Kill the Old Man

Now the term, “old man” has nothing to do with age, but everything to do with what happened to us ages ago.

The Apostle Paul uses this phrase on three occasions in three different letters all referring to the old life of sin that Paul says was crucified, that is, it was put to death, with Christ (Romans 6:6-7; Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 3:9-10).

It was the life that was crucified and went down into the grave with Jesus so that a new resurrected life could emerge. The “old man” was crucified with Christ to empower believers in Jesus Christ to renounce and reject sin, that is, not to serve sin any longer.

Look at what the Apostle Paul said in our text.

“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin” (Romans 6:6-7).

Note that Paul says that this old sinful life was crucified so that our sinful nature might finally be finished. This reminds me of an artist’s body of work. It isn’t one particular thing, but the whole. And this is what Paul is getting at. Paul is talking about the whole package of our sinful nature.

Therefore, this body of sin has been crucified with Christ, which means we are to no longer serve sin, because sin is dead to us, and our deaths actually frees us.

“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body … And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead” (Romans 6:11-13).

How then does someone “put off” the old man, and “put on” the new? It’s through the process of confessing, repenting, and forgiveness.