Ephesians 4:24

And that ye put on... — But this effect of “the putting off of the old man” is at once absorbed in the stronger idea of “putting on the new man.” In the “new man” here is implied not merely youthfulness, but the freshness of a higher nature (as in Ephesians 2:15). To “put on the new man” is, therefore, to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” by that divine process of which we have the beginning in Galatians 3:27, the continuation in Romans 13:14, and the completion in 1 Corinthians 15:53; 2 Corinthians 5:3. For He is “the new man,” “the second Adam,” “formed after God, in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

Holiness (used only here and in Luke 1:75) is “purity” consecrated to God in His “Holy One” (Acts 2:27). It describes the “purity of heart” of which our Lord Himself speaks as a still higher grace, gifted with a higher reward, than even “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6; Matthew 5:8). “Righteousness” is goodness shown to others, to man and to God: “holiness” is goodness in itself, as it is in “the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity.” Stress is laid upon it here in contrast with the lusts and uncleanness described above.

Truth is similarly opposed to the “deceit” of Ephesians 4:22. Christ is Himself “the Truth,” as being the manifestation of “the fulness of the Godhead.” As the corrupting and beguiling lusts belong to the spirit of Deceit, so righteousness and holiness to the Truth.