Put On The New Man

Colossians 3:5-11

Colossians 3:5–11 NKJV

Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Verse 4 ended by telling us that Christ is our life. Because He is our life we will be with Him forever. Understanding He is our life is key to seeking Him and eternal things, as well as setting our minds upon our relationship with Him.

Paul is moving from the doctrinal side to the practical side. Paul firmly believes that what you believe determines how you behave. We have died with Christ and we are resurrected with Christ to walk in the newness of life. How do we do this? We must understand the battle that goes on in the life of the believer.

In Galatians chapter 5 Paul tells us the spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh wars against the spirit. There are two natures dwelling in the Believer. The old man which is that old sinful nature and the new man which is the new nature we received when we were born again.

Galatians 5:17

Galatians 5:17 NKJV

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

In Romans chapter 7 Paul says “ what I want to do, I do not. But that I hate I do”. (My paraphrase) We can all identify with Paul. Why is it so hard to do what I know I should do? The flesh lusts against the spirit. But here is the beautiful thing about this. We don’t have to give into the flesh.

Two natures beat within my breast

The one is foul, the one is blessed

The one I love, the one I hate

The one I feed will dominate (Anonymous)

Paul is going to show us that it is possible to put off the old man and put on the new man. Living the Christ life is simply realizing that because we have died with Christ and we are resurrected with Christ the old man no longer has any control over us. As Harry Mayhew sings “The old Man is dead”.

Put to death your members (Vs5)

Paul tells us to put to death the fleshly things that characterize the Old Man. Fornication means sexual immorality, uncleanness means impurity, passion means lustful passion, evil desires, covetousness which means idolatry (putting someone or something before God.)

Why is important to put these things to death? Because this characterizes the unsaved (Vs6) not the saved. This kind of behavior does not represent Christ. This is what some used to be before Christ.

No doubt some of Paul’s original audience perhaps read this and said I’m good to go, that’s how I used to be. Not so fast. Many times believers can be so proud of themselves for not doing these heinous sins but they fail to realize that for believers we are go to further. Before we get too proud of ourselves we need to put off some things that we may overlook in our lives because they’re not bad sins.

Put Off These Things.(Vs8-9)

Notice the list that Paul now gives us touches everyone of us. He tells us to put off:

Anger- a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure or hostility.

Wrath- exteme anger

Malice- desire to injure

Blasphemy- slander, speech injurious to others

Filthy Language- foul speaking, obscene

Lie- Speak deliberate falsehoods

These two are characteristics of the old man. And that is what we were, not what we are. Ok we know what we are supposed to do, but how can we. How can we put away anger? How can we put away all these pet sins Christians participate in?

Put on the New Man. (Vs10)

Only one way. Put on the new man. There is not enough room in you to feed both natures. You feed the new nature and you’ll have no room for the old nature.

Renew the New Man. (Vs10)

The new man is renewed in knowledge. Which means the more you know Christ the more renewed or stronger the New man becomes.

Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 NKJV

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

We are talking about feeding the new man. About our relationship with Christ Jesus. We must grow in our relationship. We must sow to our relationship with Christ.

The Goal of the New Man (Vs10-11)

The renewal of the new man is has the purpose of resembling Christ. To be a Christian means to be Christ-like. The more we grow in our relationship the more like Christ we become. The key to overcoming the Old Man is to continually and consistently becoming more like Christ. You cannot feed the flesh and indulge in the flesh and grow to become Christ-like.

Are you becoming like more like Christ every day? If not why? Are you putting on the New man or are you feeding the old man?

Jesus Christ can set you free from the Old Man today. The question is do you want set free?