1. “Christ in you” (Col. 1:27; see also Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5).
The old man is out of Adam and in Adam, so the old man is just Adam. Similarly, the new man is out of Christ and in Christ, so the new man is just Christ. The old man is Adam in us, and the new man is Christ in us. Just as the old man in us is Adam, the new man in us is Christ.
2. “Christ our life” (Col. 3:4).
Just as Adam is the life of the old man, Christ is the life of the new man. When we live by the old man, we live by Adam and live out the life of Adam, which is Adam himself, but when we live by the new man, we live by Christ and live out the life of Christ, which is Christ Himself.
3. “Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
Just as Adam lives in the old man and lives himself out, Christ lives in the new man and lives Himself out. Just as God used the cross to put the old man to death to destroy Adam and the life of Adam within us, God makes the new man alive through Christ to live out Christ and the life of Christ within us. Therefore, the new man living within us is just Christ living within us. When we live in the new man, we live in Christ.
1. “You have put off the old man”; “The putting off of the body of the flesh” (Col. 3:9; 2:11).
The believers in Christ have put off the old man because our death with Christ has freed us from the old man, who was crucified with Christ. In Christ we were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, which is the old man. God regards Christ’s death on the cross as a circumcision that put off the old man and freed us from our flesh. This circumcision was accomplished by Christ on the cross through His death. It is an accomplished fact. We participate in this fact by faith. When we believed in the Lord and were saved, the Holy Spirit applied this fact to us in Christ. Therefore, we have put off the old man in Christ. May we see this fact. May we see that Christ has freed us from the old man through His death on the cross and that we no longer have to live by the old man. Brothers and sisters, we do not have to live by the old man, because Christ has freed us from the old man.
2. “Have put on the new man”; “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Col. 3:10; Gal. 3:27).
In Christ we not only have been freed from the old man, but we also have put on the new man. Not only has Christ freed us from the old man through death; He also enables us to put on the new man through resurrection. We were included in Christ’s death, and we were included in His resurrection as well. We died together with Him, and we resurrected together with Him. His death freed us from the old creation, and His resurrection brought us into the new creation. These are accomplished facts related to His death and resurrection, and because we are in Him, we can partake of these facts. When we received Him as our Savior, the Holy Spirit applied these facts to us in Him. Now His history is our history. Therefore, we have put off the old man and put on the new man. Through our baptism into Him, we have put off the old man in Adam and put on the new man in Christ. Now we can live by the new man instead of the old man. We can live out Christ, not Adam. May God open our eyes to show us this glorious fact that we have received so that we may live by the new man, not by the old man.
1. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these oppose each other that you would not do the things that you desire” (Gal. 5:17).
The flesh here is the expression of the old man in our fallen being, and the Spirit is the realization of the new man in our regenerated spirit. The Holy Spirit, who is mingled with our regenerated human spirit, is one with the new man. Therefore, the opposition in us between the flesh and the Spirit is equal to a battle between the old man and the new man. Our two natures can be called the old man and the new man. Thus, this verse indicates that there is a battle within us between our two natures, the old and the new. Our two natures oppose each other so that we would not do the things we desire and so that we could obey God, follow God’s will, and do the things that are pleasing to God.
1. “Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11).
If we want our new nature to win the battle, we must stand in the fact of our co-death and co-resurrection with Christ by faith in Christ and reckon ourselves dead to sin but living to God. This is to believe and confess the fact of our co-death and co-resurrection with Christ.
2. “Walk by the Spirit”; “Live by the Spirit”; “Walk... according to the spirit”; “The mind set on the spirit” (Gal. 5:16, 25; Rom. 8:4, 6).
It is not enough to believe and confess the fact of our co-death and co-resurrection with Christ; we must walk by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, walk according to the spirit in all things, and set our mind on the spirit. This is to live by the new man and to set our mind on the sense of the new man.
3. “By the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body”; “Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth” (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5; see also 1 Pet. 2:11; Rom. 13:14).
We must continually put to death the practices of the body by the Spirit through the application of the cross of Christ to our sinning members. This applies the death of Christ to the lusts of our flesh so that we would not live by the old man but by the new man. In this way we can overcome through our living according to our new nature.