Where Is the Old Man?
ICS Daily Devotions
Colossians 3:8-9 (NKJV) 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.
The Apostle Paul depicts the old man as wild, sharp tongued, blasphemous, having anger issues, deceitful, unscrupulous, untruthful, foul mouthed, living a licentious lifestyle, full of prejudice, walking in darkness and void of genuine love, an immoral and unethical person, and a slave to sin. Man is generally proud and self-centred and sin is self-centred and living a life apart from God. The old man is one who thinks and believes that they are a self-made man, the master of their own destiny. They identify themselves as the mini god in this world until they are humbled by the hard knocks in life.
As Christians, however, the old man is considered dead the moment we accept Christ into our lives. Regardless of whether we have been baptised or not—as baptism is an outward expression of our inward conviction—we have this inward conviction that our old man is symbolically dead and buried with Christ when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. That’s when our new man begins.
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Our old man could have developed our identity based on our sense of self-worth, and our self-worth could have subtly become a god in our own sights—we are proud of it. Sadly, many of us won’t realise this until everything that we hold so dearly crumbles. Achievements are not wrong if they have been given by the Lord, but they are the wrong foundation for our identity because they are temporal. It is what the Bible calls “sinking sand” which will not hold us up when the storm in life hits us.
Therefore, let us renew our minds to have our identity in Christ as it is the right foundation.
Sermon Series: A New Identity after His Resurrection
