The Christian is a New Man — Tim Conway

Ephesians 4:22–24 and the New Man

We are going to be back in Ephesians chapter 4. Really the third message dealing with these three very critical, crucial passages dealing with our sanctification found in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22, 23, and 24.

Just for the sake of flow and context, let's start in verse 17. Now this I say, Paul is saying, this is Paul being carried along by the Holy Spirit to give us God's words. He's speaking to the church at Ephesus, to Christians.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They're darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. Now here's where we really get to the section of Scripture that we want to deal with today. That is not the way you learned Christ.

And I love the way Paul argues there. Why can't you live that way if you're a Christian? Because Paul's assuming if you're a Christian, you've been taught something of Christ. That's the automatic assumption behind this Apostle's words.

You have been taught by Christ. That is not the way you learned Christ. In other words, to live like Gentiles, like you formerly did. Assuming, verse 21, assuming that you have heard Christ, and were taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus.

And this is what He teaches. This is what you learn. To put off your old man, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt. The old man is corrupt through deceitful desires. And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.

And the passage we're specifically dealing with today is verse 24. And, so we're taught this, to put off our old man, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, verse 23, and verse 24, to put on the new man.

Created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So let's pray. Father, I do pray, as these are inspired words, this is Your Word, Lord. Grip Your people with what You want them to know.

Lord, certainly You want Your people to hear Your voice. These are Your words. You speak through them. Christ teaches us. We want to be brought into remembrance of what it is we've been taught by Christ.

Lord, we would have You to so act, to so work, that the realities of these verses would be a reality in our life, in our church. Lord, we need Your help. These passages deal with sanctification, and we know it is the will of God.

This is the will of God, even Your sanctification. The same apostle says somewhere else. Lord, sanctify us. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. May it wash us like water. I pray that in Christ's name.

Help us. Amen. So, brethren, right to the point. Verse 24, that's our focus. You can see the words, Paul knows. See, this is not up for debate. Paul knows this. True Christians are Christ-taught. What does that mean?

Christ Teaches His Sheep to Follow Him

That means that you have heard His voice. My sheep, they know My voice. They hear My voice. That is a reality. You can't get away from that. You say, I've never heard His voice. You're not a Christian.

That's plain and simple. You say, what do you mean, audibly? We hear it, brethren. We hear that. And those of us that have heard it, we know it. And no, it didn't come audibly. Not to most of us. I know you can look through history and you can find different things, but the reality is He speaks to us in our conscience.

He speaks in our heart. He speaks to us in a way that He makes Himself heard. He makes Himself known. And it's not just this ambiguous voice. This is the voice of a teacher. He's leading us somewhere.

He calls us to something. It's like He spoke the audible words to Levi, follow me, but He still speaks those words to us today. It's interesting. I mean, you may find this strange, but I think that you won't actually, maybe if you think about this.

The angel, I was just reading recently when we were down in Mexico, I read Luke and Acts. It was very strange that when the angel addresses Mary by name, Mary. It's like, it came to me as though you could have put Tim in there, that God, that reality that He was speaking to her by name and she was known by name.

And that's what happens. It's like, follow me, isn't just to Levi or to Peter or James or John. It comes home to us where it resonates with us, where yes, we read those words off the page and they may be spoken to somebody else, but suddenly in some mysterious way, they're spoken to us.

And we hear that we need to follow. And many things are taught to us as we think of Christ and we read Christ in the Scriptures. And Paul knows this is a reality. Every Christian has heard this voice.

Christ saves, Christ makes His voice heard. He teaches those who He saves. And you know what Paul's assuming? One of the things that every one of us who truly gets converted, we have been taught by this mysterious voice to put on the new man.

That's what he's assuming here. You see in verse 20, that is not the way you learned Christ. Verse 22, to put off your old man. Verse 23, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Verse 24, and to put on the new self.

We're not, I mean, Paul hasn't moved so far away from that teaching that you want to lose that reality. This is one of the things that he teaches us. Put off, put on. And the thing is, these two things must always be taken together.

He never teaches anybody to put off without also teaching to put on. And put on, put off, it's the idea of clothing. And you don't, look, is it possible in our human realm to actually put clean clothes on top of dirty clothes?

Yes, we could imagine such a scenario. But the reality is nobody does that. You don't do that. And that's the reality here. It's just assumed. The dirty clothes come off, the clean clothes come on. And that's always the assumption.

The assumption is you take off clothes and you don't remain without clothes. The reality is that there's never a situation in which a man is merely put off the old man. The Lord Jesus Christ has never taught us to live in a vacuum.

That's not possible. You see, the old man is corrupt. The new man is righteous. We're never called to be amoral. I'm not saying immoral. Amoral, just without. You're either corrupt or you're righteous.

And there's no in-between. There's no vacuum. Both of these have to happen. Both of these have to happen simultaneous. Man can't be neutral. There's no such thing. It's put off, put on, and they must be simultaneously.

And the thing is, if we try to live our lives, and you know we can do this. We can get to where we focus on one to the exclusion of the other. We can really become overly focused. And you know you can come under teaching that is overly focused on one.

You can come to churches or movements or denominations that will overly focus on one. And there's dangers. Neglecting either one is dangerous. I mean, you think about if the whole emphasis is put on putting off the old man, you don't think about putting on the new, then you know what you have?

You end up with this focus that becomes very self-examining. Do we need to examine ourselves? Yes, but can it become morbid? Can it become excessive? Yes, and if you've ever been around any circles like that, you know that is not a healthy environment.

It is an environment that can become legalistic. You've got your disciplines. You've got your certain rules. These certain movements, you got to be just like them. There's this hyper introspection. There's a morbidity that surrounds it.

People tend to lack assurance, legalism. And if you'll remember in Scripture, these people tend to lack assurance too. One of the things that I think is interesting that the Apostle John tells us is this.

John says, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him. You want assurance? Assurance doesn't come from just trying to put off the old man.

That's not what Scripture teaches. And people who become obsessed with that, people who become hyper introspective, they tend to neglect the world out there. They tend to very much focus on their own sin.

We need to look at our sin. There is a reality that we need to put off the old man. There is a reality that we need to be killing by the Spirit. We need to be killing the deeds of the body. That's a reality.

But if you do one to the exception of the other, it's unhealthy, it's dangerous. And then of course you can go to the other extreme. You never think about putting off the old man. It's all putting on the new.

It's I'm not going to trouble with the old man. And one of the things then is you're on this road to antinomianism. Now you don't care about righteousness. You don't care about the commandments that Christ has given.

I'm forgiven. What does the old man matter? I mean, it's the famous saying, it's no longer me, it's sin that dwells in me. Well, that kind of thinking, the old man gets excused. And that's not any good either.

Let's just be Christians. Let's sound like Christians. Let's do Christian things. Let's debate doctrine. But it's all a deception. You know what Scripture says? What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

And there's no fellowship between light and dark. And the reality is the old man is dark. He's corrupt. The new man is righteous and holy. True righteousness. True holiness. There's no fellowship between these two.

It's a deception to try otherwise. You can't put off the old man and not put on the new. And you can't put on the new without putting off the old. And to try to do otherwise, there might be some semblance of an appearance of it, but it's a deception.

They have to be simultaneous. Now, think with me. This is your life. This is your life. You've been taught to put on the new man. We need to be thinking about what this is. Obviously, put on. We've got symbolism going on here.

The word put on is exactly what it sounds like. This is a Greek word that has to do with clothing oneself or to dress oneself. The new man is portrayed to us like a piece of clothing to be put on. And Scripture gives frequent pictures of Christians being clothed with that which is not clothing.

The New Man as Righteous Clothing

In other words, Scripture is constantly talking about clothing oneself with that which is other than clothing. It's being used in a symbolic sense. Like think about this. Scott was reading in Revelation right there at the end.

Well, a couple chapters before he read, do you know what Scripture says? It gives us a picture of the Bride of Christ. Have you ever read that? The Bride of Christ is robed with fine linen which is pure and white.

It's beautiful. White and pure. They followed Christ on white horses. But you know, right in the same context, it says this, it says, it was granted to Christ's Bride, it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.

Now listen to this. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. The fine linen is. That's perfect metaphor right there. That's symbolism. We're being robed with righteous deeds. What's the significance of that?

What's the significance of clothing being likened to these righteous deeds and it's something we wear? I don't think it takes an incredibly high IQ to figure out our clothing. Think about clothing. I'm just thinking what is the significance?

And I'm just thinking what's the significance of clothing? The significance is, some people recognize clothing. You know, I come home from church and all the ladies are like, well, did you see what she wore?

And I don't have any idea what she wore. But the reality is that if I'm right here and I look at you, the vast percentage of your body area is covered by clothing. And that's just the reality. Especially if we're going to be modest Christians.

We walk around all the time. Basically, the only thing that shows on us is from the neck up and from the sleeve forward. That's what shows on us. The vast majority of it is covered. And when you look at somebody, if their clothing is bright, like if somebody came in here with this psychedelic red clothing, everything, well, that would jump out at you, right?

I mean, I remember a preacher that came over here from the east side. Remember the church on the move? Way back in the beginning. This guy had like red shoes, red suit. I mean, it jumps out at you. What does clothing do?

Clothing gives a sense. Certainly, it's that which is externally seen. Certainly, clothing is visible. Clothing covers. Clothing, it's enveloping. It's that which is identifying. You know, if a guy has a uniform on, you have some idea about if he has a police uniform on or a marine uniform on or whatever.

I mean, there's some kind of identification that goes with it. It is defining. Sometimes it's protecting. Clothing, you know, if you really start to think about it, it's like the Lord likes to use this kind of symbolism.

And you don't have to look very far. Just listen to some of them. In the Old Testament, the Old Testament Saint Job. I put on righteousness. You think about when that's used. Immediately, there is a picture of something.

I put on righteousness. Again, it's an idea of clothing. He says it. "...And it clothed Me.". What does it mean to be clothed with something? Enwrapped means as people look at you, that's what they see.

It gives you that external identity. He says, my justice was like a robe and a turban. It was like. Simile. We get these metaphors and these similes in Scripture. How about this? I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.

He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. Has covered me with the robe of righteousness. Of course, that's Isaiah. The Lord Himself speaking in Psalm 132 says, let your priests, and you know in the New Testament context, we are the priests.

Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. Isaiah says, "...of the Lord, He put on garments of vengeance.". For clothing. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing. What a picture! God clothed in garments of vengeance.

This is the way Scripture speaks. "...And He's wrapped Himself in zeal as a cloak.". So you get this idea of clothing, of cloaks, of robes, of turbans. The New Testament also abounds in this imagery. Just think, you know this.

Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Armor. I mean, that's one type of clothing. I mean, it's armor. Again, it's something that we cover the external of our body with. Or put on the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says in Romans 13.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. We're going to get to that in Ephesians 6. Having fastened on yourself the belt of truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, or 1 Thessalonians, put on the breastplate of faith and love for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

But here's the thing, I mean, just wait a second. This is external. Is this really the way that we want to view and envision Christianity? Just based on the external? I mean, who wants external religion?

And yet, Scripture repeatedly, over and over, talks about the Christian characteristics as being worn externally like clothing. I mean, a man can put on a police uniform and not really be a policeman.

Just external? I mean, besides, isn't the things that are mentioned here as being worn? You think about righteousness and zeal. You think about the love, the hope, the faith, the truth, the justice. These are the things.

Vengeance. God is clothed with vengeance. You think about all these things. Aren't these things really heart matters to start with? Why are they pictured simply as external? Well, certainly they are heart matters.

But here's the thing, show me a person who is really righteous at the heart level, whose righteousness doesn't break forth. I mean, that's the reality. Our Lord said it. The good person, think about what our Lord said.

The good person, do you know how that finishes? The good person out of the good treasure of his heart does what? Oh, don't you love those words? Brings forth. That always happens. And guess what the evil person does?

They bring forth. Now, sometimes it may be that the evil person brings forth hypocrisy and they try to look like something on the outside, but the reality is where you have the true thing on the inside, it's always going to break through to the outside.

And in fact, God means for what's inside to break through to the outside. Let your light so shine before men. Why? You see, God wants people to see it, that they may see your good works. They want to see the good break through on the outside.

That they give glory to God. God wants that. God says something very similar in 1 Peter, right? That the Gentiles, you want your conduct before the Gentiles to be what? Honorable. Why? So that when they speak evil, what's going to happen?

They see something. What do they see? They see your good deeds. And what do they do? They glorify God on the day of visitation. You see, that's the reality. God wants us to break out. Didn't Jesus Himself say, you know what guys, if you have love for one another, you're going to show all people that you're My disciples.

He means for it to be real. He means for it to be in here, but to break through to the outside. And you know what? What does Scripture say? They're known by their fruit. Because if you don't have it on the external, it's no good on the inside.

This is the reality of Scripture. Do you recognize God wants you to wear your Christianity on your sleeve? That doesn't mean He wants you to walk around performing in front of people and doing what you do to be seen.

But the reality is He does want you to be seen. What's your primary motive? Glorify God, not to be seen. But God wants you to be seen so that He is glorified. Right? He wants it to break through on the outside.

Colossians, put on then. Be robed with. Be clothed with. What? As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, you want to be robed with compassionate hearts, kindness. Did you get that? Put on a compassionate heart.

Wait, the heart's in here. How do I put that on on the outside? Well, because it breaks out. You can't help but show compassion on the outside. How do you put on a compassionate heart? It's clothing. I mean, this is a picture of what's outside, along with humility and meekness and patience.

He wants us to wear it. He wants us to be fully robed with it. Cover yourselves. Clothe yourselves. Put on the new man. That's what you're being told here. Now, I'll tell you what jumped out at me as I was looking at this.

There's one word that I just thought, wow. Well, let me tell you the word. Look at v. 24. Put on the new man created. That word just jumps right off the page at me. I'm not supposed to put on a performance or put on an idea.

The New Man as a New Creation

God created the heavens and the earth. He brought out of nothing something into existence that did not exist before. God is being set forth here as the creator of the new man. That is critical. Created.

In the same way that God created the heavens and the earth, God Almighty has exercised His divine power and has actually created something that did not exist before He created it. And what's it called?

It's called the new man. In other words, and He brings it out of nothing. He doesn't bring it from the old man. He doesn't just improve the old man. He doesn't renovate the old man. He is bringing something into existence.

Speaking something into existence that just wasn't there before. This is not just a new disposition. There is a new disposition. But it's not just that. It's not just a new way of thinking of things, even though when you're a Christian you do think differently and new.

Not just a new standing before God, even though we do have a new legal standing before God. There is an entire new man that's been created. When God creates something, you need to think about this. It is something.

I mean, there is a real new man that has been created in the life of every single genuine Christian. It is something. It is real. It exists. It has been. The question that we would ask is this. Where is it?

Where is the new man? And you can know this right off. Nothing about the new man has to do with the body. Oh, now the body becomes submissive. There's a new ruler at the helm. But this has nothing to do with the new body.

The new body is fading away. The old body is fading away. Your body is not redeemed. This body is dying. This is still in Scripture called the body of sin. But it's being brought to nothing. And I'll tell you how it's being brought to nothing.

By the fact that the old man has been crucified. The new man is now on the throne. But it has nothing to do with the physical body. The new man is entirely non-physical. And you have several texts. Because sometimes the new man is also referred to as the inner man.

And you know these texts. Though your outer self is wasting away. That's the physical body. Physical body wasting away. Over against our inner man who's being renewed day by day. Or you have this in Ephesians.

Just a chapter before. Paul is praying that God may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner man. There's the new man. It's that which is strengthened by the Spirit. It's that which is being renewed day by day.

The new man is the inner man in the Christian. But what's that? What's the inner man? Strip away your flesh. Strip away your body. It's who you are. It's everything that is inside. And we use all these different words.

Spirit. Soul. Heart. But it's you. As a man thinks. It's what's happening in your thoughts. In your affections. In your desires. It's your conscience. Your emotions. Your beliefs. It's the mind. It's your will.

It's you. It's who you are. The fact is you can cut off your arm. That hasn't changed who you are. You can whittle this body down. But the you is separate from that body. And that is what's new. It's a new man.

A new inner man. God crucified the old man. He killed him. He's brought something new into being. God has created. I mean, if you just think about yourself and who you are. You are a creational miracle of God.

He didn't just make you in the beginning. When you were born again, there is a recreation. Something massively new. The new man is not something that just slowly evolves out of the old man. It's not that.

It's not an improvement in the old man. It's creation. And Scripture specifically identifies it as a new creation. God has put a new man within me that was not there before. The Christian is not the old man improved.

The Christian is not someone who's merely trying to better themselves. The Christian is not somebody who simply makes a decision or who makes a resolution to change their lives. Something absolutely new has been put within me at the very center of who I am.

The new man is in you. That's where he is. That's where he dwells. Is the Christian just an ordinary person trying to live a better life than the majority? What we have to recognize is we are infinitely beyond that.

Infinitely better than that. God has done something. Now notice this. Notice what comes next. There's more. You see, just saying the new man is created by God falls short of what's actually being said here.

Notice. Yes, the new man is created by God, but that doesn't exhaust the reality that we find. Put on the new man created after the likeness of God. If you've got the New King James Version, it says created according to God.

Or the KJV says created after God. But the ESV is capturing this. After the likeness of God. The new man is created by God, but more than that, created to be like God. You know, one of the first questions you might ask is wait a second, we remember you were just preaching out of Genesis.

Isn't this a redundant thing to say? Because aren't all men created in the image of God? I mean, you ought to think about that. We ought to give consideration to that because the reality is when you go back to Genesis 1, this after the likeness of God is Genesis 1 language.

But you can't miss that. Listen to what it says in Genesis 1. God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. There's your terminology right there. Oh, with one exception, that plural pronoun our, we don't need to get into that right now, but the reality is that man was made after the likeness of God.

So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him male and female. He created them. Now, here's the thing, even when you go back to Genesis 1, man is not God. God existed forever.

Man is being created. God is not created. Man is created. The reality is man is not God. Man will never be God. God is not created. God will never be created. Man can never have an exact likeness to God because there are things that are true of God that can never be true of man no matter what.

And yet, there is a certain something about man that makes this verbiage a reality. I mean, God doesn't say that man is made after our likeness because there's no resemblance. Obviously, there is much resemblance.

Obviously, there's something that these words mean. What does it mean? It means that in some way, man is a created copy of God. That's what that language means. A created copy. How? In what way? And you know, the thing is, I don't even find this said about the angels.

Now, I don't know what God would say about the angels and we don't really have a whole lot of detail about the creation of the angels, but I can tell you this, in all the things that were created in those first six days, never was this said of any of God's other creations.

It wasn't said of whales. Whales are smart. It wasn't said of elephants. It wasn't said of dogs. I have a smart dog. But it wasn't said. It's only said about man. It wasn't said about stars and galaxies.

That means there's something true and essential about God that is true about man when he was made back there in the beginning. But I think the question we have to ask is wait a second, why are we now jumping to Ephesians 4 in the New Testament and we're finding that God is creating again because we know that this new man is something new being created.

Man is already there, but now something new is being created that brings man into this likeness of God. So what happened? Was God created man in the likeness of Himself back at the beginning, but now He creates us more like Himself?

Or what's going on? Why does this have to happen? The thing to think about is this, man is never made a God, but God created in man something that is a reproduction of something that is true in Himself.

And if you just start thinking, you can let your mind wander and ponder through all the Scriptures. What? God is Spirit. Now I know we're physical, but we are spiritual. We are spiritual and you don't find that that's a reality in the animals.

Obviously not in the inanimate objects that God created. What else can we say? I mean, God is immortal. And you know, we were made immortal. And even though sin came in, man is still going to exist forever.

And even in the beginning, he was made to live forever. It was sin that took that away. Man has an intellect. Man has a will. Man has a conscience. Man has a self-consciousness. I mean, even if you try to get a dog to look in the mirror, I mean, I guess they can.

They can see their reflection in something, but have you ever seen them? They think it's somebody else. They think it's another dog or bird. They'll try to peck at themselves. They don't have a self-awareness.

We do. Man has the power to think. He has the power to reason. God gave us dominion over all of this in the very beginning. God made man upright. And I don't just mean upright as far as righteousness.

We walk on two feet and you say, well, a gorilla can do that. Yeah, but a gorilla is not primarily designed to walk that way. Can he take some steps on two feet? Yes, but if you watch a documentary, they run around on all four.

The reality is we walk upright. That's not true of the animals. Man has a moral compass. So, man is in the likeness of God already. So what's with this new man? I think all you have to do is look at v. 24 to recognize what's with the new man.

The likeness that is found in the new man is true righteousness and holiness. And we know what happened in the fall. In the fall, that was lost. In the fall, that image of God in man was defaced because he became ugly.

He became distorted. He became more like the devil, a follower of the devil. He became one who did evil. Now the image of God wasn't destroyed altogether. He still bears, lost man, fallen man, still bears some of the marks of the image of God.

He can still think. He can still reason. He still stands erect. But that crowning likeness of God, righteousness and holiness, it's gone. And you know what the Scripture says? There's none righteous, no not one.

It's like when you look around, that is entirely void. They may be nice people, but they don't have any true righteousness or holiness. It's not there. The whole world. But when God causes somebody to be born again, that new man is created.

And this is the crowning characterization of the new man. This is the heart of what it means to have the life of God in the soul of man. The very essence of the image, the likeness of God. God is righteous.

God is holy. God causes men and women to be born again. This is the central reality. A righteous and holy new man. And this is real. And this is in you. God created it. If you've truly been born again, God created a new you that is truly righteous and holy.

And that is a reality. That is a fact. And nothing can ever undo that. Nothing can cloud that. A true Christian can wander into sin. A true Christian can grieve the Holy Spirit. But you cannot take away what God has created.

If God has created this in you, then it's real. If anyone is in Christ, He's a new creation. And Scripture doesn't say the old may have passed away or it might return. The old has passed away. If God has created this new man, the old has passed away.

You are a new creation. The new has come. That's what we know. And you know the thing that you have to ask is this, do you know this about yourself? I mean, do you realize what Paul is saying? You are being called upon to actively do something, to draw on something.

What you are being called to do is bring this new man that you are to the outside. You're to clothe yourself. And you've got the ability to do it because the new man's on the inside. And if you don't have the new man on the inside, it doesn't matter what you call yourself, what name you go by, if the new man is not on the inside, you'll never clothe yourself on the outside with him.

Everything you do on the outside will be hypocrisy. It won't be real. It'll be a deception. Christian, you need to realize this about yourself. Within you is such a man as is truly righteous. No matter how you feel, feelings can be very deceptive.

But if your faith, if your trust, is solely on the Lord Jesus Christ, you can know this reality about yourself. No matter how weak you may feel, no matter what you think, no matter what emotions you may have streaming through you, within you is such a man as is truly righteous, truly holy.

The Indwelling Spirit and the Power of the New Man

Now yes, your new lives, your new man, is couched in and enveloped by this, really what Paul calls the body of sin. The flesh. That's flesh. This is the unredeemed part of us. It wraps the new man. And you know what?

The old man was corrupt, so the old man corruptly gave himself to the deceitful lusts and passions of this body. But there's a new man on the throne. There's a new man at the controls. And so you have the ability now to take these members, and rather than giving in to sin and letting sin reign in your mortal body, you know what you have the ability to do now?

Present your members to the Lord. I am going to serve you with this hand. I am going to serve you with this mouth. I am going to serve you with this mind, with these feet. Because you can. There's someone new at the controls.

And back there in Romans 6, we looked at it several weeks back. It's to bring the body of sin to nothing. And Christian, do you know this? Do you know this reality about yourself that this new man has been created and is there?

Have you faced that reality? Because we need to be gripped by that reality. Every true Christian here needs to realize this. This new being is within you. You're no longer the old man. And the thing about it, one of the things that really strikes me about this is that the new man is never alone.

You say, what do you mean? I mean this, wherever you find the new man, you find God. And that's precisely what Scripture tells us. Listen to this. Paul is praying for these Ephesians in Ephesians 3. According to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit.