; on the contrary, it is a lifelong matter, a gradual process that goes on throughout our Christian life.

IV.　The new man is the practical church life, which is Christ as the life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit in a corporate way:

A.　To put on the church life as the new man is to put on this entity produced by the mingling of the divine Spirit with the human spirit.

B.　Our daily living should be part of the church life, part of the new man; otherwise, we will grieve the Spirit—Eph. 4:30:

1.　To grieve the Spirit is to displease Him; He is grieved when we do not walk according to Him in our daily life—Rom. 8:4.

2.　Not caring for the church life is one of the main ways we grieve the Spirit.

3.　By not attending the church meetings and by refusing to function in the meetings, we may grieve and quench the Spirit—Heb. 10:25; 1 Thes. 5:19.

C.　We put on the church life as the new man by being filled in spirit to overflow with speaking, singing, praising, and submitting—Eph. 5:18-21.

D.　We put on the church life as the new man by the washing of the water in the word—v. 26:

1.　The water in the word washes away all the spots, which come from wounds, and wrinkles, which come from oldness.

2.　The way to have the washing of the water in the word is to exercise our spirit to pray the Word into us—6:17-18.

V.　The growth in Christ in Ephesians 4:15 is equal to the putting on of the new man in verse 24; the more we grow up into Christ in all things, the more we put on the new man—cf. v. 13:

A.　We need to grow up into Christ in all the details of our living.

B.　In order to put on the church life as the expression of the one new man, we need to grow out of everything natural by growing up into Christ—v. 15.

C.　By growing day by day in Christ, we gradually put off the old social life and put on the church, the new man, as the new community life—v. 16:

1.　The manner of life of the old man is the old social life, the old community life; now that we are saved, our social life needs a change.

2.　The church life is the best "social life"; in the church life our former social life has been exchanged for the best community life—Psa. 16:3; Acts 2:46-47.