The Old and the New Man in Believers: A sermon preached on a sacramental occasion, at Maxton, in 1729. (Recently edited version)

Rev. Thomas Boston

* Thomas Boston (1676-1732), was ordained to Simprin in 1699; and translated to Etrick, another country parish, in 1707. His ministry there was eventually so blessed that it ‘shaped the religious life of the parish for generations’. His most influential work was his Human Nature in its Fourfold State, of which Jonathan Edwards said that it “shows Mr Boston to have been a truly great divine”.

Text: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin,” Romans 6:6.

THE sanctification of believers is no less a mystery than their justification. The former, as well as the latter, springs from the cross of Christ to them, through the intervention of faith knitting them to a crucified Christ. Hence the Apostle, having asserted the certainty of the sanctification of believers (that they shall certainly walk in “newness of life”, verse 4; and in “the likeness of Christ’s resurrection”, verse 5, that is, in a new manner, just as during the forty days after His resurrection Christ lived in the world after a manner different from that before His death), now draws the ground of their sanctification from the cross of Christ, in the words of the text.

In the text we have the ground which ensures holiness of life in believers: “Our old man is crucified with him.” This secures their holiness of life, as the drying up of the fountain causes the drying up of its streams.

The state of the old man in believers is crucifixion: “Our old man is crucified with him,” that is, with Christ. This supposes that Christ was crucified. It also supposes that in believers there is a twofold man, an old man, and a new. When he says “our old man”, he intimates that the old man is not the whole man, as it is in the unregenerate. The new man is the new creation of grace in the believer, or the believer as renewed. The old man is the corruption remaining within the believer, and is the fountain of sin in his heart and life.

Now, the state of the old man is a state of crucifixion; it is nailed to the cross, which is a state of death. And its crucifixion is a crucifixion with Christ: “I am crucified with Christ,” Galatians 2:20. In so far as the believer is by faith united to Christ, his old man is nailed to the cross of Christ.

The issue of this crucified state of the old man is twofold. First, the final issue: “That the body of sin might be destroyed.” The old man or body of sin, being a compound of the several sinful lusts in opposition to the holy law, the final issue of its crucifixion is its destruction and utter ruin. It is true that crucifixion is not death at once, but it is death sure and certain.

The intermediate issue of the crucifixion of the old man is this: “That henceforth we should not serve sin.” From the moment of our union with Christ we should not serve sin any more nor voluntarily live in it, as we did before. The old man may live long on the cross before he be destroyed: but his hands and feet cannot serve him as they did before; there are nails driven through them; he may move them, but then it is with pain and difficulty.

Secondly, there is in the text the certainty concerning the ground which ensures holiness of life; that is, the certainty of the old man being crucified with Christ, for the Apostle says, “Knowing this.” It is not an uncertain hope, but known for truth. It could not be known by sense; nor could one know it by rational deduction from natural principles; for the whole mystery of Christ is supernatural. Therefore it is known by faith upon divine testimony. It is a conclusion of faith for invigorating us in all our endeavours after holiness of life; it is to be firmly held to and stuck by in all our struggles with the old man, if we would make headway against him.

That I may show the several purposes of this text, I shall present them under several doctrines to be briefly handled.

I. The first doctrine is that there is in believers, being united to Christ, a new man or holy principle; and also an old man or fountain of sin.

1. Why are they called men? Why is the holy principle in the believer called the new man, and the corrupt nature in the believer called the old man?

They are called men, because each of them possesses the whole man, though not wholly. There are, by their means, two “I’s” in every believer: “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I,” Romans 7:15. There is not one part of the man that is in Christ but grace has a part of it and corruption has a part of it: as in the twilight there is light over all, and darkness over all too, the darkness being mixed in every part with the light. So my renewed part is “I”, a man having an understanding enlightened, a will renewed, affections spiritualised, and using my body conformably: but my unrenewed part is “I” too, having an understanding darkened, a will rebellious, affections corrupted, and using my body accordingly.

They are called new and old men for two reasons: first, because the new nature is brought in after and upon the corrupt principle, which was the first possessor of the person. The corrupt nature is of the same standing with ourselves from our conception and birth, and possessed us till our union with Christ. And only then came in the new nature, and that made the former old.

They are called the new and old men because also of their different originals; the one has been in us from the corrupt first Adam, the other from the holy second Adam. So the believer, looking on the corruption of his nature, may regard fallen Adam as father; and on the new creature being in him, he may regard Christ as father. The second Adam coming after the first, made the first old: so the product of them in us is the old and new man accordingly.

1. How did the believer come to be thus split into two men? This is done by virtue of his union with Christ, from whence ariseth a communication of grace to him from Christ: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,” 1 Corinthians 1:30; concerning which two things are to be noted.

First, we note that in the moment of one’s union with Christ by faith, there is communicated to one, out of the fulness of grace in the man Christ, a measure of every grace in Him, as the wax impressed receives every point in the seal. “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace,” John 1:16. “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,” Ephesians 4:13. And thus is the new creature formed, being a new man entirely, having all its members, no grace totally wanting. Hence it is that the new man is formed according to Christ’s image, so that it is the very picture of the man Christ, as Eve was of Adam. Therefore the forming of the new man is said to be the forming of Christ in the believer: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,” Galatians 4:19.

Secondly, we note that there is not communicated to the believer then, nor during this life, a full measure of any grace: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part,” 1 Cor. 13: 9. So all the graces being imperfect, though they remove sin as far as they go, they cannot yet fill up all the room in the mind, will or affections. And thus there is an old man left in the believer still, (“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin,” Romans 7:14), which is the image of the first Adam, from whom its corruption is derived.

See from this doctrine of two men being in the believer that the believer’s life while here cannot but be a struggling life: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,” Galatians 5:17. As Rebekah had the children struggle together within her, and like the two armies in the Shulamite, so the believer has two men struggle in him.

See also from this doctrine the peace and easy life most men have. The flesh in them has no competitor. In the state of glory, grace has all, so there is perfect peace. In the state of nature, corruption has all; so there is peace there too, (except when it is marred by the struggle between the flesh in one part lusting, and the flesh in another part fearing, as in Baalam, “Who loved the wages of unrighteousness,” 2 Peter 2:15, but was compelled to say, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more,” Numbers 22:18). But the struggle in the believer is between the flesh and Spirit, each exercising its will within the believer, and each doing so according to its own nature, Romans 7:15,16.

II. The second doctrine is that the old man in believers is a body of sin, an entire body, lacking none of its members, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24.

This appears from the description of it already given. As we derive every grace from the second Adam in our regeneration, so we have derived every corruption from the first Adam in our natural generation.

This doctrine may serve to humble believers, when they are at their best. There is an entire body of sin in them while they are here. Do they excel in any grace? Yet there is in them a member of the old man opposite to it, as passion in meek Moses. Have they every grace in them? They have every corruption too, though every one does not appear, no more than every grace does appear. Therefore they need to watch against all sin; for there is never a snare but there is a member of the old man ready to fall into it. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry,” Colossians 3:5.

This doctrine shows that it is no wonder the believer groans being burdened, having a whole body of sin to carry about with him. And they who do not groan under a body of sin and death are certainly all flesh; there is no new man in them. If you belong to Christ you will be going to Him for sanctification. You have a body of sin to lay before Him, which He alone can destroy.

III. The third doctrine is that the old man in believers is crucified with Christ.

This teaches two things: Christ was crucified, and the old man in believers is crucified together with Him.

First, Christ was crucified. He died the cursed, painful, shameful, lingering death on the tree of the cross (which death we are met to commemorate) so that the first sin that let all sin into the world might be the more clearly read in the punishment. When you consider the awful and tremendous event of the Son of God, the second Adam, hanging naked on a tree, and dying slowly and in exquisite pain, can you miss seeing the fiery wrath of God against the sin of Adam and Eve, in their taking pleasure in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, and in an instant defacing the image of God in them?

And Christ was put to this awful death for us, rather than another kind of death, so that the whole world might see what a low and miserable state Christ took on Himself, in putting Himself in our stead. We were bondmen under the curse, and Christ took on Him our state of servitude and became a bond-man for us under the curse. He “took upon him the form of a servant,” Philippians 2:7, of which His death on the cross was the sign and badge, such a death being the punishment of slaves, and accursed under the law. And to make way for this circumstance of His death, the Jews were subjected to the Roman Empire.

Therefore, believers, remember a crucified Christ; enter this night deep into the thought of the Son of God hanging, groaning, dying on a cross for us. Admire the matchless love in it. See in it the severity of divine justice against sin. Prize the salvation so dearly bought, and receive it with thankfulness.

Also, think it not strange, if you have a crucified life in the world. You who are Christians, followers of Jesus, why should you think it strange to be thus conformed to your head?

Secondly, we enquire how the old man in believers is crucified with Christ. The believer being crucified with Him includes the following particulars:

First, Christ hung on the cross as a public person, the representative of His spiritual seed; for He was the second Adam suffering, as the other Adam was the first Adam sinning. As believers sinned in Adam, so they suffered in Christ; the law having them all on the cross in Christ, their representative: “I am crucified with Christ,” Galatians 2:20.

Secondly, Christ hanging on the cross had the body of all their sins upon Him, your old man, and my old man. They were upon Him by the imputation of the guilt of them, though not inherent in Him; “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. Therefore our old man is said to be crucified, not in him, but with Him.

Thirdly, while He was hanging on the cross, He was meritoriously doing away the guilt of their sins, and consequently the power, pollution, and very being thereof; inasmuch as the guilt being removed, these must cease of course. For the strength of sin is the law, whereby it stakes down the sinner under the curse, 1 Corinthians 15:56.

Fourthly, the sinner being united to Christ by faith, the merit and virtue of Christ’s suffering on the cross is actually applied to him. So that, his guilt being removed, there is a reigning principle of grace planted in him, going through the whole man, whereby the dominion of sin is broken, Romans 6:14, and the pollution removed, Titus 3:5. Therefore the believer, being crucified with Christ, is an image of Christ on the cross: full of grace which is found in Him, and of sin which was laid upon Him; but the former working off the latter.

See then, O communicants, that the crucifying of the old man, the body of sin in you, depends entirely on your uniting with Christ by faith. The sacrament is appointed to seal and strengthen that union. Therefore your great business at the table should be, closely to knit with a crucified Christ. The more of that, the more will the death of sin be hastened on. And they that aim not at the destruction of sin in their communicating, while they pretend to remember a crucified Saviour, forget the end of His crucifixion: that the body of sin, being crucified with Him, might be destroyed.

See also that the old man in believers is in a state of death, though not dead outright. It is crucified with Christ. It will move and stir in them, and vehement struggles it may make, as a dying man struggling with the mortal disease: but whatever efforts it makes, it is on the cross, from where it shall not come down till it breathe out its last.

Learn also that the practice of religion is painful work; and Christians must not think it strange that they are often pained to the heart in it. The saints in glory have no pain in their work; for the old man is destroyed in them: but the saints here have an unrenewed part; and that is on the cross, and cannot but pain them. There are right eyes in them to be plucked out; the man has a painful struggle in denying himself, wrestling against his own flesh and blood. Providence thrusts a spear into the old man’s side, by piercing trials and troubles; it breaks his legs by cutting disappointments from many directions, to forward his death. This cannot be but painful.

Observe that the old man is long in dying; for crucifying is a lingering death. There must be the exercise of patience in the Christian course, for there may be many a battle before complete victory be gained. Many a wound the old man will take before he falls; and again and again, when he is put to the worse, he gets up and renews the battle, till he get the final stroke from the Lord’s hand.

It is a grave question, Why does the Lord allow the old man of sin to dwell in His people after their conversion? Why is not sin quite expelled at the first entry of grace? Our text affords one weighty reason for it: that the members may be conformed to the Head. Christ did not put off the body of our sins, that lay on Him by imputation, at His very first encounter with it. He had a grievous struggle with it for three hours on the cross, till He Himself got the first fall, dying by its hand on the cross. If we reckon rightly, it lay heavy on Him the space of thirty-three years; only upon the cross was the heat of the battle, which ended in His death and burial, whereby He put it off altogether. So, since imputed sin was on Christ, the Head, all His life, inherent sin is left in believers, the members, all their life. The old man is crucified with him.

IV. The fourth doctrine is that by virtue of the cross of Christ, the old man in believers shall certainly be destroyed at length.

Here we may inquire, What destruction is it that is certainly waiting for the old man in believers? It is an utter destruction of it, of all the effects of it, of all marks and vestiges of it, and of all belonging to the old Adam.

The old man himself shall be destroyed, utterly destroyed, from out of all them that belong to Christ. Though the old man, like a victor on the field of battle, has many a time trode on them, there shall not be the least print of his feet discerned on them, for they shall be “the spirits of just men made perfect,” Hebrews 12:23. The day will come, when there shall not be the least sin on them, to draw a frown from their Father’s face against them. “The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity,” Isaiah 33:24, and it shall have no power at all to prevail over them; it shall no more have the least indwelling in them; but shall be utterly cast forth as an abominable thing. So the new man shall be without a competitor for ever.

Also, the sinful body of flesh derived from old Adam, which brought the old man down from Adam to us, Psalm 51:5, and continues to the end the best friend that the old man has in believers, shall be destroyed. The sinful flesh, separated from the soul, shall at last be carried to the grave, where it shall return to the dust again, so as not the least lineament of old Adam’s likeness shall be discerned on it. And Christ, the second Adam, will take the same dust thus purified, and form it anew after His own likeness. “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,” Philippians 3:21.

And the visible heavens that covered the old man, and this earth that bore him and furnished fuel to his lusts, shall for his sake be reduced to ashes. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up,” 2 Peter 3:10. Compare this with the word, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” Gen. 3:17. So it shall no more be said, “This is the earth where the old man once lived, and this the heavens that gave him light and air.” But Christ will make new heavens and a new earth for the new man, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” 2 Peter 3:13.

Lastly, all that shall remain of the old man shall be buried in hell: “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire,” Revelations 20:14. Old Adam brought the old man into the world, and he spread his poisonous efficacy over all: so that look where you will, you shall not see in all this world anything in which there is no sin, or some effect of sin. But then, at last, all of the old man shall be taken from off believers, and from off the now groaning creation, and cast into the lake of fire; so that there shall not be the least sin, nor effect of sin, outside the boundaries of hell.

We also inquire, When will the old man be thus destroyed? You will perceive, from what is said already, that destruction will have two periods.

First, at the death of the believer, and not till then. Till then the child of God must wrestle with the old man; for so did Christ wrestle with it, as imputed to Him, till death set Him free. It is a grave question: How come that believers die although they are freed from the curse of the covenant of works? I answer: They die in conformity to Christ their Head; that as death came in by sin, sin may go off by death. It is not dying that does it indeed; for the sin of the unbeliever is not affected by his death, nor does death, for all it can do, remove sin from him. But at the death of the believer, Christ gives the separating stroke betwixt the new and old man, and kills the old man outright. And He does it, by letting in a full measure of every grace from Himself into the believer, which takes up the whole man wholly; and so the old man is gone in a moment, as the darkness upon the sun’s displaying his beams over all.

The old man shall be destroyed not only at the death of the believer but also at the end of the world. Then comes the utter abolition of all vestiges of the old man outside of hell.

We further inquire, How certain is the death of the old man? It is as sure as the death of Christ is the cause of its destruction, and as the purpose of His death cannot be frustrated. It is as certain as Christ rose again from the dead, free from the sin that was imputed to Him, and sits in heaven today.

Let the saints then take courage, and renew the battle vigorously with the old man; for the victory will undoubtedly be theirs. And as for you who are still for keeping the old man hale and hearty, you desire none of Christ’s cross, and therefore you have no saving interest in it.

V. The fifth doctrine is that in the meantime, till the old man be destroyed entirely by virtue of the cross of Christ, the believer shall not be a servant to the old man any more, by virtue of the same cross.

That is the degree of freedom from the old man that the believer has now.

The believer has heartily given him up as a master. At one time he said, “I love my master, . . I will not go out free,” as in Exodus 21:5. But now he hates the old man and desires to be altogether free, saying, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24. Just being in the same house with the old man is a burden to the believer.

The believer will do no work, but forced work, for the old man: “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that do I,” Romans 7: 15. He will not yield his members to the old man voluntarily, as before. “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,” Romans 6:13. He will never do work for the old man any longer with whole good will, but with half will at most.

This fact that the believer shall not be a servant to the old man any longer proclaims death to such as have given their hand to Christ at His table, but are ready to go back into the service of their lusts. If you have not entered into a life of struggling against sin, you have not felt the virtue of Christ’s cross.

VI. The sixth doctrine is that believers in going against the old man in acts of holiness, should believe that he is a crucified man.

Believe that your old man is crucified with Christ, and in this belief bestir yourself against him in the use of appointed means. If you believe it not, how can your hands be strong, having all to do yourself alone? But believe it firmly, and it will make you as a giant refreshed with wine.