PUT OFF THE OLD MAN WITH HIS DEEDS … PUT ON THE NEW MAN

As far as God was concerned, three things happened the very instant we were saved. In all probability, we didn’t appreciate what occurred at the time, only learning about them subse­quently. For the sake of understanding, we shall refer to these three events in sequence but they all transpired simultaneously. Firstly, there was a death and, as a result of that, there was a burial. God then replaced that dead life with new life; hence we are described as a ‘new creation’, 2 Cor. 5. 17.

The expressions ‘the old man’ and ‘the flesh’ are not inter­changeable but are to be distinguished. The term ‘old man’, when used in this sense, occurs three times in the New Testa­ment, cf. Rom. 6. 6; Eph. 4. 22; Col. 3. 9. It is a term used to describe the entirety of our life from birth to the moment of con­version. From God’s perspective, when we trusted Christ that former life was crucified; hence, Paul writes, ‘Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed’, Rom. 6. 6.

Just as in the physical realm burial follows death, so it is in the spiritual realm. In Romans chapter 6 verse 4 and Colossians chapter 2 verse 12, the apostle refers to us being buried with Christ. His death became our death and His burial was when our ‘old man’ was buried. Now, in place of that former life, God gave us a new life, we were ‘born again’. That new life is what Paul describes in verse 10 as ‘the new man’.

One of our primary responsibilities as Christians is to live our lives in the light of these things. In verses 5-9, Paul cata­logues the kind of deeds that characterized the ‘old man’. As that former life is dead, these perverse features should not be seen in us, they should be ‘put off’. In their place we are to ‘put on the new man’, v. 10.

We may summarize today’s meditation by referring to what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’, 2 Cor. 5. 17. That’s how it should be; the challenge for us is to manifest it experientially.