Last year, I taught on the book of Romans and addressed a variety of topics, including the fact that the old man is dead (Rom. 6:6). But the Lord told me to make a whole teaching specifically about the old man so that people could really understand it.
There are a lot of people who use terminology about their old man being dead, yet they find that it “resurrects” every morning. That’s because they’re still identifying with having a fallen sinful nature. That is detrimental to Christian growth.
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Proverbs 23:7
The Scripture says, in Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If you think you’re still dead in trespasses and sins—and that you’ve also got a new nature—then you’re schizophrenic. It’s just a matter of time until that old nature dominates you because that’s who you think you are.
But that shouldn’t be the case for any born-again child of God. You don’t have a part of you that’s separated from God. If you’re born again, your nature has been completely changed! The only thing still compelling you to live the way you did before you got born again is the fact that you haven’t renewed your mind.
When I first started ministering, I had some time to minister in the local jails. I recall talking with one of the men through the bars. I was saying, “If I had the power to free you, and I just opened the door and said, ‘You’re free!’ you’d be freed. But that doesn’t mean you’d be free. You have to believe you’re free and then act on it by getting off your bunk and walking out the door.”
A similar thing happened when Abraham Lincoln announced the emancipation of slaves in 1863. The Confederate States didn’t think it applied to them, so they didn’t even tell their slaves about the Emancipation Proclamation. Then, on June 19, 1865, these Texas slaves heard from Union soldiers that they had been freed over two years earlier. Imagine how they must’ve felt hearing that they had been free all along—they just didn’t know it.
The same concept applies to us. Jesus has totally set us free. When we were born again, the old man died with Christ.
Born-again believers do not have a sinful nature (Rom. 6:6–7). We’ve been freed! But if you somehow or another still believe that you are by nature a sinner, then you’ll still let that sin nature influence you.
It is because the old man is dead in the believer that Paul can give the exhortation in Romans 6:12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” The word therefore means it’s referring to the previous things that were said—which is that your old man is dead. And because you are no longer enslaved to the old man, you can do what
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Romans 6:13
This is an awesome truth, yet it’s contrary to most religious teaching. That doesn’t make it wrong though. You just have to renew your mind. Part of renewing your mind is reckoning yourself to be dead in the same way that Christ is dead unto sin (Rom. 6:11).
Jesus only died unto sin once, and you only die unto that old sin nature one time. The Bible says your old man is dead, and it does not resurrect every morning. If you really understood that it’s not your nature to live in sin anymore, then you would be free from sin.
First Peter 5:8 says that Satan is going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He can’t devour just anybody. You have to cooperate with him through unbelief—through sin—in order to give him that inroad into your
Look at Romans 6:17 where it says, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” That word “servants” here comes from the Greek word doulos, and it means “slave” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance).
Before you were born again, you were a slave to sin and couldn’t consistently resist it.
You might have done some good things, but consistently, you were living as a sinner because that was your nature. You were enslaved to sin. But now you’ve been set free from that enslavement!
Most people don’t have this mindset. But the truth is that when you get born again, God puts His nature on the inside of you—and you are married to that nature. If you would just renew your mind and change that old man’s programming, this new nature would compel you to live a holy life, just as your old sinful nature compelled you to live a sinful life.
Boy, this is really simple—but that’s exactly what the Bible says. These are some of the most foundational, liberating things that you could ever learn. And I’m not saying that because it’s my teaching. It’s just truth!
I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of this subject.
I believe this teaching will totally change your life and show you how to walk in the freedom that Jesus Christ died to give you. I encourage you to get the full teaching on The Old Man Is Dead that we’re offering as a CD or DVD series.
To order, you can go to awmi.net/dead, call our Helpline at 719-635-1111.
We love you!
