The Old Man, Regeneration and Suppression

BLJ: Too many Christians believe that they have to live their lives suppressing the old man. The truth needs to be preached regarding eradication. The old man can be removed, not just keep under. That is a beauty of holiness. There is a Christian walk that does not require you to contend with carnality. 

THE OLD MAN, REGENERATION, AND SUPPRESSION

God is love. Love always plans for the best of those who are loved. Through the marvelous Atonement, provision has been graciously and fully made whereby man may be delivered from carnality or the old man.

The first step in this great deliverance is the experience of regeneration. After a contrite heart truly repents, salvation is possible by a simple heartfelt faith in Jesus, the Lamb of God. Saving faith has been defined as "An act of venturing trust whereby one believes in his heart that God, for Christ's sake, pardons all his sins." "Regeneration may be defined to be that moral change in man, wrought by the Holy Spirit, by which he is saved from the love, the practice, and the dominion of sin, and enabled, with full choice of will and the energy of right affections, to love God and keep His commandments." Regeneration is a great work of grace. The penitent soul is freely and fully forgiven every sin ever committed. The heart is radically changed. One who is born of the Spirit passes from death unto life, is a new creature in Christ Jesus, has peace with God, is free from condemnation, loves the brethren, loves and forgives his enemies, has righteousness and peace and joy, has the witness of the Spirit, loves the Word and prayer and the things of God, has victory over sins, has the old man suppressed.

Glorious as is the work of regeneration, it does not destroy the old man. Carnality, or inbred sin, or the old man, etc., etc., is not destroyed when one is born of the Spirit, but is suppressed. By God's grace the converted heart can and does restrain, or suppress this old man. Suppression is good as far as it goes. Were there nothing better provided for redeemed man than suppression, he ought to leap and rejoice with great joy over this victory over this great enemy. If a man have a family of children playing in a yard and a rattlesnake lives near by, it would be far better to suppress the rattler than to let him go free. But the better thing would be to kill the old rattler so that he would never poison any of the children. It is good for a Christian to suppress the old man, but far better to have him destroyed. A family had a favorite dog. This dog was getting old and cross. He had been faithful and was dearly loved of all the family. He was very cross to visiting children. To keep him from biting children who were playing in the yard, they would put a large box over him to suppress him, but he would growl on the inside. One day he became so stirred up, that he got out of the box and bit one of the children. That night the family had a long consultation about what to do with old Rover. They loved him, he had been so true and faithful. Yet they wanted the children who came to be safe. At last, it was decided -- as much as it grieved them -- that old Rover must be killed. He was taken out into the woods and shot. He never growled again.

It is a sad fact according to experience that many regenerated saints do not always suppress the old man. They, at times. give way to his stirrings and must repent and ask God's forgiveness. Thus many live an up and down life for a time. This is not God's plan for His children. His plan, His provision is that they, in a justified state, suppress the old man.

And to retain this experience, one must keep the old man down by God's grace. Failure to do this requires genuine repentance and a reinstatement in the grace of God. Others in a justified state live so close to God that the old man does not dare manifest himself. He is so suppressed that many justified people are deceived. They believe that, because they do not feel the stirrings of carnality within the heart, it is not there. Sometimes it is only by the searching of the Holy Spirit that inbred sin is detected. The heart is so deceitful that only God can know and search it. David was therefore wise when he prayed: "Search me, O God, and know my heart."

The old man will do anything rather than die. He had rather play possum and live in the heart of a believer than to reveal himself and die. For while in the heart, though playing dead, he is constantly defeating the believer from having the victory that God wills. While in the heart even in a quiet condition, he is constantly sapping the vitality of the believer. As some unknown disease in the body weakens the physical heart, so he is weakening the heart of the saint. Therefore, the old man is satisfied to play dead with many who walk close to God. Yet he is very much alive. And the time usually comes when he comes to life in full vigor. It certainly behooves man, regardless of his profession of any state of salvation, to in all humility and honesty of heart pray: "Search me, O God, and know my heart." The old man together with Satan is too cunning and shrewd for man to overcome.