Part One: Putting Off and Putting to Death
Introduction: A Necessary Change
The times when we present ourselves before the power of the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit represent an opening of the throne of grace of our God. In grace and in mercy, He allows us to expose ourselves to the revelation of the power of His Word.
In the previous teaching we studied a subject that is extremely important and necessary if each of us who has confessed to be a man or woman of God is to grow in faith and establish the kingdom of heaven in our own life and in every one of our surroundings. That subject dealt with the causes, the reasons, why the kingdom of darkness draws near to men and women of faith. By the Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we saw that one of the causes, perhaps the main one, has to do with the image of the earthly one, as the apostle Paul calls it in his first epistle to the Corinthians, or, as it is more commonly known, the old man. That is the name by which we generally know this subject. We came to see that one of the reasons the kingdom of darkness has the right to draw near and to operate in the life of a man or woman of faith—and this is the hardest thing we must understand—is the old man.
In this teaching we will work with one question: how should we deal with the old man? When I speak of dealing with the old man, I mean how to overcome him, because that is the purpose. We cannot reconcile our life of faith with the old man, and I want to repeat this because it is extremely important: no one can grow in faith without understanding that the old man must be made to disappear. No one can grow in faith who lacks the awareness and the conviction that the old man has to go.
That is why certain expressions we have often heard, and which, sadly, many of us may have said ourselves, are so contrary to the Word: “That’s just how I am. Everybody has to accept me the way I am.” In truth, that goes against what the Word of the Lord establishes, because the Lord has called us to be transformed and reconciled to Him. And above all, reconciliation means that we must return to a way of life as it was designed in the kingdom of heaven. Any man or woman who confesses to be a person of faith yet shows no change is doing nothing but deceiving himself or herself, because that is precisely why the Lord Jesus appeared and established His work of reconciliation on the cross of Calvary. It is important that we understand this, because we cannot grow as long as the old man persists in our lives. It is not a matter of reconciling some activity of faith with the old man. That is impossible; it cannot happen.
How, then, do I deal with the old man? How do I overcome him? How do I make him disappear from my life? That is the only way I can grow in faith. If the old man persists in me, I cannot grow in faith. This is what the gospel of the kingdom of heaven establishes.
Why Is This Subject Necessary?
There are two specific reasons why we must study how to deal with the old man.
First Reason: The Old Man Is the Link to the Past
The genetic past, the spiritual genetic past we spoke of in the previous teaching, is precisely what the old man links us to. There is a reality we must understand perfectly: what we did before coming to Christ Jesus is valid and carries binding force in the life of a man or woman of faith. It is not enough to say, “I did that before I came to Christ Jesus.” That does not excuse anyone or set anyone free, because the Word of the Lord declares in Galatians 6:7:
“For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7, NKJV)
If the old man persists in the life of a man or woman of faith, the whole past is reactivated; the past from before coming to Christ Jesus is active. The enemy knows precisely how this works, because he was the one who designed it in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent approached Eve first. He knows how to do it, and he draws near to reactivate the old man and everything the old man did, because that is how the old man is strengthened. That is why, when a person falls back into things of the past, he cannot say that it was Satan who tempted him. All the enemy really does is reactivate the things that are still in force, the things that are still active. And what is still active? The past. So when a man or woman of God deals with his or her old man, that is when the things of the past can be made to perish. It is the only way; there is no other.
Second Reason: The Old Man Is the Link to the Kingdom of Darkness
I will repeat this because it is extremely important, and many people are unaware of it: the old man is the link to the kingdom of darkness. I invite you to read Romans 6:16, where the apostle, by the Spirit of God, establishes a spiritual principle that operates in connection with the old man and the kingdom of darkness:
“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey?” (Romans 6:16, NKJV)
That is exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden, when Eve first, and then Adam, accepted the suggestion of the serpent’s words: that day they became servants of the kingdom of darkness. There is, therefore, a link. It is not enough to say, “I don’t believe in those things. I am already in Christ Jesus, and that doesn’t affect me.” If it did not affect us, the need for us to put off the old man would not be written in the Holy Scriptures, in the New Testament, in the writings of the apostle Paul. If this no longer existed, there would be no need for it to be written in the Word of the Lord.
There are people who still have a link to the kingdom of darkness even though they are men and women of faith. The enemy knows it perfectly well, because all of this is seen spiritually: there is a spiritual map that the enemy can see clearly. When a link is still active, a strong link, people find themselves—without wanting to—acting and walking along the path the enemy is laying out. It is extremely important that we understand this.
Let me sum up so far. We study this subject because, number one, the old man is the link to the deeds of the past, and, number two, he is the link to the kingdom of darkness. Do you see the need to deal with the old man? It is not, as I said at the beginning, a matter of reconciling: “I am going to make the old man not rule or dominate, but still let him stay there.” We cannot; it is impossible. That is why the Word and the Spirit of God testify to the need for us, men and women who have confessed to be children of God, to work—that is, to overcome the old man.
What Is the Old Man?
Before going further, we need to define what the old man is. The term is used very often, and nearly all of us know it; even people who are new to the gospel are among the first to hear it in sermons, teachings, and messages. We speak so much about the old man, yet often we do not know what he is. We usually say that the old man is the old nature, the past life, the way of being, what I used to do, the former way of living, my old character, my conduct. Yes, we are right; but, again, that does not define spiritually what exactly the old man is or what we are fighting against.
To define him, we will use three texts that set out three scenarios of action in which the old man moves. Two are in the book of Genesis and one is in the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans.
First Scenario: Man, a Living Being
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7, NKJV)
The expression “dust of the ground” will remain in the other definitions. And here we have to begin to be specific: man is not dust of the ground; he was dust of the ground, but he no longer is, by virtue of the breath, the breath of life. By virtue of the breath of God, man was constituted a living being.
What does it mean to be a living being? It means a being who lives by himself. The breath of life enables him to live by himself, to move by himself, to act by himself; in other words, to be autonomous. Some versions render this phrase “living soul,” but when we speak of a living being, let us not think of the eternal part that continues after death, because that is not the sense. It is a being who lives, who moves, who is autonomous. According to this first scenario, then, man is a living being.
Second Scenario: Man Degraded by Disobedience
“In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19, NKJV)
In this second scenario, man was degraded by virtue of disobedience. From a living being he was degraded back to dust of the ground. But notice something very important for understanding what the old man is: something persisted. In the first scenario, the dust was without breath, without life, without movement. In this second scenario, man is degraded back to dust of the ground, yet he keeps on moving, keeps on acting, keeps on deciding, keeps on making decisions. So there is something that still persists in him; but it is not the image of God, and it is not the breath of God.
Why? Because God had told man, referring to the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: in the day that you eat of it you shall die. Through disobedience the image and likeness were removed from him, and hear this well: they were removed completely, not in part. Man, by virtue of disobedience, lost the whole image and likeness of God and, therefore, likewise lost the breath. It was not possible for only the image and likeness to be taken away while the breath was left; the breath was taken too, because the breath is part of the image and likeness of God: it is the very essence of God. That is why the Word says plainly in Romans 3:23:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23, NKJV)
That is, they fall short of the presence of God. This man, in this second scenario, loses the whole image and likeness—not a part—and loses the breath of life, because it is part of God. He still keeps moving, but no longer by virtue of the breath of God. It is important that we understand this.
He lost everything, but he took on another image: that of the kingdom of darkness. As Romans 6:16 says, to whom you present yourselves as slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves; and by obeying the serpent, man became a servant of the kingdom of darkness and, in addition, took on the image of the kingdom of darkness. This second scenario helps us understand the process of what the old man is.
Third Scenario: A Dead Man Who Moves
Now we move to the New Testament, to Romans 7:24, where the apostle sets down a very important word. Many of us know it, but few of us have really understood how grave it is:
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24, NKJV)
When Paul speaks of “this body of death,” he is referring to his own body. He was not presenting the picture of something that has often been believed: a corpse that had to be carried, as part of a Roman execution. I tell you this because there are no historical references to that, nor is there any writing that validates that claim. The apostle Paul is not referring to carrying a dead body; he is referring to his own body.
So we have this third scenario. What is the old man? The old man is a dead man who moves. He does not bear the image or likeness of God; he does not bear the breath of God; he is dead, completely dead, even though he still moves. I believe the Spirit of God can now help us understand the apostle Paul’s statement in his epistle to the Ephesians, when he says that we were dead in trespasses and sins. The fact that man still moves does not mean that he has life. By the grace of God, he has a memory of the time when, in the presence of God, he had the image and likeness of God and had the breath of God; but he no longer has it. The old man is a mass without form—without form because he has no image, without form because he has no likeness—that survives in man himself.
The Three Germs of the Old Man
I must tell you that this old man is infected with three germs. Every human being is infected with three germs: the first, blindness; the second, sin; and the third, death. Every human being carries in the old man blindness, sin, and death.
First Germ: Blindness
See what the Spirit of God declares in 2 Corinthians 4:4:
“Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” (2 Corinthians 4:4, NKJV)
That is why the things of God cannot be understood in the old man. As long as a person who confesses to be a child of God, a man or woman of faith, keeps the old man, that person cannot grow in faith; it is impossible. He cannot see the work of God; it is impossible for him to see it, because the god of this age has blinded the minds. Blindness means that he cannot see, absolutely.
Second and Third Germs: Sin and Death
The next two germs are found in Romans 5:12:
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin.” (Romans 5:12, NKJV)
Here are the two germs with which the old man is infected: sin and death. Romans 6:23 repeats it: the wages of sin is death. Know that there is a spirit of death, and the Word refers to him; but he is not the one who takes a person’s life, because man is infected with a germ called death. All the enemy, or the spirit of death, does is stir up situations and conditions in the surroundings so that the germ the old man carries is activated, and that is when the person dies.
An Enemy Each of Us Carries
It is important that we understand what we are fighting against. We are not fighting an external enemy; we are fighting an enemy that each one of us carries, called the old man. The old man cannot persist or survive; he has to be discarded from the life of a man of faith and from the life of a woman of faith. The excuse “that’s just how I am, and everybody has to accept me” has no validity. Why? Because in reality you are confirming a decree of sin, a decree of death, and a decree of blindness over your own life. Blindness, sin, and death are three germs that persist in the old man, and so the person is completely destroying his or her life.
What, then, is the old man? He is a dead man who still moves, who still persists in movement; in him there is no life, only movement, and he contains within himself three germs: blindness, sin, and death. It is only a matter of time before that old man perishes completely.
That is why we must understand who is really at the greatest risk and danger of perishing in the fire of hell, and listen to me well: those who confess to be men and women of faith. Because, knowing what the Scriptures declare—that we cannot live together with the old man—they persist in keeping him moving inside themselves.
All of us have to work against the old man. No one can say, “I am just going to stand by and watch.” What you will be watching is your own destruction, because the old man grows stronger. The apostle Paul says it: the old man is strengthened by the deeds of the past that are still active, by the spiritual genetic inheritance of your genealogy, of where you come from; by the things that were done, by the things that were not stopped, by the things that were not prevented. And if there is a man of faith, a woman of faith, or a young person who, after leaving the state of innocence—at about thirteen years of age and older—does not deal with the old man, he runs the risk of being completely destroyed.
Four Ways to Deal with the Old Man
The Holy Scriptures, in the New Testament, present us with four ways to deal with the old man, from the most basic to the most difficult. When I say the most difficult, I mean the one that requires the most strength, because there are old men who have grown so much, so very much, that they require an even greater spiritual strength to be overcome: the person has not grown in knowledge, has not grown in wisdom, has not grown in understanding, has not grown in faith, and therefore cannot overcome him. Because the content is extensive and we need to understand this subject very well, we will present these four ways in two teachings. In this teaching we will present only two; next week we will study the other two.
First Way: Put Off the Old Man
This first way, the most fundamental and basic, is established in Ephesians 4:22:
“That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” (Ephesians 4:22, NKJV)
Other versions put it this way: “Concerning your former conduct, put off the old man.” That is the first way to fight against the old man: by putting him off. Yes, it is simple; but what does it require? A decision. What does it require? Conviction. What does it require? Faith. It requires that we understand what we are fighting against.
The Old Man, an Airport for Demons
I must tell you something, because some may wonder how demons fit into all of this. The best way to put it is this: in the old man, demons find an airport where they can land. There are people—whole congregations, in fact—who do not believe that demons can enter a man who has acknowledged Jesus. That is the worst mistake that can be made in the life of faith.
I invite you to read Matthew 13, where Jesus gave the parable of the sower. See what verse 19 says:
“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19, NKJV)
The wicked one is Satan. What makes a man of faith a man of faith, and a woman of faith a woman of faith, is the Word: when the man or woman accepts the Word, the Word makes him or her a man or woman of God. That is why what the enemy does is simply to take the Word away. From where does he take it? From the heart; and you know that the heart is within the body. This passage therefore teaches us that the enemy can come in and go out freely. The person does not realize it; he finds out through his actions, because when an unclean spirit has entered the life of a man or woman who confesses to be a person of faith, his personality changes and his character changes.
Putting Off Is a Decision
What, then, is the first way we must work? “Put off.” Someone might say, “It’s that simple?” Yes, because it is a decision. But if none of us makes that decision—if all of us, as men and women of faith, fail to make it—do you think we are putting off the old man that way? No; he is settling in, spreading out, growing strong. This cannot be worked out religiously or rationally. We have to work at it, first of all, with conviction, with understanding, and with faith, and above all with decision, in order to identify the old man.
I have to know what the manifestations of my old man are; not those of my neighbor’s old man, or of my companion’s. I cannot be looking, as Jesus put it, at the speck in my brother’s eye when inside me there is an old man who is very strong and well formed, and who cannot be overcome unless I identify him. And that is done with decision. What is the old man? Lying, deceit, falsehood, false witness, fornication, adultery, vanity, pride, craftiness; all the things described in the Word of God. As long as I do not identify them, as long as I do not decide to deal with them, the old man will keep growing stronger, and he will grow stronger through the consent I myself am giving him. That is why I said there is more danger for a man who has known Jesus than for one who has not: the one who has known Jesus, if he lacks the decision to deal with his old man, is hastening his fall and his total and complete destruction even more.
To put off the old man is an action, but an action that requires decision. Do not wait, and do not even think of praying, “Lord, help me with my old man.” It is already established: put off. If God Himself has already told you, why should we say, “Lord, help me, rescue me, deliver me from my old man”? That is not how it works. To act that way is to act irresponsibly, to act in blindness, to act in a spiritual deficiency that is precisely the result of an old man who is reigning in our lives.
“Pray for me” is practically the theme, the request, the action that all of us so often want to present: “Pray for me, because I have a deficiency, because there is something I still haven’t overcome; pray for my children, who are acting against the Gospel.” But if we ourselves have not taken action, do you think that just praying, or whatever else we might want to do, will solve it? It will not. We have the case, and surely you know it, of the high priest Eli, who knew what his sons were doing but did not restrain them or stop them.
The first way to deal with the old man, then, is to put him off, and putting off requires decision. Let us also go to Colossians 3:9–10:
“Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” (Colossians 3:9–10, NKJV)
Notice the connection between lying and the old man. Here “a little white lie” does not count: when there is lying, it is your old man who is acting; he is active, he is fattened up, he is functioning. This is the first way, and it is important that we know it: a decision, put off. Who is going to do it? No one else; it falls to each one of us alone. If we do not do it, we are hastening our destruction. And do not go making excuses, saying, “But I already accepted Christ Jesus, and since salvation is not by works or by anything we do, He will save me.” In truth, what we are doing with that attitude is strengthening the old man.
Second Way: Put to Death the Deeds of the Flesh
Let us move on to the second way, which is the one we will study in greater detail today. Romans 8:13 says:
“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.” (Romans 8:13, NKJV)
Other versions put it this way: “If by the Spirit you put to death the works of the flesh, you will live.” Second way: put to death the works of the flesh. This is no longer the same method as before, because the earlier way is to put off, like taking something off, undressing. This second way requires greater strength, because there is already a struggle: the old man has taken power over the personality and the character. The Spirit of God is telling us: you have to kill the old man. This sounds strong. You have to undo, annihilate, kill, destroy your old man. And again, who does it? We do: it is the decision, the action, the carrying out. Having undressed was not enough; the old man still persists, and we have to exert more force. What is the way to accomplish it? You have to put the old man to death.
Do Not Present Our Members to Sin
Let us read Romans 6:13 alongside this text. The apostle, by the Spirit of God—because this is not the invention of a man, but the Spirit of God who establishes the ways, the rules, the norms, the commandments, the statutes, and the decrees that the kingdom of heaven has established for the life of faith—says:
“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.” (Romans 6:13, NKJV)
What does it mean to put the old man to death? The Spirit of God answers us: do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. If you know that going to a certain place gives strength to your old man, why would you go? If you know that drinking a certain beverage—and I mean a beverage that has already produced an addiction… There are people for whom coffee, for example, or mate, has become an addiction. Well, then, you are being told: if you know that this is feeding your old man, that you need to feed on it in order to feel well, do not expose yourself to it.
Do you see that there is a much stronger level here? It is not enough to say, “I put off.” We have to struggle a bit more, to the point that I have to subject my body to detoxification. Listen carefully to what I am saying: I have to subject my body to detoxification. Why? Because a beverage as simple and as ordinary as the ones I mentioned has become part of your existence. How many people get a headache because they did not have, at the usual hour, the beverage I mentioned? Does that mean your old man is feeding on a beverage, on a routine, on a ritual? Because that too is a ritual. Rituals are not only about idols; this too is part of a ritual and it is strengthening your old man. Do you see the importance of understanding this? Let me read it again: “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin.” The man and woman of faith who want to overcome, who decide to overcome, have to identify the elements that are strengthening their old man and not expose themselves to them.
I must also tell you that a pill, a tablet, does not necessarily resolve only a physical situation; many times it goes much deeper than simply removing a pain or a physical discomfort. It is an old man who is being strengthened, who is being fed, who is deeply rooted inside the person.
Putting to Death Our Members: Strongholds and Food of the Old Man
Let us read two more texts. Colossians 3:5 says:
“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5, NKJV)
Here we are being given examples: “put to death.” Why? Because the old man has been strengthened in each one of these elements, and until each one of us puts them to death, the old man cannot be overcome. It is not just a matter of seeing these things as mere deeds; we have to understand that they are strongholds that feed the old man. The apostle, by the Spirit of God, gives us examples so that we can identify the manifestations of the old man, and those manifestations we have to put to death.
We have come to understand, by the Spirit of God, that many things about the old man have to do with food and drink. Just as you hear it: many strongholds the old man has acquired have to do with food and drink. If you read the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Philippians, chapter 3, verse 19, listen to what is written:
“Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.” (Philippians 3:19, NKJV)
Who is he talking about? The old man. But notice: his god is the belly, which can also be read as his god is in the belly. Many strongholds of the old man are related to and linked with food and drink. That is why it is very important for a man of God to understand that we cannot go along with traditional foods and drinks that have to do with feasts, with appetites, and with particular pleasures, because many of those things are feeding the old man.
Let us read one more text, in Colossians 2:11–12:
“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:11–12, NKJV)
That “body of the sins of the flesh” is the old man. This second way of overcoming the old man has to do with putting him to death. It requires a greater effort, a greater strength, a greater decision, and a greater conviction that what I have to do, I have to do. Why? Because the old man has already stuck to my bones, has stuck to my systems, and I have to be able to overcome him and drive him out of there. I have to detoxify my body of the presence and the manifestation of the old man.
The old man is corrupt; the apostle Paul established this, by the Spirit of God, in chapter 4 of Ephesians. Let us not think, then, that letting the old man live will take us to a good place; it will destroy us. Why? Because the old man has three germs—remember it well: blindness, sin, and death. The old man will grow stronger by activating blindness, sin, and death. And in the end, the man who confessed to be a child of God, the woman who confessed to be a child of God, perishes, having lost the opportunity, while living on the face of the earth, to subdue and put all enemies under his feet.
What Is at Stake
We have this teaching so that we can understand it, study it, and establish it in each one of our lives. Let us keep in mind that the life of faith is at risk, the spiritual life is at risk, salvation is at risk; everything, absolutely everything, is at risk. And our generation is at risk as well, because we must not think that it will all end with us: our generation receives everything the old man has passed on to it.
Conclusion
The old man is a dead man who still moves, a carrier of blindness, sin, and death; he is the link to the past and the link to the kingdom of darkness. It is not possible to reconcile him with the life of faith: he has to be overcome. The Word presents us with four ways to do it, from the most basic to the most difficult. The first, putting off the old man, requires decision and conviction, and no one can take it on our behalf. The second, putting to death the works of the flesh, requires greater strength: identifying the elements that strengthen the old man, not exposing ourselves to them, and even subjecting our bodies to detoxification. Next week we will continue with the other two ways established for overcoming the old man.
We give thanks to the eternal and Almighty God, because by exposing us to His Word He is opening our eyes so that we may see. It is my prayer that each one of us who exposes himself to this teaching may be convicted of righteousness, of judgment, and of sin. So be it. Amen.
Review Questions
1. What are the two reasons it is necessary to deal with the old man, and in what ways have you noticed that the past, or the link to the kingdom of darkness, is still active in your own life?
2. Based on the three scenarios of Genesis 2:7, Genesis 3:19, and Romans 7:24, how would you explain in your own words what the old man is and why he is infected with blindness, sin, and death?3. What are the manifestations of your own old man, and what concrete decisions do you need to make in order to put him off and to avoid exposing yourself to the things that strengthen him?
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