The old self has two distinctive characteristics.
First, it’s corrupt. Spiritually, morally, and physically corrupt.
Second, it’s a rebel.
I express this by saying there’s a rebel inside every one of us.
Now, the new self.
The new self is born or created by God. It’s the product of God’s word, the truth, opposite, of course, to Satan’s deception, a lie.
In the new self, God’s purpose and God’s image are restored.
The words that describe the nature of the new self are righteousness and holiness.
The distinctive characteristics of this new self are that it’s divine, eternal, and incorruptible.
It’s the product of a seed, the Word of God, that is divine, eternal, incorruptible.
And as is the seed, so is the nature that’s produced out of that seed. Divine, eternal, incorruptible.
In fact, it’s the very nature of Jesus Himself.
We need to learn how to cultivate the new self, how to bring this new person within us to maturity and the fulfillment of God’s purposes.
Ephesians 4:22 But as for you, not in this manner did you learn the Christ, since, indeed, as is the case, you heard and in Him were taught just as truth is in Jesus, that you have put off once for all with reference to your former manner of life the old self who is being corrupted according to the passionate desires of deceit; moreover, that you are being constantly renewed with reference to the spirit of your mind; and that you have put on once for all the new self who after God was created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Now between putting off the old self and putting on the new self, Paul says there’s something that we must do. We must be renewed in the spirit of our mind.
Something must happen in our minds. There must be a total change in the way we think. And this can only be done by the Holy Spirit, hence the reference to the word Spirit.
Whereas our minds have been dominated and controlled by Satan’s lies and Satan’s deceptions, now we must expose our mind to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who brings to us the truth of God.
Romans12:2 I therefore beg of you, please, brethren, through the instrumentality of the aforementioned mercies of God, by a once-for-all presentation to place your bodies at the disposal of God, a sacrifice, a living one, a holy one, well-pleasing, your rational, sacred service, [rational, in that this service is performed by the exercise of the mind]. And stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your mind, resulting in your putting to the test what is the will of God, the good and well-pleasing and complete will, and having found that it meets specifications, place your approval upon it.
Paul instructs us not to be conformed to this world, that’s not to let the old self have his way in our lives, but to be transformed, to find out the will of God, which is the development and maturing of the new self.
But he says the way the transformation is going to take place is by the renewing of our minds.
So, both in Ephesians 4 and in Romans 12, Paul says that one essential phase in this process is the renewing of our minds, which is a work of the Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 18, Paul further describes what needs to happen. He describes a prayer that he’s praying for the Ephesian Christians. And he says, I pray that the eyes of your imagination may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling.
The hope of his calling is the full development of the new self and his glorious destiny.
But before we can know that, the eyes of our imagination have to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit. It really helps to be able to ascend to heaven and learn directly from the cloud of witnesses, they have unbelievable wisdom and other spirit beings who are our tutors. What our spirit senses in heaven is transferred to the screen of our minds so that we interact with them. They can also visit us here on earth, once we grow up spiritually.
The implication is that our hearts ( the functions of our soul) have been in darkness and in ignorance. The Holy Spirit must bring them the light of truth and through the truth our eyes (we have three sets of eyes, our spirit, our soul and our body) are enlightened and we can see what God has for us in the new man.
Now another vital principle which Paul brings out and all scripture brings out is that the Holy Spirit works through the mirror of God’s word.
James 2:22 But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.
Notice, the word of God, when we hear it, is like a mirror that’s held up before us. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
Presenting the word of God to such a person does them no permanent good, because though they see their likeness in the mirror, they turn around and walk off and forget what the mirror has shown them and take no appropriate action.
The alternative… is stated in verse 25, but one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does.
So, the mirror of God’s word shows us a divine law that’s called the perfect law or the law of liberty. And when we walk in accordance with this law and obey it, we are blessed in what we do.
The mirror shows us the two natures, the two selves. It shows us, first, what we are by nature, the old self, the criminal, Barabbas, the one whose rightful place is on the cross. And then if we will receive that and believe what God promises, the mirror also shows us what we can become by grace, the new self.
This is the same as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, that’s the word, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord the Spirit.
Notice the word transform again. Paul said we had to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, and our minds are renewed as we look in the mirror of the Word of God and see the glory of the Lord.
That’s what God wants to change us into, and we’re changed into the same image. That’s the image of God restored in the new self and it’s a process of ongoing victory, from glory to glory.
And the one who works the process is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. But he only works it while we are looking in the mirror of God’s Word.
In this connection, there’s one more important principle that we must understand and apply. It’s this.
The new man grows at the expense of the old. In John chapter 3 and verse 30, John the Baptist says this about Jesus. He must increase but I must decrease. That’s a principle for all of us.
He, Jesus, the new self, must increase. But I, the old self, must decrease. Only in proportion, as the old self decreases, can the new self-increase. There must be a death before there can be a new life.
Now there are two stages in dealing with the old man.
The first is that we accept by faith what God says about the old man. You’ll remember in Romans 6.6, it says, our old man, our old self, was crucified with him. That’s a fact of history stated in the word of God. We must accept it by faith.
So, Paul goes on to say in Romans 6.11, even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
We accept God’s verdict on the old man, which was execution. We need to understand what happened, when Jesus died on the cross.
So, our faith lays hold of the statements of the word of God, and we consider ourselves to be dead. We consider the old self to be dead, to be executed.
And then we consider ourselves to be alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Then we reckon on the life and the operation of the new self.
Secondly, this must be acted out progressively. We reckon it to be true once and for all, but we work it out in our living progressively.
So, Paul goes on in Romans 6 verses 12 and 13, Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
There’s a negative and a positive in that.
First, the negative. We must deny the demands of the old self. The old self (soul) will try to go on acting as if he still had rights, as if we still had to yield to him and consider him and let him have his way. But we have to say no to the old self.
Jesus said the first step in following him was to deny ourselves. To deny means to say no. So, every time the old self tries to reassert itself and act up and take control, we say, no, you have no claims, you’re dead, I don’t yield to you. That’s the negative.
The positive thing is we present ourselves to the Holy Spirit. We yield our members, every part of our body, every part of our personality, we yield to the Holy Spirit. That’s the positive.
The Holy Spirit must be allowed to come in and take control. The result is obedience.
That’s the way the new man operates, the new self, by obedience. He’s the opposite of the rebel. The rebel was expressed in disobedience. The new self is expressed in obedience through yielding to the Holy Spirit.