God creates the new man, as Paul makes clear when he states that God formed in Himself one new man from the two, reconciling physical Israelites and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:15). Paul further commands Christians to put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). In his letter to the Colossians and Laodiceans, Paul reiterates this, instructing us to put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of God who created him (Colossians 3:10). The new man, when first established in us by God, is immature and inexperienced, requiring our cooperation with God, the founder, to ensure growth and maturity. The new man matures through the renewal of the mind, a process Paul describes as being transformed by renewing the spirit of our mind (Ephesians 4:22-23). This renewal, a renovation to a different state, is our responsibility, as Paul exhorts us to transform ourselves by renewing our mind to prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2). This transformation of character occurs day by day as we become less conformed to this world through our active effort. We renew our minds by obeying God's law, which reflects His character and nature. Paul consistently describes the new man in terms of expected behavior and conduct. In Colossians 3:10, after commanding us to put on the new man, Paul instructs us to exhibit tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering (Colossians 3:12). In Ephesians 4:24, after urging us to put on the new man, Paul provides specific instructions for Christian conduct, such as putting away lying and speaking truth with our neighbor (Ephesians 4:25). He describes this as walking in newness of life, a pervasive theme in Ephesians, where the new man walks worthy of the calling, conducting himself according to God's Word (Ephesians 4:1; Romans 6:4).

God initially installs the new man within us, and it is our responsibility to nourish him. The new man is manifested in our conduct, reconciled to God and man, circumcised of heart, connected with the New Covenant, and adopting him is a matter of choice on our part. When we are baptized into Christ, as Paul states in Galatians 3:27, we put on Christ, sinking into Him, and that is when God first establishes the new man within us. Paul connects this putting on of Christ with reconciliation, emphasizing that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus. Similarly, in Colossians 3:9-11, Paul admonishes us to put on the new man, highlighting reconciliation where Christ is all and in all. Although we are to put on the new man, clothing ourselves with Christ's mind, it is Christ who clothes us with His Father's promise, the Holy Spirit, empowering us to overcome satan's deceptions and our reticence to change. As true Christians, we have tasted both the old and the new, rejecting the old man's walk in favor of the new man's way of life, which is better, different, and incompatible with the old ways. Preferring the new, we are in the process of making for ourselves a new heart, striving to walk steadfastly in that new way, true to the better covenant we have made.

The concept of the new man is central to the Christian journey, as it embodies a transformation from the old life of sin to a renewed existence in righteousness. Every Christian is a new man, no longer bound by the old life of sin and slavish obedience to human nature, but set free from sin to become slaves of righteousness. This new man, being a new creation, is to be renewed in mind and conduct, embarking on a walk toward perfection. The renewal of the new man is deeply tied to the idea of spiritual circumcision, not of the flesh, but of the heart and mind. The new man is new because he has obeyed God's command to circumcise the foreskin of his heart, being renewed in the spirit of his mind. This renewal parallels the institution of the New Covenant, where God promises a new heart and a new spirit within, enabling the new man to walk in His ways. Paul consistently uses the metaphor of putting on clothes to describe adopting the Christian way of life. He commands us to put off the old man with his deeds and to put on the new man, likening this to choosing daily what to wear. This choice is ongoing, as we must repeatedly decide to adopt and maintain the Christian way of life, feeling so at home with the new man that we refuse to take it off for any reason. The analogy of clothing underscores that Christianity is a way of life, a daily decision to walk in newness. The creation of the new man is a collaborative effort between God and man. God initiates by creating the new man and compelling us to choose whether to adopt him, while we demonstrate this adoption through our conduct. Both God and man work together over a Christian's lifetime to develop the new man. God commands us to circumcise our hearts, yet He also promises to perform this circumcision, showing that righteous character is built through cooperative labor. We make ourselves a new heart by keeping His law and doing His commandments, preparing ourselves as living sacrifices for the promises of the New Covenant. Paul emphasizes this partnership, urging us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, while reminding us that it is God who works in us to will and to do for His good pleasure.

As members of God's new creation, the unity He is building must deeply affect our thinking and actions. In the new order of things, as described in Colossians 3:10-11, distinctions such as Jew and Gentile, male and female, no longer exist for those who have put on the new man. For those oriented over-the-sun, these old pairings are no longer spiritually valid, though they persist in the physical order. The implication is that these divisions will completely dissolve when the physical melts away, at the time God creates the new heaven and the new earth. As new men, we are part of this new creation, characterized by unity, peace, and fellowship with the Father, with His Son, and with each other.

In the closing verses of Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul urges the Ephesian members to put off the old carnal man and to put on the new converted man, emphasizing this as his primary instruction. He focuses on conduct as an expression of the new righteous life received through regeneration, encouraging a personal and intimate concern for their spiritual state after verse 30, where grieving the Holy Spirit is addressed. Paul instructs them to put away bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice, presenting these as characteristics of the unconverted world that must be renounced and rejected, even as they may creep into converted lives. Paul provides specific guidance to overcome these negative traits by cultivating positive virtues. In verse 32, he exhorts them to become kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving, emphasizing a deliberate process of cultivation. Kindness involves being useful and helpful to others, contrasting with the bitterness that detracts. Tenderheartedness calls for compassion and understanding from the depth of one's being, opposing the hardness of the unconverted heart. Forgiving others, as the opposite of malice, requires acknowledging wrongs done and extending mercy, mirroring how God in Christ has forgiven them. Paul stresses that the new qualities of kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness push out the old carnal traits, much like new growth on a tree displaces dead leaves. He underscores that this transformation does not happen automatically but through active effort and cultivation. The motive for this change is to become like God, who is kind even to the unthankful and evil, and to reflect the forgiveness already granted by God in Christ. This call to put on the new man is rooted in the recognition of God's mercy and the responsibility to extend the same to others.

As Christians, we are called to a transformative journey, one that involves casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light, as urged by Paul in Romans 13:12. This act of putting on is not merely physical but deeply spiritual, symbolizing our commitment to embody the virtues of Christ. In Colossians 3, Paul expands on this metaphor, instructing us to put off the old man with his deeds—sins such as anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy language—and to put on the new man, renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created us. This new man is characterized by tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, forgiveness, and above all, love, which is the bond of perfection. The goal of putting on Jesus Christ must be at the forefront of our aspirations, a lifelong endeavor that aligns with wearing the armor of light, a symbol of truth that illuminates and guides us. As we diligently adopt the attitudes and actions of Christ, the weaknesses and sins of the old man will gradually fall away, for the heavenly and the earthly cannot coexist indefinitely. With persistent effort, putting on the new man will become as natural as dressing for the day, shaping us as we prepare for eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

After conversion, God's chosen people must put off the old man, characterized by carnal human nature, deceitful desires, darkness, anger, and wrath, which remains hostile to God and His law. They must then put on the new man, the regenerated nature created in God's image, by clothing themselves with righteousness, light, love, truth, and tender mercy, thereby appropriating the mind of Christ. This process requires continual renewal of the mind through a fresh spiritual attitude focused on godly values, as Paul instructs in Ephesians 4:22-24 and Romans 12:1-2, where believers present their bodies as living sacrifices and refuse conformity to the world's superficial customs. The transformation occurs through the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth received after repentance and baptism, which guides into all truth, convicts of sin, and provides direct access to the mind of God. Protection from deception and satanic influence accompanies this renewal, as believers are sanctified by ingesting God's Word, which is living and powerful. The new man manifests as light in a darkened world, displaying good works that glorify the Father and preparing saints for immortality in the God Family. This putting on of Christ integrates with the broader sanctification process, demanding incremental growth in spiritual gifts, resistance to lawlessness, and daily commitment to truth over the lies prevalent in surrounding cultures.

The contrast between human society and the certainty found in God reaches its practical application in the command to put off the old man and put on the new man. Society remains trapped in the futility of its mind, darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God through ignorance and the blindness of the heart, and given over to lewdness and greed because it refuses to submit to the sovereignty of God. This old man grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts and reflects the same pattern of rebellion that began with Adam and Eve, leading nations and individuals to trust human reasoning, philosophy, education, and political systems that ultimately collapse. The renewal that reverses this condition occurs only through the power of the Holy Spirit acting on the human spirit. It requires a clean break with former conduct and a complete reorientation of the mind so that the individual no longer walks according to the ways of the Gentiles. The new man is not the old nature refurbished but an entirely new creation formed according to God in true righteousness and holiness. This new self bears the image of its Creator spiritually, manifesting His love of right and His repugnance of sin, and is free from the contamination of the world. Putting on the new man flows directly from the message of truth, hope, and faith centered in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because God has appointed a day of judgment and has given assurance by raising His Son from the dead, those who receive this certainty are enabled to order their conduct aright. They are no longer driven to seek some new thing but instead possess the assurance that comes from being related to God, knowing how to live, how to die, and how to face eternity. The new man therefore embodies the very certainty Paul proclaimed in Athens and supplies the only lasting alternative to the uncertainty and dissatisfaction that characterize every society built on human foundations.

The Creator formed humanity as a physical prototype of the God Being, endowing natural abilities that foreshadow the spiritual gifts implanted at baptism and the laying on of hands. These gifts supply the will and power to keep God's holy law, develop godly character, and ultimately mirror the spiritual stature of Jesus Christ, the second Adam. The earnest payment of the Holy Spirit contains the genotype of the Tree of Life, which matures through sanctification into the full phenotype of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, the purest expression of the law inscribed on the heart. Because male and female together reflect incomplete aspects of the composite God Being, the marriage covenant teaches each partner the godly traits the other lacks. After the fall, humanity inherited a duplicitous nature from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, producing a carnal mind hostile to God and coexisting with the implanted Spirit. This double-minded condition requires continuous warfare against the old man. Through rigorous appraisal of the deceptive heart, mortification of the flesh, and partnership with God as junior apprentices, the saints systematically root out evil behaviors and build godly character. The process culminates in putting on the new man, freeing the called from the law of sin and death and enabling single-minded alignment with God's purpose. This single-mindedness yields the peace that surpasses understanding and fulfills the Great Commandment, as the Spirit of truth guides the saints into all truth and sanctifies them in the Word.