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Monday, April 7, 2014

Buried: The Old Man No Longer Exists!

In one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride, the hero is Westley.  In his exploit to rescue his true love, Buttercup, he is captured and tortured by the infamous, Prince Humperdink.  Then he dies...or so it seems.  But when he is taken to Miracle Max, he says an amazing thing.  "He is mostly dead." 

It is a humorous scene which illustrates the way many Christians think about their old nature, that is, their identity in Adam.  They believe that it is not really dead but mostly dead.  Yet, the complete Gospel tells us the real story.

Romans 6:4 says, "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

We were spiritually immersed into Christ the moment we believed in Him.  At that very moment, God put the old nature to death and put him in the tomb with Jesus and LEFT HIM THERE.  He is not "mostly dead".  He is "dead, dead."  He will not be resurrected from the grave to bother us again.   He, no longer exists.   Just make sure you don't confuse the old nature with the flesh.  They are not the same.  We still have the flesh.

We have one nature, our new creation identity in Christ.  1 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come." (HCSB)  We don't have an internal civil war between two natures.  We only have the new nature.  This is who you really are, no matter what the flesh does or whether you feel like it or behave like it. 

Believe it!  This is the Gospel!


If you want to learn more, come to one of our Grace Life Conferences or order the cd and syllabus by calling us at 704-522-9026.  Or, to really go in depth, come to our verse by verse study of Romans 5-8.

Live Free In Christ, 

Mark Maulding, President and Founder www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding but sharing is encouraged!

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