THE OLD MAN IS DEAD
                                     by JW LUMAN

"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ 
were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with Him by 
baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness 
of life." "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. For he that is dead is freed from sin." "Knowing 
that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no 
more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; 
but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." (Romans 
6:3,4,6,7,9,10.)

Notice how that the scripture does not teach that the old man is 
trying to attain death or the cross, but rather by Christ is NOW 
DEAD. This is the power of the cross and the gospel -- not what God 
is trying through the old man to do, but what, through Christ He 
has already done! I am not trying to attain that which the only 
Eternal Son of God has already done. That's why I am in Him having 
no life of my own, but knowing that He who is the resurrection is 
also my resurrection and my life. Paul does teach attaining death, 
for he knows that he, Paul is dead with Christ. We who are in 
Christ are not attaining unto death nor are we attaining unto life. 
We are attaining unto the fullness of the nature of the Son of God. 
We have life; we are now being brought into the excellency of the 
knowledge of that Life which is Christ in us. We are dead and yet 
we live, but very few understand that reality by the knowledge of 
Christ. The one thing Paul seeks in Philippians 3 is to KNOW Christ 
who IS his life -- to forget that which is behind, the old man who 
is dead, and to press on to the high calling. "I press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
That which Paul presses toward is already in Christ. We possess 
that which is ours in Christ by the knowledge of Christ. The high 
or highest calling of God is to the full stature of Christ as sons 
of God. The call is by the Word, by which cometh faith, by which 
cometh the mind of Christ, by which we know all things. We know 
that the old man is now dead and that the new man is Christ who is 
made unto us all that He himself is. We know that we stand in Him 
and view all things through Him. In Him we have no death but HIS 
DEATH, and no life but HIS LIFE. (Romans 6:11)




The scriptures say in Romans 8:29 that we who are known of God in 
Christ, who are the called according to His purpose, are to be 
conformed into the very image of Christ, that He (not us) might be 
the firstborn among many brethren. And again in II Corinthians 
3:18, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory 
of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory 
even as by the Spirit of the Lord."  We who are dead in Christ and 
yet by Him live are not practitioners of asceticism (practicing 
stringent self-denial as a means of religious discipline), but 
rather reckoners upon the cross. THE POWER OF GOD IS NOT
 IN WHAT I CAN DO, BUT IN WHAT HE BY THE CROSS
 HAS DONE!

Now let's look back for awhile to our opening text, Romans 6:3: 
"Know ye not..." Paul here is not saying "do ye" but "know ye". 
Someone may say, "Brother are you saying that there is nothing that 
we must do as sons of God? No! There is much that we as sons of God 
with knowledge will automatically do and there are things which we 
must do. We must search the scripture. (John 5:39) We must present 
our bodies as living sacrifices. (Romans 12:1) We must walk in the 
Spirit. (Romans 8:1-8) We must "Let this mind be in you." 
(Philippians 2:5) We must "walk not as other Gentiles walk..." 
(Ephesians 4:17) None of these things are exercises of the flesh, 
but rather are results of the Life of Christ. Because of Christ, we 
are found doing these and many more things. None of these things 
are works of the old man trying to die. Notice now, in Romans 6:3 
the term "His death". If we are baptized into His death! First we 
must know that His death was not for something which he had done. 
(II Corinthians 5:21) It was not Him alone. It was designed that He 
should die, but the death was the death of Adam - the old man. God 
had said: "Thou shalt surely die," meaning that Adam would at a 
time, "in the day" (Genesis 2:17), completely die and be found to 
be no more in God's plan. It was this death, not just the death of 
being in sin, to which Jesus became obedient. "Obedient unto death, 
even the death of the cross (death of sin)." (Philippians 2:8) By 
Him sin (the old man) dies.) So we see that His death was not just 
the death brought about by sin which all have experienced, but His 
death was the death of sin - the sure death. He took upon Himself 
the man, nature, totality of sin and put it to death in His own 
body. This is the death into which each of us, those who are in 
Christ, have been baptized into, the death of ourself; and as 
Christ is complete, so is our death in and by Him complete. There 
is no way that you can add to it, for YOU are dead and not to be 
found anymore except in Him, having that which He is made unto you. 
(Philippians 3:9) Oh, how great and complete and all consuming is 




His death! We, as the old man, are no more, for in Him all things 
are new. Only the Law (knowledge) of the old man remains in the 
minds of many believers, causing them to serve a dead thing, as 
though it yet lived. It is by the coming of the Law (knowledge) of 
the New man that we who are in Christ are set free from the last 
hold (knowledge of Law) of the old man. By Christ, who is the death 
of the old man, we are able to reckon ourselves dead indeed. And 
also by Christ, who is our Resurrection and new Life, we understand 
that "to live is Christ." It is to the fullness of the faith or 
knowledge of that Life that we are to walk or attain. True 
spiritual growth is in knowing, for it is by Him that we know. Look 
now at the term "as Christ was raised up..." (Romans 6:4) How 
should we live? As Christ was raised up! The central truth here is 
not by what method we should live, but by what life we do live. WE 
ARE TO LIVE OR WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE AS BY CHRIST. 
Not as by any thing, standard or power but as by Christ. We walk or
 live as He was raised up. It is by Him that we live! Attainment is not in 
getting rid of the old man, but rather in being swallowed up of the 
New Man. (Ephesians 4:22-24, I Corinthians 15:45-49, II Corinthians 
5:4).

Notice now verse 6, "Knowing this, that our old man is 
crucified..." Until this knowledge is complete in the believer, he 
can never live as by Christ. Before Paul could say, "Christ liveth 
in me" he had to know and, by knowledge, reckon that "I am 
crucified with Christ..." (Galatians 2:20) It is by the knowledge 
that Christ was his life, by the faith of the Son of God, that he 
lived daily. The knowledge of which I now speak is not man's 
knowledge concerning man or God. It is God's knowledge concerning 
His own Son. (Galatians 3:16) It is the knowledge which is by the 
mind (or faith) of Christ which is by the Living Word of God. It is 
a work of the Holy Spirit. The believer must have this knowledge 
for it is by "knowing this..." that the law of the old man is 
broken, so that "henceforth we should not serve sin (old man)." 
Henceforth is from the time of the coming of the revelation of 
Jesus Christ forward. From the time that we, by the Living Word, 
know that Christ is our life and therefore the old man is dead, we 
will no longer serve the law, desires, etc. of the old man.





Again, I must emphasize that the coming of this knowledge is the 
work of the Holy Spirit and not an attainment of the flesh. The 
Holy Spirit takes us to the cross (I Corinthians 1:18), and there 
we see the power of God. We see that we are dead by Christ. "He 
that is dead is free from sin." And we see that we who are dead by 
Him are also raised up by Him: "Knowing that Christ being raised 
up..." We are made to understand that our state of being is His 
state of being, for we live by Him. "...In that he liveth, he 
liveth unto God." We are but an expression of His life. (II 
Corinthians 4:7-12) We do not express His death, but rather through 
His death, we express His life.