The “Old Man”

The “Old Man”

The old man (Adam) is naught but pride, covetousness, lasciviousness, unrighteousness, wrath, enmity, hatred, envy, and such vices.

All these must die, be put off, in a true Christian, if ever the new man is to arise in him and be renewed day by day. In proportion as the old man dies, the new man is quickened. As arrogance loses its influence and dies, humility, by God’s Spirit, succeeds; as wrath yields, meekness advances; as covetousness is done away with, trust in God is increased; and as the love of the world dies, the love of God takes its place and becomes more and more ardent (fervent).

This is now the new inward man with all its members. This is the fruit of the Spirit; this is the living, powerful, active and working faith; this is the noble life of Christ in us; this is the new obedience, the new fulfillment of Christ’s command; this is the result of the new birth in us, in which you must live if you desire to be a child of God; for only those who so live have a right to be called God’s children.

This is the reason the new man denies himself according to the flesh; renouncing his own self-love and self-indulgence, and all his profit and interest in the world; and why he ought freely to give up his own right and consider himself unworthy of everything. A real Christian, who is endued with the humility of Christ, readily acknowledges that no man can lay claim to even the least right to these benefits that descend from above, because they are all gifts, and freely proceed from grace alone.