The Two Creations

Part 4

Pastor Vicky Moots

Kingman, Kansas

At this time, I would like to discuss the verses in Ephesians and Colossians in which Paul uses the terms “old man” and “new man” to refer to the two creations. As stated previously, the “old man” is our old, sinful nature which we inherited at birth through Adam. Paul plainly declares that the “old man” is corrupt and acts according to the lusts of the flesh. God does not patch up the “old man” and try to make him better or to reform him. The “old man” is corrupt and had to be put to death, as we were told by Paul in Rom. 6:6.

Paul commands us in Eph. 4:22 that, as Christians, we are to “…put off concerning the former conversation [manner of life] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” In this verse he illustrates the “old man” by using the example of an old filthy, contaminated garment that must be removed and destroyed.

This filthy garment represents the outward manifestations of the “old man” in our lives. The inner lust of the flesh will manifest itself outwardly through sinful deeds of the body. This is the outer garment of the flesh. We must choose to remove the filthy garment of the “old man” in order to be clothed with our new clean garment.

Next, in v.23, we are instructed, “…be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” We can only be renewed in the spirit of our mind by yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit, as Paul tells us in Gal. 5:16: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Since we are a new creation in Christ, God has provided us with a new garment to replace the old, contaminated garment which we have removed. Paul calls this new garment the “new man” and commands us in v.24 of Ephesians 4 to “…put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

This same illustration is expressed further by Paul in Col. 3:8-10: “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy…; Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.”

The new man is created in God’s image, not Adam’s image. When we are born in the natural, we bear the image of our earthly father, and that of Adam. When we are born again, as a new creation, we bear the image of our heavenly Father.

Since we have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man, what are the deeds that should now be on display in our lives? What does our new garment look like? Paul gives us the answer to this question in the last two verses of Eph. 4: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice [these are the deeds of the old man]: And be ye kind one to another, … even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” These deeds are only possible as we yield to the new creation life, the life of Christ in us. So, let us put off the “old man” and put on “the new,” and glorify Christ.