The old man isn’t dead, just rendered powerless.

Have you had difficulty keeping New Year’s resolutions, quitting bad habits, changing negative attitudes, or leaving behind the old life before you accepted Christ as your Savior? We saw in a previous series of blog posts on soul-salvation (cf. Jas 1:25) this refers to progressive salvation. What the New Testament writers referred to as “flesh” is the physical body together with the soul, i.e., life under the sun—our goals, thoughts, and actions. Paul implored his readers:

. . .in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Eph 4:22-24)

He assumed that his readers had done this when he wrote:

. . .since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him (Col 3:9-10)

Paul confessed that he had to battle his own flesh (cf. Rom 7). He wrote:

I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, . . .that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:8-15)

The power of the resurrection to which he referred is the same power he mentioned in Ephesians:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. (Eph 1:18-21)

As we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection, let’s celebrate our own spiritual resurrection and keep seeking the power of His resurrection.