The New Man

When a person obeys the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he or she is blessed to receive “all spiritual blessings” (Eph. 1:3).  One of those great blessings is a fresh start to living.  Consider what Paul wrote to the church in Rome.  “What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:  that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:1-6).

Did you catch that?  A Christian has “newness of life.”  By putting the “old man” to death, and burying/baptizing him, he is raised a “new creature.”  That is exactly the way Paul described such to the church in Corinth.  “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; behold, all things become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).  Christ’s blood washes a man of all his past sins (Acts 20:7).  The Christian does not have to go through every day feeling hopeless and distraught.  Each day, if we confess our sins, and walk in the light, then we continue to be cleansed.  Instead of being the sinner lost in sin, we become a saint saved by grace (Eph. 2:8-9).

There were other occasions that Paul wrote about the contrast between the old life of sins and the new life of a Christian.  Take for instance the letter to the Ephesians.  Paul wanted the brethren there to understand that since they were now Christians, they could not continue to live as those outside of Christ.  Doing such would cause them to return to the sinful life that they had escaped.  He wrote, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Eph. 4:17-19).  Instead of living a sinful way of life, Christians must faithfully serve the Lord each day.  Paul furthered, “But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Eph. 4:20-24).  That required not only a change of mind/repentance, but also a change of life.  The “new man” has things that he must cease, and things that he must employ.  Paul mentioned, “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour:  for we are members one of another.  Be ye angry, and sin not:  let not the sun go down upon your wrath:  Neither give place to the devil.  Let him that stole steal no more:  but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Eph. 4:25-29).

The “new man” is encouraged to “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (Eph. 5:1-2).  Also, Paul indicated, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord:  walk as children of light:” (Eph. 5:8).  He echoed similar statements to the church in Colosse.  “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.  But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” (Col. 3:5-10).

In what condition do you find yourself today?  Are you still the “old man” living in sin, or are you the “new man” living in righteousness?
~ Corey Barnette