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Renowned reformed Orthodox Presbyterian Church pastor, theologian, author and commentator John Murray, in his book Principles of Conduct, has said that when we hear,
“I have been put to death on the cross with Christ;
still I am living; no longer I, but Christ is living in me;
and that life which I now am living in the flesh
I am living by faith,
the faith of the Son of God,
who in love for me,
gave Himself up for me”
— Gal. 2:20, BBE
...the believer is both old and new man; when he does well, he is acting in terms of the new man which he is; when he sins, he is acting in terms of the old man which he also still is. This interpretation does not find support in Paul’s teaching; Paul points to something different. And the concept which his teaching supports is of basic significance for the biblical ethic.[1]It is no secret that many Christians think of themselves as both “the old man” (or “old self”) and “the new man” (or “new self”). Before conversion, the believer was only the old man; whereas, at the time of conversion, the believer also becomes a new man—without ever totally losing the old self. And so there is a constant struggle between these two aspects or parts of the believer’s being, since for them the “crucifixion” of the old man is still considered to be an ongoing process. But as Murray noted above, this understanding of the relation between the old man and the new man “does not find support in Paul’s teaching.”
John MacArthur likewise notes at this venture,
To suppose, as some do, that the believer's old nature [or old man] has been crucified but has risen from the grave is to contradict the entire point of Paul’s argument. The believer's old sin nature [or old man] has already been crucified; it is not in the process of being crucified. Some people constantly say, “I must crucify my old nature [or old man].” If you think that way you are wasting your time, because according to Rom. 6:6 the believer's old nature [or old man] has already been crucified....
The old man is unregenerate, and the new man is regenerate. The believer is one new man. The old man has ceased to exist. Salvation brings about a radical change in the nature of the believer.[2]So what we have often been mistaught, and have often missupposed (especially with regards to a mistranslation of Eph. 4:22-24 and a misappropriation of Romans 7), that there are two natures or even two parts of one nature living within the born-again believer. Douglas Moo, in his commentary on Romans with regards to the old man in Rom. 6:6, even presents a third view (a “corporate” view or idea) of that which is done outside of us, and not really done within us at all. But Paul is referring to a very intimate and personal experience of us having spiritually died with Christ (inside of us) in order that we are no longer slaves to sin with our bodies. We are freed within, in our flesh, in order to live free without in the members of our physical fleshly bodies (cf. Rom. 6:11-13). Christ didn’t die to, or crucify, an age, sphere or realm; Christ crucified a person—a man! In His human nature He personally became us as the old man, and crucified him![3] And this is why Paul could say in Gal. 2:20, “I (personally) am crucified with Christ! It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives IN ME.” Paul says he has been crucified within, not without! Couldn’t anything be any more clear to us here? The emphasis in Romans chapter six is that “we died” (v. 2; see also vv. 3-5, 7-8, 11). It is not an outward environmental change that some, like Moo, try to force upon these verses; something has very personally and inwardly happened to us on a spiritual level in order for us to put to death sin in the members of our body (see also Rom. 8:13).
Paul also says in 2Cor. 5:17, “if any man is IN Christ, HE IS a new creation”—lit., a new creature! The subject noun “he,” supplied by the translators, agrees with the Greek personal singular masculine pronoun translated “any man” (or “anyone” in some translations), and not to an inanimate object.[4] In other words, we are created anew, not our environment! We do not just “belong to” a new creation in a corporate sense, as true as this may be, we are personally and individually a new creation! It is not just a “community” or "corporate" thing, but a very “personal” and “internal” thing. And this is what Paul says in Gal. 6:15 of the person who is a new creature, not based upon any outward physical associations or physical circumcision, but based upon an inward spiritual circumcision of the heart. It is he who is a Jew (or Israel) inwardly, not outwardly (v. 16; Rom. 2:28-29). And this is why Paul concludes this epistle to the Galatians immediately thereafter in verse 18 with, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit,” and not with your flesh. Clearly, this new creation is internal and effects the heart. This is the removal (or circumcision) of the old heart that is replaced with a new heart, that God talked about creating in us in Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26.
Again, “WE are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works…” (Eph. 2:10). “We,” personally, “do” the “good works” that we now want to do because God has created us in Christ as new creatures in order for us to do them. And if that were not all enough, in Col. 3:10 Paul says we have put on the new man “WHO is being renewed in knowledge in the image of HIS Creator.” This doesn’t sound like an outward environmental change to me. All this is very personal brethren. We as new creatures (or the new man) created by God in Christ are being renewed in knowledge. Again, we are, not our environment! It is a real stretch of the imagination to say that this is not who we are within, but only something that is done outside of us. To be sure, we are not just translated from being under one domain or regime to being under another domain or regime (as true as that may be), but we are personally changed or transformed within as well. If not, then what is being “born again” all about if not for a complete (and not just a partial) inward change of our spirit and inward disposition? We are no more partly born in our spirit, than we are partly born in or of the flesh. Jesus said, “That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit” (Jhn. 3:6). The word “spirit” here is not an adjective, but a noun. This is very crucial to our understanding of what is exactly happening here to those of us who are born of God. If Jesus had used an adjective, the verse would thus read, “The Spirit gives birth to spiritual people,” as if in some vague, mysterious, and merely ascetic functional way people begin to turn over a new leaf. As true as this also may be, the Person of the Holy Spirit gives birth to a person’s spirit, creating them in God’s image (Eph. 4:24) so that they may live spiritual lives. Paul is saying here in Ephesians that we, personally, are created in God’s image. And he refers to this new image created in us as “the new man.” Not “corporately” but individually inside each and everyone of us. This isn't a metaphor, this is reality. This is the new birth. This is what being born again from above is all about. Like produces like. And that is Jesus’ point in Jhn. 3:6! Jesus is likening what happens to us physically through birth, to what also happens to us spiritually by a birth. A child is of the same nature as the parent. Earthly fathers of the flesh beget children of the flesh who are dead in sins and trespasses; our heavenly Father of the Spirit begets children of the Spirit in their spirit who are alive unto God. Just as we have born the image of the earthly, so too have we born the image of the heavenly. If we don’t “see” what Jesus is saying here, then we don’t see anything and we are no more blind to this truth than Nicodemus was. To be sure, the attending “fruit” of such individuals is not what is at the forefront here in Jhn. 3:6; it is the root or the tree. It is making the tree good in order that the fruit be good as well. The person of the flesh is a soulish man, whereas the person of the Spirit is a spiritual man (see 1Cor. 2:14-15 in the Greek), with Paul now using the adjectives here.
Of no doubt, the new birth is a very real and enduring spiritual change that is brought to bear upon our hearts to where old things have passed away and, behold, all things are become new! We are “inwardly” no longer the man or person we use to be, which was the “old man” created IN Adam when he disobeyed God and fell into sin and submitted all of his posterity unto the same. In juxtaposition to this, we are now a “new man” IN Christ through His obedience and righteousness for all of His posterity! As shocking as all of this may sound to us, we no longer have the old heart or spiritual nature that is prone to sin and created in Adam, for we spiritually died to it, circumcising it away from us in Christ! In light of this we now have a new heart or spiritual nature that is prone to live holy in Christ, who has been made alive in Christ! Our “spirit is now life because of [Christ’s] righteousness” (cf. Rom. 8:10, ASV). And unless Christians begin to embrace this idea of who they really are now in Christ, they will never attain to the high road of victory over the world, the flesh and the Devil. Christians need a mental paradigm shift. And this is it brethren! People like Douglas Moo want to finagle all of this to mean something other than what it really means, because they want to still believe that we somehow have the old nature within us that drives us to sin. So they concoct either: 1) a “corporate” view or idea that brings no change to our human nature internally, and also referred to subtly under another guise as the “redemptive-historical” view (but with some minor differences)[5], or; 2) a “dual-nature” view of one part of us (the old man) being sinful and one part of us (the new man) being holy and partaking of Christ‘s divine nature, or; 3) a “single nature” view made up of two dispositions: one part of us being evil and another part of us being holy that partakes of Christ’s divine nature. Neither of these views will suffice. We are not two hearts beating to two different drums. We are one new man in Christ with one new heart. All else borders on the absurd; on not “rightly-dividing” the Word of Truth. Such people have made “divisions” of their own making—according to the teachings, traditions and commandments of men—making the Word of God of no affect to them in their lives or in the lives of others. They have abandoned the high road to a holy life, for a low road that is only to their own demise and destruction; giving place to the devil, rather than giving place to God. But have no doubt about it brethren, God now reigns on the throne of our hearts. Sin no longer dwells within us, God does! We do not have two Masters, only One! And all of this will be expounded upon in more detail as you read further.
As already somewhat alluded to, many believers IGNORANTLY hold the belief that, at salvation, we somehow in Christ become a “new man,” but that we also somehow retain a part of our “old man” that still needs to be continually put off or away from us in our daily lives. In this view, the Christian is a dichotomy with a meeting or melding of two minds so-to-speak, while each yet remain separate and distinct in and of themselves. One part of us wants to do one thing while the other part of us wants to do another thing. Our bodies (or temples) thus become a room whereby Christ (the “new man”) and us (the “old man”) are seated together. Salvation thus becomes an “addition” of something and not a “transformation” of the entire spiritual being of the Christian. And, if there is any “transformation,” it is said by some to only be a part of us that is transformed, not all of us, even as John Calvin misinformatively remarks,
the faithful...are divided into two parts....Under the term flesh, he [Paul] includes all that human nature is, everything in man, except [that which is the work of] the sanctification of the Spirit. In the same manner, by the term spirit, which is commonly opposed to the flesh, he [Paul] means that part of the soul which the Spirit of God has so re-formed, and purified from corruption,....both terms, flesh as well as spirit, belong to the soul; but the latter to that part which is renewed, and the former to that which still retains the natural character.”[6]As one can very well see, Calvin, along with many others, views "the flesh" as understood in its ethical/moral sense (and not of the body), as that corrupt part of our human nature; while our "spirit" is the renewed part of our human nature. According to him, both "belong to the soul," which he also believes is synonymous with spirit, being that he is a dichotomist. And if that doesn't seem a bit confusing, then just bear with me for a moment as we begin to unravel all of this below.
But before we do, just listen to what some other contemporaries in our day have to say. For instance, Warren Wiersbe, in his commentary on Romans, likewise mistakenly concurs: “...man’s fallen nature, which is not changed at conversion, gives sin a beachhead from which it can attack and then control.”[7] R. Kent Hughes, in tandem with these men, also mistakenly writes: “the principal that Paul recognizes is that he is a man with two natures.”[8] And R. C. H. Lenski also erroneously writes: “It is the old man, the old nature, that is still in us after our conversion.”[9] And last, but not least, a more contemporary reformed writer and theologian in our day, R. C. Sproul, says pretty much in tandem with Calvin, Poole, Wiersbe, Kent, Lenski and many others: “The warfare between flesh and spirit is not a conflict between body and soul but a conflict between our fallen sin nature (old person) and our regenerated nature (new person).”[10]
Now it is in this state of being, or condition, in which it is argued by some, such as Calvin and a host of others―and for which Murray, MacArthur and many others decry as unscriptural especially with regards to us still being the old man―that the struggles in the Christian life are the result of a battle that is raging between these two separate and distinct parts of our human nature. In other words, between that fleshly or sinful part of our human nature known as the “old man,” and that spiritual part of our human nature known as the “new man;” between a part of us that is regenerated, and a part of us that is still unregenerated; between a part of us that is still a residual of the old man, verses one part of us that has traces of the new man. But what do the Scriptures say?
Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears in the preface to their book Death by Love, write,
Because no one is born into this world with a theology, each generation must rediscover the truths of Scripture for itself. In doing so it must labor to connect the unchanging answers of God’s Word with the ever-changing questions of its culture. Sometimes this project is successfully undertaken, and the result is a glorious resurgence of a faithful and fruitful Christian church. Sometimes this project is unsuccessfully undertaken, and the tragic result is false teaching that renders the church impotent to see the power of the gospel [the good news] unleashed because she either has a false Jesus or is embarrassed by the real one. Today the church finds herself in yet another of these epic opportunities as emerging pastors and churches [not to be confused with the controversial “emerging churches”] strive to make up their mind on nearly every belief that has been previously considered Christian.[11]This has not only become true with regards to a biblical soteriology (the study of salvation); a proper theology (the study about God); a proper ecclesiology (the study of the Church and Church government); or even a proper eschatology (the study of last things); but this has even become true with regards to one’s piety and devotion towards God—i.e., the truth with regards to the doctrine or study of one’s sanctification before God.
Throughout church history, differing theological explanations have been given on all of these various subjects in an attempt to explain, “what is truth,” often leading us only into further confusion and disarray as to whether or not any of the explanations that have been given are indeed true, or if even to be regarded as being helpful at all. Indeed, many are not helpful! Sadly, many are nothing more than the doctrines, commandments, and traditions of carnal thinking Christians and individuals who view everything from a man-centered epistemology, rather than from a God-centered one.
And this is no less the case with regards to the teaching of who we are “in Christ,” as opposed to who we no longer are “in Adam.” Since Adam partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man has always since then intuitively “known” the difference between what is good and evil; between what is right and what is wrong for us to do. But the good that he would, he cannot do—because of sin that dwells within him. The Bible’s teaching on the doctrine of man (anthropology) comes to biblically teach us that this revolving door of the wicked and the beguiling cycle of sin has been forever broken in the person and work of Christ for the believer. As difficult as this is for many to swallow, we are no longer “in Adam.” And while yet many may believe this, they sure don’t act like it. They say that they are “in Christ” but in practice they are still acting as though they are “in Adam.” At least, if not to say, “we are just a little bit “in Adam.”
Indeed, many Christians today are even embarrassed to admit that they can now practically live blameless and holy lives before God, which the Scriptures affirm that we should be able to do now that we are new creatures in Christ. “In Christ, we are blameless,” so they say, “but practically speaking? Are you kidding? No way, we are all sinners through and through.” And they think it is a sign of humility to speak as such; but it is a false humility not born of God! And they wonder why some of us do not follow them after the same dissipation. There is nothing humble about recognizing yourself as one who still sins as a hardened sinner; because that is what you are if you still sin. True humility comes from one who has denied his sin and now submits to God and His righteousness, and walks in all holiness by the regenerating power and influences of the Holy Spirit.
If this idea of God wanting us to recognize ourselves as a “wretched man” or as sinners in order to keep us humble, is true, then why not just sin a little bit more so that we can become even more humble!?! Jesus was the most humblest man in all the world, yet without sin! So if the recognition of the fact that we are still sinners is to keep us humble, then what about Jesus? As one can very well see, a Christian does not need to be reminded that they are sinners in order to remain humble. Jesus didn’t, and neither do we. As I said before, a truly humble person submits himself to the righteousness of God, denies himself and his flesh, and picks up the cross and follows Jesus!
Frankly, more Christians today identify with being sinners and “in Adam” than they do with being saints “in Christ.” And many, I’m afraid, do so in order to justify their sin. In fact, I once heard a professing Christian say on T.V. when asked about all of his occasional slipping of the tongue in cussing and swearing in public, “Sure we cuss, we are sinners just like everyone else!” Such a mentality (such a doctrine) has left most Christians toothless and defenseless in overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil, when it should be the other way around.
What I am about to present below will, hopefully, put “teeth” back into all of us, and give us a proper biblical understanding and perspective of who we all are really now in Christ.
As I began to say before, the “old man” and “new man” are often described of as being two parts of our human nature residing within us side by side. But this is not true! We in and of ourselves, by the very work of the Holy Spirit of regeneration upon our hearts via the redemptive work of Christ, are one undivided new man in “union” with Christ; or as Paul states elsewhere, we are “a new creation.” In other words, we are one new created being or man in Christ Jesus with absolutely one, clean, new heart or spirit. At salvation the “old man” was “crucified” and laid to rest; done away with completely, no longer to raise his ugly head again.
John MacArthur, in substantiating all of this, pointedly remarks,
To argue that believers have both an old self and new self is to argue in effect that the believer’s soul is half regenerate and half unregenerate. There is no support for such a spiritual half-breed in Scripture….The Bible views all men either in Christ, or in Adam. There is no middle ground….Paul gives the contrast between Adam and Christ in Romans 5:12-21.…it is impossible to be in Adam and in Christ at the same time.[12]To substantiate all of this in biblical terminology, God told Israel through the prophet Ezekiel that the day would come when He would “put a new spirit within them…remove from them their heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh” (11:19). And He prefaces this replacement of one heart for another with the words, “I will give them an undivided heart” (v. 19a; see also Hos. 10:2, KJV, ASV, ERV). There are no “half-hearted,” “half-breed,” or “double-minded” new creations in Christ’s kingdom. We are either “good” trees or “bad” trees. There are no composite trees in His kingdom bearing both thorns and figs. “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water” (Jam. 3:11-12). If there is any “double-mindedness” going on, it is not between the old man and new man, but between the new man and our fleshly minds.[13] To say it is all proceeding from “our old, sinful, fleshly nature” is a misnomer.
This idea might be presented or stated another way: Does God dwell with idols? In the OT everything inside the temple was consecrated by the blood as “holy” before God would come and take up residence inside the temple. Nothing “defiled” or “unholy” could reside within the temple grounds proper. And when anything did become “out of order,” “unholy” or “strange” in the temple’s arrangement of things, God in one way or another eradicated it from His presence. Sin could not reside next to where the holy things of God resided in His temple. This is why the “old man” is dead, buried, and completely eradicated and carried away from being inside of our temples; God’s holy place (now our hearts) can only be a place that is swept clean and made holy, righteous, and sanctified in order for His presence to dwell there.
In addition to this idea is the realization that when the Passover Lamb was slain and eaten inside the homes of the people, the homes themselves had to be searched high and low for any “leaven” in their midst. Not one inkling of leaven could reside in the house where the Passover Lamb was to be eaten. This also helps us to make more sense of why the Bible says that God “called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2Tim. 1:9, NASB); even being called "saints," "holy and beloved" (cp. Rom. 1:7; 1Cor. 1:2; Col. 3:12; Heb. 3:1; Eph. 3:5; 2Pet. 3:2, NAS). And this is why God told Peter to “call not unclean, what I have called clean,” which, ironically, is still what many are doing today—calling themselves “unclean!”
The Holy Spirit sanctifies completely and thoroughly the inside of our temples by the blood of Christ so that He can take up residence upon the throne of our hearts. “I will cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you….I will put My Spirit in you…” (Ezk. 36:25-27). Can it get anymore clearer for us than this?
Still yet another way to look at all of this is by asking ourselves the question: Does our holy God and Father present to our husband (Christ) a defiled bride, or a chaste virgin? The answer, of course, is obvious! All those given by the Father unto Christ our husband are sanctified by Him in order to be presented before Him as a “chaste virgin” in order to be joined unto Christ.
Nothing gives a father more honor than to present his daughter (us in this case) as “a chaste virgin” unto her husband (Christ). And nothing is more honorable than for a virgin husband to marry a chaste virgin woman. This is why the high priest in the OT was commanded by God to marry only a “virgin” (Lev. 21:13). It was a type of what God was going to do in us in presenting us unto Christ through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within us. We are “sanctified” and made “holy” in order to be joined to Him who is also “sanctified” and “holy” (cf. Jhn. 17:17-19). And “He that sanctifies, and they who are sanctified are all one” (Heb. 2:11, AKJV). It is in this state or condition of being "sanctified" that we have been honored to be called “saints, holy and beloved.” This is also why in the book of Revelation all of God’s redeemed chosen ones are called “virgins,” as also symbolized by “white robes” (6:11; 7:9, 13-14; 14:4; 19:8, 14; cp. 2Cor. 11:2). At our Holy Spirit baptism and new birth we are made this way in order to be presentable before God and Christ.
Once again, Paul says, “What partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? (2Cor. 6:15-16). Or to put it another way: What does a defiled bride have in common with the holy God and Christ as her husband? The answer is, “None whatsoever!” Our old man has died. Or, to express it another way, we have been washed clean in order that we might be married or joined to another, our virgin High Priest and husband the Lord Jesus Christ. Such an uncleanness before coming to Christ, Paul said was “what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1Cor. 6:11). Hallelujah! We died in Christ and were spiritually resurrected, being transformed into a condition and state of being that makes us presentable before God as a chaste virgin to our new husband in absolute and undefiled holy matrimony (cp. Rom. 7:1-4).
Similarly, Jesus had said to the Pharisees, “first make clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside may become equally clean” (Mat. 23:26, BBE). No residual dirt is intimated here as still being left inside the cup or platter, otherwise the outside could not become equally clean. This is what the Greek text is intimating here. The “outside” of the cup or platter is rendered clean to the capacity that the “inside” has been cleansed. In Jesus’ words, if there is any residual dirt (sin) left inside the cup, the outside will reflect this by our impure conduct and motives. Clean inside equals clean outside. Not clean inside equals being rendered unclean outside.
The Pharisees’ hearts were tainted by sin and their impure motives made what they ascetically did on the outside of no value; whatever they did outwardly was really only a reflection of these impure motives within. Get the heart right within, and righteous deeds motivated by love and a proper and pure spirit will follow.
John Gill notes on this above verse,
Great concern of all men should be, inward purity; that their hearts be purified by faith in the blood of Christ, and sprinkled from an evil conscience by the same; that principles of grace and holiness be formed in them by the Spirit of God; and then their outward lives and conversations being influenced thereby, will be honorable and agreeable to their professions (Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible - online).Elsewhere, Jesus had also said to the Pharisees, “give for alms those things which are within; and behold, all things are clean unto you” (Lke. 11:41, RSV). In other words, become poor in spirit in all humility and humbleness of heart. Offer up unto God a broken and contrite heart; for with such gifts God is well pleased! And out of the purity of such expressions of devotion to God will be displayed in and through our fleshly bodies—pure, holy, and righteous deeds before men and before God. Pure deeds and sacrifices can only come from a pure heart, otherwise all such sacrificing will remain unclean.
We really are, what we are inwardly. Outward motives may keep the outside clean only for a time, while the inside still remains filthy; but if the entire heart or spirit (not just a part) be made new (as Christ has done in us), then it stands to reason that there will only be a newness of life that will follow. But it must all first begin within ourselves, from the inside out.
As Jesus has said, “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad….The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Mat. 12:33, 35). We are not part good and part bad trees. We are one or the other, but not both! As true born-again believers we are “clean” through the Word which Christ has spoken to us, in order that we may bring forth only “good” fruit unto righteousness and holiness. And as Paul has said, “We have been set free from [the propensity to] sin, and have become slaves to righteousness….When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness….But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness” (Rom. 6:18, 20, 22).
It is my hope and desire that by the time you are done reading this article that you (the new you) will never be the same again with such carnal, worldly ideas and notions about yourself. Hopefully, you will be able to see the light as to who you really are in Christ and begin to start walking a more victorious life of faith through the additional “washing with water by the Word,” in order that Christ might present His bride unto Himself “as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:26-27), being conformed in our bodies to this likeness and image of Christ that has been formed “in” our inner man. The Christian life is much more than just believing something about who Christ is; it is also believing something about ourselves and who we all are really now in Christ. Unfortunately, many Christians seem to have a self-image that is much more negative than positive about themselves. When they look at themselves their field of vision is focused more on their sinfulness and their inadequacies rather than on their new image in Christ, and they live their lives more defeated than victorious. They believe that this is who they really are, when it isn’t who they really are.
In Christ, we are one new man with one new heart or nature; no longer created in the sinful image of Adam but in the holy image of God. What was once lost in Adam, has been regained or restored in Christ, our Second Adam. In and through Christ (our new Adam) we have been created in God’s image to bear that image in and throughout our fleshly, mortal bodies. Don't believe me? We will get to the Scriptures that will prove all this in just a moment. But this is how, or by what means, in which we crucify our flesh to no longer sin and have the upper hand. The sinful nature that we inherited in Adam is no longer ours anymore. Remember the words of MacArthur noted above, and remember them well, “The Bible views all men either in Christ, or in Adam. There is no middle ground….Paul gives the contrast between Adam and Christ in Romans 5:12-21.…it is impossible to be in Adam and in Christ at the same time” (ibid).
A new, redeemed, holy nature in Christ is what is now in view. In Adam we were born to sin. In Christ we are born again not to sin. As God’s Word declares, we are an undivided “new man” with a “new heart” and “new spirit” (cf. Ezk. 36:26). What God has created in us is now no longer sinful (indeed it cannot be in order for Him to dwell within us), but is created in all holiness and righteousness before Him. We are not a newly created being melded or joined together with our former “old man;” and neither is Christ just residing next to this former “old man” and somehow making him new. On the contrary, just like a sugar cube is dropped into a hot cup of tea and dissolves to become one in essence with the tea, so is Christ infused or in union in every fiber of our spiritual being and has created us to be one new man (not a divided man) in Him, and to now bear His very same holy image and likeness. Even as Peter declares, we have “become sharers in the very nature of God, having completely escaped the corruption which exists in the world through earthly cravings” (2Pet. 1:5, WEY). And Heb. 12:10 says we have become “partakers of His holiness” (KJV). This is a marvelous mystery to get a hold of and to understand. As a husband and wife become one in flesh, so too, “in Christ,” we His bride have become “one” in our spirits with Him, sharing in His very same nature. (cf. Eph. 5:31-32). Jesus did not say being born again just means getting the Holy Spirit. And even saying that we have become “sharers in the very nature of God” has sometimes not really been clear to us of what has indeed happened in us. We are not just getting something, we have actually become something in essence with Him. Paul says we are “one spirit” with Him (1Cor. 6:17). We are “one” new man in Christ. As He is, so are we! Christ is “the head,” we are His “body.” In our union with Him we are an extension of His very being―of His Divine nature. So it is not what we have that is the issue here, but who we have become that is vitally important for us to understand and realize. By saying that we are just sinners saved by grace indwelt by the Holy Spirit is belittling what God has done “in” us, not just “for” us. And so thus understood, as Murray had denoted earlier, the lines of demarcation that differentiate us from the unbelievers have been completely and entirely erased. And so most Christians are guilty of casting an undeserved stigma upon the greatest work that Christ has ever performed upon us by reducing it to no more than that of being just justified sinners―and who will always be sinners―just short of being nothing more than just saved by grace.
Oswald Chambers rightly notes,
The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning.[14]Being born again means a radical change in our being and who we have become now in Christ. It is not simply a change outwardly in our citizenship with God’s people―it is also a change within us. A Caucasian, Mexican, or Black person will always on the outside be a Caucasian, Mexican or Black person no matter what country they become a citizen in. But in order to enter Christ’s heavenly country an absolutely new non-sin-bearing inward nature (or a good fruit tree that bears only good fruit) is required. God said through Jeremiah, “Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” (cf. Jer. 13:23). An impossibility with those who are “dead” in sins and trespasses, but an absolute possibility with God. God turns those who are “inwardly” wretched sinners into living, breathing, Holy Spirit imbued saints! Not just positionally, but practically as well. Otherwise, the command to be holy even as He is holy would be superfluous. This isn’t just something to dream about in the sweet bye and bye, or some pie-in-the-sky idealism. This is what we are called to be now, not later. And until we reprogram our minds to think otherwise, we will never come away from this wretched sinner syndrome and lifestyle that has been inflicted upon us.
Kenneth Wuest in quoting the words of Lightfoot states,
The spiritual man in each believer’s heart, like the primal man [Adam] in the beginning of the world, was created after God’s image. The new creation in this respect resembles the first creation….The new birth was a recreation in God’s image; the subsequent life must be a deepening of this image thus stamped upon the man.[15]Now the “old man” is old because he is derived way back from the days of Adam by way of our old, fleshly, natural birth. As Martyn Lloyd Jones notes,
The old man that is in us [or use to be as he later notes] is very old indeed; he is in fact as old as Adam. And therefore ‘the old man’ really must be thought of as the old man that we all were by our birth and as a result of our descent from Adam. It speaks of all that we have inherited from Adam as the result of the Fall…We are all born with a corrupted nature, with a defiled nature, with a polluted nature….The old man, then, is what we all are by birth and by nature: fallen, polluted, depraved, corrupt, sinful, with a bias against God and towards evil….The old Adamic man has ceased to be, the old man was crucified with Christ, he is dead; you are never called upon to crucify the old man [i.e., the old, fleshly sinful nature], you are not told to try to kill the old man; God alone in Christ can do that, and He has done it! And we are the new man in Christ Jesus. There is nothing that I know of that is so strengthening to faith, so strengthening in the daily living of the Christian life, as to realize that the old man has gone forever….We are no longer what we were, and the first thing we have to do is to tell ourselves just that!…My old man is dead, finished with, he is non-existent; I am no longer what I was.[16]The old man with his inborn sinful nature and nasty habits that tried to usurp all of his authority and control over our bodies and minds as unregenerate individuals, is dead! It was not just merely this or that which was wrong with us that had to be put-off or removed, but our entire old sinful disposition or nature had to be removed (or circumcised) and taken out of the way so that we can freely serve another, namely Christ (cp. Rom. 6:20-22).
Formerly, when we were “in Adam” we were dominated by our fallen, sinful nature. But now that we are “in Christ,” that sinful nature has died and no longer dominates us. Sin shall no longer “have dominion over you,” says Paul (Rom. 6:14, KJV). We all now must realize that we are a new man who must now assert authority over sin which still tries to take over the fleshly members of our body and minds.
As John Calvin this time corectly notes: “the reign of sin is destroyed, so that the righteousness of God is in command….But as it is, in the part in which we are carnal we crawl on the ground, or at least our feet stick in the mire and we are to that extent unclean.”[17] And it is to this extent—and to this extent alone—that our feet and only our feet must be washed, not our bodies. Calvin understood that this “carnal” part was still a part of our unregenerated nature, but he was wrong. He was right about keeping our feet clean, but he was wrong about this carnality as still proceeding from that part of our heart that is still unrenewed. Kenneth Wuest got it right though when he states,
the old man refers to the unsaved person dominated by the totally depraved nature, the new man refers to the saved person dominated by the divine nature.[18]So once again, there are not two parts to our human nature residing within us, one still sinful and unregenerate (the old man), next to the one holy and regenerate (the new man) standing side by side next to one another, let alone even being melded or joined together as one being. For as we will soon just see, Paul himself repeatedly expresses this very same idea in Rom. 6:6; Col. 3:9-10 and Eph. 4:22-24. Three times in the NT is the expression “old man” mentioned in these verses above, and twice it is mentioned in juxtaposition to, and not in union with, the “new man”; and all written expressly by Paul.
So, put on your thinking caps and be prepared for the adventure of your life! What lies ahead are no pithy arguments, but a comprehensive analysis and exegesis of all the pertinent passages of Scripture that are relevant to this subject at hand. What I have gleaned over forty-five years out of hundreds of commentaries, books, and even from the very pages of the Bible itself, I have brought all under one roof so that you really have to go no further in evaluating for yourself this important doctrine of who you really are now in Christ. And beside the doctrine of being saved alone in Christ alone, there is no other doctrine that is more important and vital to our Christian thinking and understanding than what lies ahead in the commentary ahead. And in the words of Isaac Newton written in a letter to Robert Hooke, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Click here for part two.
Footnotes:
[1] p. 212.
[2] John MacArthur, John MacArthur’s Bible Studies, Freedom From Sin, Romans 6-7 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1987), p. 33. Words in brackets mine (in many of his writings, MacArthur clearly understands the old man to be synonymous with the sinful nature, as do I).
[3] Christ could not have crucified our old man in us if He didn’t in some sense “personally” become us on the cross with all of our sin placed upon Him in His spirit, soul and body; otherwise, He would have been a redeemer of bodies only and not of souls. No, Christ who personally knew no sin was actually made to be sin (or a Scapegoat) on our behalf with all of our sin placed in and upon Him,¹ in order that we might personally become the righteousness of God in Him (cf. 2Cor. 5:21), not just positionally but practically as well (see also 1Pet. 2:24). Again, in Rom. 8:3 Paul says literally in the Greek that on the cross Christ personally took on “the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin condemned sin in the flesh”– even in OUR flesh! And this is why Paul can now say in Romans 6, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (v. 2, NASB). When Christ personally died to our sin in His flesh, we too personally died to our sin in our flesh when we were spiritually united with Him by the baptism of the Spirit (cp. 1Cor. 12:13). Again, Paul says we have been “baptized into His death” (6:3, NASB); we have been “united with Him in the likeness of His death” (v. 5, NASB); and “we have died with Christ” (v. 8, NASB).
In two more places Paul talks about what has occurred to us inside spiritually when we were spiritually “baptized” into Christ. The first occurrence is in Col. 2:11-13. Like in Romans 6, Paul says of our spiritual baptism into Christ: “in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” (vv. 11-12). Paul goes on to say of our baptism into Christ that “you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh,” and that “God made you alive with Christ” (v. 13). The Greek word for “made alive” here denotes being reanimated after one is dead. It is a spiritual resurrection of one who was spiritually dead in sins and trespasses. This isn’t a physical resurrection but a spiritual one; not external but internal. And Paul talks again about this in Eph. 2:1-5 as well, often referred to as “the twin epistle” to Colossians.
The second occurrence where Paul talks about our spiritual baptism in Christ is in Gal. 3:27. Here Paul says, “all of you who were [spiritually] baptized into Christ have PUT ON (or, literally, ‘clothed’ yourselves with) Christ.” No one in their right mind would understand Paul to be saying here that this is what happens to us “externally” or just on a “corporate” level. Each of us are personally and spiritually “clothed” with Christ within, not without (see also Isa. 61:3, 6, 10; Rev. 7:9; 19:7). In our baptism into Christ, we each internally put off as old clothing the old man created in Adam; and in Christ we each internally put on as new clothing the new man created in Christ; and this agrees with Col. 3:10 and Eph. 4:24. Putting on Christ here in Gal. 3:27 is putting on the new man who was created in Christ after God’s very own image and likeness. Again, all of this is very personal and internal and has nothing to do with what is going on physically or externally around us.
Of a truth, the carnal and fleshly old man that we use to be is dead via our Kinsman-Redeemer, with a spiritual new man recreated and resurrected in his place so that we can now personally “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4, NASB). I like how The Message Bible paraphrases a part of Rom. 8:3, “God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son…In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.” The “flesh” that Paul (as Saul) said he and all those still under the law struggled with in Romans 7, has been absolutely “crucified” in all believers according to Gal. 5:24. And it was that “law” of the flesh that Paul spoke about in his members, in association with his “inner man” (or with his “old man”) in Rom. 7:22-23, that he and all of us have been once-and-for-all delivered from.
Additional notes to the above footnote:
¹ Cf. Lev. 16:21-22. Additionally, it should not go without notice that the Scapegoat was so defiled with the people’s sins, that the person accompanying the Scapegoat into the wilderness (or, literally, to a place “cut off”) had to wash his clothes and bathe his body with water before returning to camp (v. 26). And the bull and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy place to make atonement for sin, had to have their skin’s, flesh and offal’s (or “internal” organs) burned outside the camp; and the man who burned them also had to wash his clothes and bathe his body in water before returning to camp (vv. 27-28).
So, it should come as no surprise or shock to us by now that Christ “bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (1Pet. 2:24). “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6); “the Lord made His life a guilt offering” (v. 10); “He will bear their iniquities” (v. 11); “He bore the sin of many” (v. 12); and “He was assigned a grave with the wicked” and “was numbered with the transgressors” (vv. 9, 12). His defilement with our sin, of necessity, brought Him to the very throngs of the ungodly spirits in prison to whom He would eventually preach to (cf. 1Pet. 3:18-19; 4:6), though some recklessly finagle all of this in Peter's epistle to mean something entirely different, as if Christ did not descend into hell at all but only preached to these spirits through the endeavors of Noah, who were then living in the days of Noah. But it was only after the entire “suffering of His soul” (Isa. 53:11) or, the “trouble experienced not only in His body, but into the inmost recesses of His soul” (Keil and Del.), that Christ would eventually “see the light of life and be satisfied” (ibid), or better: see what it would accomplish and be satisfied. If Christ didn’t suffer in His soul, even to hell, all the wrath that was due us, then he didn’t suffer for us. And it is to this personal descent of Christ’s human spirit into hell, that we actually owe our exemption to it.
It is also interesting to note here with regards to the Sin Offering and the Trespass Offering. In my bible college days, according to a book written by L. Thomas Holdcroft, called, The Pentateuch, it was commonly understood that the Sin Offering had to do with our sinful nature, the Trespass Offering with sins knowingly committed; the former with the root of our sin, the latter with the fruit of that root; the former involves the person of the sinner, the latter with the actions of the sinner; the former violates that which God is by nature, the latter violates that which God decrees; the former meant that the sinner was deficient and helpless before God, the latter that the sinner was obligated (regardless of his bent towards sin) to repent and to be cleansed of any defilements.
So, in like manner, Christ as our Sin Offering dealt with our nature (or the sin principle); while as a Trespass Offering He dealt with all of our actual trespasses (or all of our active “sins”). Christ’s sacerdotal ministry was not only to cleanse the outside of our cups, but the inside as well; not only to cleanse our hands and feet, but our bodies as well. As the Creator, it is to make the tree good so that the fruit of the tree be good as well; to turn a salt water spring into a fresh water spring; to destroy the old man (or vessel) created in Adam and to create a new man (or vessel) in Christ; to turn children of darkness into children of light through and through---first in their spirits, then in their souls, and finally in their bodies (cf. 1Ths. 5:23).
[4] 2Cor. 5:17 literally reads: “Therefore if any man in Christ [is] a new creation, the old things have passed away; behold, the new has emerged.” To read into this, “there is a new creation,” as if Paul is speaking of an eschatological change to one’s environment is to force a meaning or idea into this sentence that is wanting. Clearly, by using the singular, masculine, personal pronoun “any man,” Paul has the individual in Christ who is a new creation. This is how the verse naturally reads. See also the translations of the Douay-Rheims Bible, the New American Bible Revised Version, God’s Word Translation, and the Good News Translation.
[5] Herman Ridderbos uses this redemptive-historical view when interpreting the old man/new man concept in a “corporate” manner as Moo does. But then he also refers to the new man as something created in each of us on a very personal and individual level through the Spirit of regeneration, calling it also the “new creation” and the “new birth” of the “inward man.” He calls all of these ideas the “general and all-embracing definition of the new man,” and that this redemptive-historical corporate idea “of this new man is brought about in the individual human existence.” (Paul: An Outline of His Theology, pp. 224, 227). This “redemptive-historical” view is also used by some when interpreting Gal. 5:13-24 with regards to “the flesh” and “the Spirit” as denoting outward “community” or “corporate” affiliations, rather than being understood in their more common internal ethical/moral sense. For a redemptive-historical viewpoint of Gal. 5:13-24, see for example Walt Russell’s, The Apostle Paul’s Redemptive-Historical Argumentation in Galatians 5:13-26. An online search at Google should bring up this article. I also wrote an article on these verses in this blog, called: Gal. 5:24, Those Who Belong to Christ Jesus HAVE Crucified the Flesh. I also wrote a book later on this subject, called: Our Flesh Crucified. It can be ordered at a discount by clicking on the picture in the right-hand column of this blog.
[6] Calvin’s Commentaries, Romans (comment under 7:18). Online at: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom38.xi.vii.html. Calvin also goes on to say under verse 22, “The inner man then is not simply the soul, but that spiritual part which has been regenerated by God; and the members signify the other remaining part...the spirit takes the place of the soul in man, and the flesh, which is the corrupt and polluted soul, that of the body...”
[7] Be Right, NT Comm. On Romans (Colorado Springs: Cook Pub, 1977), p. 75.
[8] Romans (Wheaton: Crossway, 1991), p. 143.
[9] St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (Minneapolis: Aug. Pub., 1936), p. 477.
[10] Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1992), p. 138.
[11] p. 9.
[12] The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Colossians, p. 149.
[13] In all honesty, when James speaks of a “double-minded” person he does not have a believer in mind at all. Kittel’s TDNT says of this wording by James: “This term (James 1:8; 4:8 denotes the ‘divided’ person. Behind it lies the OT thought of the divided heart (cf. Dt. 29:17; Ezk. 14:3ff.).” (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990; p. 1353). The Greek literally reads in James here, “di-psuchos,” or a two-souled person. Of course, no one has two souls and two hearts, so what this can only mean is that something is pulling one’s soul and heart one way while another thing is pulling them in the opposite direction. Such a person is uncontrollable and unmanageable when left to themselves without the Spirit of God to help them. Their “heart,” (conscience) as well as their “soul” (their will of choice) is bent on pursuing evil with also a pull or tug on their hearts to do what is good.
This is exactly the same person that Paul describes of himself before being saved in Rom. 7:25b, where he says of the Jew under old covenantal law, “with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, [a slave] to the law of sin” (HCSB). Such a one is double-minded serving double-duty under two masters―the spiritual law of God and the un-spiritual law of sin! Their flesh is pulling them one way while the conscience of their spirit is pulling them another way. And their will (or soul) is caught in the middle in trying to decide between the two, similar to Adam and Eve before they fell into sin. There is a desire in such a one’s conscience (or heart) and in their will (their soul) to keep God’s law and do what is right, but their flesh (which for those after the fall is controlled by their old unregenerate man) is without the Spirit of God in them to enable them to do good, keeping them under bondage to continue in sin. These were those whom James was referring to among the true Jewish believers in Christ. They were those who claimed they had faith in God, but in works they denied Him. They were not peacemakers, but in chapter 4, verse 2, and in chapter 5, verse 6, James says they were cold-blooded killers and murderers of God’s saints who were only masquerading as saints.[a]
Another statement of James often taken out of context and mistaken for Christians is 3:13, “if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic” (NASB). In context, James has just said in verses 11-12, “Can both fresh and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” And even earlier in the same context he talks about those who are professors of the faith as opposed to those who are possessors of the faith in 2:14-27, by the fact that godly works of faith flow from a true faith or conversion in Christ. But just the opposite is the case of those who are not truly born of God. If one has bitter envying and selfish ambitions in their hearts (similar to Cain and Esau and any other ungodly person), then let not that man think he will receive anything from the Lord (cp. 4:2). Such “wisdom” is devilish and not born from above. The wisdom that comes from above is: “pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial (i.e. shows no favoritism as some of those here were doing in 2:9) and sincere” (v. 17). And such “peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness” (v. 18).
In chapter 4, verse 5, James again says, “Does the Spirit which has taken His abode in us desire enviously?” In other words, does the Spirit in us lust in a fleshly, worldly manner? On the contrary, “he [the Spirit of God] gives [us] more grace” to do otherwise (cf. Darby trans.; brackets mine).
What James has been saying all along here is basic to what the apostles taught in all of their epistles; which is to differentiate between those who are of God, as opposed to those who are not; and to be on our guard, proving whether or not we are really in the faith or not. James says either fresh water will flow out of an individual, or salt water—but not both! The mark of a true believer is in the fresh well-spring of water that is flowing out of their hearts. Jesus similarly said, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit” (Mat. 7:16-18). James was saying nothing more than what Christ had taught him about being able to tell a good tree from a bad tree, a bad spring from a good spring.
Note to footnote above:
[a] These people that James refers to, “fight,” “quarrel,” “kill,” and “covet;” and when they do ask God to do something it is based purely upon “wrong motives” (similar to the Pharisees). They are literally, before God, “adulterous” (v. 4) by these physical and not just so-called “spiritual” actions, as some commentators claim. Again, these things are exactly what the Pharisees were accustomed to doing. In fact, in James 5:6, they are again said to be the ones who “condemn” and “murder” innocent men. In other words, they were condemning and murdering the true disciples of Christ (the Greek word here for “innocent” doesn’t denote a worker in a literal field who was innocent of such treatment, but those who were “righteous” men or women of God as opposed to those who are unrighteous). These “righteous” people are whom James refers to as “the workmen who mowed your fields” (v. 4) of people. They are the “harvesters,” who “crying out against” these false brethren, who instead of receiving them with open arms, condemned and murder them. These “revilers,” “murderers,” and “covetous” people are definitely not true believers. And most commentators actually believe this to be the the case of those referred to in Jam. 5:1-6, while discounting this idea of those mentioned in Jam. 4:2. But I do not think these “murders” mentioned in chapter five are to be understood any differently than those who are said to continually “kill” (or murder) in chapter 4, verse 2. Many attempt to downplay and weaken the word “kill” here to only mean that in a figurative (or “spiritual”) sense they had it in the hearts to kill, but never literally. I don’t buy it for one minute! Just as many don’t “buy it” when the same idea is referred to in chapter 5, verse 6.
The Greek word for “kill” (Strong’s: 5407; phoneuete) in Jam. 4:2, is a present active indicative verb. In other words, they are continually, ACTIVELY and absolutely doing this. It is their continual practice. They are not just doing it theoretically in their hearts on a continual basis, but actually. In fact, the same Greek verb is used in Jam. 5:6 (Strong’s: 5407; ephoneusate), but this time it is referring to having actually physically killed people in the past (aorist active indicative). Clearly, James is not referring to the “murder” being done here as that which was done only theoretically or figuratively speaking in the past “in their hearts,” but to the fact that these people really did kill those who were sent to them by Christ (the “harvesters who labored in your fields”). In other words, it was those who preached the gospel to them, that they murdered. They had killed many of those sent to them by God in the past, and they were still killing those sent by God to them in the present. Instead of being hospitable to these laborers of Christ, taking care of them and washing their feet, they withheld food, water and clothing from them—even casting some of them into prison (cp. Mat. 10:11-23; 25:34-46). And it is the blood of all such martyrs that vindictively cries unto the Lord of sabaoth (Jam. 5:4; the Lord of armies), who brings divine retribution for the mistreatment of all of His laborers in His field.
For those who can receive what I am about to say, it is to these people that James says, “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded (i.e., all of you people standing among us with hearts of duplicity). Such “double-minded” people (unbelievers) with divided hearts shall not receive anything from the Lord, says James. They are “unstable in all their ways” (Jam. 1:8).
[14] My Utmost For His Highest, Evidence of the New Birth (Dodd, Mead & Co., Inc., 1963), Aug. 15, p. 228).
[15] Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Colossians, vol. 1, p. 221.
[16] Darkness and Light, An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17, pp. 120-121, 126, 145.
[17] The Crossway Classic Commentaries, John, p. 322.
[18] Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Ephesians, p. 111.
