The New Man

by L.C. Shattock, Leicester | Category: Fundamentals | Dec 1976

There is in every Christian's experience a "then" and a "now". "Ye were dead through your trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), "But now in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:13). To the person rejoicing in salvation there is great exultation of spirit invoked by the "But now" of Eph. 2:13. Paul seeks to awaken within the Ephesian saints the memory of what they were "aforetime" (Eph. 2:11) before they knew salvation: "separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel... strangers... having no hope and without God in the world". In contrast is the "But now" of verse 13 and the blessedness of being in Christ Jesus.

In Christian experience it often happens that there is an interval between the moment of conversion and the time when the soul begins to appreciate the wonder and miracle of being "born anew". There is always, of course, the glad joy of salvation, the peace of forgiveness, but it is in the growing experience of the revelation of God through the Holy Spirit's illumination of the word of God that the Christian is led to exclaim, "Once I was blind but now I can see". In the progression of spiritual experience 1 Cor. 2:9,10 finds its fulfilment. God is known, not by a process which involves the natural senses of the eye and the ear, or by natural impulses of the human heart, but by Holy Spirit revelation and a God-given capacity to receive divine enlightenment which the natural man does not and cannot possess (1 Cor. 2:14).

Thus we are taught that the miracle of the new birth precludes the idea of mere reformation. It is rather regeneration which is proclaimed in the truth, "if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). Here the fact of manifest change is emphasized, "the new man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Eph. 4:24).

Ephesians 4 contrasts the former life which once characterized the Ephesians with their present life in Christ. Then they were governed by one life principle only - that of their Adamic nature - fallen and alienated from God. That nature is identified as "the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit" (v.22). In the exercise of the human will as directed by the Holy Spirit the exhortation is, "put away... the old man... and put on the new man". Col. 3 carries a similar call to the saints in Colossae who are reminded of the "aforetime" (v.7) of their unsaved days in which their lives were characterized by evil. "But now" says the apostle (because of the change salvation has wrought in their lives) "put ye also away all these (v.8) and "ye... have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him" (vv. 9,10).

Scholars point out the difference between the two Greek words translated "new" in these scriptures. Ephesians 4 emphasizes "a new character of manhood", "differing in character"; Colossians 3:10 "stresses the fact of the believer's new experience - recently begun and still proceeding" (Vine).

The putting on of the new man is the practical outworking which makes the "behold" of 2 Cor. 5:17 positive and real in the life of the believer. The Christian life is the manifest fact of the truth that "if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature", the proof in living demonstration that the Christian gospel has been believed and that the spiritual new birth has taken place. "There cannot be fruit where there is no root but the proof of the root is the fruit".

In Romans 6:4 we are introduced to the phrase "newness of life" as it relates to sanctified Christian walk (i.e. behaviour). It is utterly impossible for the "old man" to manifest this. The fallen Adamic nature "waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit" and belongs to the "aforetime" of unsaved, unregenerate living. Newness of life in Romans 6 is mentioned in the context of the obedient disciple submitting to the authority of the Lord Jesus in baptism and the recognition by the disciple of his identity with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. The truth developed here is based upon the exposition of Romans, chapter 5 and its reference to the headships to humanity of Adam and Christ. The "old man" is the natural state in Adam in which sin reigned, but the "new man" is our state by grace in Christ, which is one of death to sin.

The apostle Paul anticipates an argument by those who oppose the truth of justification by faith. This argument, which still prevails today, asserts that if salvation is a free gift and by grace alone, then behaviour does not matter. "God forbid", says the apostle, "We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?" The phrase "any longer" is consistent with the fact of change - transformation in the life of the believer. Something has been wrought by God which makes it unthinkable that a sin-dominated life should continue. The death of our Lord Jesus had not redemption only as its purpose but also sanctification. "He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again" (2 Cor. 5:15).

The emphatic teaching of Romans 6, to which believers' baptism is the symbolic witness, is that that which God has established judicially the born again disciple will recognize, so that it will be reflected in living experience. We notice the phrases: "We who died to sin" (v.2), "we

were baptized... into His death" (v.3), "we were buried therefore with Him ... that like as Christ was raised from the dead...so we also might walk in newness of life" (v.4), "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him" (v.6). These references mean that as definitely as Christ by one act died and by an act was raised from the dead, so in His death and resurrection every believer died to sin and rose to "newness of life". This word "life" (zoe) does not refer to its manner but its principle, and the word "newness" (as in Eph. 4:24) "expresses not so much youth as novelty"; life that is quite new and distinctly so.

To put on the new man, to walk in newness of life, is to be motivated by the persuasion of which the apostle speaks when he says, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him". Put off the old man: in the divine purpose he has gone out of existence. We are to cease to live as if we were still in Adam, "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".

The apostle John emphasizes that, "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because His seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God" (1 John 3:9). This is a profound statement and not a few arguments have ranged about it. Sinless perfection as an attainment in the present life of the believer on earth finds no foundation in this epistle. John is careful to point out: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). What John is saying in this passage is, however, that the new life begotten of God within the believer is alien to sin because it is God's seed and because of this the believer "cannot sin because he is begotten of God". Here is complete agreement with the apostle Paul's teaching that the man who is a Christian has died to the realm of sin and as a new man in Christ does not belong to it any longer.

"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life" (Rom. 6:22). Once more the believer's state in Christ is emphasized. The difference between the "then" and "now" (v.21) is an absolute one. This is the essence of the scriptural truth in Romans 6. Divine deliverance has brought us "out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col.1 :13). So the tyranny of sin, the power of darkness, is past and we belong to God as our new Master, we are in a new territory, the kingdom of the Son of His love. The outworking of this is that the wonder of the change is demonstrated: "ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life". What a contrast from being dominated by the Adamic nature, the "old man" which waxeth corrupt, is the life in Christ of the "new man" which after God has been created in righteousness and truth!

"Put on the new man" (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10) is a command to the believer as he is urged in faith to appropriate the accomplished facts of redemption. The glorious possibilities of the spiritual life have been made available by divine grace so that the issue of our lives should be unto the "praise of His glory".

L.C. Shattock, Leicester | Dec 1976
Fundamentals