Paul teaches that there is an Old Man and the New Man in everyone born of the Spirit. He urges us to put off the Old Man and put on the New Man.
His illustration suggests to our mind the putting on or putting off of apparel, one is obviously filthy from sin and lust and the other is clean from Righteousness.
Also, the idea of a Man whether old or new is suggestive of a PERSON or why would HE be referred to as a MAN?
It is this idea of PUTTING ON the New Man that I wish to elaborate more on, because this same PUTTING ON of the New Man is also used to illustrate the PUTTING ON of Christ.
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So is Christ the New Man on the inside? The verse below seems to suggest it unless we are putting on two MEN simultaneously.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have PUT ON Christ.
Galatians 3:27
Another verse brings this out even better:
14 But PUT YE ON the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Romans 13:14
But God is not the author of confusion and he does not leave us in any doubt as to who the New Man is.
The process all started when Christ abolished the Law and made one New Man out of two sets of people; the Jews and the Gentiles.
BEAUTIFUL OUTDOORS, BUT UGLY INSIDE
Eph 2: 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; to make in himself of two one NEW MAN, so making peace;
(Please study Eph chapter 2:11 – 14).
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So this was where the concept of the New Man originated from.
But two things were involved here; you first had to be IN CHRIST before you could PUT ON Christ, we saw that earlier in Gal 3:27.
So we were baptized into Christ, yes; but it was into his DEATH that we were baptized; meaning that the Old Man or the old me if you like; had to die on the cross in and with Christ before the New Man could be raised or resurrected in Christ Jesus.
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Romans 6:3
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The whole purpose of this was so that in Christ we could be raised from death into a new life in Christ in which he now lives through us, seeing as how the Old Man (that would be the old you and me) had died.
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.
Romans 6:4
The only problem was that it was not a once and for all dying or a once and for all living; for the Old Man being spiritual, could easily come back to life again if resuscitated by the things he used to feed on formerly.
Since it is not possible to have both MEN living vicariously through us, we have to starve one of those men to death and keep him permanently dead by putting him off the way we put off clothing.
If we decide to keep the New Man on then we must know that he was CREATED as a spiritual look alike of Christ; in scriptural words; created in the image of Christ.
If we therefore allow this image of Christ to live his life through us we will become
TRANSFORMED or CONCRETIZED into his image the same way as wet cement becomes conformed or concretized into the image of its mold.
This was the picture Paul was trying to paint in :
Galatians 4:19
19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again UNTIL Christ be FORMED in you.
The whole essence of our spiritual walk therefore is to get to the point where by sheer force of habit that has evolved into second nature; we no longer live our former lives; in fact we don’t LIVE at all!
Someone else does our every day living for us; he is Jesus Christ the New Man!
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
As long as we STAY crucified, we don’t have to live anymore, Christ becomes our life!
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:3
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:4
Put on Christ today by not allowing your old self (the Old Man) to live its life of sin vicariously through you.
What makes it more difficult is that it has a friend; an Ally – your body of flesh filled with lusts for all kinds of sinful pleasure and SELF-ish desires.
It uses your body to experience the sensations derived from these lusts while on the contrary, Christ the new man within, wants nothing to do with the body and its sinfulness; in fact Scripture refers to the body as the body of sin!
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.
Romans 6:6
Of course the ‘destroyed’ mentioned above is not physical destruction but a rendering of the spiritual functions of the body (its lusts) utterly redundant.
So this is Paul’s recommended solution:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
1 Corinthians 9:27
The idea conveyed in the above scripture is to SUBDUE the body CONTINUALLY by RESISTING its demands and quelling its natural desires and worldly ambitions until it no longer has any strength to resist; and then maintain that victory.