Catechism: Old Adam and New Man
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:23-24
What’s the difference between a redeemed child of God and someone who doesn’t believe in Christ’s redemption? For us humans who cannot look into the heart, it can be difficult to tell the difference. We see people who vocally deny the existence of God, yet they don’t appear to be manifest sinners. You may know an unbeliever yourself who doesn’t struggle at all with some of the temptations that plague you the most.
So many irreligious people may seem to live righteous and holy lives, but what you see is not true righteousness and holiness. They are, just as Paul says the Ephesians Christians once were, dead in their trespasses and sins. They still wear the Old Adam, and all their works of righteousness are like filthy rags to God.
But when you have put off the Old Adam, God clothes you in the New Man. The New Man is a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17) It is a complete renewal of the mind that causes us to think and act according to God. Colossians 3:10 says that this New Man is none other than the restored image of God in which Adam and Eve were created before the fall into sin.
We must kill the Old Adam every day because it still clings to us, and we must call upon the Holy Spirit to daily renew the New Man in us. One day, however, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again, the image of God will be fully, perfectly and eternally restored in us. Until then, we can daily get a foretaste of true righteousness and holiness in the forgiveness of our sins.
Holy Spirit, cause a New Man to daily appear and arise in me, so that I may live eternally before God in righteousness and purity. Amen.