THE NEW MAN
Passage: Colossians 3:8 – 13 [KJV]
“8But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
12Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. {quarrel: or, complaint}”.
Memory Verse: [2 Corinthians 5:17 – Amplified Version]
“Therefore if any person is in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!”
The death of Christ brought about the introduction of the new man (John 12:24). The concept of the new man brings up the issue of the old man. In the Bible, the old man is mentioned in Romans 6:6, Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9 in relation to our old nature which is after Adam. This topic seeks to bring to bear the nature of the old man, the distinction between the old man and the new man, the nature of the new man and the output thereof.
The Old Man
The old man is the nature of man that is after the nature of the fallen Adam. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12. This old nature is under the curse of sin and hence suffers the consequences of sin, the ultimate of which is death. When man fell, the original proper order of spirit, soul and body was upset. In Genesis 2:17, God did not want Adam to eat the fruit because the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil only exalts the soul, hence suppressing the spirit and subjecting the latter to the rule of the former.
The scientific definition of death is the cessation of all the vital functions that are required to keep an organism alive. One of the main and vital functions of the spirit of man is communion with God. Adam did not die physically after eating the fruit; his death had to do with his spirit being separated from God. The consequent inability of man’s spirit to commune with God marked a cessation of vital functioning and thus death. However, this does not mean that his spirit disappeared. Instead, his spirit lost its sensitive awareness to God (Romans 3:23). For example; a deaf person has his ears but is unable to hear because the ears are dead in respect to hearing. The spirit fell into a lifeless sleep. The flesh then began to rule; hence man became flesh (Genesis 6:3).
Regeneration
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).
Regeneration is the means by which man who was hitherto after the flesh is born of the Spirit. The issue of the old man (old nature) was dealt with by Christ on the cross so that anyone who accepts the gift salvation is freed from the curse of sin and its effects. The unregenerate man is born of the flesh and is therefore flesh. Through regeneration man is born of the spirit (John 3:6). After this, there is a step-by-step progression until perfection is fully manifested.
Upon regeneration, the spirit which was dead and fallen I quickened by the Spirit of God thus imparted with the life of God thus eternal life (John 3:16). As a result, Holy Spirit controls his (regenerated man) spirit; his spirit controls the soul and, through the soul, the body. When He enters, it is as if a lamp is lit (Proverbs 20:27). This is the new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26). The basis of regeneration is the cross (John 3:14-16). Regeneration is the first step in the spiritual life. Although the spiritual life received at the time of regeneration is complete, it is not full-grown. This is similar to a fruit in its young stage; it is still a fruit though not full-grown/mature.
The “new man” is the converted, regenerated man. The significance of regeneration include the following:
1. Regeneration is a new birth. By this new birth the spirit of man is imparted with a new life (John 3:3-6).
2. Regeneration results in the new creation which is created after the nature of God. The spirit of the regenerated man is quickened and made alive to God. This spirit now has desires for things emanating from God so that the new man is not governed by the appetite and desires to sin or satisfy the flesh (not determined by his fallen). (Ephesians 2:1-5).
3. The regenerated man is given a new heart (heart of flesh). (Ezekiel 36:26).
The New Man
“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:24.
The new man is the regenerated man. That is, the individual who has accepted and confessed Christ as Lord and Saviour. Thus, when a person becomes born again, that person belongs to the order of the new man; meaning that person has put on the new man (Colossians 3:10). Such person has his spirit or inner man made alive; and his awareness to God restored (thus, his spirit-conscious being is alive again). He is without sin and blameless before God (1 Peter 1:23, Romans 8:1).
Many believe that we have been restored unto the original Adam but this is not so. We have been made a new creature all together as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says; one that the world has never known before. 1 Corinthians 15:45 says: “And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” The last Adam is Christ and we are made in His likeness; a quickening spirit, in other words, a life-giving spirit. The new man expresses the life of The Christ. The nature of righteousness flows from the spirit of the new man and invades his soul and body.
The Nature of the New Man: The “new man” is an appellation yielded by the contrasted idea of the “old man” (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 2:15; 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10). The “old” is “corrupt” and expresses itself in evil “deeds”; the “new” possesses the “image of God” and is marked by “knowledge, righteousness and holiness.”
There are two Greek words “new” – neos and kainos. The former means “new” in the sense of young, as the new-born child is young thing; the latter means “new” in the sense of renovated, as when the house which has been rebuilt is called a new house. The converted man is “new” (neo-anthropos) in the sense that he is a “babe in Christ,” and “new” (kaino-anthropos) in the sense that his moral nature is renovated and built over again. In the New Testament there are 5 different verbs used to express the action put forth in making “old man” a “new man.”
1. He is “created” and thus called a new creature. (Ephesians 2:10, 4:24, 2 Corinthians 5:1)
2. He is “begotten again” (anagennao) by the Spirit. (1 Peter 1:3).
3. He is “quickened” (zoopoieo) and has been made “alive from dead” by a spiritual resurrection. (Ephesian 2:1, 2:5; Romans 6:13).s
4. He has been made “young” (ananeoo) and a child of the Spirit at the commencement of his religious experience. (Ephesians 4:23).
5. He’s said to be “renovated” (anakainoo) such that the sinful human nature is taken by the Spirit and morally recast into the new man. (2 Corinthians 4:16; Romans 12:2).
Separation from the World
The new man in Christ has been made different and separated from the life of this world. We believers, now have a life that is divine; hence we should live as such. From 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, Paul admonishes us to be separate; different from this world and its ways. In James 4:4, we are told that friendship with the world is enmity with God. For what communion has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14) Our life is distinct and should be seen as such by the world. We are to live the life that manifests Christ to the world.
To be separate is to:
· Be apart: not touching or connected, not together, or not in the same place.
· Be unrelated: distinct from something or someone else.
Holiness: When the Bible calls God holy it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. This however, does not mean that God is unreachable, it just means He is absolutely different in nature with respect to all creation. To be holy is to be “other” or “uncommon”, to be different in a special way; being set apart from the all. Some believers say they are not holy because they have sinned. This is wrong. We are holy not because of us or what we do, but because of our association with God. However, this does not give us the liberty to sin. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Romans 6:1.
Holiness then is apartness; that is been set apart from the world, not conforming to the standards of this world.
With this knowledge, we realize how wonderful the new nature given us is. “It is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9. But we need to be cautious not to make this just mere knowledge without works; it should be manifested in our lives to the glory of God. As Ephesians 2:10 says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” In that we have been made new men in Christ Jesus and God expects us to walk in the realities of the new man as expressly said in the text above.
Glory to God!!!
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