Who Is the Old Man and the New Man?
I often hear people saying they have to "die to self." But I don't find anything in the Scriptures where it says we must practice such a thing. This idea of dying to self is taken from 1 Cor. 15:31 while ignoring the context. By reading the context we begin to understand what Paul was talking about. He stood in jeopardy every hour. His was always in physical danger where it would cost him his physical life, not some inner turmoil he struggled with as we are led to believe.
We often hear of the "old nature" and the "new nature." For those who take their Authorized Bible to be the final authority in all matters of faith and practice, one will discover that neither term is in the Bible. The Bible talks about the "new man" and the "old man." Nowhere in the Bible does it say the new man must learn to overtake the old man. No where does Paul say he ever struggled with the old man.
The Old Man
What the old man is not. The Bible doesn't speak of him as the soul, nor the spirit, nor the law of sin in our members. The Bible does not speak of the old man as some mysterious other-self that co-exists with the new man. They are not two opposing inner forces striving for supremacy. It may be a popular concept, but it's not supported by any serious biblical exegesis. It's only philosophy.
What the old man is. The old man is all that we were in every aspect of our being before we were regenerated and placed into Christ, thus into His death, burial, and resurrection. The old man is entirely replaced by the new man. (2 Cor. 5:17) The old man is the natural man, carnal, dead in personal trespasses, weak through the flesh, and could not please God. The The old man is history. The old man was under condemnation, without God, without hope. Paul said in Rom. 7 the old man could not do the things that he would. He was sold under sin. The new man now sustains a relationship only to Christ and not to Adam. Crucifixion with Christ is not the goal, it is the very historical event on which we originally entered a relationship with Christ. The old man is crucified (Gal. 2:20).
The New Man
What the new man is not. The Bible does not say the new man is the Holy Spirit, nor does the Bible say the new man is Christ living in me, nor does the Bible say it is the "new nature" struggling with the old man. Furthermore, the Bible does not say the new man is Jesus Christ.
What the new man is. The new man is all that the believer is in body, soul, and spirit after being placed into Christ's body. As a believer, my only reality is that of the new man. I am a new creature in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17) This may sound ghastly to some, but if one belongs to Christ and he should sin, it's the new man that sins, the new creature.
___________________________________________