The “old nature” whom he tells them to put off has, in my opinion, been aged by wickedness. For, going constantly astray in his former way of life and in the desires of waywardness and acting like a beast in works of corruption, he himself suffers corruption and decay…. But the Word of God kills in such a way as to make the dead one come alive. He then seeks the Lord whom he did not know before his death. He does not corrupt but kills the old man. … As the outer man decays the inner man is renewed. .
This then surely is to learn Christ, to live rightly; for he that lives wickedly knows not God, neither is known of Him; for hear what he says elsewhere, They profess that they know God, but by their works they deny Him. Titus 1:16
As truth is in Jesus; that you put away as concerning your former manner of life, the old man.
That is to say, It was not on these terms that you entered into covenant. What is found among us is not vanity, but truth. As the doctrines are true, so is the life also. Sin is vanity and falsehood; but a right life is truth. For temperance is indeed truth, for it has a great end; whereas profligacy ends in nothing.
Which waxes corrupt, says he, after the lusts of deceit. As his lusts became corrupt, so himself also. How then do his lusts become corrupt? By death all things are dissolved; for hear the Prophet, how he says, In that very day his thoughts perish. Psalm 146:4 And not by death only, but by many things besides; for instance, beauty, at the adva...
As his lusts become corrupt, so does he himself. How do his lusts become corrupt? Everything is finally dissolved in death. Remember the psalm that says “in that very day” [of his death] “his thoughts perish.” “Beauty departs. It dies and decays at the approach of illness or old age. So does bodily vigor. Even luxury itself does not afford the same comfort in old age.” … Pleasures often are destructive. They end up being not really pleasures but bitterness and deceit and pretense, like a theatrical illusion. .
The apostle clearly identifies the old man. For he “put off the old man which belongs to your former manner of life,” not with respect to the decay of any substance. For he is telling us to put away not the flesh but those things that he has elsewhere shown to be oriented to the fleshly way of life, indicting not the body as such but its works.
When the apostle enjoins us "to put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind; and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness".
But the apostle mentions a very clear mark of the old man. For "put off "says he, "concerning the former conversation, the old man; ".
And just as we acknowledge that that which according to its former conversation was "the old man "was also corrupt, and received its very name in accordance with "its deceitful lusts "so also (do we hold) that it is "the old man in reference to its former conversation".
-he means the flesh and blood to be understood in no other sense than the before-mentioned "image of the earthy; "and since this is reckoned to consist in "the old conversation".
Nay, rather, by the virtue of contemning food He was initiating "the new man "into "a severe handling "of "the old"
