taking out that of the old inner man and reviving it into a Spiritual renewed inner man.
Hi FHG - Thanks for your replies, which I find instructional and encouraging!
You've indicated an important point and I wanted to comment on it because of the significance of what it addresses. I rather think that the "old man" is only opposed by the Spirit of God (Gal 5:17) and is not used in any way towards our "new man," because "it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom 8:7).
It remains in us, and in its original Adamic form (for our continued learning, which is why its there in the first place) which could not be any worse that it is, but in God's opposition to it, He causes us to live after His Holy Spirit and continually object to all of the activities of the old nature (hate evil).
This is the intention of "new," which indicates something having never before existed. God does use our natural physical bodies to bring about an altogether new one (Phl 3:21), but this is not the same for the addition of our new nature, which has already taken its eternal place. The new nature we now have will be the same when our body will be redeemed (resurrection), because as you may know, we ourselves have already been redeemed and we're just waiting for the "redemption of our body" (Rom 8:23). The new body will never require redemption because it will be like the one Jesus has now (1 John 3:2). "This mortal (the physical body, not the spirit which is eternal for the saved and unsaved)
must put on immortality" (1 Co 15:53).
I believe the "new man" (our new nature) is continually being renewed (2 Co 4:16; Col 3:10) to avoid degeneration, similar to the perpetuity of "the tree of life" (Gen 3:22), and therefore we in our new man or new nature is something all together new.
Hope I didn't overdo it here!
God's blessings to your Family!
