3-25. Cooperative Living
“Put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man” (Eph. 4:22, ASV).
Positionally, in the finished work of the Cross and resurrection, we have been cut off from the old man through death, and have been born into the new Man by the new birth. “Ye have put off the old man...and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him” (Col. 3:9, 10). Experientially, day by day, our part is to choose against the old (“put off”) in favor of the new (“put on”), thus allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to apply the finished work of the Cross (Rom. 6:11). “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20, ASV).
“The flesh need not be an ugly form of life, indeed it can be apparently very nice, but it is alien to this new life in the Spirit. It belongs to another race; it is not the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are told that the Holy Spirit is in open conflict against the self-life (Gal. 5:17).
“It is equally true that the flesh lusts (strives) against the Spirit, but He is well able to take up the challenge. He will not quietly accept this rival to the rule of Christ, so He stands, with His great weapon of the Cross, to render inoperative everything which is a menace to the life of Christ in us. He calls us to cooperate with Him in this matter by reckoning, for only so can the excellency of Christ be manifested in the believer.” -H.F.
“Put on the new man” (Eph. 4:24).