The Death of Christ

Christ Crucifying the Old Man

The Old Man is the Fallen Man Independent of God
God created man with the intention that man be joined to Him and dependent upon Him for his every need. The prophet Isaiah conveyed this to God’s Old Testament people when he told them, “Your Maker is your husband; Jehovah of hosts is His name” (54:5). Throughout the Bible, the wife represents one who is dependent upon her husband and takes him as her head (1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:22-23). The proper standing of the created man to God is that of a wife submissive to and dependent upon her husband. But when man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and was consequently alienated from the tree of life, he left God’s presence and became independent of God. The “old man” is the fallen man declaring his independence from God. This independent old man has been crucified with Christ on the cross (Rom. 6:6). The termination of the old man has freed the believers to be joined to Christ (Romans 7:1-4), to take Christ as their Head (1 Cor. 11:3), their proper husband (2 Cor. 11:2).

What God wants is Christ
Though once a devout law-keeping Jew, the apostle Paul later realized that he had lived his life as an unbeliever in the old man. He had been serving God by his natural strength and zeal. By revelation he perceived that his living according to this law-keeping old man was entirely unsatisfactory to God. He realized that what God wants is Christ—Christ revealed in him (Gal. 1:15-16), Christ living in him (2:20), and Christ formed in him (4:19). Furthermore, Paul saw that the old man, the independent “I” had been crucified with Christ on the cross. Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ.” He acknowledged Christ’s crucifixion to be his own, that is, the crucifixion of the old, independent “I.” He went on to say, “the life which I now live…” After being crucified with Christ, then, was Paul dead or was he still alive? His old, independent man had been crucified, yet the submissive, dependent man still lived. This was Paul’s experience of the death of Christ liberating him from the old man that can never satisfy God (Rom. 8:8). Praise the Lord for terminating the old man and bringing him to his end on the cross. As a result, the believers can be joined to Christ, dependent upon Him, that Christ may live in them.

[The Old Man] [Sin] [The World] [The Devil] [Ordinances]

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