The New Man & Old Man

I will never forget the day I was saved, the day that I accepted Jesus into my heart. It was truly a turning point from which I have never looked back. Through God's grace I was able to walk forward knowing that now that I was living my life for Him and Him alone. I know longer was a slave to sin. I was a new man.

There is a section in Colossians which speaks of this transformation (Col 3:8-17)

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile of Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all. Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

This is a mighty message written by Paul. It sums up exactly how we are called to live, we are to cast of the shackles of sin. Anger, rage, malice, revenge, these are all things of our old self. But God has set us free of those things.

It says in Galatians 2:4

This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves

We are brand new in Christ, not by way of the law. The freedom in  Christ has made us a new man.

But sometimes in our walk with God, after a period of time we allow the old man back into our life, little by little.  But we must hold on to Gods word. In Ephesians 4:20-25 it says

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your mind and to put on the new self, crated to be like God in true righteousness and holiness

The characteristics of the new man includes compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. All throughout the new Testament, it speaks of the characteristics of the New Man and how he should act. For we have been born again, made new and are no longer restricted by what held us in our past.

But sometimes we may fall back into bad habits, it may only begin with something small. We might start going out with the old gang again, then we start drinking again and it goes on. Whether it be lying, cheating, stealing, If we allow the “old man” to feed the flesh, the flesh will pull our decisions in the wrong direction. We will ultimately stumble and backslide.

This highlights how important it is for us to daily feed on God's word, refreshing us constantly.We must fill the “new man” with God’s word. We will not succeed if we try and fill the “old man” with his word. Another failing point is if we just hide the "old man" from others. We might goto church and praise God, participate in church ministry and events, but after all that we go home and give into the ways of the old man,  it wont remain hidden for long. If we try to cover our “old man” characteristics, it will eventually come through.

God isn’t interested in covering our cracks, he wants to make us completely new. If we think we can still live as the old man in secrecy, we are fooling ourselves! As it says in Romans 6:6

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should be slaves to sin

We are no longer slaves to sin when we are made new through God's grace. I know myself in the past, there were things in my life I struggled with, things that seemed to have a bind on me. But after I was saved, these things no longer ruled me. Through Jesus, I had been made new! We must live as “new men” and not give the “old man” a chance to break in.

God wants to renew us daily and see us live continuously for him and by his word!