Put Off The Old Man
Put Off the Old Man
Bro John Grubb | 31 May 2026 | Colossians 3:1–11
"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all." — Colossians 3:1–11
The whole letter to the Colossians grew out of a problem that troubled many first‑century Christians: the temptation to receive the gospel only in part, while quietly holding on to the old life they had always known.
Paul faced the very same pattern when he wrote to the churches of Galatia: "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:6–9).
In Colossae and the neighbouring city of Laodicea, some were trying to fold pagan customs and Jewish practices into the church. They saw no harm in mixing what they had always done with what Christ now required, and they defended these additions, trying to prove that a person could become a Christian without ever truly leaving the old ways behind.
The same compromise is still made today: some groups, in order to swell their missionary numbers, will tell people they may keep their pagan practices and carry them right into the church. They gather large crowds, but they teach the doctrines of men rather than the doctrines of the Bible.
Scripture allows no such blending. Acts 15 settled forever that the Gentiles were never under the Law of Moses; they had lived under the patriarchal arrangement until Christ, and Christ did away with both the patriarchal and the Mosaic systems. There is no mix. When Paul came to Athens in Acts 17 and walked through a city full of idols — even an altar inscribed "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD" — he used it as an opportunity to declare the one true God, who is not a God made with hands.
He closed that sermon as he closed every gospel sermon: by commanding people everywhere to repent, to believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, to confess that belief, and to be immersed in water, so that the precious blood of Christ might wash away their sins and raise them to walk in newness of life.
This hope rests entirely on Christ. "the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:26–27). That is the heart of everything we are doing — Christ in you, the hope of glory.
But it was not long before this very hope was in serious trouble at Colossae. Epaphras travelled to Rome and informed the apostle Paul about the situation, and Paul, from his imprisonment, wrote this letter back to the church. He reminded them what had truly happened to them in obedience to the gospel: "buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12). We are new creatures the moment we rise from those waters — "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We are no longer part of Satan's kingdom. "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Colossians 1:13). And Paul makes the choice plain in Romans: we are either slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness, and there is no middle ground. "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:16–18).
Having been set free, we enter the kingdom of Christ — and our whole outlook on life must change: "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:1–2).
Paul's instruction in Colossians 3 unfolds in two parts: putting off the old man, and putting on the new. The Greek word he uses — anthropos — simply means "mankind"; it is the root behind our word anthropology, the study of mankind. This lesson is the first half. The second lesson will take up putting on the new man.
The starting point is this: the old person is dead. "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). When a person believes the gospel and repents of his sins, he becomes dead to the practices of the world. But notice that this believing is no light thing. When the eunuch in Acts 8 asked for baptism, Philip answered, "If you believe with all your heart, you may" (Acts 8:37).
Believe involves commitment. God does not want a half‑hearted believer; He does not want anyone who is not giving Him a hundred percent of his service.
That kind of belief brings death to everything that would draw us away from God: "But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:17–18).
We are also dead to the old law. When we put off the old man, we are dead to the old law and the old practices, because we are now under the new law of Christ.
And when a person rises from the watery grave, he begins a brand new life. Ananias' words to Saul still call to every sinner today: "And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16).
It is not the water that washes away the sin, but the precious blood of Christ — "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Revelation 1:5).
A word about baptism is needed here. If you look in an English dictionary — even the Oxford — baptism is defined as sprinkling, pouring, or immersion, because that is what various churches practise. But the Bible never speaks of sprinkling or pouring. The word comes from the Greek baptizo, and it means immersion. It never means anything else.
Think of Naaman the Syrian. He was a leper, and through Israel he learned of a prophet who could heal him. When he came to Elisha, the prophet told him to dip in the Jordan River seven times and he would be cleansed. The question is: what healed Naaman of his leprosy?
It was not the water. It was the power of God.
But when did the power of God heal him?
It was after he obeyed the command Elisha gave him. So it is for us. It is the blood of Christ that washes away our sins — but that washing happens upon a penitent believer who has confessed Christ and been immersed in water. Then we rise to walk in newness of life.
The Christian also looks forward to a heavenly home when Christ appears a second time: "When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Colossians 3:4).
That assurance is for those who continue in the light: "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
Those who entangle themselves in the world again forfeit the promise — "For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them" (2 Peter 2:20–21).
So Paul says: leave him. Put off the old man. And the old practices must be put to death. "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Colossians 3:5).
The body is no longer for sin. We must stop doing the things the old man of sin did. Paul names each one carefully so we cannot mistake him.
Fornication — sexual immorality in every form. Uncleanness — self‑abuse, bestiality, and every sinful misuse of the body. Passion — the inward unlawful desires that smoulder in the heart. Evil desire — the person who actually longs for evil practices. And covetousness — the craving for what someone else has, greediness, the love of money and possessions — which Paul calls idolatry, because money and hungry desires become a god to the one who serves them.
Idolatry is an abomination in the sight of God. This is one of the reasons giving is commanded in the church — it helps to keep us from covetousness. At one time the children of God were children of disobedience; now we must put God first in our lives.
When God gave the Ten Commandments : "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…" (Exodus 20:3–5).
All through the Old Testament God called idolatry an abomination, and that warning carries straight into the New Testament: "Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them" (Colossians 3:6–7).
The Old Testament principle of giving is reaffirmed in the New: "On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper" (1 Corinthians 16:2) — and we are to do so willingly and joyfully: "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7).
There are other worldly things, just as deadly, that must be put off: "But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds" (Colossians 3:8–9).
Paul names them one by one. Anger is the displeasure aroused by injury or insult. Wrath is deep, determined, lasting anger. Malice is the intent to injure others for the gratification of anger — sheer wickedness. Blasphemy is speech that injures another's good name. Filthy language is the speech that has no place in a Christian's mouth — dirty jokes, shameful talk, anything that profanes what God has made clean. And lying — to lie is to deceive, and deception and dishonesty belong to the old man, not the new. God names this sin among those that keep people out of heaven: "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8). All liars will not be in heaven.
Being born again changes the very thoughts and intents of the Christian. "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9–11).
And such were some of you — but no longer. We used to live that way; now we have put off the old man, and we are going to put on the new. And all of this begins with repentance: "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).
Paul then turns from what we leave behind to what we become: "…and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:10–11).
Putting on the new man is a transformation: "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 will of God" (Romans 12:1–2).
The Greek word behind transformed is metamorphosis — the same change that turns a caterpillar into a butterfly, a tadpole into a frog. Total. We are in the world, but we are not of it; we cannot leave the world, but we no longer share its mind.
The new man looks to his new example: "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:21–22). We follow His footsteps. We live without sin. We are guided by Christ. And the new man belongs to a prejudice‑free institution — the old law was for the Jews only, but the new law takes in everyone who will obey: "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:26–29).
This was God's promise from Genesis 12 — that in Abraham's Seed all the families of the earth would be blessed — and that Seed is Jesus Christ. In the twenty‑first century it means the same thing it has always meant: every person, of every race, who is willing to render obedience to God, can be saved through the precious blood of Christ. Circumcised or uncircumcised, bond or free — it makes no difference, as long as we are willing to obey His will.
The old man is dead and buried in baptism — his practices, his thoughts, his desires — all of them laid to rest in the waters.
The new man has been made alive. How wonderful it is to be a Christian, to have such a glorious life held out before us. But this glory comes only through total obedience.
Hear the gentle call of the Lord who has done all this for us: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28–30).
And hear too the warning that He Himself gave to those who would settle for less than full surrender: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
There is nothing in the old life worth keeping.
There is everything in the new life worth living for.
Put off the old man. He is dead. Let him stay buried.
And rise — every morning, every day, every choice — to walk in newness of life, holding fast to Christ until the day He appears, and we appear with Him in glory.
