We need to understand the old self and the new self; we cannot fully understand the New Testament until we are familiar with what it says about these two people.
Ephesians 4: 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
It’s significant that Paul is writing to Christians, yet he is aware of the possibility that they may not really have heard the truth concerning their position in Jesus.
And I believe the same is true today for many people who are sincere Christians and yet haven’t heard the truth about the old self and the new self.
Paul then goes on in verse 22, This is the truth, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
We are commanded to put off the old self and put on the new self. It is an imperative (command) in the Greek.
So, there are the two selves, the old self and the new self. And you see that as Christians, the scripture requires us to take specific action about these two selves, to put off the old self and to put on the new self.
Obviously, if we’re going to be able to do this, we must know what is involved. We must be able to identify both the old self and the new self.
Otherwise, how can we know that we’re putting off the old self and that we’re putting on the new self?
In other words, knowledge is essential. We must be able to identify both the old self and the new self.
I’m going to explain the origin and nature of the old self. It’s summed up in the words that Paul uses in Ephesians 4.22. He says, the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.
There are three key thoughts, corrupt, lust, and deceit. We’ll begin at the end with the word deceit or deception.
The origin of the old self is deception. The old self is the product of deceit or deception, specifically Satan’s deception. The old self is a result of man heeding Satan’s lie.
To understand the full nature of the lie, we must go back to the record of man’s creation and the origin of human history.
You’ll recall that after Adam and Eve had been created, God gave Adam a warning that there was one tree in the garden they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And God said to Adam, in the day that you eat that, you will surely die. In the next chapter the serpent (who is not the devil) comes to the woman, Eve, and tempts her.
In essence, his temptation is to ignore God’s warning and to disobey what Adam had told her. And in persuading Eve to do this, Satan brings forth his lie. The lie is the direct negation of what God had said. God said, you will surely die. Satan says, you surely will not die. This is found in Genesis 3.4. The serpent said to the woman, you surely shall not die. Now that’s a direct lie. And it’s that lie, the negation of God’s truth, which originates, which gives birth to the old self. The old self is the product of deception, of Satan’s lie.
We need to bear in mind that Satan’s primary activity against humans is always deception.
In Revelation 12.9, Satan is called the great dragon, the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world.
Have you ever seen a straight serpent or a straight snake? Never. A snake is always crooked. And the product of the snake’s lie is as crooked as the snake himself. That’s the old self. It’s corrupt. It’s dishonest. And for that reason, in the very next verse of Ephesians 4, verse 25, Paul warns Christians specifically against falsehood.
He says, therefore, in other words, because you’re to put off the old self and put on the new self, therefore, laying aside falsehoods, speaking truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Now, deception sets in motion a process of degeneration. Deception produces lust. Lust is perverted, rebellious desires, desires which are contrary to the will of God and contrary to the well-being of the one who entertains those desires.
Lust in turn produces sin and sin produces death. This is stated clearly in James 1, 13 through 15, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
So, there’s the total process. Deception produces lust, lust produces sin, and sin produces death.
Now we’re going to look at the nature of the old self, the nature that is produced by deception and lust.
There’s one key word which describes it. It’s the word corrupt or corruptible. The old nature is corrupt and corruptible in every area, spiritually, morally, and physically. The word that describes that old nature, that old self, is corrupt.
Secondly, it is the seed or the offspring of the serpent, serpent seed.
In Genesis 3.15, immediately after man’s disobedience, the Lord spoke to the serpent and spoke about the serpent’s seed, that’s the offspring of Satan.
Because the old self is the offspring or seed of the serpent, it reproduces the nature of Satan.
You remember that Jesus said in one place to the religious leaders of his day, You are of your father, the devil. So, the devil is a father to the children of disobedience, and his nature is reproduced in those children of disobedience, and his nature can be summed up in one word: rebellion.
He is the leader of all rebellion in the universe. Hence, the behavior of the old nature is inevitably rebellious behavior.
In Isaiah 53.6, it’s stated like this, all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way.
That’s the mark of the old nature in behavior. It turns to its own way. It goes its own way. It turns its back on God and seeks its own will and pleasure and satisfaction without reference to God.
This is described in greater detail in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 where Paul says, You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that’s Satan, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
That’s the product of Satan’s lie and rebellion, the sons of disobedience. It’s a description of those who have the old self, the sons of disobedience.
Satan can work in them because of their disobedience. And Paul goes on to say, among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we’re by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Notice that phrase, by nature children of wrath. Why?
Because by nature we are sons of disobedience and disobedience always brings down God’s wrath, which is his passion against that which hinders his love.
So, we have in our flesh a rebellious nature which is the product of Satan’s deception and of lust.
To sum it up in a simple sentence, there was a rebel inside each one of us and that rebel is called in scripture the old man. The old man is everything we received from the first Adam. The old man was crucified in Christ. When Jesus died on the cross in the time realm it became an eternal event. Jesus was the last Adam, the whole human race died with him on the cross, and when he was raised from the dead, he was called the second man. And the whole human race was raised with him, but not everyone has been awakened to this fact. So, the seed of God’s DNA was not planted in their spirit, but in the realm of the spirit they were born again, but in this life, they have not yet experienced it. They will either experience it in this life or after dead, because death is not the end of choice.
So, we can sum up the process that brings the old man into being. Satan’s deception produces lust, Lust produces sin, sin produces death. And the nature that’s produced in this way, the nature of the old self, has two distinctive marks. First, it’s corrupt, spiritually, morally and physically. Second, it’s a rebel.