Old Adam – What Does This Mean?

Encore Post: The Lord’s Supper is a great gift to us. With bread and wine, Jesus gives us his Body and Blood to eat and to drink. This gift would be precious even if that was all there was to it. But God gives us much more in this Sacrament. He meets our greatest need — to be forgiven of our sins.

The greatest disaster that comes from Adam and Eve’s disobedience is that it separated them — and us — from God. Cut off from the source of life itself, it brought death to all of us. By giving his body on the cross and shedding his blood there, he paid the price for sin, earning us the forgiveness of sins and reconciling us with God. With the reason for our eternal death removed, the seal of the grave is broken. We are saved and will live with him eternally.

In Baptism, God applies these benefits to us. Yet our sinful nature remains in us. “The old Adam is a good swimmer,” the old quip goes. (no, Martin Luther likely did not say it!) Constantly harassed by the world and its temptations, the sweet lies of Satan and the lure of our passions, we sin often. The Lord’s Supper forgives our sins and assures us of God’s love for us. It is communion with Jesus in the most intimate way. It is as the ancient liturgy for anointing the sick, “bread for the journey.”

So, we receive this precious gift often. After all, Jesus is really present there. And where he is, there we also want to be.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blog Post Series

Encore Post: When the Holy Spirit uses his gifts to create faith in our heart, he does more than just change our minds. He creates a whole new person within us. (2 Corinthians 4:6, 5:17) Our new self, our new Adam or Eve, loves God, is thankful for the salvation he won for us when Jesus died on the cross and desires to do good works, serving God and our neighbors. Our new person produces truly good works, deeds done because we love God. The Holy Spirit makes us more and more holy through these things we do for him and produces his fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Yet, in this life, even though our old self, sometimes called by St. Paul the flesh, is drowned in the waters of Holy Baptism (Romans 6:3-4), it is not quite dead yet. Our old self seeks to serve ourselves and looks out for our own interests, to satisfy our bodily hungers and appetites rather than channel them to serve the way God made them. It seeks praise from the world and fills our hearts and minds with evil thoughts and desires. Every day in this life is a battle between our Old Adam and our New Adam, our Old Eve and our New Eve.

The Holy Spirit does not abandon us to fight this battle alone. He uses God’s law to remind us of our sin, the Gospel to forgive that sin, reminds us of our baptism and its power, feeds us with Christ’s Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper and uses the ears and the voice of the pastors he calls to care for us to hear our confessions of sin and forgive them with the sure promise of our Lord Jesus.

We are never alone, then. Our Counselor stays by our side, prays for us and calls to our mind and heart all that Jesus promised us. With him, we will grow holier until the day death finally kills the Old Person in us and we go with him to be with Jesus until the day the resurrection of all flesh.

Tag: Old Adam

Forgiveness of Sins, Life and Salvation

Old Man, New Man