Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV)

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

We just got back from a trip across the southern states.  In Texas, while we were turkey hunting, we saw whitetail bucks without antlers and some still carrying their racks.  Most bucks and bull elk across the country have dropped their antlers by this time of the year or are in the process right now.

Shedding antlers is very similar to what should happen to the children of God.  When antlers shed it is removing old dead weight and replacing it with new living tissue.  If the old antlers didn’t fall off there would be no possibility of the new healthy, quite often bigger and stronger, antlers to grow.

If a Christian doesn’t get rid of the old things of their life the sinful past there is no room for the new way of life.  No matter how much we try to change and grow it just can’t happen.  Until the old is gone, the growth of the new is impossible.

In 2nd Corinthians, Paul writes that Christians are a new creation… Not just changed, but new.

2 Corinthians 5:17(NKJV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

So if you haven’t gotten rid of the old, do that or new growth can’t happen.  You are a new creation.