Old Man–New Man
Typological treatment in the corpus
Warnock sets forth the old man (Adamic nature, crucified with Christ) and the new man (pneumatic recreation in Christ) as fundamental typological transformation. This is not moral improvement or self-betterment but ontological recreation: the old Adam does not gradually fade but is crucified; the new man awakens as an altogether different kind, fashioned after God’s image in truth and holiness. The transformation is wholly pneumatic and sovereign—God’s work, received through faith.
Biblical Grounding
| Reference | Context |
|---|---|
| Gal. 2:20 | ”I am crucified with Christ; Christ lives in me” |
| Rom. 6:6 | ”Our old man was crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed” |
| 2Cor. 5:17 | ”If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away” |
| Eph. 2:15 | ”Creating one new man, making peace” (from Jew and Gentile) |
| Eph. 4:22-24 | ”Put off old man; put on new man created in God’s image in truth” |
| John 3:3 | ”Born again”; spiritual rebirth completed in pneuma |
Typological Interpretation by Author
Warnock (b9)
Warnock recognizes that traditional Christian moralism—self-denial, flesh-subduing—misses the point. The old man is not reformed but declared dead. From 2Cor. 5:17 and Eph. 2:15, he formulates:
“We do not call men to refurbish the old nature, nor to subdue the flesh through discipline. We proclaim the death of the old man and the creation of a new man in Christ—a new kind, fashioned after God’s image.”1
This points not to remoralization but to pneumatic rebirth. Gal. 2:20—“not I, but Christ”—is not psychological renunciation but juridical-ontological substitution. The old nature (Adam’s sin-heritage, mortality, bondage) is crucified; the new man (spiritually reborn, in Christ in his resurrection-life) appears wholly other.
Warnock repudiates every form of Pelagianism or moral self-betterment soteriology:
“The transformation is entirely God’s sovereign work, received through faith.”2
The typological structure: Adam (first man = type of descent) → Christ (Second Man, life-giving Spirit = antitype of resurrection and recreation). Where Adam brought mortality, the Second Man brings life.
Related Types
- Christ as Second Man: Last Adam (Second Man antitype of first man)
- Soteriological: Crucified (old man dies in Christ’s death)