BACK to the BEGINNING? (Understanding the NEW MAN)–Part 5
Yesterday we covered that God’s solution for the old self was EXECUTION.
In Romans 6:6 Paul explains that our old self has been crucified with Christ. Meaning that the body of sin has been done away, and therefore we are no longer slaves to sin. That was God’s solution to ending the slavery to sin, and the only escape for man’s corrupt nature: to execute it on the cross when Jesus died.
So let’s agree on one thing. If you’re born again, YOU’RE DEAD to yourself.
Now, let’s take a look at the nature and the origin of the NEW MAN. In Ephesians 4:22-24 which pictures both the old self and the new self, Paul says, “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; and to be MADE NEW in the spirit of your mind; and to PUT ON THE NEW SELF, created to be in the likeness God in true righteousness and holiness”.
It says “created to be in the likeness of God, in righteousness and Holiness of Truth”.
Notice it says that it’s been CREATED by God. It’s not something that man can ever produce by his own effort, with good works or legalism or religion or anything of that nature. It is strictly from a creative act of God which proceeds out of the truth of God’s Word.
It is exactly opposite to the old self which is a product of Satan’s lie. There are two things in a position here. The lie of Satan and the truth of God. The truth of God produces righteousness and holiness, whereas the lie of Satan produces deception and sin.
And Paul says the new self is created according to God’s original purpose for man, that is to be in the LIKENESS of GOD. The new man is restored to what it was meant to be originally.
This is important. It’s the revelation of the New Testament. God re-created man, through the death of Christ and His resurrection. And the whole purpose of God and the destiny of man was restored.
And Paul goes on to say that you have “put on the new self which is being RENEWED in the true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him”. So the new man, while FULLY BORN again into the redemption of God, must be renewed in his mind. Your spirit is made anew, but your mind needs renewal. We have been recreated in the likeness of God but we must progressively grow into the true knowledge of God.
John 1:12, 13 says, “But as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God“. It is the seed of God that created the new man.
And 1 Peter 1: 23 says “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring WORD of God“. So again, the new man is created by God through an incorruptible seed.
The seed of God is the Word of God. We first receive the seed of God’s Word by faith, and obey it, and consequently God’s spirit brings forth within us the very nature of God’s Divine, incorruptible and eternal nature.
In the very first verse of the book of John, Jesus is called the WORD of God three times. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. And in Revelations 19:13 there is a description of Jesus returning to Earth in glory and power to reign, and he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called “The Word Of God”.
So in receiving God’s Word, we receive Jesus, and we receive the incorruptible SEED of God, and as we obey the Words of God, Jesus, we are being transformed into the original nature of God.
This Divine nature is imperishable and incorruptible, born from the seed of God. This is why the old self, being essentially corrupt, is transformed into the NEW MAN, a newly created being, born from God, coming forth from the very seed of God’s incorruptible Word. Through our obedience to the Word (Jesus), we express the new nature and the new incorruptible creature created in the image of God.
This is why Paul says, “it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me”. It is the new self, the very nature and person of Jesus reproduced in me, as I believe and I receive and obey the Word of God, I become the Divine eternal incorruptible seed of God’s Word that produces in me the very nature of God’s son, Jesus.
Don’t go away, it only GETS BETTER FROM HERE ON…