Old Man – New Man Lesson 1

Old Man – New Man

Isaiah 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Belief Systems

1. The human soul operates using a belief system to determine our views, motives, feelings and behaviors.
a. Definition – assembly of associated ideas & principles joined together to form a system to determine our viewpoints, philosophies, attitudes, feelings & behaviors.
b. God designed the human soul to form and operate using a belief system.
c. Our belief system is formed out of our life experiences by the conclusions we reach & believe based on personal experience.
d. Our belief system is formed from whatever ideas we believe to be true.
e. What we believe controls how we view life experience and the relational strategies we develop to meet our God designed needs.
f. What we believe controls how we feel and behave in our relationships.
g. Old Man (OM) belief systems are built on human viewpoint while New Man (NM) belief systems are built from divine viewpoint.

2. God’s purpose for church age believer is to glorify Him through the New Man belief and behavior system enabled by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Glorify: doxazo – to make manifest God’s character and qualities causing praise, honor, respect to be directed toward Him.

a. In the church age (CA), the believer is enabled to form the mind of Christ within his own soul & operate from Christ’s same beliefs, motives, attitudes & behaviors.
b. The mind of Christ built and functioning in the soul of the believer is called the New Man (NM)– Eph 4:24; Col 3:10
c. The mind of Christ is assembled in the heart of the believer by learning and believing accurate categories of bible doctrine – pieces of truth
d. When the New Man (NM) is assembled, the believer’s soul then contains the same beliefs that Jesus used to live His earthly incarnation.
e. The NM is the beliefs, attitudes, viewpoints and behavior system provided to the humanity of Jesus for His earthly life.
f. NM function in/through the believer’s soul produces the character of Christ through the believer’s life bringing awareness of and praise to the essence of God.
g. The Church Age believer glorifies God by building NM beliefs in his soul and using NM behaviors to live his life, thereby exposing the character of Christ to the world.
h. Mechanics: perception & application of categorical bible doctrine

3. The CA believer is commanded to submit to a growth process called transformation.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is– his good, pleasing and perfect will.

a. The believer is commanded to choose between 2 systems of thinking.
· Conformity to the world – cosmic system of Satan – Old Man (OM)
· Transformed to be like Christ – NM belief & behavior system
b. The progressive present + me means to stop something already in progress, which is described as conforming to the age (aion) – common pattern of the times.
c. The passive voice indicates submission and/or allowing yourself to be influenced by 2 different system’s of thought.
d. Conforming to the world refers to the first belief system built by the unbeliever the bible calls the Old Man (OM).
e. From birth until the new birth, the unbeliever is unable to process spiritual phenomena and therefore unable to understand spiritual truth – only LDE.
f. From birth to the new birth (and beyond), the unbeliever builds a belief system by which he operates out of what he can understand – human logic, worldly philosophy, Satanic philosophy.
g. Notice that the believer is commanded to stop building the OM belief and behavior system as the first order of business in the transformation process.
· Functioning in NM requires more than building NM thinking in the soul
· Operating in NM requires that we stop using OM logic first.
h. Building NM, or being transformed is accomplished by renewing our thoughts.
· Renewing the beliefs by which we evaluate life experience and choose strategies to relate to others.

4. In Eph 4:22-24, Paul describes this same process involving 3 steps.

Ephesians 4:22-24  That ye put off with reference to your former conduct the old man, which is being corrupted according to its deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, the one after God having been created in righteousness and holiness from the truth.

Take off – Renew mind – Put on

a. There is a taking off action – apotithemi AMInf – take off clothing
b. We are instructed to take off the OM belief and behavior system we developed as unbelievers without God’s influence in our lives.
c. The OM’s root motivation is desire and these desires cause a deception in our belief system – build false strategies to meet our needs/desires.
d. Renewing the mind – building the NM belief/behaviors through knowledge of truth
e. There is a putting on action – enduo AMInf – make the NM our operating system
f. NM is according to God – the beliefs and behaviors of Christ – divine viewpoint
g. NM is created to produce righteous and holy living
h. NM is created from truth – built by pieces of truth assembled in the soul.

5. Building the OM Belief and Behavior system.

a. Fall of Adam has caused mankind to be born spiritually dead & separated from God – Rom 5:12; Eph 2:1
b. All mankind is born without a relationship with God, without access to God’s truth.
c. All mankind is born without understanding and ideas to live in the devil’s world.
d. Man’s dilemma at birth: spiritually dead, eternally condemned, w/out access to truth, w/out knowledge, with compelling needs, sin nature, sinful parents, in the devil’s world.
e. Man begins to form his ideas at birth and builds his beliefs from experience.
f. W/out God & truth, all of the ideas we build are human viewpoint and false in the context of spiritual world.
g. Unbeliever is able to use LDE as beliefs but unable to process spiritual ideas.
h. All of us build a system of beliefs designed to pursue our needs and make our way in the harsh environment of the devil’s world.
i. The OM belief and behavior system is the system we build based on experience, w/out God or truth, built on human viewpoint.
j. This system controls our viewpoints, motives, attitudes, feelings & behavior patterns.

6. The impact of the sin nature on our belief system.
a. In truth, the universe is centered around God, His purposes and His principles.
b. The sin nature corrupts the human soul by causing us to see ourselves as the center.
c. As infants, we see ourselves as the only important person – about my needs.
d. We build our beliefs on the idea that meeting my needs is the universal mission.
e. Our OM beliefs not only contain false ideas but are built on false self importance.
f. Nothing in the OM BB system is acceptable to God or serves His purpose.

7. The OM BB system is carried with us into the Christian life.
a. At salvation, only a small part of our belief system is exchanged for truth – gospel.
b. After salvation, we retain the core ideas of the OM – motives and strategies for attaining happiness.
c. After salvation, we use God to achieve our OM motives and methods.
d. After salvation, we build NM ideas into the soul and seek to implement them by human will.
e. OM beliefs do not lose power to influence because we still believe the ideas we believed before – must be taken off by no longer believing them.