Paul can contrast what believers were “in Adam” and what believers are after receiving the gift of salvation in Christ in terms of their “old” and “new nature” (see Adam and Christ).
1. Terminology
2. Romans
3. Ephesians and Colossians
4. Theological Significance
1. Terminology.
Few words are more dangerously ambiguous than “nature.” Because of this there has been considerable misunderstanding of the phrases “old nature” and “new nature” (see Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9). Numerous popular explanations of Paul’s doctrine of the Christian life argue, or assume, that the apostle distinguishes with these phrases between two parts or natures of a person. Following this misguided thinking is the debate as to whether the “old nature” is replaced by the “new nature” at conversion, or whether the “new nature” is added to the old (see Psychology).
The interpretation that ho palaios anthrōpos and ho kainos anthrōpos refer to parts, or natures, of a person is wrong and misleading. These terms rather designate the complete person viewed in relation to the corporate whole to which he or she belongs. Thus these terms are better translated as “old person” and “new person.” The translation “old self” and “new self” (NIV, NRSV) is too individualistic, since the idea certainly means the individual Christian (Rom 6:6), but is much more than merely individual. “Old person” and “new person” are not, then, ontological but relational in orientation. They speak not of a change in nature, but of a change in relationship.
The “old person” is not the sin nature which is judged at the cross and to which is added a “new person.” The “old person” is what believers were “in Adam” (in the old era). The “old” points to everything connected with the fall of humanity and with the subjection to the distress and death of a transitory life, separated from God (see Life and Death). Within the context of Paul’s theology, this concept carries with it deep undertones of God’s wrath and the wages of sin. The “new person” is what believers are “in Christ” (in the new era). Paul directs us to the completely new, to the salvation and healing that believers receive when they are crucified with Christ and raised with him (cf. Rom 6:3–6; see Dying and Rising with Christ).
2. Romans.
In Romans 6:6 Paul argues that the old person (the individual believer) was crucified with Christ. The reference to the crucifixion is a startling message indicating the vast distance separating Paul’s theology of dying and being raised with Christ from the mysticism of the mystery religions of his day (see Cranfield, 1.309). The “old person” was crucified with Christ in baptism. For in baptism believers received the divinely appointed sign and seal of the fact that by God’s gracious decision the old person was, in God’s sight, crucified with Christ on Golgotha. Paul’s language denotes the unity between baptized believers and the person of Christ himself in his redemptive [p. 629] action (see Beasley-Murray, 134). Yet believers, by putting off the old person, still have to fulfill on the moral level the death that in God’s gracious act and in the symbol of baptism they have already experienced. This is Paul’s emphasis in Ephesians and Colossians.
3. Ephesians and Colossians.
Behind the contrast between the “old person” and the “new” is the contrast between Adam and Christ (1 Cor 15:45; see Ridderbos, 223–31). These phrases indicate the solidarity of people with the heads of the two contrasting eras of salvation history. Paul employs the term with a corporate meaning in Ephesians 2:15 and Colossians 3:10–11, showing that Jews and Greeks, the circumcised and the uncircumcised, are united into one new humanity.
In Colossians 3:9–11 Paul explains that believers have taken off the “old person” with its practices and have put on the “new.” This does not merely mean that Christ demands a new standard of life from his redeemed people. It means that everything associated with distorted humanity is to be put to death (Col 3:5–8) because it has been transformed according to the perfect model, Christ himself (Col 1:15–20; 2:6), and therefore there is no excuse for such distorted behavior (Wright, 137–38; Melick, 286–99).
The metaphor of “putting off” and “putting on” clothes (Col 3:8–10; Eph 4:22–24) does not simply mean promising to behave differently. Rather it is the gracious action of God’s Spirit moving believers into a different sphere where the new rule of life obtains. Paul may be alluding to the familiar picture of the candidate for baptism, who by exchanging old clothes for new symbolizes the transfer of solidarities.
These two pictures of what believers are and what they should become are not in conflict. Christians have been transferred from the old era of sin and death to the new era of righteousness and life. The powers of the old age must continually be resisted (thus the imperatival infinitives apothesthai and endysasthai in Eph 4:22–24). At the center of the contrast between the old and the new is the eschatological tension between the inauguration of the new age in the life of believers (cf. 2 Cor 5:17) and the consummation of the new age in glory (cf. Rom 8:17, 19–23; Beker, 288–89; Moo, 392). What believers were in Adam remains no more, but the struggle of life between the inauguration and consummation of the new age continues (see Eschatology).
4. Theological Significance.
Life in the new age for the “new person” is to be lived out between the polarities of what has been redemptively accomplished by the historical achievement of the death of Christ and what is yet to be fully realized in the consummation of God’s redemptive program. Believers live in this temporal tension between the “already” and the “not yet,” and between the indicative (what they are) and the imperative (what they should become). Believers live in this “not yet” age, but their life pattern and standard of conduct are not to be those of this age, which are essentially human-centered and prideful, but of the age to come. Yet the struggle continues. While living as a “new person” in the new age, the basis for new life should be remembered. It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that the Spirit applies the benefits of the “new” life to the lives of believers. Life for the “new humanity” is living out, by the Spirit’s empowerment, what believers are because of Christ.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. Barth, Ephesians (AB; Garden City: Doubleday, 1974);
J. Baumgarten, “καινός κτλ,” EDNT 2.229̔–32;
G. R. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1962);
J. Behm, “καινός κτλ,” TDNT III.447–54;
J. C. Beker, Paul the Apostle: The Triumph of God in Life and Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980);
C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (ICC; 2 vols.; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1975);
D. S. Dockery, “An Outline of Paul’s View of the Spiritual Life,” CTR 3 (1989) 327–40;
D. Guthrie, New Testament Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1981);
H. Haarbeck, “Old,” NIDNTT 2.713–16; M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991);
R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (NAC; Nashville: Broadman, 1991);
D. J. Moo, Romans 1–8 (WEC; Chicago: Moody, 1991);
H. Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975);
P. Tachau, ‘Einst’ und ‘Jetzt’ im Neuen Testament (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1972);
R. C. Tannehill, Dying and Rising with Christ (Berlin: Töpelmann, 1967);
N. T. Wright, Colossians and Philemon (TNTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986).
[Editor’s Note: This entry is from the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters: First Edition edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid. Copyright (c) 1993 by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com
While the 1st edition of this resource is out of print, you may access the 2nd edition here.]
