The Old Man and the New

Anonymous

The ‘flesh’ is the evil nature. The ‘old man’ is the person who had that nature, the responsible man who came to an end, in God’s sight, by the cross, in order that the body of sin — sin as a controlling power — might be annulled (Rom. 6:6). This old man is ‘put off’ when one believes — that is, he no longer stands in that relationship to God in which he could only produce evil and be condemned (Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9). Note that this is not something to be done constantly as to the old man, as it was done once for all by the cross. However, the flesh, the nature that belonged to that old man, still exists and has to be constantly judged and its lusts abstained from. 

The ‘new man’ is the opposite of the ‘old’. It is the man as he is in Christ, a new creation, after God, in knowledge and holiness of truth. It is not the new nature, but the person who has the nature[1] as he stands before God.

Author unknown[2]

[1] Note (biblecentre): The believer, of course, has two natures. He retains the old nature but, at new birth, he has received the new nature. 

[2] Adapted from answers to questions in Help and Food for the Household of Faith (1892) vol. 10 p. 252 and (1898) vol. 16 p. 168.

From: Truth and Testimony, 2023