The New Creation (Part 2): Derek Prince Sermon (Transcript)

But Paul says, if we have come to know Jesus, that’s not the course that our life is going to take.

And he says: “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you’ve heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:”

And Paul is writing to people whom he believes to be Christians, but he says, it may be that some of you have never really grasped this important truth; you’ve never been taught. And as I said, my experience is that there are multitudes of Christians who have come to the Lord, been born again, and yet have never really been taught the truth that Paul presents in the next few verses. So let’s read those verses, keeping this in mind, asking ourselves, have I appreciated this? Have I apprehended this? Is this at work in my life?

Now this is as the truth as is in Jesus. Now, verses 22, 23 and 24: “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.”

Paul there talks about the two men: the old man, the new. They are completely opposite to one another. The old man, he says, is growing corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. The actual, the Greek says the lusts of deceit.

The new man, Paul says, was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. But the Greek says, in righteousness and holiness of the truth. And so if you take the more literal translation, you have the old man is the product of deceit. He’s the product of Satan’s lie. The new man is the product of the truth of the word of God.

So the old man is corrupt because he’s the result of a lie from Satan. The new man is created again in holiness and righteousness, which are the products of the truth.

So the important things to lay hold of are the results of Satan’s deception and the results of receiving and obeying God’s truth because they produce these two different kinds of persons.

The old man is growing corrupt. We spoke about that in the previous session. The result of sin in the physical body is corruption. The corruption really also extends to man’s inner personality. His mind becomes corrupt, his attitudes become corrupt, his desires become corrupt. The keyword that describes this old nature is corrupt or corruptible. It’s decaying. There’s no permanence in it.

Mind transformed through Spirit of Truth

And then Paul speaks about a transition. In verse 23, he says, ‘be renewed in the spirit of your mind.’ We have to change the way we think. You see, you cannot think wrong and live right, and you cannot think right and live wrong. A lot of Christians are trying to live right, but they’re thinking wrong. And the result is they never really come into the victory that God has for them.

You keep your finger there and let’s look for a moment in Romans chapter 12, Romans the 12th chapter. Paul says in the first two verses…

Romans 12:1-2: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

So Paul says, we have to hand ourselves over to God. We have to present our bodies to Him. As the Israelites in the Old Testament brought the sacrificial animals, sheep, an ox, whatever it might be, and laid it on the altar, and it was killed and offered as a sacrifice, Paul says, in the same way as believers in the New Testament, you bring your body and lay it on God’s altar. But there’s just one difference: it’s alive; it’s not killed.

So you present your body as a living sacrifice to God for His service. You hand it over to God. When a man presented a sheep or an ox or whatever it was under the Old Covenant, when he put it on the altar, it was no longer his; it belonged to God.

And when we offer our bodies a living sacrifice, place it on God’s altar, it’s no longer ours; it belongs to God. We don’t own it; He owns it. We don’t control it; He controls it. We don’t direct it, He directs it. We don’t decide what it will eat, He provides. We don’t decide what it will wear, He provides.

Now, that sounds frightening to some people. The truth of the matter is: God can take much better care of our body than we can without Him.

And then Paul says, when you present your body, you will be renewed in your mind: you learn to think differently. And when you have been renewed in your mind, you will be able to find out the will of God.

See again, a lot of Christians are saved; they’re born again. But they’ve never found God’s will for their life, because they’ve never made the sacrifice of their body. And consequently, they haven’t been renewed in their mind. And the old unrenewed mind cannot find the will of God. It’s only when our minds are renewed that we can discover God’s special plan for our life.

God has a special plan for the life of each person here. But until you make that surrender of your body to God, until you give yourself over to Him, your mind is not renewed and you cannot find the plan that God has for you.

So Paul says, both in Romans 12 and in Ephesians 4, the transition comes by the renewing of our mind. Our mind comes under the control of a new spirit — the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of truth. And when He directs our thinking, then we live our lives that are in conformity with the way we think.

See, religion, essentially, whatever kind of religion tries to change people from outside, it talks about the clothes that they must wear or not wear, the places they must go or not go, the things they must eat or not eat. All that is external and it doesn’t change a person inside. And most people view religion as some kind of set of rules which we have to observe. And what makes us whatever we are is the rules we keep. But Paul says that isn’t what does it.

We have to be changed within. And when we are changed within, when we think differently inside, then we’ll live differently, you understand? So God doesn’t start from the outside, He starts from the inside. When He changes us inside, then we live naturally the kind of life He wants us to live.

Living the Christian life shouldn’t be a continual struggle to do things you don’t want to do, to keep rules which are irksome and difficult. If you’re living that way, you haven’t really discovered God’s pattern for the Christian life. The Christian life begins with a surrender. We put ourselves, our bodies, on God’s altar and that brings about a change in our minds which only God can produce by His Holy Spirit.

When our minds are changed, it’s not an effort to do the right thing; it’s natural.

Let me take an example for myself. I just happened to be speaking as an Anglican. The age of 15, I was confirmed in the Anglican Church. I really wasn’t very much in favor of being confirmed, but where I was at Eton, all the boys of 15 were being confirmed, so I got confirmed.

Well, those of you that are Anglicans, you’ll know, you have to prepare for confirmation. You have to learn the answers to certain questions. In my day — I don’t know whether it’s still the same — the first question was what was your name? Well, that wasn’t difficult. After that, it went a little further.

But as I studied these questions, rather against my own will, I concluded that I really needed to be a lot better than I was. I began to see how bad I was. So I decided, well, when I get confirmed, I’m going to be better. And I really meant it. But it didn’t work that way. I mean, I’m just giving my individual experience. The problem was, the harder I tried to be good, the quicker I got bad.

So after a few months, I said to myself, well, why struggle? Because struggling only makes it worse. So I just gave up and said, well, I’m going to be bad, that’s all. But at least I’m not going to be bad and religious. So I decided I’d be bad without being religious, which was my decision for a number of years.

But you see, I was fighting against something inside me that didn’t agree with what I tried to do. You understand? I hadn’t been changed inside. I just decided that I ought to live differently. But you can’t really live differently if you’re the same inside. The only way to live differently permanently is to be changed inside. And that’s what God says He’ll do: if we will present our bodies to Him, hand ourselves over and say, ‘God, I’m really not very good at managing my own life. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’m not really satisfied. There’s things that I don’t appreciate in what’s going on in me and around me. God, I’ve come to the end of all that. Here I am. I’m putting myself on Your altar. I’m a living sacrifice. From now on, I don’t belong to myself; I belong to You, God. I’m Your responsibility.’

Well, the people that have done that have made the wonderful discovery that God can take much better care of us than we can of ourselves. I remember hearing a preacher speak to a group of young people once and he said, this: ‘Young man,’ he said, ‘God can make much more out of your life than you can.’ That really is the truth.

So this transition is associated with a surrender, you see? So Paul says: ‘present your body, put it on the altar, God will renew your mind.’ When you’re renewed in your mind, you’ll think differently, you’ll act differently, you’ll react differently.

You see, about 10 years after I was confirmed, I had this dramatic encounter with the Lord Jesus and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Actually, people weren’t getting baptized in the Holy Spirit in those days. It was — but I didn’t know that. So I got baptized in the Holy Spirit in the army barrack-room. See, I didn’t know you had to go to church to get these experiences.

And then I discovered that I really wanted to do the things I knew I ought to have been doing. Understand! One of the things that really amazed me was I’d heard before I was saved about people who went to prayer meetings. And I said to myself, prayer meeting, whatever can people find to talk to God about for one whole hour.

After I was baptized in the Spirit, the meeting I wanted to go to was the prayer meeting and they couldn’t stop me. And at the end of one hour and I was just getting started, that wasn’t because I decided to be different; it was because I’d been changed inside. The way I was thinking was changed, was transformed.

And so going back now to Ephesians 4, where Paul is a little more specific, he says in verse 22: “put off, the old man who is corrupt, who does the wrong thing. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. In Romans 12, he says, be renewed in your mind. But in Ephesians 4, he says ‘be renewed in the spirit of your mind.’ Let the Spirit of God begin to control the way you think.

And then he says, after that, ‘put on the new man who was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth.’

So here we are. This is the new creation again, you understand? This is the product of the new creation. The new man is the result of the new creation and he’s produced by God’s truth. It’s the truth of the word of God, imparted by the Holy Spirit that brings about the new creation.

I want to emphasize to you we can never have too much of God’s Word. When I got saved in the army, I didn’t know anything about Bible studies, but I just decided I ought to share with my fellow soldiers what had happened to me. So I started right in the middle of the war in the desert of North Africa while fighting was going on, I started a Bible class.

I had no idea how to conduct a Bible class. I just said to myself, where do you begin? I said, let’s skip the Old Testament and start at Matthew, chapter one, verse one. So we did.

And later on, when I was in the Sudan, I had another Bible class. And one thing I discovered was if you really get people studying the Word of God without messing around or adding to it or taking from it or mixing up a lot of religion, it will always change people. I have total confidence in the power of the Word of God, and it’ll do it for anybody. Doesn’t matter who you are, doesn’t matter how bad you are, doesn’t matter how stupid you are, how clever you are. If you will deliberately expose yourself to the Word of God and let it do its work, it will change you. I have total confidence.

Today, my confidence is expressed in a radio program that I have called ‘Today with Derek Prince’ which is just about little less than 15 minutes of Bible teaching, five days a week. And I started that about ten years ago in the United States. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I just felt: I want to proclaim the Word of God. We don’t mess around. We don’t peel for money. We don’t get involved in a lot of emotional hu ha. We just teach the Word of God?

Well, I say this to the glory of God. That same program is now being taught right around the world, being broadcast in eight different languages. It’s reaching basically in the whole of mainland China about seven times a day in four dialects: mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Amoy. It’s reaching most of the Soviet Union about three times every 24 hours in Russian; it’s reaching Central and South America once or twice every 24 hours in Spanish. It’s also in a language called Tongan, which is the language of a small island in the Pacific. And God helping us, within a month or two, it will be in Arabic, reaching the Middle East.

And that’s only the expression of my total confidence in the Word of God. And we have piles of letters of testimony of people whose lives have been just changed by the Word of God. I cannot too strongly recommend you: take time with the Word of God. Don’t get involved in a lot of time wasting activities.

One of the things that grieves me about some churches is so much time is spent doing things that really don’t accomplish anything: let’s get the Word of God. Now we need praise, we need worship. There are other things. But let the Word of God always be the center because it produces results that nothing else can produce. It’s the only agent in the universe that will produce the new birth, the new creation and the new man.

NEW MAN: CREATED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS OF TRUTH (EPH. 4:24 [COL. 3:8–11])

All right, now let’s turn to Colossians for a moment, Chapter 3. There’s a lot of parallels between Ephesians and Colossians. Much of the same truth is contained in both. And let’s just read what Paul says along the same lines in Colossians Chapter 3, verses eight through eleven. He’s writing to Christians.

Colossians 3:8: ‘But now you must also put off…’ you remember he talked in Ephesians 4 about putting off the old man, putting on the new man. Here he says, ‘you must also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.’

So the old man is associated with all those things. When we put him off, we put those things off with him.

Verse 9: ‘Do not lie to one another, since you’ve put off the old man with his deeds.’ One distinctive characteristic of the old man is he’s a liar. And Jesus told us Satan is the father of all lies (John 8:44). So when we get involved in lies, we’re coming under the control of Satan. One thing we have to be is honest. Not always easy, but it pays.

So Paul says, do not lie to one another since you’ve put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man. Notice we have the same transition from the old man to the new… ‘who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.’

In Ephesians, he said the new man was created. That was a single act of God. But here he speaks about an ongoing process: being renewed. And the object of renewing is to restore to man the image of God which he lost through the fall.

You remember, God created man in His own likeness and in His own image. That image was marred by the fall. But in the new creation, God’s purpose is to renew us so that the image of God is restored in us. That’s God’s end purpose.

If you studied the record of creation in Genesis, chapter 1, you find that six days, whatever that may mean — God created all sorts of things: the sea, the earth, the stars, the sun, the moon, lots of other things, the vegetation, the fish, the cattle. But He didn’t rest, until He had brought forth His own likeness. When He had made man and brought forth His likeness in man, then He rested. And this is true in you and me. God will not rest in dealing with us until He’s brought forth His likeness in us — His likeness is restored in you and me.

SOLUTION FOR THE OLD MAN: EXECUTION

Now, how does God deal with the old man?

This is a very important lesson, and I fear some Christians are not familiar with it. The old man is corrupt; he’s incorrigible. You know what that word means? There’s no way you can straighten him out. He’s as crooked as the serpent that produced him. You’ve never seen a straight serpent, have you? No.

All right. And anything the serpent produces is crooked. And God doesn’t mess around with the old man. He doesn’t send him to church, doesn’t teach him to memorize Scripture, doesn’t teach him the golden rule. God’s only got one solution. You know what it is? Execution. That’s right.

God’s solution is EXECUTION. Shall we say that together? God’s solution is execution. He has no mercy on the old man. He knows he can never be straightened out. But the mercy of God consists in this: that the execution took place more than 19 centuries ago when Jesus died on the cross.

KNOW THAT YOU WERE EXECUTED (ROM. 6:6)

Turn to Romans chapter 6 and just read with me verse six…

Romans 6:6: ‘knowing this,’ — the problem is that multitudes of Christians don’t know it, see; it’s in the Bible, but they don’t know it.

“knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Jesus, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”

Now, this is a historical fact. It’s true whether you know it or whether you believe it. But knowing and believing it will change you. When Jesus died on the cross, in God’s eternal counsel, this rebel inside you and me was executed, was put to death. That’s the only solution for the old man.

And Paul says, until the rebel has been dealt with in you and me, we’ll still be slaves of sin. I suppose perhaps because I’m in an Anglican church, which I enjoy, but my mind goes back to lots of experiences of mine in the Anglican church. And I remember going to church Sunday morning, and in those days we used to say something called the general confession, and I expect we use language that isn’t used today. Amongst other things, we said, ‘Pardon us, miserable offenders.’ And I always looked around and thought it’s a pretty good description.

But the thing was that when I walked out of the church after that, I said to myself, did God really forgive me? I was never quite sure.

Then I thought to myself, well, if God did forgive me, I know full well I’m going to go on committing the same sins I’ve just confessed. So what’s the good of that? In fact, does my confessing my sins help? Or does it make things worse?

Suppose I go to God every Sunday morning and say, I’m sorry, I’ve done this, I’ve done this, I’ve done this, forgive me, but I’m going to go out and do the same. How does God react? I wasn’t sure. Actually, the highest I ever achieved was a vague feeling of guilt. And I thought that’s what religion is designed to do, is make you feel guilty.

So I walked out of the church feeling guilty and feeling rather righteous because I was feeling guilty. And after about half an hour it all dissipated and there it was, back again. But you see, I didn’t understand Romans 6. The rebel had not been dealt with. And until the rebel has been dealt with, you cannot help sinning, okay? Because there’s a rebel inside you.

It’s one thing to have your past sins forgiven. That’s wonderful. But it’s not the total solution. Because if you have your past sins forgiven but the rebel is not executed, he’s going to go on causing you to commit more sin.

So God’s remedy is, first of all, the forgiveness of our past sins. Thank God for that. But that’s not the end. Then the rebel in me has to be executed. The good news is it happened 19th centuries ago when Jesus died on the cross.

So Paul says, the first thing you have to do is know it… knowing this.

RECKON YOURSELF DEAD TO SIN (ROM. 6:11)

Then in Romans 6:11, he says, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

First of all, you know what the Bible says. It’s a historical fact. Secondly, you reckon it true in your own experience by faith; you understand; that’s what brings the results.

First know and then reckon. If you don’t know, you can’t reckon. See, I have to say, honestly, my observation of the Christian church generally is multitudes of Christians don’t know. They don’t know that their old man was executed when Jesus died.

When you know, then you can reckon. And when you reckon, it becomes true in your experience. And it says, reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin. That’s a very powerful phrase, dead to sin. Have you ever considered what is involved in being dead to sin?

I have a little illustration I use just to bring it out of a very bad man. I mean, he was as bad as he could be. He swore, he drunk whiskey. He watched things on television you shouldn’t watch. He was very unkind to his wife and children. He swore at them. He talked very badly about the church, but his wife and children had become believers.

And so every Sunday evening they would sneak off to the local gospel service and they knew when they came back he’d be swearing at them. So one evening they went out, leaving him sitting in his armchair, smoking a cigar, drinking whiskey, watching the television, being really bad.

Then they had a wonderful evening in the gospel chapel, came back and they were so excited, they were singing the choruses, came into the room and suddenly realized he was going to swear at them. So they froze, didn’t do anything, but nothing came from him.

There he was sitting in the chair. Smoke was going up from the cigar, but he wasn’t smoking it. The whiskey was on the table, but he wasn’t drinking it. There was something on the television, but he wasn’t watching it. And he didn’t shout at them.

What had happened? You can guess. He’d had a heart attack and died. And you see what he was: he was dead to sin. That’s exactly what it was. Sin had no more attraction for him. Sin had no more power over him. Sin produced no more reaction from him.

And Paul says, ‘Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin.’

How can we do that? Not by our efforts, but by identification with Jesus Christ. When He was crucified, my old rebel inside me was crucified with Him.

I remember many years ago having a struggle about this that I could share with you. I was pastoring a small congregation in London, and we used to hold street meetings three times a week at a place called Speakers’ Corner, Marble Arch, which is very well known in the center of London. And we would preach to all sorts of people, and quite a lot of people were getting saved. Generally speaking there were the bad people that ended up there.

And then one night I had a dream. And in this dream, I saw a typical street meeting with people standing in the ring around and a man in the center preaching. And I listened and watched, and I thought, what he’s saying is quite good, but I don’t like the way he looks. He looked crooked. He had the sort of clubfoot. And generally speaking, he was all crooked. So I didn’t think any more about it. I thought that was a strange dream.

But about two weeks later, I had exactly the same dream again. And so I thought, God must be trying to say something to me. So I said, ‘Lord, what about this dream? What about that man? His preaching was all right, but there was something I didn’t like about him. He seemed to be sort of crooked. Who was the man?’

And you know what God said? Thou art the man.

And I realized that was how God saw me. He wasn’t criticizing my preaching, but He was saying, there’s something crooked inside. And that’s how God dealt with me about the old man.

And then I came to Romans chapter 6, and I saw God’s solution: execution.

Well, at that time, it was just about the Easter season. And while I was struggling with this, my mind had a sort of mental picture of Golgotha or Calvary. And I saw three crosses there, and the center cross was taller than the other two. And the Holy Spirit seemed to say to me, ‘Tell me, for whom was the middle cross made?’ And then it was like he said, ‘Think before you answer.’

So I thought for a moment or two, and I said, ‘It was made for Barabbas.’

And He said, that’s right, because if you read the story, you’ll realize the cross was there for Barabbas, but there was a switch made at the last moment.

And then He said, ‘that’s right, but Jesus took the place of Barabbas.’

I said, yes.

But He said, ‘I thought Jesus took your place.’

So I said yes.

Then He said, ‘Then you must be a Barabbas.’

And I had a revelation. I never argue with people, never try to convince them. But I saw I was Barabbas. That was my old man: a criminal, crooked, dishonest, unreliable, unfaithful.

And then I realized the solution: execution. At the mercy of God execution took place when Jesus died.

How do I respond? I reckon myself dead. I reckon that rebel dead. And when I do it in faith, I’m delivered from him.

Now I’m going to go on to explain that it’s not an instantaneous process. As far as God’s concerned, it’s finished; for us, it has to be worked out.

THE OUTWORKING IS PROGRESSIVE (COL. 3:3–5 [COMPARE HEB. 10:14]

Let’s go to Colossians again, chapter 3.

Colossians 3:8-11.

“But now you must also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy…  You’ll see there that the old man has to be put off. And then he says — we’ve looked at this already.

“you put on the new man (in verse 10), which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him.”

But if you look a little further up in Colossians, chapter 3, verses 3 through 5, you find the contrast between what God did and what happens in us. What God did was done once for all. The way it works in us is progressive. So don’t come under condemnation if your old man still gives you some trouble from time to time. You wouldn’t be the first to have that experience. It happens even to preachers, I’ll have to tell you that.

But the solution is still there. Let me show you Colossians 3:3-5: “For you died,’ — This is addressed to Christians. When did we die? Tell me, when did we die? When Jesus died. Do you understand? His death was our death.

“For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” We have an invisible life, that’s not visible to the world. It’s hidden with Christ in God. “When Christ who is our life appears, [is seen in glory] then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

You understand? When Jesus died, we died. We have a life now. But it’s not a life the world understands. It’s hidden with Christ in God. And then it makes a tremendous statement; it says Christ is our life. If you can absorb that statement, it’ll keep you going from now till eternity: Christ is our life.

I told you how much I appreciated the Bible because it says things in simple words. All those are monosyllables, words of one syllable: Christ is our life. If you can absorb that, you’re undefeatable. There’s nothing that can ever overcome you.

I’d like to invite you to say it together with me in faith: Christ is our life.

Say it again. Christ is our life.

Now let’s make it personal; instead of our, my. Christ is my life.

Now I want you to do something which you may find a little strange. It’s easy to sit there and say it out to the air. I want you to turn to somebody beside you, look them right in the face and say, Christ is my life. You understand? Don’t be embarrassed. All right? Okay. Now you’ve settled the matter forever. Christ is your life. Okay?

When He appears in glory, we’ll appear with Him, understand? So a death took place. Our old nature died. It’s finished with. There’s a new life, but it’s a life that’s a hidden life. The world can’t see it. The world doesn’t understand it.

Now, looking in, let me give you a favourite Scripture that Ruth and I quote about once every day these days.

Hebrews 10:14: Do you want to come up and say it, all right. I explain to you that we believe in quoting Scripture for ourselves, not to preach to people.

I’m going to put sacrifice in the place of ‘offering’, all right?

Hebrews 10:14: “For by one sacrifice He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

You see, there the contrast between the perfect tense and the continuing present. What Jesus did on the cross is perfect. It’s forever. It never has to be repeated. But our appropriating of it is progressive. We are being sanctified. You understand?

So first of all, I preach to you what Jesus accomplished. You have to know that. Then we have to consider in a practical way how do we appropriate it. Do you see what I’m saying?

And although it’s complete and perfect and finished on God’s side, it’s progressive on our side. I say that because I don’t want you to get condemned and say, well, but my old man still gives me a lot of trouble. You won’t be the first Christian to have that experience. Some of the greatest men of God that have served God most effectively had the greatest struggle in their inner being. You can read their biographies and the records of their lives. So don’t be condemned, especially if God is going to use you, the devil will see to it you have a lot of struggles, you understand?

So the fact that you have struggles may actually really indicate God is going to use you. Don’t get discouraged. Okay?

DEATH IS THE DOORWAY TO LIFE (GAL. 2:19–20)

Now let’s look in Galatians, chapter 2.

What I want to say now is very important.

Galatians 2:19-20 – Death is the doorway to life. There is only one way to come into life, and that’s by death. I don’t know whether this is vivid to you, but when man sinned, God drove him out of the garden so that he would not be able to eat at the tree of life and live forever, because he would have lived forever in his sin. Do you understand?

The only way out of sin and corruption is death. But the mercy of God is that it’s through the death of Jesus.

So Galatians 2:19-20, Paul says, “I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.” Okay? So the kindest thing the law ever did to me as a sinner was put me to death. Because when it put me to death, I was finished with the law. No matter if a man has committed 60 murders, he can only be executed once. And once he’s executed, he’s not accountable for any more of those murders. You understand?

So the mercy of the law, in a sense, is it puts us to death. Paul says, I through the law died to the law. But the mercy is, I died in Christ. Christ died for the sins of those committed under the law. So in Christ I died.

And once I’ve died, I’m no longer under the law. It’s very important to understand this. We’ll probably come to this later when we talk about how to be guided by the Holy Spirit. You cannot be guided by the Spirit and by law at the same time; it’s one or the other.

And so in order to be free to live for God, Paul said I had to die to the law. Look at those words again and you’ll see Galatians 2:19: For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.

And then he goes on the next very familiar verse: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” So that’s the only way into the new life is by death. It’s God’s mercy that provides death as the exit from the old life. But the death took place when Jesus died on the cross. Our old man was crucified with Him. That’s a historical fact. It’s true whether you know it or believe it.

But knowing it and believing it and acting on it can radically and totally change your life. You do not have to be a slave of the old nature. God has provided a way out from the slavery of sin. Paul says our old man was done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. As long as the rebel lives and has his way inside you, you will be a slave of sin. But once the rebel has been dealt with, you’re free to live to God.

NATURE OF THE NEW MAN

Now let’s take a little while and consider the nature of the new man. We’ve dealt with the old man: he’s corrupt, he’s crooked, he’s just no use.

Let’s see how the new man came into being and what he’s like. And remember, you should be looking at the picture of yourself inside. Remember, James says this Bible is a mirror. When you read the Bible, you’re looking in a mirror. It doesn’t show you your outward appearance. It shows you what you’re like inside. And there’s nothing else in the world that can do that. Science can’t do it. Psychology can’t do it. Nothing.

But when I preach the Word, I tell people I’m holding up the mirror to you. Look in it and see what you’re like. And now, if you’re a born-again Christian, I want you to look and see what you have inside you, and it will startle you. You’ve got much more inside you than you ever imagined, most of you.

Product of incorruptible word (1 Pet. 1:22–25) As the seed, so the product

You’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of the new man. Let’s look now in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 22 through 25. And it begins in the middle of a sentence, but that’s okay.

1 Peter 1:23-25: “having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides forever, because [and then he quotes from Isaiah], “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.”

So Peter is quoting, and he’s saying, our outward physical nature is like grass. It’s withering, it’s fading away. You remember the keyword, corrupt. Corruptible. It doesn’t continue. It’s on the way out. But he said, the word of God abides forever. It doesn’t change. It’s eternal. It doesn’t wither. It doesn’t fade. It doesn’t grow old.

And then he says, you have been born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God. The life in you is the product of the seed of God’s word. Now, in all nature, the nature of the seed determines the nature of what grows out of it. If you plant an orange pip, you will not get an apple. If you plant an apple pip, you will not get an orange. An apple pip produces an apple. An orange pip produces an orange. And it’s the same in the spiritual realm.

The nature of the seed that produced the new life in you determines the nature of the life. And the keyword is incorruptible. You have an incorruptible life inside you.

Does not, cannot sin (Whoever, 1 John 3:9)

And then the first epistle of John, chapter 3, and verse 9, John makes a very startling statement. And I think a lot of Christians have had problems with this statement, but I think I can help you.

First epistle of John, chapter 3, verse 9.

1 John 3:9: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

Now, let me not apply that to any of you. Let me apply it to me. I was born again of God in 1941. Does it mean that I’ve never sinned since then? Definitely not. Does it mean that I cannot sin? Definitely not. Derek Prince has sinned and can sin, and yet I’m born again.

So what’s the explanation? The explanation, I believe, is this: that John is not talking about you as a person, but he’s talking about the new man that’s produced in you by the seed of the Word of God. Because the seed is incorruptible, the product is incorruptible. The new man is incorruptible: he does not sin and he cannot sin.

If you look a little further on, in the same epistle, chapter 5, verse 4… John says…

1 John 5:4: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.”

So it’s a whoever in 1 John 3:9. But it’s a whatever in 1 John 5:4. In other words, it’s not an individual like brother Prince or sister Prince or whoever, but it’s the nature in you he’s talking about, the new man: it cannot sin. It’s incapable of sinning because it’s incorruptible. And what is incorruptible can never become corruptible. Do you understand?

So we have in us a nature that cannot sin. That doesn’t mean that you and I cannot sin, because it all depends on which nature controls us. Do you understand? This is the key.

The old man cannot help sinning; the new man cannot sin. What kind of a life you will lead will depend on how the new and the old man are at work in you. If the old man is truly executed and kept dead, then the new man will give you a life of perfect purity and holiness. But for most of us, it doesn’t immediately happen that way. I’m not saying it couldn’t. But the Christians I know, including myself, are people who haven’t fully appropriated all that the Bible teaches about the new man.

And one main reason is because it isn’t taught we don’t know what our inheritance is. That’s my main purpose in teaching this is to hold up to you the standard of God’s Word, to hold up the mirror and show you you have inside you an incorruptible person, a nature that is incapable of sin.

There have been other ways to explain 1 John 3:9. But I cannot say that any other explanation covers the fact that John says he cannot sin, not merely that he does not sin, but he cannot sin. All right.

The end result: Christ reproduced in us (Col. 1:25–27)

Now let’s look a little further in Colossians, chapter 1 and verse 27. Well, we’ll go back a little bit.

Colossians 1:25-27

Paul says in verse 25: “I became a minister of the church, [a servant of the church] according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God [or to declare the whole of God’s word to you.]

He said, ‘God made me a servant of the church for this purpose: to proclaim the full truth of the word of God.’ I feel that is my calling also. I’m a servant of the church to proclaim the full truth of the Word of God, because it’s only when God’s people hear the full truth that they come into the full experience of what God has provided for them.

Then he goes on to say: ‘this full truth (in verse 26) is the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.’

So God had a secret which He kept from ages and generations, but now He wants to reveal it to you and me. If that doesn’t excite you, there’s something wrong with you. Think of it that we have the privilege of sharing a secret which was kept from all previous ages and generations.

Now, what is the secret in verse 27: “to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: Now what is it all? which is Christ in you.”

See what I say again, the greatest truths are expressed in the shortest world. What is the ultimate purpose of God? What is the secret that He’s kept from all previous generations, but now is made known to us that He wants to reproduce Christ in every one of us. The ultimate product of the new man is Christ. Do you understand?

The Bible is the word of God. Christ is the word of God. So when the Bible is received by faith into us, and is allowed to grow and bring forth what it will naturally bring forth, it will bring forth Christ in you and me.

See, God can’t improve on Christ. He’s the ultimate. So the best He can do for us is reproduce Christ in you and me. But he comes by new birth, out of the incorruptible seed of the word of God through the new man into an expression of Christ. And every born-again child of God is designed to express Jesus Christ in a different way.

God never makes one Christian a copy of another. Paul says in Ephesians 3:10 that now by the church might be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavens the manifold wisdom of God; that’s exciting. Every one of us can be a specific demonstration of God’s wisdom in some way different from every other one. It’s like a beautifully cut diamond which has innumerable different facets. And each facet reflects the light in its own particular way, but each of them reflects Christ. Do you understand? It’s Christ multiplied over and over and over again in His people.

Predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29)

Let me close with Romans 8:29. This is speaking about God’s eternal plan. I want you to know you’re not an accident looking for somewhere to happen. You understand that? You’re part of a plan that God had in eternity. Before creation took place, God had a plan and you were included in it.

And this is what Paul says:

Romans 8:29: “For whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

So the ultimate purpose of God out of the new birth, out of the new creation, out of the new man, is to reproduce Christ in each one of us. That’s the purpose for which He’s working. But it demands the execution of the old man. Understand?

As long as the old man operates, the new man cannot effectually be what God intended to be. So I invite you, as we close, to consider just how much or how little of you is the new man and how much or little of you is still the old man?

But when you’re confronted with the problems of the old man, remember there is a way out. The way out is death.

God bless you.

For Further Reading:

The New Creation (Part 1): Derek Prince Sermon (Transcript)

(Through The Bible) – Deuteronomy: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

True And False Church (Part 2): Derek Prince Sermon (Transcript)

A. W. Tozer Sermon: The Deeper Life (Transcript)

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