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THAT, IN REFERENCE TO YOUR
FORMER MANNER OF LIFE: kata ten proteran anastrophen: (Eph
4:25; 1Samuel 1:14; Job 22:23; Ezekiel 18:30, 31, 32; Colossians 2:11;
3:8,9; Hebrews 12:1; James 1:21; 1Peter 2:1,2) (Eph 4:17; 2:3; Galatians
1:13; Colossians 3:7; 1Peter 1:18; 4:3; 2Peter 2:7)
Former
(4387)
(proteros from pró = forth, before) means prior, previous,
of an earlier time, all pertaining to a point of time earlier in a
sequence. Proteros refers to a period of time preceding another period
of time.
Proteros -
11x in 11v in the NAS -Jn. 6:62; 7:50; 9:8; 2 Co. 1:15; Gal.
4:13; Eph. 4:22; 1 Tim. 1:13; Heb. 4:6; 7:27; 10:32; 1 Pet. 1:14 and
rendered in the NAS as before(2), first(2), first time(1),
former(3), formerly(2), previously(1).
Ruth Paxson
writes that their former manner of life was...
a life in sin
lived according to the debased standard of the trinity of evil (Ed note:
world, flesh, devil). Their former manner of life was the unregenerate,
unclean, unholy life of the sinner under the domination of "the old
man." (Paxson, Ruth: The Wealth, the Walk and the Warfare of
the Christian. 1939. Revell)
In chapter 2 Paul
had repeatedly reminded them of their former desperate spiritual
condition writing...
And you were dead in your trespasses
and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the
spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we
too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath, even as the rest (See notes
Ephesians 2:1;
2:2;
2:3)
Therefore remember, that formerly
you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the
so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human
hands--12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ,
excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants
of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.13 But now in
Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near
by the blood of Christ. (See notes
Ephesians 2:11;
2:12;
2:13)
Manner of life
(391)
(anastrophe from aná = again, back + strépho = turn
- idea is turning back in forth in a place equates with living there)
means ones way of life or conduct, with apparent focus on overt daily
behavior. Thayer adds that the root verb (anastrepho) means “to conduct
or behave one’s self, to walk,” the latter meaning not referring here to
the physical act of walking but to the act of determining our course of
conduct and the carrying out of that determined course of action.
Anastrophe means in biblical use has the moral and spiritual aspect of
one’s manner of life is in view.
Anastrophe
- 13x in 13v in the NAS - Gal. 1:13; Eph. 4:22; 1 Tim. 4:12; Heb. 13:7;
Jas. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:15, 18; 2:12; 3:1f, 16; 2 Pet. 2:7; 3:11 and is
rendered in the NAS as behavior(6), conduct(4), manner of life(2), way
of life(1).
Vincent
comments that...
The process of development in the
meaning of the word is interesting. 1. A turning upside down. 2. A
turning about or wheeling. 3. Turning about in a place, going back and
forth there about one’s business; and so, 4, one’s mode of life or
conduct. (Word studies in the New Testament)
YOU LAY ASIDE THE OLD SELF:
apothesthai (AMN)...ton palaion anthropon ton: (Romans
6:6; Colossians 3:9)
See related
resource:
Covenant: The Exchange of Robes -
Putting Off the Old Man, Putting on the New Man
You lay aside
the old self (old man) - without being too technical, the verb lay aside can be
translated one of two ways, (1) either indicating a completed past action
(this would be our position whereas the second translation reflects our
practice) or (2)
an action the believer is to carry out (the latter almost giving it the
sense of an imperative). This distinction is even seen in the way the
various Bible translations render the Greek text.
For example, the
following rendering translates the Greek as if it were a fact or a past
completed action...
Wuest: that you have put off once for all with reference
to your former manner of life the old self who is being corrupted
according to the passionate desires of deceit;
In contrast, the
following versions render lay aside (put off, throw off, strip)
as an action the believer is to carry out...
Amplified: Strip
yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed
self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes
corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion;
KJV: That ye put off
concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts;
NASB: that, in reference to
your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is
being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
NLT: throw off your old
evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and
through, full of lust and deception.
I favor the
interpretation of lay aside as an action the believer is to carry
out and that is how it is presented in these notes. However, in one
sense both interpretations/translations are correct, the former
(positional truth) emphasizing the bestowal of God's sovereign grace in
salvation and the latter (practical truth) emphasizing man's
responsibility to walk in the light (and power) of the grace and the
Spirit bestowed.
John Piper
using the analogy of cleaning out leaven says it this way...
Clean out the old leaven of sin, because it is really already cleaned
out. If you try to play
logic games with this reality and say, “I don’t need to fight sin
because it is already cleaned out,” you will prove only that you are not
among the number who are cleansed.
In other words the
Old Man has already been crucified with Christ (Ro 6:6-note). That is a
historical fact and a truth for believers to continually reckon as true (because it
is true) (cp Ro 6:11-note). Now, based upon the truth that the
Old Man has been crucified,
Paul is saying make it your experience of putting off this Old Man. And
so put off in your daily walk what has already been put off when you
died with Christ.
Here is how
Steven Cole explains it...
Paul’s phrase is literally, “the old man.” He identifies this as
being “in reference to your former manner of life.” So the old
man refers to all that we were before we were saved, when we were
ruled by the evil desires and practices (see Ep 4:19-note;
Eph 2:3-note).
Paul uses the same phrase in Ro 6:6-note,
where he says,
our old self (old man) was crucified with Him,
in order that our body of sin might be done away with (Ed: not
annihilated but rendered powerless - see
katargeo), so that we would
no longer be slaves to sin.
Romans 6 is really a longer
exposition of what Paul says more succinctly here.
In Romans 6:6-note (and in Col. 3:9-note), Paul refers to the
putting off of the
old man as an accomplished fact. When Christ died on the cross, we died
with Him positionally. When He was raised from the dead, we were
raised up with Him. We are to reckon these facts to be true in our daily
practice, so that we will not yield to
Sin (Ro 6:11-note).
Because in those passages Paul clearly states this putting off of the
old life as a done deal, some argue that it is not something that we
have to go on doing now. They contend that it was a once and for all
matter that happened at the cross.
But, although we died with Christ, in other places Paul commands us to
put to death our members that are on the earth (Ro 8:13-note;
Col. 3:5-note,
literal translation).
Why do we need to put to death our members if we
already died?
My understanding is that we must daily apply experientially the
facts that are true of us positionally. So, yes, at the moment we
got saved, we put off the dirty clothes of the old life. But, every day
we must reckon that this is so by putting off everything associated with
the old life and putting on the new life in Christ.
Lloyd-Jones (ibid. p. 123) uses a helpful illustration. When Abraham
Lincoln freed the slaves, they were officially free from their many
years of servitude, but some of them went on living as if they were
still slaves. The President’s proclamation gave them legal standing as
free citizens. It was a done deal—they were no longer slaves. But, out
of habit and way of thinking, many of these poor people still lived like
slaves. So, they needed to live in accordance with the new facts. When
they were tempted to think like a slave, they needed to say, “No, the
truth is I am now a free man!” They needed to appropriate that truth
into their daily experience.
J Vernon McGee
agrees with Cole writing that...
We are to put off the old man and put
on the new man in the same manner that we change our clothes. It is like
putting off an old and unclean garment and then putting on a garment
that is new and clean. The putting off the old man and putting on the
new man cannot be done by self-effort, nor can it be done by striving to
imitate Christ’s conduct. It has been done for the believing sinner by
the death of Christ. We are like babes who cannot dress themselves. I
have learned with my little grandson that a child doesn’t do very well
when he tries to dress himself. As Christians we never reach the place
where we can do that, and we don’t need to try. It already has been done
for us. We are told in the Epistle to the Romans that the old man has
already been crucified in the death of Christ.
“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” (Ro 6:6-note).
In view of the truth that the old man
has already been crucified with Christ, we are to put it off in the
power of the Holy Spirit. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
Ruth Paxson
writes that...
Ephesians 4:22
"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts."
Ephesians 4:24
"And that ye put on the new
man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
This twofold clear, crisp exhortation marks the meeting-point between
God's part and ours in our sanctification. It is the
crossroads between God's sovereign work through grace and
man's cooperative action through faith. It is an exhortation to
practical holiness in every phase of one's daily life.
Paul takes us immediately to the very source of life in each sphere and
shows us two things. The character of life is due to its source and the
character determines the conduct.
Life in the old sphere is tracked to
its source, "the old man," and the conduct is corrupt because the
character is such.
Life in the new sphere is traced to
its source, "the new man," and the conduct is righteous and holy
because the character is so. (Paxson, Ruth: The Wealth, the Walk and the Warfare of
the Christian. 1939. Revell)
Alan Carr explains it this
way...
The believer has received a change of
life that results in a change in his walk. We are called upon to "put
off", once for all, the ways of the old man who is just growing
worse day by day. (Note: The words "is corrupt" are present tense
and speak of a corpse that lies rotting in the sun. Each day brings with
it more evidence that the corpse is dead!) We are called upon to "put
on", once for all, the new man, who had been created in
righteousness and holiness. When the new believer comes to faith in
Jesus, he learns a new way of life, Ep 4:19-note,
Ep 4:20-note!
He has experienced a change of heart that results in a profound change
of mind, Ep 4:23-note!
God puts a new desire within His children that makes them want to live
differently than they used to live! The bottom line is this: the
maturing believer looks different, acts different, walks different and
thinks different than he did before! (Eph
4:11-32 THE MARKS OF A MATURING CHRISTIAN)
Spurgeon...
Have you never read," That which is
born of the flesh is flesh" (Jn 3:6)? Before long the flesh will perish, and from
it you will reap corruption (Gal 6:8). Only "that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit" (Jn 3:6); the joy is that the spirit will live, and of it you will reap
life everlasting. Whether you are a professor of religion or not, I
beseech you, ask yourself—
Have I felt the power of the Spirit
of God?
Is the life that is within you the
result of the fermentation of your own natural desires?
Or is it a new element, infused,
imparted, implanted from above?
Is your spiritual life a heavenly
creation?
Have you been created anew in Christ
Jesus?
Have you been born again by divine
power?
Ordinary religion is nature gilded
over with a thin layer of what is thought to be grace. Sinners have
polished themselves up, and brushed off the worst of the rust and the
filth, and they think their old nature is as good as new. This
touching-up and repairing of the old man is all very well; but it
falls, short of what is needed. You may wash the face and hands of
Ishmael as much as you please, but you cannot make him into Isaac. You
may improve nature, and the more you do so the better for certain
temporary purposes; but you cannot raise it into grace. There is a
distinction at the very fountain-head between the stream which rises in
the bog of fallen humanity, and the river which proceeds from the throne
of God. (According to Promise: or, The Lord's Method of Dealing with His
Chosen People)
John Piper...
The old self that loves to
boast and exult and rejoice in other things died. By faith we are united
to Christ. His death becomes the death of our self-exalting life. We are
raised with him to newness of life. What lives is a new creature whose
single passion is to exalt Christ and his cross.
To put it another way, when you put
your trust in Christ, your bondage to the world and its overpowering
lure is broken. You are a corpse to the world, and the world is a corpse
to you. Or to put it positively, according to Gal 6:15, you are a "new
creation." The old "you" is dead. A new "you" is alive. And the new you
is the you of faith. And what faith does is boast not in the world, but
in Christ, especially Christ crucified.
This is how you become so
cross-centered that you say with Paul, "I will not boast, except in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Gal 6:14-note)
The world is no longer our treasure. It's not the source of our life or
our satisfaction or our joy. Christ is. (Don't Waste Your Life)
Charles Ryrie...
The sin nature is also called the old
man (Ro 6:6; Col. 3:9). This phrase seems to emphasize the source of
the capacity to glorify self instead of God; that is, it takes us back
to Adam from whom we all received our sin natures. (Balancing the
Christian Life)
Paul Little...
Someone has said, "Christ puts a new
man in the suit—not just a new suit on the man." When a person is
changed by Christ, his clothing (his attitudes) will change as well. God
has made full provision, through the sacrifice of Christ, for us to
escape judgment and have a new life. (Know What You Believe: Connecting
Faith and Truth)
Lay aside (659)
(apotithemi
[word study]
from apo =
away from, marker of dissociation, implying a rupture from a former
association, separation, departure, cessation, any separation of one
thing from another by which the union or fellowship of the two is
destroyed + tithemi = put, place)
means literally to put or take something away from its normal location
and put it out of the way. It was used literally of runners who
participated in the Olympic games who cast off their clothes and running
nearly completely naked in the stadium.
Apotithemi - 9x in 9v in the
NAS - Matt. 14:3; Acts 7:58; Rom. 13:12; Eph. 4:22, 25; Col. 3:8; Heb.
12:1; Jas. 1:21; 1 Pet. 2:1 and is rendered in the NAS as laid
aside(1), lay aside(3), laying aside(1), put(1), put aside(1), putting
aside(2).
Figuratively the idea of apotithemi
is to cease doing what you were previously accustomed to doing.
Stop doing it. "Throw" it off like you would filthy, foul smelling
clothes! Be done with it! The
aorist tense
calls for a definite action.
In this verse the verb signifies a change
of identities, calling us to live like the One in Whom we now positioned
(In Christ, In Union with Him, In Covenant with Him).
Apotithemi is the word Luke used in its literal sense of the Jewish
leaders in Jerusalem who
"began stoning (Stephen), and the
witnesses laid aside (apotithemi) their robes at the feet of a
young man named Saul. " (Acts
7:58).
They
laid aside their outer garments so they could more freely do their
wicked work. The Christian lays aside the following attitudes and
actions, so he can
be free to do the righteous work of the Lord.
Wayne Barber writes that now Paul...
goes on to show them the positive side. He starts telling them how they
ought to live. How then should we live if we are not to live like the
unregenerate Gentiles? We have to live in the world where they live. How do
we distill this down in practical terms that we can understand?
First, Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:20, 22, 23, 24 that living as a believer is
much like putting on a brand new set of clothes. A set of clothes is
what people see. Paul is saying something profound to us. He is saying,
Folks, you don’t have to wear old clothes. As a matter of fact, you are
not supposed to wear the old clothes that you used to wear.
You see,
wearing your clothes, putting on the garment, has to do with a way you
live. It is a lifestyle. He is saying,
In Jesus Christ you have a brand new set of clothes and you are going to
have to learn how to wear them.
He uses two phrases. One is in Ephesians 4:22: lay aside which has to do with taking something off. Then he says in
Eph 4:24- note
put on
which also has to do with clothes. One you take off, and one you put on.
It is dressing and undressing. How are you supposed to live as a
believer? You are supposed to be dressed the right way. Let me show you.
First of all, let me show you in Acts 7:58 how that word "lay aside" has
to do with taking something off. In Acts 7:58 Luke writes...
And when they had driven him out of the city [speaking of Stephen, the
martyr], they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their
robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
So you have a picture of somebody taking something off. That word (apotithemi) is
used several times. In Ro 13:12- note
we get
an even clearer picture of what Paul is saying in Ephesians. Paul uses
the word and the phrase. We begin to realize that when you put off this
garment, this old man as we are going to see later, it has to do not so
much with just the old man itself, but the way he used to live. It is a
lifestyle. Romans 13:12 says,
The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay
aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ( see
note)
Paul uses the word again in Colossians. It gives us a little clearer
picture. Colossians 3:8
says,
But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and
abusive speech from your mouth. ( see
note)
Everything he mentions has to do with relationships. When we are rightly
related to Christ, when we are letting Jesus be Jesus in our life, when
we are being strengthened in the inner man by the spirit of God, we are
putting on the garment of a brand new lifestyle. The first place it is
going to show up is in relationships. When you have divided
relationships all you have is somebody wearing the wrong garment. That
is all there is to it. Somebody is not at peace with somebody else. We
are to be at peace with all men, to wear the right garment.
Look in Hebrews 12:1...
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily
entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us. ( see
note)
Take it off like a garment. Get it out of your life. Lay it aside.
There are two words that are used for that. One means away from, and the
other means to place, to get it away from you. Put it away from you.
Take it off. Peter uses it in 1Peter 2:1...
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and
envy and all slander ( see
note)
Peter said, "Get these garments off of you. You don’t live that way
anymore. Put that off. That is the old. Now you are to wear the new." So
the word "laying aside" means to take off something like you take off a
garment.
Let’s look at the next word. Ephesians 4 says:
and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created
in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
You can immediately see the fabric of this new garment. It is created in
righteousness and holiness of the truth. There is something contrasting
to the old way I used to live and the new way I am supposed to live.
I want to show you how the word is a simple word. Acts 12:21 reads,
And on an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his
seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them.
Paul takes that word and uses it in an analogy of how we are to live as
if we are putting on a garment, for others to look at, for others to
see. In Ephesians 4, it is a garment. In chapter 6 it is armor. It is
the same thing. When you put on Christ, He is your garment. When you put
on Christ, He is your armor against anything the devil ever puts in your
life. In
Ephesians 6:11 he says,
"Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil." ( see
note)
Ephesians 6:14 says,
"Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having
put on the breastplate of righteousness." ( see
note)
Now this is interesting. I am to put on. Every day I get up and put on.
Every moment I move, put on. But wait a minute. When did I get the
garment? Look in Colossians 3:9-11. We are going to find that we have
already put it on. That is interesting. He says "put it on" in Ephesians
while Colossians says, "Wait a minute, you have already put it on."
Colossians 3:9
says,
"Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its
evil practices, and have put on the new self." ( see
note)
Here is what I want you to see. It’s in the
aorist tense,
middle voice. Aorist means there
has been a time, a certain time when you have put it on. But it also
middle voice: you chose to do it. You understood what you were doing
when you put on the new man.
I can hear some of you thinking, "Wait a minute. God chose us." It has
nothing to do with that argument. That is not what Paul is saying. Paul
is saying in essence
"You understood what you were doing when you bowed before Jesus Christ.
You may not have had much understanding then, but you understood that
the old garment was a product of a sinful nature and that you, being in
Adam, could not save yourself. You understood that, because repentance
is taking a garment off and turning and putting a garment on."
We did that at salvation. We put the garment on at salvation. We turned
around, sick of the old and put on the new.
"Now, I don’t understand. If I have already put it on, how come I have
to put it on?"
When we put it on, we put it on inwardly. Now we have to wear it
outwardly. Folks, it is the same thing Paul is saying in Philippians
when he says work out your salvation. In other words, get what is on the
inside on the outside (Php 2:12; 2:13 notes
Php 2:12;
13). Put it on.
Aorist
is also punctiliar: put it on, put it on, put it on. But it is a
conscious choice in doing it.
I want to show you the very thread of that new garment. Paul does
something in Ephesians 4:20. He does not link us to a creed or to a
code. He links us to a person and shows us that the very thread of the
garment we are to wear is the Lord Jesus Himself. It is putting on
Christ. It is letting Jesus be Jesus in your life. Verse 20 says,
"But you did not learn Christ in this way."
You didn’t learn a creed or a code. We are not tied to a set of rules.
We are tied to a Person. As we put Him on, then everything He has
commanded us to do strengthens us in the inner man with an ability to do
and to be beyond what we have ever been or we have ever done. It is
Christ in us. That is all it is. It is the same thing as being filled
with the Spirit. It is the same thing as walking in the light. The Bible
doesn’t say seven different things. It says one thing several different
times. We are to surrender, and when we do, we are taking off something
and putting on something. Not only will it be real to us on the inside,
but it will be real to others on the outside.
Can I ask you a question? What garment do you have on? Have you put the
old back on? You know, some people enjoy the rags of the old. It is kind
of like Lazarus when he came out of the grave. They said,
"Unbind him, and let him go." (John 11:44)
In other words "Loose him and set him free. Take those grave clothes off
of him." He can’t walk. He can’t witness. He can’t worship. Everything
about him is all bound up. But you know, some people like to take some
of those rags and stick them in their pockets and say,
"You know, I kind of like some of that old stuff. I’d rather wear this
garment than the garment of Christ in my life. I don’t want to bow. I
kind of enjoy my self-pity. I kind of enjoy my bitterness. I kind of
enjoy my lust. I don’t want to bow. I enjoy being covetous. I enjoy
dividing people. I would rather wear the old."
The Scripture says,
"No, you put on the new. You have no option. Wear that garment you got
when you received Christ."
Remember, you understood at that time what was causing you all the pain.
Don’t go back to what caused you all the pain.
Well, the second thing I want you to see is before I can put on the new,
as he says in verse 24, I have to put off the old. I want to talk about
that old garment just for a little bit. In verse 22 it says,
"that, in reference to your former manner of life."
The word there is anastrophe. It always means everything you do, think,
and say. We are in regard to that. He says,
"you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with
the lusts of the deceit."
Remember, that word "accordance with" is not "out of." It is "in
accordance with." You mean as evil as the flesh can be, it is being
corrupted? That old man is getting worse and worse and worse." That is
exactly what I see that it saying in Scripture.
Let’s walk through it a second. The "old self" there translated
in the New American Standard is really "old man." The word
literally is new man and old man, not old self and new self. This man of
old, which you used to be, that which was in Adam, needs to be taken off
because now you have been placed into Christ. Take that old man off. But
I tell you what, if you are not sick of the old man yet, you will be
when I finish this verse.
Let me show you what I get out of that verse. Paul is trying to show you
how rotten the old man is. It is the picture of something that is very
putrid and is in the process of rotting. The idea of this word is of a
dead corpse or cadaver that is now rotting and decaying and stinks and
it is getting worse all the time. If you want to go back and put the old
garment on, help yourself. But I want to tell you, when you do, you are
going to smell up relationships. There is going to be an odor about you
that is going to be putrid and rotten. Hebrews says don’t ever let a
root of bitterness develop among you because when it comes up, it is
going to defile men.
If you take a barrel of apples and throw a rotten one in it, you’ve got
exactly the picture right here. People who won’t put on the new garment
are the people who are causing all the rot in the body of Christ. This
is pretty heavy stuff. You know the Holy Spirit inspired this. The Holy
Spirit doesn’t mince any words, does He? He just tells you what the old
life is like. Folks, we have been saved out of that. Thank God we have
been saved out of it. Don’t think for a second that there is anything
there for you when you go back and put on that old garment.
Paul uses the term "old man" three times. In Romans 6, in
Colossians 3 and in Ephesians 4. I want you to go back to Romans 6 and
see if I can explain it. Just like the new man, I have put him on. Now I
have to put him on. I have to choose to put him on. It is my
responsibility. I have put him on, positionally. Experientially, I
choose to do it every day. The same is true about the putting on of the
old man.
Romans 6:6
says,
"knowing this, that our old man [or self as it is translated] was
crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with that we
should no longer be slaves to sin." (see
note)
In God’s reckoning, the old man died with Christ on the cross. In that
death, God put an end to the old creation in Adam and now replaces it
with a new creation in Christ. It depends on which side of the cross
that you are on. If you have been taken out of Adam, you have been put
into Christ. The old man is dead. He is powerless in the believer’s
life. However, it’s mark is left on us in the lust of our
flesh.
So even though it has been put off,
we must now choose to put it off.
The way we do it is by choosing against what our
flesh
wants and
choosing what the Lord God desires in our hearts (cp Gal 5:17-note).
This choosing is analogous to the idea of
putting on and putting of. We have put on and now we need to put off. It
has been put off, but now we need to put it off in our life.
So therefore, we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin (Ro 6:11-note).
Do you realize that you don’t have to lust, men? You don’t have to be in
bondage to immorality (Ed: cp Col 3:5-note,
in a very real sense a "putting off" of the Old Man). You don’t have
continue to yield to the sin of immorality. You are a new
person in Christ (2Cor 5:17-note).
Sin has been rendered powerless in your life
(Ro 6:6-note). The only
reason it (Sin) has any power over you at all is because you choose to let it
do so. You don’t have to covet. You don’t have to throw
rocks at your house every time you go home because you want a bigger
one. You don’t have to live that way any more. You can be content
wherever you are. You don’t have to live under bondage anymore. If
you are bitter and it is ruining relationships around you and other
people know about it, you don’t have to live that way (cp Ep 4:31-note). You have been set
free (cp Jn 8:36), redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (1Pe 1:18,19-note). You are no longer to be held
hostage to sin anymore. It doesn’t have to rule over you (Ro 6:12, 13-note).
My exhortation to you is to wear the right garment. When you go to a
restaurant the waitress who walks over to you may be deceived and blind
in sin, as described in Titus 3:3
(note).
You don’t know her spiritual state, but perhaps you sense that there is no life in this
person. Remember you used to be that way. But now that you have come out
of it, God sends us back into the world to put on a brand new garment to
demonstrate to them that there is another way to live if they know
Christ, the Christ that you know. (Ephesians 4:20-24: A Brand New Way of Life
- 2)
Ruth Paxson has this note in regard
to lay aside the old man writing...
God always takes the initiative in salvation. Before He asks or expects
man to act, He has acted. The work of Christ in salvation is a
completely finished work. So in regard to "the old man" God has already
done His part, which is plainly recorded in Scripture as an accomplished
historical fact.
Ro 6:6 "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in
bondage to sin."
By the sovereign act of God that "old man" was crucified with Christ. In
God's reckoning he died on the Cross as truly as Christ died. In that
death God put an end to the old creation in Adam that He might replace
it by the new creation in Christ (2Co 5:17). He put "the old man" out of
employment, as it were, by depriving him of his dominion over the
believer in Christ. In God's reckoning the crucifixion of "the old man"
was a final, once-for-all act. From that moment God sees him only on the
Cross. In God's purpose all the old, filthy, sin-infected garments in
which "the old man" was clad went into the discard also as utterly
unbefitting the life of the new sphere into which the believer was
translated.
Can you conceive of Mr. Bosshardt, when delivered out of 560
days of captivity by bandits in China, refusing to lay aside the filthy,
vermin-infested garments he had been compelled to wear? Would not his
deepest desire be to be rid of everything that in the slightest degree
pertained to that experience, now past through God's grace and goodness?
What God has made true for us positionally, He longs to make real in us
experimentally (experientially). This requires our intelligent,
wholehearted co-operation in willing consent and in active choice as the
imperative "that ye put off" clearly shows (Ed note: Some take it to
have the force of an imperative, but the Greek is strictly speaking not
the imperative mood.). There is a part for us to play if the
crucifixion as historical fact is to be made an experimental reality in
our lives.
Therefore we should know what our responsibility is, and then fulfill
it. (Paxson, Ruth: The Wealth, the Walk and the Warfare of the
Christian. 1939. Revell)
Comment: In a parallel
teaching Paul does use the imperative mood to command believers to "work
out their salvation" (which would include "putting off" the old garments
of sin). However believers are enabled to carry out this supernatural activity only
because God is now in the believer given him or her both the
motivation or desire to carry out this divine activity and the power to do so.
(see Php 2:12-note,
Php 2:13-note;
cp God's promised power in the New Covenant in Ezekiel 36:27)
Old
(3820)
(palaios
[word study]) mans old (as in ancient) and describes that which is no
longer new or which is worn by use or which is worse for wear. Palaios
pertains to that which has been in existence for a long time. It also
refers to that which is obsolete or inferior because of being old.
Palaios -
19x in 15v in the NAS - Matt. 9:16f; 13:52; Mk. 2:21f; Lk. 5:36f, 39;
Rom. 6:6; 1 Co. 5:7f; 2 Co. 3:14; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9; 1 Jn. 2:7 and is
always rendered "old".
Paul used
palaios in a similar context in Colossians commanding the saints...
Do not lie
to one another, since you laid aside (apekduomai)
the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self
who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the
One who created him (Col 3:9-note;
Col 3:10-
note)
Vincent
writes that palaios...
carries the sense of worn out by
time, injury, sorrow, or other causes. Thus the old garment (Mt 9:16)
is palaion. So the old wine-skins (Mt 9:17). The old men of a living
generation compared with the young of the same generation are palaioi.
In palaios the simple conception of time dominates. (Word studies in the
New Testament)
Trench
defines palaios as
old in the sense that it is more or
less worn out. (Trench,
R. C. Synonyms of the New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers. 2000)
Wuest adds
It describes something that is worn
out, useless, fit to be put on the scrap pile, to be
discarded...archaios, means “old in point of time,” palaios, means “old
in point of use.”...The expression “the old man” therefore refers
to the unsaved person dominated by the totally depraved nature.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
Self
(444)
(anthropos) means man and refers to humanity in general.
As
John MacArthur reminds us
"You can tell a lot about people in
our society by the way they dress. From baseball players to bus drivers,
from postal carriers to policemen, people wear the uniform of their
profession. Who we are determines what we wear, and failing to “dress
the part” can sometimes have embarrassing consequences. Many years ago
a very wealthy man in a Southern California town was found wandering
around the local country club wearing shabby clothes. He was promptly
seized by security guards and charged with vagrancy—even though he owned
the country club. He had failed to dress consistent with who he
was...Christians must dress themselves spiritually in accordance with
their new identity. They have died with Christ and risen to new life.
Salvation thus produces a two-sided obligation for believers.
Negatively, they must throw off the garment of the old, sinful
lifestyle, as Paul pointed out in Col 3:5-9a. Positively, they must
put on the lifestyle of the new man." (MacArthur,
J. Colossians. Chicago: Moody Press)
THE OLD MAN
THE OLD SELF
The Old Man (synonymous with
Old Self)
is all that one was before conversion and all that he was as a child of
Adam (all unregenerate men are referred to as being in Adam [cp
1Co 15:22, 45, Ro 5:12-note,
Ro 5:17-note,
Ro 5:18, 19-note]
- all mankind is either in Adam or in Christ, but not in
both). The Old Self is the old me that was rebellious against God, and
refused to submit to God's law, and which was blind to God's glory, and
finally was unbelieving toward His promises. The Old Self is
the unregenerate person that was in Adam and was spiritually dead. The Old
Self is continually being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of
deceit (Ep 4:22). The corruption occurs as a result of giving in to deceitful,
evil cravings which are pleasant and promising in anticipation but
hideous and disappointing in actuality!
Old Man
(Old Self) identifies the unsaved person dominated by the totally
depraved nature inherited from Adam, and is that person who is "under
sin" (Ro 3:9), is not "righteous" (Ro 3:10), is "helpless" (to save
himself) (Ro 5:6), is a inveterate "sinner" (Ro 5:8) and an intractable
"enemy" of God (Ro 5:10). And this is the old self believers once
were apart from Christ.
John Piper
says that the old man
describes every unregenerate person as
rebellious against God and
insubordinate to God's law and blind to God's glory and unbelieving
toward His promises.
Henry Morris
commenting on Ro 6:6 says...
The term "old man" is used also by
Paul in Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9, referring to the old,
unregenerate nature and its sinful ways.
Wuest...
the
old man
here (commenting on Ro 6:6) refers to that person the believer was
before he was saved, totally depraved, unregenerate, lacking the life of
God... the entire idea is, “knowing this, that our
old man,
that person we were before we were saved, was crucified with Him,
in order that our physical body which at that time was dominated by the
sinful nature, might be rendered inoperative in that respect, namely,
that of being controlled by the sinful nature, in order that no longer
are we rendering a slave’s habitual obedience to the sinful nature.” The
words “that henceforth we should not serve sin” imply an obligation on
our part. There is such, but Paul is not discussing that in this
chapter. He argues that point in Ro 12:1, Ro 12:2. Here the fact is
stated, that this disengagement of the believer from the evil nature has
been brought about by God with the result that the believer no longer
renders a slave’s obedience to the evil nature habitually as he did
before God saved him.
(Treasures from the Greek New
Testament: p.91) The expression, “our
old man,” refers
therefore to the old unrenewed self, that person which we were before
salvation did its work in our being, a human being dominated entirely by
the Adamic nature, having a heart darkened by sin, totally depraved in
its entire being. It is the person when looked at from this side of
salvation that is antiquated, out of date, belonging to a world of
has-been.
ISBE has this
entry for old man...
OLD MAN - (palaios, "old,"
"ancient"): A term thrice used by Paul (Ro 6:6; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9) to
signify the unrenewed man, the natural man in the corruption of sin,
i.e. sinful human nature before conversion and regeneration. It is
theologically synonymous with "flesh" (Ro 8:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
(Ed: Not everyone agrees with this statement - see Guy King
below; See
Old Man in Ro 6:6), which
stands, not for bodily organism, but, for the whole nature of man (body
and soul) turned away from God and devoted to self and earthly things.
The old man is "in the flesh"; the new man "in the Spirit." In the
former "the works of the flesh" (Gal 5:19, 20, 21) are manifest; in the
latter "the fruit of the Spirit" (Gal 5:22,23). One is "corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts"; the other "created in righteousness
and true holiness" (Eph 4:22, 23, 24 the King James Version).
Guy King in his commentary on Colossians disagrees with the
ISBE...
"Ye have put off the
old man,"
(Col 3:9). This is not the old nature. Paul's name for that is "the
flesh," the entail of Adam's fall, which is in every child of Adam,
down through the human race, and which remains with us till the end of
our days here below.
Melick
notes that...
The definition of the old self
and the new self is crucial to a proper understanding of
Christian experience. Sometimes interpreters understand them as
synonymous with an old nature and a new nature. Actually, there is
little in Scripture about the “natures” of a Christian person, though
there are many descriptions about the Christian’s new actions, desires,
and values. To equate the terms old self/new self with natures goes
beyond acceptable evidence. The terms are never used psychologically at
all. They are historical. The old self and new self are
never described as coexisting in anyone. One replaces the other.
Finally, the old self is never a proper description of a
believer. A believer is a totally new person. (Melick, R. R. Vol. 32:
Philippians, Colossians, Philemon The New American Commentary.
Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers)
Ruth Paxson
in her devotional commentary on Ephesians writes that the Old Self
or Old Man...
includes the whole manner of life in the
old sphere. This
term is used only three times in Scripture,—in Ro 6:6- note;
Col 3:9-note;
and Ep 4:22...It is all that a man is
by nature, so is called "the natural man" (1Co 2:14). (Paxson, Ruth: The Wealth, the Walk and the Warfare of the
Christian. 1939. Revell)
Using the garment
or robe analogy, the Old Self is all I was in Adam's clothes.
Paul explains that
as in Adam (in "Adam's clothes") all
die (Ed: Including the old man or old self), so also
in Christ
(in "Christ's New Covenant attire") all shall be
made alive (1Cor 15:22).
Stated another
way, if the Old Man or Old Self is not dead, conversion has not occurred.
When we entered the New Covenant with Christ by grace through faith, our
Old Self was crucified with Christ (Ro 6:6-note),
so that our body of sin (does not mean that the physical body is
itself sinful but that our body can be the instrument which the power of
Sin uses to carry out its deeds of darkness) was rendered inoperative
(deprived of its force, influence and power over us, but not
annihilated, not yet at least - that wonderful promise awaits our
glorification!).
Middletown Bible has a lucid
explanation of the old self (man) writing that this
section...
introduces a key fact that needs to
be believed! What is the "old man" (Ro 6:6; Ep 4:22-note;
Col. 3:9-note)
and what is the "new man" (Col 3:10-note;
Ep 4:24-note)?
The old man refers to all that I am and all that I have in Adam;
(Ed: Now as a believer...) the new man refers to
all that I am and all that I have in Christ. The old man
is my old life in Adam; the new man is my new life in
Christ. The one refers to the SELF LIFE; the other to the
CHRIST LIFE. The one has to do with FALLEN MAN; the other
has to do with REDEEMED or REGENERATED MAN. The old man is
the old self; the new man is the new self, the new
creature in Christ (2Co 5:17-note).
The old man is characterized by that fallen sinful nature
received from Adam; the new man is characterized by that
divine holy nature received from God at the time of the new birth (cp
2Pe 1:4-note).
The old man is born of the flesh; the new man is born of
God. The old man came about by natural birth; the new
man came about by the new birth. The old man is
"CORRUPT according to the deceitful lusts" (Eph. 4:22-note;
and compare Ro 7:24-note);
the new man is "after God (according to God, patterned
after God, a reflection of God, etc.) . . . created in righteousness and
true holiness" (Eph. 4:24-note).
The new man is a new thing which did not previously exist
but which was created (Eph. 4:24-note;
2Co 5:17-note).
Five years before you were saved the new man did not exist
at all, but the old man did!
The old man is not [simply] the old nature (Ed:
I think he refers here to the
flesh),
though it involves the old nature; the old man is
characterized as having a nature that is opposed to God, and this nature
stamps its character on the activities of the old man (Roy Heubner).
The old man is described by his works (his deeds) in
Ephesians 4:25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31: He is a wicked liar (Ep 4:25-note),
he has a rotten temper (Ep 4:26-note),
he is a evil thief (Ep 4:28-note),
he has a corrupt mouth with garbage flowing out of it (Ep 4:29-note)
and he is characterized by bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil
speaking and an unforgiving spirit (Ep 4:31,32-note).
In contrast the new man speaks
truth (Ep 4:25-note),
gets angry in the right way at the right things (Ep 4:26-note),
works hard and knows how to give (Ep 4:28-note),
speaks that which is good and that which edifies (Ep 4:29-note),
is characterized by kindness, tenderheartedness and a forgiving spirit.
The new man is a reflection of God, the One who created Him!
It is important to know that the old man is immutable! He will
never change! He is ever and always CORRUPT! The old man will
never improve himself...The old man will never reform. He is
incorrigible! He is utterly depraved and will always be so. When a
person is saved the old man is not changed and the old man
is not transformed. How then does (did) God deal with the old man?
God does not change the old man. God does not transform the
old man. What did God do with your old self (man)? What did
God do with all that you are and all that you have in Adam?
Romans 6:6 answers this: "OUR OLD MAN WAS (past tense) CRUCIFIED
WITH HIM." God condemned the old man, judged him and poured out
His wrath on Him when the blessed Saviour died on the cross. My old
man was crucified! (Romans
Chapter 6)
Gregg Herrick addresses the
question of the identity of the old man (old self) and its
relationship to the fallen
flesh
which some observers hold to be identical. Herrick concludes that the
old man...
should not be viewed as a
synonym for fallen human “flesh”
(cf. Ro 7:18-note;
sarx). When reading the Scriptures, Christians should not view it as
pointing directly to some immaterial aspect of man as a sinful human
being. Thus, “sinful nature” is also a misleading translation (of
Ro 6:6). Again, the “old man” refers to fallen people in community “in
Adam.” (Ed: All that we were in Adam before we believed and God
took us out of "in Adam" and transferred us to our new position - "in
Christ") (See Herrick's full discussion of
“Old Man” and “New Man” in Paul)
H A Ironside writes that the
old man is...
all that I was as a man in the flesh,
the "man of old," the unsaved man with all his habits and desires. That
man was crucified with Christ. When Jesus died I (as a man after the
flesh) died too. I was seen by God on that cross with His blessed Son.
Wayne Barber asks...
What
does "the
old
self " mean? It’s the old man...Who
is the old man? Everything I was in Adam, that’s the old man.
It’s what I used to be. The term for
old is not the word in the Greek
from which we derive the English word "archaic". Here old is the
Greek word from which we derive the word "worn out" —a worn out,
useless, old man. He is not good for anything...It’s never been
useful for anything. It’s everything you were and I were in Adam...
Some
people confuse the old man with the
flesh.
(Ed: Not the physical flesh but the fallen
flesh
that expresses an "anti-god" energy)...We are talking about the old
man. That is the person you and I were in Adam that
has now died when Christ died. Why was it necessary for the old man
to die? Romans 6:6 says "our old self was crucified with Him, that
our body of sin might be done away with." The word "that" in
the Greek is hina. It means "in order that." It means "A" comes
before "B". "A" has got to happen before "B" can happen. We had to die.
The old man had to die before I could become a new creature in
Christ (2Co
5:17-note).
(Sermon
Notes on Romans 6:6-11)
John Stott writes that...
our old self denotes not our
lower self (Ed: i.e., that the old self or old man is not
identical with the
flesh)
but our former self, ‘the man we once were’ (NEB), ‘our old
humanity’ (REB), the person we used to be in Adam. So what was
crucified with Christ was not a part of us called our old nature,
but the whole of us as we were in our pre-conversion state. This should
be clear because the phrase our old self was crucified (Ro 6:6-note)
is equivalent to we died to sin (Ro 6:2-note).
F Godet adds that...
The expression: our old man,
denotes human nature such as it has been made by the sin of him in whom
originally it was wholly concentrated, fallen Adam reappearing in every
human ego that comes into the world under the sway of the preponderance
of self-love, which was determined by the primitive transgression
(Ro 5:12-note).
This corrupted nature bears the name of old only from the
viewpoint of the believer who already possesses a renewed nature.—This
old man has been crucified so far as the believer is concerned in
the very person of Christ crucified. The apostle does not say that He
has been killed. He may exist still, but like one crucified, whose
activity is paralyzed. Up to the solemn hour of believing,
Sin
puts on the behavior of triumphant independence, or presents itself to
us as an excusable weakness. The instant we contemplate it in Christ
crucified, we see it as a malefactor condemned and capitally punished by
the justice of God; and its sentence of death pronounced in our
conscience is the same to it within us as the cross was to Christ—not an
immediate death certainly, but the reduction of it to powerlessness.—The
purpose of this moral execution, included in the very fact of faith, is
the destruction of the body of sin. (Romans
Commentary - Online)
(Bolding added)
John MacArthur has some
clarifying thoughts on an area that can be easily misunderstood and
which can have negative consequences if misunderstood...
The dualistic view that a
Christian has two natures uses unbiblical terminology and can
lead to perception that is extremely destructive of holy living. Some
who hold such views go to the perverted extreme of the Gnostics in
Paul’s day, claiming that because the evil self cannot be controlled or
changed and because it is going to be destroyed in the future anyway, it
does not much matter what you let it do. It is only “spiritual” things,
such as your thoughts and intentions, that are of significance. It is
not surprising that in congregations where such a philosophy reigns,
immoral conduct among the membership as well as the leadership is common
and church discipline is usually nonexistent.
In a somewhat parallel passage in
Colossians, Paul clearly states that a believer’s putting off the old
self is a fair accompli, something that has already and
irreversibly been accomplished.
Do not lie to one another, since you
laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new
self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of
the One who created him (Col 3:9, 10-note).
It was not that every Colossian
believer was fully mature and had managed to gain complete
mastery over the residual old self. Paul was saying rather that every
believer, at any level of maturity, can claim that his old
self already has been laid aside “with its evil practices.” (Ed:
when we were justified by faith). In exactly the same way, his new self
in Christ is already “being renewed” into conformity with the very image
of the God who has recreated him (Ed: process of sanctification).
(MacArthur,
J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press)
MacArthur again reiterating
the danger of a dualistic view writes that Paul is not describing
a...
a dualistic, schizophrenic Christian.
The old man—the unregenerate person that was “in Adam” (cf. 1Co
15:22 ; Ro 5:14,15-note)—is
dead. We are to “lay aside” that crucified, dead, and corrupt old self
(Ep 4:22-note),
and “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created
in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ep 4:24-note).
It is true of every genuine believer that our old self is dead.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Ga 5:24-note).
If the old self isn’t dead,
conversion hasn’t occurred. Paul reminded the Colossians that they had
already
laid aside the old self with
its
evil practices, and...put on the
new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the
image of the One who created him (Col. 3:9-note,
Col 3:10-note).
Christians sin because of the
vestiges of sinful flesh, not because they have the same old
active sinful nature. Certainly we sin, but when we sin it is
contrary to our nature, not because we have two dispositions—one sinful
and one not. (MacArthur, J. The Gospel According to the Apostles: The
role of Works in the Life of Faith. Dallas: Word Pub., c1993. Nashville,
TN: Word Pub)
-----
Scripture does not support the
dualistic view. Romans 6:6 clearly says that our old self was
crucified with Christ. The person we were before we trusted Christ is no
more. The tyranny of
Sin
is nullified. Our nature is changed, transformed. We are new creations,
not merely the same old creatures with a new side to our personalities
(2Co 5:17-note).
We have a new heart—not an added one, but a whole different one. This,
after all, is the promise of the New Covenant: “I will give you a new (LXX
=
kainos)
heart and put a new (LXX
=
kainos)
spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek 36:26, emphasis added). This
new heart has a conscience. It can take charge. You can count on it.
Reckon it to be so (Ro 6:11-note).
Consider it accomplished. (MacArthur, J., F., Jr. The Vanishing
Conscience. Dallas: Word Pub)
H C G Moule explains that the
old man...
In Romans 6:6 is a thing which "was crucified with Christ." It may be
explained as "the old state," the state of the unregenerate son of Adam,
guilty under the sentence of the eternal law, and morally the slave of
sin. To "take off" the old man is to quit that position, stepping, in
Christ, into the position of acceptance and of spiritual power and
liberty. The old man is thus not identical with the flesh, which is an
abiding element (Gal 5:16, Gal 5:17) in the regenerate, though it need
never be the ruling element. ( Epistles
to the Colossians and to Philemon)
John Calvin...
The old man denotes — whatever we bring from our mother’s womb, and
whatever we are by nature....(In Romans he adds...)what he means is the
whole nature which we bring from the womb, and which is so in capable of
the kingdom of God, that it must so far die as we are renewed to real
life.
Roy Gingrich notes that...
the believer at his conversion positionally put off the old man and his
deeds. Now in his daily life, he should make true in his experience what
is true in his position. (Gingrich, R. E. The Book of Colossians.
Memphis, TN.: Riverside Printing)
Hodge explains that in the
phrase old self,...
The word self is used because
it is no one disposition, tendency, or faculty that is changed, but the
man himself — the radical principle of his being, the self....It
is plain from this whole presentation of his teaching that regeneration
is not merely a change of actions or of the feelings as distinct
from the understanding, but a change of the whole person (cp
New Man).
Another thing is also plain: that such a radical change of nature cannot
fail to show itself in a holy life. This is what Paul insists on here.
To the believer who knows that the old self is crucified with
Christ, the objection that free justification leads to licentiousness is
contradictory and absurd. The old self is said to be crucified,
not because the destruction of the
principle of Sin
is a slow and painful
process, but because Christ’s death, the death with which we were
identified, was by crucifixion, and because it is from Him, as
crucified, that the death of
Sin
in us comes.
Ruth Bryan...
"that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which is
corrupt according to its deceitful lusts" Ephesians 4:22
I plainly see that neither my old man nor my new man can be mended. The
one is too bad--the other too good.
There is no patching or painting the old man to advantage; it will still
be "corrupt, according to its deceitful lusts."
The new man needs neither patching nor painting, for it is "created in
righteousness and true holiness." (Eph 4:24)
What is "born of the flesh is flesh"--and will act after its nature.
What is "born of the Spirit is spirit"--and will aspire to its source! ( Feb
26 Entry)
Martyn Lloyd-Jones exhorts
believers based upon the truth about the old man...
Do not go on living as if you were
still that old man, because that old man has died. Do not
go on living as if he was still there.
IF THE OLD MAN IS DEAD
WHY DO I STILL COMMIT SINS?
Indeed, you may be
a bit confused and be asking the excellent question...
If my "Old Self" was crucified
and is really dead, why
do I still have this lingering, persistent propensity to commit sins?
The answer is that
all believers still possess what Scripture refers to as the flesh
(Click
in depth analysis of
flesh)
and the flesh is
unredeemed. The term flesh (here not referring to the physical
body) describes what remains of the Old Self” or Old Man
after a person is saved or redeemed. Some commentators state the Old Man
and the flesh are synonymous whereas disagree with this statement. In
either event the flesh is that part of our
unredeemed humanness (for lack of a better way to phrase it) which is
still present in every believer and will remain with the believer
until glorification (Ro 8:23-note).
At glorification believers will finally be free from the presence of sin as well as the pleasure of sin
and will no longer possess the "flesh".
Until the wonderful future day of glorification, every believer possesses or
"consists of" a redeemed self living with an unredeemed humanness
("flesh"), and that creates conflict. Stated another way, the
flesh is that part of a believer that functions apart from and
against the Spirit (see
Chart contrasting in the flesh vs in the Spirit).
Paul .
Flesh stands against the work of the Spirit in the believer’s new
heart. The unsaved person often regrets the sinful things he does
because of guilt and/or painful consequences, but he has no spiritual
warfare going on within him, because he has only a fleshly nature and is
devoid of the Spirit. The sinful things he does, though often
disappointing and disgusting to him, are nevertheless consistent with
his basic nature (his "Old Self") as an enemy of God and a child
of God's wrath. The "Old Self" or "Old Man" therefore has no real
internal conflict beyond whatever conscience may remain in his sinful
state (Ro 2:14,15- note). In the poem Maud,
one of Tennyson’s characters yearns,
“Ah for a new man to arise in me,
That the man I am may cease to be!”
The Christian can
say that a New Self (see below) has already arisen in him, but
like Tennyson's character, he also must confess that the sinful part his
Old Self (i.e., the "flesh") has not yet ceased to
be.
To review (as this subject can be somewhat
confusing), we need to draw a clear distinction between the Old Man (Old
Self) and what some refer to as the "old nature" or what I have chosen
to refer to as the
flesh.
(not in its physical meaning but its moral/ethical meaning). The
flesh
refers to our sinful human nature which all mankind possesses (whether
believer or non-believer) and which will persist in believers as long as
they live in these physical, mortal bodies. As William Newell reminds
us...
The
flesh,
which is sin entrenched in the body, is unchangeably evil, and will war
against us till Christ comes. Only the Holy Spirit has power over ‘the
flesh’ (Romans 8.1).
As Douglas Moo so wisely reminds us...
What we
were ‘in Adam’ is no more; but, until heaven, the
temptation to live in Adam always remains.
Comment
on Moo's comment: Perhaps "live in Adam" might better be phrased as
to "live like I used to live when I was in Adam" because as
believers are have been eternally removed from our previous position in
Adam. That transfer transpired when our Old Man [all that we were in
Adam] was crucified with Christ (Ro 6:6- note).
This co-crucifixion is a historical reality for all who have expressed
faith in Christ Jesus (cp Ep 2:8, 9-note,
Ro 10:9, 10-note).
Yes, as believers we still commit sins similar to those we committed
when we were in Adam. Why? Not because we are still partially an "Old
Man" but because we have what theologians refer to as the flesh nature,
that rebellious nature which is intractably opposed to God and by
"default" seeks to continually gratify self. Usually slightly different
terminology (flesh...Spirit) Paul alludes to the battle that believers
continually face in Galatians 5:17-note)
John Piper in A Godward Life offers 13
tactical steps in our daily battle against sin, and the first two
involve the old man, Piper exhorting us to...
1. Take
heart from the truth that the old sinful you is decisively already dead
(Ro 6:6-note; Colossians 3:3-note; Galatians 5:24-note). By faith we are united to
Christ so that His death was our death (Ro 6:5-note; 2Corinthians 5:14).
This means three things: (a) The mortal blow to our “old man” has
been struck; (b) the old self will not succeed in domination now;
and (c) his final obliteration is certain.
2. Consciously reckon the old man dead; that is, believe the
truth of Scripture about the old man’s death in Christ and seek to live
in that freedom (Romans 6:11- note).
Living out the reality that you are is the proof that you are (Ed:
Read that again!). One clear
illustration of becoming what you are is found in 1Cor 5:7:
Clean out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are
unleavened.
It sounds strange, but salvation is a strange and wonderful
thing:
Clean out the old leaven of sin, because it is really already cleaned
out. If you try to play
logic games with this reality and say, “I don’t need to fight sin
because it is already cleaned out,” you will prove only that you are not
among the number who are cleansed. (Ed: Woe! See 2Co 13:5). (Piper, J. A Godward Life : Savoring
the Supremacy of God in All Life. Sisters, Or.: Multnomah Publishers.
Chapter 6, page 187. Many of Dr Piper's books are freely available
online [Online
Books]. Unfortunately this is not one of them.)
C H Spurgeon in
his book According to Promise alludes to the old man
noting that...
Ordinary religion is nature
gilded over with a thin layer of what is thought to be grace. Sinners
have polished themselves up and brushed off the worst of the rust and
the filth, and they think their old nature is as good as new.
This touching–up and repairing of the old man is all very well,
but it falls short of what is needed. You may wash the face and hands of
Ishmael as much as you please, but you cannot make him into Isaac. You
may improve nature, and the more you do so the better for certain
temporary purposes, but you cannot raise it into grace. There is a
distinction at the very fountain–head between the stream which rises in
the bog of fallen humanity (Ed: Old Man who espouses an external
religiosity) and the river which proceeds from the throne
of God (Ed: New Man).
Grant Richison writes that...
Our old man was our
unregenerate disposition. The divine nature then is a new
orientation to God. A massive change toward God occurred in us when we
became Christians. We do not get the divine nature through reformation
of the old nature. It is not something that grows or develops by a
process. Rather, God imparts this new nature instantaneously and
supernaturally to us the moment we become Christians. Therefore, only
regenerate people possess this nature (Ed: i.e., New Man = In Christ). It is God’s orientation planted
within us (Ed: cp "partakers of the divine nature" in 2Pe 1:4-note). It is far more than inherent morality.
(Ed Note: Although he does not
clearly distinguish it, Richison then discusses another entity, the old
sinful nature, often referred to as the
flesh,
that unredeemed "anti-God" tendency that is in every "Old Man"
[unregenerate man] and is still present also in every "New Man"
[regenerate man]) There also remains an old
capacity (to commit sin) in every believer after we accept Christ. That old
nature (Ed:
flesh) is what produces sin in our lives. It is a disposition toward sin
and it also has an area of "strength" that produces human good apart from
God (Ed: Notice carefully that "human good" is a
bit misleading for it seems to imply that humans in and of themselves
are capable of doing "good works" - the truth [as offensive as it is to
some] is that apart from our union with the Vine, even redeemed men and
women can do ABSOLUTELY nothing that is good in the sight
of God or that has eternal value, etc, see Jn 15:5, 16). (2
Peter 1:4f)
John MacArthur
has an interesting note on the difference between the "Old Self"
and the "New Self" writing that...
The Old Man, the Old Self,
is the unregenerate person. He is not part righteous and part sinful,
but totally sinful and without the slightest potential within himself
for becoming righteous and pleasing to God. The New Man (New
Self), on the other hand, is the regenerate person. He is made
pleasing to God through Jesus Christ and his new nature is entirely
godly and righteous. He is not yet perfected or glorified, but he is
already spiritually alive and holiness is at work in him. The new man
will continue to grow in that holiness, no matter how slowly or
falteringly, because, by its very nature, life grows. Dr. Donald Grey
Barnhouse wrote,
“Holiness starts where justification
finishes, and if holiness does not start, we have the right to suspect
that justification never started either” (Romans, vol. 3 [Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961], 2:12).
There is therefore simply no such
thing as justification without sanctification.
There is no such thing as
divine life
without divine living.
The truly saved person lives a new
and godly life in a new and godly realm (Ed:
in Christ). He now and forever lives in
God’s realm of grace and righteousness and can never again live in
Satan’s realm of self and sin (Ed: See the immutable transaction
[a transfer] that occurs at the moment of salvation - Col 1:13-note,
cp Acts 26:18). As the natural, sinful, unregenerate man
cannot restrain the manifestation of what he is, neither can the
regenerate man" (MacArthur,
J: Romans 1-8. Moody)
Comment: In other words
MacArthur says in essence that if we truly have Christ and His Spirit
within us (as occurred at the moment of our justification by grace
through faith, cp Ro 3:26-note,
Ro 3:28-note,
Ro 4:5-note,
Ro 8:9-note),
then our life will henceforth manifest a general change of
direction
toward holiness, godliness, etc in our thoughts, words and deeds (which
equates with the lifelong process of sanctification). Note that this is
change of "direction" in behavior is present in every believer, but
"direction" does not equate with perfection. In other words, believers
will still commit sins, and sadly occasionally even fall into "seasons"
of sinful behavior, but if they are genuine believers such ungodly
behavior greatly grieves them and is not their lifestyle or habitual
practice.
F B Meyer
has the following notes on "the Old Man"...
The old man is the aggregate
of habits and methods of life, which marked us before conversion. The
phrase describes the impression which we produced as men and women upon
our fellows (Ed: Before we were born again). What we were wont to be, and say, and do. That form of
character and life which was ours before the great change operated
through faith in Jesus.
It is called the old man, as if there were but one, because the
habits and tastes, the thoughts and acts of men, before conversion, have
much in common. There is not much to choose between them. It is one evil
nature; one likeness to fallen Adam; one type of evil, though its forms
are slightly modified in different temperaments and by special
circumstances.
It is under the control of deceitful lusts. In other words, it is
shaped by the passionate desires which have their origin in the strong
natural tendencies of our being (Ed: Here Meyer seems to be
describing the fallen human nature which is also referred to as
flesh and is not identical
to the Old Man.). These (desires = epithumia)
were given us by God to be the motive-forces of our nature, but not to
rule. For when once they are permitted to usurp this position,
corruption ensues, and the nature rots piecemeal before their insidious
action --as the body of the leper beneath the living death that eats
away his flesh. Ah, deceitful lusts! promising liberty, and happiness,
and joy, but resembling the Syren sisters (Ed: In Classic
Mythology, one of three sea nymphs or, according to some writers, of
two, said to frequent an island near the coast of Italy, and to sing
with such sweetness that they lured mariners to destruction. Something
which is insidious and deceptive. An enticing, dangerous woman), whose
upper form was fair, but whose lower extremities were foul; whilst whose
sweet songs allured the unwary mariner only to ruin.
We must not defer this "putting off." The tense (aorist
tense) indicates
the sudden resolve of the will, inspired and empowered by the Holy
Spirit to be no longer under the dominion of these terrible passions.
Once and for ever let us divest ourselves of them; as the beggar his
rags, or as Lazarus the cerements of death. (Ephesians
4:22 - Old Man, New Man)
John Piper writes that...
Our old self was crucified, in order that our body of sin might
be done away with!” (Ro 6:6-note) When Christ died, we died in Him if we are united to
Him by faith. And we died with Him so that we might demonstrate this
death by putting to death the sinful deeds of the body (Ro 8:13- note). Because we
already have the victory (Ed: Christ won the Victory over
the
world,
the
flesh,
the
devil and death on the Cross) we can succeed in our violence against sin! He
breaks the power of cancelled sin.
We can only kill the sin that has
already been killed when we were killed in Christ. This is Christianity,
not moral self improvement. (Read the full sermon
How to Kill Sin, Part 2)
WHICH IS BEING CORRUPTED IN
ACCORDANCE WITH THE LUSTS OF DECEIT: phtheiromenon (PPPMSA) kata tas
epithumias tes apates: (Proverbs
11:18; Jeremiah 49:16; Obadiah 1:3; Romans 7:11; Titus 3:3; Hebrews
3:13; James 1:26; 2 Peter 2:13)
Paul is saying
that the whole character which represented the former self was not only
corrupt but was continually growing more and more corrupt (present
tense). The old man
is decaying day by day, like a decomposing corpse. Every trait of the
old self's behavior is putrid, crumbling, or inflated like rotting waste
or cadavers, stinking, ripe for being disposed of and forgotten.
Vincent
writes that the authorized version rendering ("which is corrupt")
misses the force of the participle.
The verb is
passive voice
which is being corrupted (present
tense), and marks
the progressive condition of corruption which characterizes “the old
man.” Rev., correctly, waxeth corrupt.
Being corrupted
(5351)
(phtheiro
[word study]
from phthío or phthíno = waste, decay,
wither, pine away) means to cause harm to in a physical manner or in
outward circumstances. To shrivel, to wither, to spoil. It means to ruin
or destroy something with the implication of causing something to be
corrupt and cease to exist. To destroy by corrupting. To pine or waste
away. To corrupt in the sense of degeneration.
Webster says that
corrupt (from cor- ‘altogether’ + rumpere ‘to break’) implies
loss of soundness, purity, or integrity, while defile implies
befouling of what could or should have been kept clean and pure or held
sacred and commonly suggests violation or desecration. Wither means to
become dry and sapless, to shrivel as if from loss of bodily moisture,
to lose vitality, force or freshness. Phtheiro
is the root word from which we get our word diphtheria, an acute
febrile contagious disease marked by the formation of a false membrane
especially in the throat and caused by a bacterium (Corynebacterium
diphtheriae) that produces a toxin causing inflammation of the heart and
nervous system.
Figuratively phtheiro as used by Paul in this verse it means to ruin, to corrupt or to cause
deterioration of a man's inner life (as by erroneous teaching or
immorality). Phtheiro and related derivatives are often used of moral
corruption (see Ge 6:11 below). The image is powerful. It reeks of
decay, as inner death and ruin gain a grip on individual and society,
promising not progress but a continual rotting away.
Classic Greek used
phtheiro to describe buildings which crumbled with age and a derivative
kataphtheiro to described economic ruin. "Phtheireste" was used as a
curse to mean "be damned" or "go to the devil". Often in contracts it is
laid down that the nurse engaged should not “spoil” her milk. Many
papyri refer to animals that have fallen. The word group can refer to
loss of food, of fruits destroyed by grasshoppers.
NIDNTT
writes that...
In classical Gk. from the time of
Homer onwards, and also in Philo and the Test. XII, phtheiro
means to ruin, corrupt, destroy, kill. The term has various shades of
meaning: to corrupt morally (Aristotle, Eth.Nic., 1103b), to bring down
the state of laws (Plato, Laws 958c), to bribe (Dem., Orationes 18,
247), to seduce a woman (Dem., Orationes, 45, 79), to defile a virgin
(Lucian, Cataplus sive Tyrannus 26). In the passive voice it means to go
to ruin, perish, be corrupted, destroyed; and in the middle voice to
destroy oneself (Thuc., 3, 113, 5).
Derived from the word are phthora,
destruction, corruption (Plato, Timaeus, 23c), and diaphthora,
destruction (Polybius, 1, 48, 3, 8), murder (Euripides, Ion, 617), which
is later used in the sense of corruption, disorder. Later words are
aphtharsia, indestructibility, immortality (not before Epicurus,
according to Diog. Laert., 10, 123), and aphthartos,
incorruptible (Aristotle, De longitudine et brevitate vitae, 4, 466a 1;
cf. also Wis. 12:1; Philo, Sacr., 95).
Diaphtheiro can mean, in
combination with other terms, to frustrate attempts to help (Thuc., 3,
113, 5), to change one’s mind (Aesch., Agamemnon, 932)...It is
interesting that in the NT this group of words occurs nowhere in the
gospels except for Lk. 12:33 (of moths destroying -- diaphtheiro
--clothes). (Brown,
Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986.
Zondervan)
TDNT adds
that...
phtheiro means “to destroy,”
middle and passive “to perish.” It is often used for “to kill” (“to be
killed”), but may also mean “to languish” (e.g., in prison). Economic
ruin may also be in view. In curses the meaning may be “be damned” or
more weakly “be off.” Another sense is “to spoil” (e.g., milk). The loss
of food or of animals may sometimes be denoted. (Kittel,
G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament. Eerdmans)
Paul's point is
this corruption brings about the result that they are being brought into
a worse state. Note also that this corruption is a process that goes on,
a condition that progresses! The unsaved person is thus subject to a
continuous process of corruption which grows worse as time goes on. Be careful beloved! "The person you used to be"
will ruin you through desires that deceive you. That old self
becomes worse and worse because people are fooled by the evil things
they want to do.
Phtheiro is
used 8 times in the NT and 21 times in the
Septuagint (LXX).
Here are a few instructive representative uses in the
Septuagint...
Genesis 6:11 Now the earth was
corrupt (phtheiro is the first word in the sentence emphasizing
the state of the earth because of the effect of sin -- "Corrupt was the
earth") in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Daniel 2:44 "And in the days
of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never
be destroyed, (never be corrupted!!!) and that kingdom will not
be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these
kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.
Daniel 7:14 "And to Him was
given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and
men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not
be destroyed, (never be corrupted) .
Here are the 8
NT uses of phtheiro...
1 Corinthians 3:17 If any man
destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple
of God is holy, and that is what you are. (Comment: In the
opinion of the Jews the temple was corrupted, or `destroyed', when
anyone defiled or in the slightest degree damaged anything in it, or if
its guardians neglected their duties. In the ancient world
destroying a temple was a capital offense. The church is holy in that
God has set it aside to glorify Himself even though it is not always as
holy in its conduct as it is in its calling)
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be
deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."
2 Corinthians 7:2 Make room
for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we
took advantage of no one.
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I am
afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds
should be led astray (phtheiro = corrupted) from the simplicity
and purity of devotion to Christ.
Ephesians 4:22
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old
self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of
deceit,
2 Peter 2:12
(note) But these,
like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured
and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the
destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,
Jude 1:10 But these men revile
the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know
by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are
destroyed.
Revelation 19:2 because His
judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who
was corrupting (imperfect
tense
= corrupting it over and over) the
earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His
bond-servants on her."
Ruth Paxson
has the following note regarding "being corrupted" writing
that...
The old man
is utterly defiled and defiling in character, and waxes more and more
degenerate in conduct even unto the point of depravity, as in the case
of "the other Gentiles." "The old man" can do nothing but sin, for all
his desires (Ep 4:22), as well as his deeds (Col 3:9- note),
are sinful. He is unchangeable and incurable because he doesn't want to
be changed. He is also irretrievably incorrigible, for his attitude to
God is one of habitual disobedience (Ep 2:2-note), hardened into fixed enmity (Ro
8:7-note). "The
old man," therefore, is the whole old creation in Adam. It is the sinner
with only a sinful nature which contaminates everything from the centre
to the circumference of his life. (Paxson, Ruth: The Wealth, the Walk
and the Warfare of the Christian. 1939. Revell)
Lusts (1939)
(epithumia
from
epi = at, toward {the
preposition "epi-" in the compound is directive conveying the picture of
"having one’s passion toward" + thumos = passion) (Click
word study on
epithumia) is a neutral term denoting
the presence of strong desires or impulses, longings or passionate
craving (whether good or evil is determined by
context) directed toward an object.
W. E. Vine summarizes
epithumia as follows:
epithumia denotes
"strong desire" of any kind, the various kinds being frequently
specified by some adjective (see below). The word is used of a good
desire only in Lu 22:15; Phil 1:23
[note];
1Thes 2:17
[note].
Everywhere else it has a bad sense. In Ro 6:12
[note] the
injunction against letting sin reign in our mortal body to obey the
"lust" thereof, refers to those evil desires which are ready to
express themselves in bodily activity. They are equally the "lusts" of
the flesh, Ro 13:14
[note];
Gal 5:16 [note],
Gal 5:24
[note];
Eph 2:3
[note];
2Pe 2:18
[note];
1Jn 2:16, a
phrase which describes the emotions of the soul, the natural tendency
towards things evil. Such "lusts" are not necessarily base and
immoral, they may be refined in character, but are evil if
inconsistent with the will of God.
Other descriptions besides
those already mentioned are: "of the mind," Ephesians 2:3
[note]; "evil
(desire)," Colossians 3:5
[note]; "the
passion of," 1Thessalonians 4:5
[note], RV; "foolish and
hurtful," 1Ti 6:9; "youthful," 2Ti 2:22
[note];
"divers," 2Ti 3:6
[note]; Titus 3:3
[note];
"their own," 2Ti 4:3
[note]; 2Pe
3:3
[note];
Jude 1:16;
"worldly,"
Titus 2:12 [note];
"his own," Jas 1:14 [note];
"your former," 1P 1:14
[note],
RV; "fleshly," 1Pe 2:11
[note];
"of men," 1Pe 4:2
[note];
"of defilement," 2Pe 2:10
[note]; "of the
eyes," 1Jn 2:16; of the world ("thereof"), 1Jn 2:17; "their own
ungodly," Jude 1:18. In Re 18:14 [note]
"(the fruits) which thy soul lusted after" is, lit., "of thy soul's
lust." (Vine,
W E: Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament
Words. 1996. Nelson)
Deceit
(539)
(apate from
apatao [word study]
= cheat, delude, deceive, beguile)
describes that which gives a false impression, whether by appearance,
statement or influence. It speaks of ethical enticement. It is spoken of
anything which is seducing (a leading astray by persuasion or
false promises) Apate describes that which causes someone to have
misleading or erroneous views concerning the truth.
Enticement
(Concise Oxford English Dictionary says it derives from Old French
enticier, prob. from a base meaning ‘set on fire’) - is that which to
attracts and leads astray artfully or adroitly or by arousing hope or
desire.
Deception -
is that which deliberately causes (someone) to believe something that is
not true.
It describes that which seduces someone
such as riches (Mt 13:22, Mk 4:19) or sin, which can harden by its
trickery (He 3:13-note).
Apate refers to deception of pleasure that involves one in sin
(deceitful pleasure, evil fun, dissipation) as in (2Pe 2:13-note)
Deceit is
personified here as the source of strength as the lusts are not
deceitful in themselves. This process of corruption is dominated
or controlled by the passionate desires of deceit (personified). The
lusts are excited by deceit, i.e. by deceitful influences seducing one
to commit sins. Lusts are deceitful because they promise joy to
but fails to provide it. These lusts promise passing pleasure (He 11:25)
and joy, but in fact actually steal the believer's Spirit borne joy. As
you have undoubtedly heard, kill sin, lest it be killing you (and it
will kill our joy in the Lord!)
Richards
notes that...
Deception sometimes comes from
within, as our desires impel us to deceive. But more often in the NT,
deceit is error urged by external evil powers or by those locked into
the world's way of thinking. (Richards,
L O: Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Regency)
Paul's point is
that lusts possessed of deceit are seductive and give a false impression
in that they promise joy, satisfaction and fulfillment (cf the "passing
pleasures of sin" Heb 11:24-note) but they fail to produce. Apate
therefore describes the deceitful propensities which seduce to sin
and lead to disappointment. Sure the initial result may be temporary
"satisfaction" but the damage is corruption (defiling, withering,
ultimately destruction) of one's soul. Do not be deceived!
Here are the 7
uses of apate (none in the LXX)...
Matthew 13:22 "And the one on
whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word,
and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke
the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Mark 4:19 and the worries of
the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for
other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Ephesians 4:22 that, in
reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self,
which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
Colossians 2:8 (see note)
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty
deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the
elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
2 Thessalonians 2:10 and with
all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because
they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
Hebrews 3:13 (see note)
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called
"Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of
sin. (The recipients are warned against being hardened by a trick which
their sin may play upon them. Mark is down that sin is
always a deceitful thing, in that it promises to do that which it
cannot do. Sin is always a lie. Any man who sins, who does the forbidden
thing or who takes the forbidden thing, does so because he thinks that
he will be happier for doing or taking that thing. Sin deceives him into
thinking so. But the plain fact of experience is that an act or a
possession which is the result of sin never brought happiness to any
man. Long ago, Epicurus, with his strictly utilitarian morality, pointed
out that sin can never bring happiness, because, apart from anything
else, it leaves a man with the constant fear of being found out! Good
logic from an unregenerate Gentile!)
See Related Discussion:
The Deceitfulness of Sin
2 Peter 2:13 (see note)
suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to
revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their
deceptions, as they carouse with you,
Spiritual Reupholstering -
When we moved into our home 5 years ago, we discovered that the former
owner had left us six dining room chairs. They were covered with fabric
of beautiful African art—tasteful zebra stripes. We appreciated the
unexpected gifts and used them frequently when entertaining guests.
When we recently moved again, those chairs needed a makeover to match
our new decor. So I called an upholsterer and asked, "Shouldn't we just
put the new material over the existing fabric?" He responded, "No,
you'll ruin the shape of the chair if you just put new material over the
old."
The work of God in our lives is similar. He's not interested in merely
changing our spiritual appearance. Instead, He intends to replace our
character with what is called "the new man," made in the image of Christ
(Ephesians 4:24). The flesh has a tendency to perform religious
activity, but this is not the work of the Holy Spirit. He will
completely transform us on the inside.
But the process is a partnership (Philippians 2:12, 13). As we daily lay
aside our old behaviors and replace them with godly ones, the God of
grace works in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
(Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
God wants to reupholster us. — Dennis Fisher
Dear Lord, You've given new life to
me—
A great and full salvation;
And may the life that others see
Display the transformation. —Hess
When you receive Christ,
God's work in you has just begun.
><>><>><>
Dragon Skin - In the fifth
Chronicle of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Edmund, Lucy, and
their spoiled cousin Eustace are summoned to help on a quest in the
Eastern Sea. Along the way, Eustace is tempted by enchanted treasure and
turned into a dragon. The desperate dragon accepts the help of the great
lion Aslan, king of Narnia. But Eustace can only be freed by allowing
Aslan’s claws to painfully tear off the dragon’s flesh. Grateful for his
deliverance, Eustace chooses to become a better boy.
Receiving God’s gift of salvation through Christ is a one-time event,
but to become like Him often requires suffering and struggle. It
involves putting off old sinful habits and replacing them with new godly
ones. Paul wrote, “Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man
which grows corrupt . . . [and] put on the new man which was created
according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22, 23,
24).
What is troubling you today? God may be using the kind rebuke of a
friend or a painful trial to prompt you to get rid of a sinful habit and
to replace it with godly character (Ro 8:29; 1 Peter 4:1, 2).
The process of becoming like Christ is sometimes painful, but it’s
always worth it.— Dennis Fisher
To be like Jesus is our goal,
Though it doesn’t happen fast;
We trust the Spirit as our Guide
Till we’re glorified at last. —Branon
The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment;
the growth of a saint is the work of a lifetime.
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