NowFaith.TV Advanced Ministry
Lesson # 33
Have You Reckoned Your Old Man Dead?
Is It Dead or Alive?
Most new believers are only taught part of the truth about the death of Christ. We are happy to receive good teaching of the awesome salvation we have because Jesus died for us. If we choose to receive Him as Lord of our life, we can be born again as new creations, partakers of a divine nature, baptized in His death, burial and raised with Him in newness of Life. Only where there is a death can there be a resurrection. If we did not die with Him, we cannot be raised with Him.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have
become new. 2 Cor 5:16-17 NKJV
... that through these [promises] you may be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:4 NKJV
So how important is it that we reckon our old man dead? Is our old man or old nature already dead? If not, what died in Romans 6? Does the Bible say the old nature can rise again? Must we die to self effort? Can our flesh be crucified? Are we commanded to die to "self," our old nature daily or to our flesh? What death is yet needed?
For the death that He died, He died to
sin once for all;
but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also,
RECKON yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God
in Christ Jesus our Lord. NKJV Rom 6:10-11
In the Bible, there are several aspects to dying with Christ:
-
We are baptized in His death, burial and resurrection
-
We die to living out of our self effort daily
-
We take our flesh to the cross to be crucified daily
-
We "reckon" our old nature died with Him at salvation
I believe that when believers are baptized, our old un-regenerated nature really is dead, buried and we are raised to new life in Christ with a new personal spirit by the finished work of Jesus Christ. Dead is dead and our new personal spirit is truly a new creation. Even if you don't agree that Christ brought it to death once and for all, you are commanded to reckon it dead now. Romans 6:11
Many believers are not taught to die to their self effort daily. They may pray for the "second blessing" and expect only blessings: gifts, joy, refreshing power, etc. They do not realize that the blessing may be delayed until they are committed to die with Him daily. This could be a reason that many believers have prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and have not seemed to receive it. Death always precedes resurrection. Usually, they want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to live in His power but many do not fully grasp the necessity to die to self effort and to all fleshly or carnal interests.
And those who are
Christ's have crucified the flesh
with its passions and desires. NKJV Gal 5:24
To know Jesus is not merely to have faith for His blessings. Knowing Him is also to know the cup of His suffering and to yield "our all" to establish His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. When we take our fleshly desires to the Cross to be crucified daily, we can then yield our body, soul and new spirit to Jesus and He raises us up in His Life.
... that I may know Him and the power of
His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed
to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from
the dead.
Phil 3:10-11 NKJV
Romans 6 says our "old man" or old nature died with Jesus once and for all when we were born again. Old has passed away and we are new creations with a new spirit, partakers of a divine nature. Romans 6 says our old nature is dead and Romans 7:18 (see the Greek) makes it clear that our battle now is between our flesh and our new nature or new spirit. Thank God we are not half old nature and half new nature with only a 50% chance of walking the Spirit. We truly are new creations. Christ finished this work on the Cross and we must reckon it so.
How many of these verses do you believe and live in practice?
My old nature died once and for all
with Christ; I choose to reckon it so.
Rom 6:9-11 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for
all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you
also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
I have died to the power of sin and I am
free from it.
Rom 6:1-2 What shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
I have died to earning God's acceptance by keeping the
law.
Rom 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the
law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another -- to
Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
My "old man" has died and I am no
longer that person.
Col 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
I have died to performing for
worldly standards of earning approval.
Col 2:20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic
principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you
subject yourselves to regulations --
I have presented every part of me to
God for His righteous uses.
Rom 6:13-14 And do not present your members as instruments of
unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
The old me was crucified with
Christ; Christ lives in my new spirit.
Gal 2:19-21 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.
I am a new born again spirit in
newness of His life to God's glory.
Rom 6:3-4 Or do you not know that as many of us as
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life.
My old nature died; my new nature is united with
Christ in His resurrection power.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness
of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His
resurrection,
My old nature has been done away with. I am born again and free.
Rom 6:5-6 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.
I have been raised and death no longer had dominion over
me.
Rom 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the
dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
The new me in Christ is as real as the death my old man
died.
Rom 6:13-14 but present yourselves to God as being alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
The Romans 7 battle is between my new spirit and my
flesh.
Rom 7:17-19 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh)
nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform
what is good I do not find.
My new spiritual mind delights to serve God; my flesh
would serve sin.
Rom 7:25 So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of
God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Believers have a new spirit that can live according to the Holy Spirit.
Rom 8:4-5 that the righteous requirement of the law might be
fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to
the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds
on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit.
As I live out of my spirit, unified with His
Spirit, I can really live!
Rom 8:13-14 For if you live according to the flesh you will
die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you
will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are
sons of God.
I bring sinful passions and desires to Jesus to be
crucified and they are.
Gal 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with
its passions and desires.
As Christ puts our flesh to death, He makes us alive in
the Spirit.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for
the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the
flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
Having put off the old man, we live out of our new man in
His image.
Col 3:9-10 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off
the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is
renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
Our old man has once for all passed away and our new man
is truly a new creation with a spiritual mind, will and emotions.
I am truly born again.
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become
new.
We overflow with HIM; out
of our hearts flow rivers living water!!
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will
flow rivers of living water." NKJV John 7:38-39
If you begin to declare these truths daily by faith, the Holy Spirit will manifest His power, presence and anointing as never before. You will be a walking demonstration of Him!
Copyright 2000-2008 Carlotta Waldmann
Cross Walk Life, Inc. 501 (c)(3)
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