My devotions again lead me to Scripture about the new birth. This new life is produced by Jesus Christ in the heart of those who believe in Him. As the following verses say, this new life is evidenced by sincere love for other Christians.
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. (1 Peter 1:22-23)The term ‘born again’ is not used often in the Bible. Jesus talked to a Pharisee in John 3:3-8 about his need for new life and used this phrase. Other passages use terms like being “dead in sin” and the need for life to be “renewed” by the Holy Spirit, or “the washing of regeneration” which convey the idea of how a Christian experiences a remaking of who they are, or a birth or entrance into the family of God and thus becoming the “children of God” and “new creations” as described in yesterday’s post.
My reading today again emphasizes that when I became a Christian, I was not remodeled nor added to, but transformed. Then it says, “Christians don’t have two different natures; we have one new nature, the new nature in Christ.”
The author goes on to say that our old self dies and the new self lives; they do not coexist. That stumped me. I know that Romans 6 says that I died to sin and need to consider myself to be dead to sin and alive to God. However, it also says to not let sin rule my life or have dominion over me. Romans 7 describes the struggle of the sin nature to rule as if it is alive, and yet says we have died to sin.
Ephesians 4:24 also tells me to “put on the new man” which I understand is the new behavior that goes with my new life. Christians are also told to “put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” (Colossians 3:5), also about behaviors that are from the old life.
My question is, if the old nature is dead, what or who performs these sinful behaviors?
Perhaps one key to this puzzle is the definition of dead and death. The typical thought is dead means inanimate, unable to do anything, no life in it. But what if death is more about being separated from God? What if being dead simply means unable to connect with Him?
The Bible talks about people who are “dead in sin” yet they still walk about. These people are separated from God and eternal life by their sin. Unless they repent and God washes away their sin, they will remain dead in it, and when their physical bodies die, they will remain separated from God for eternity. They have physical life, but no spiritual life.
If that definition is used in the above verses, then my old nature is dead but it can still walk about. It can still do things and everything that it does is sinful. That is why it is separated from God and cannot be in harmony with Him. That is also why I must consider it dead and reckon and remember that nothing it does has any eternal value.
In rethinking that statement that “our old self dies and the new self lives; they do not coexist,” I have to disagree, not so much on principle but on terminology. A dead thing can exist beside a living being, but that dead thing is not in the kingdom of God. It is not godly, nor can it do anything of eternal value. It can do harmful things, or useless things at best, but is separate from God and all that God loves and desires. I’m to consider that my old nature is dead in that sense.
Also, I’m to consider myself dead to sin. That means I am separate from it and no longer responsive to it just as a physically dead person can no longer respond to any stimuli. I’m to put off the deeds of that old nature and not allow it to have any input in my life. All those things are useless to God and have no value to Him or to me.
The idea of a new birth is that God did transform who I am. The person left behind in that transformation was dead to God (separated from Him) and still is. It may look like me, and may take actions that seem to be coming from me, but the Bible says I’m to remember that stuff is dead, separated from God.
Instead of paying attention to my evil twin who is merely a shadow, I’m to give all my attention to that new creation, the new life Jesus gave me. That means I must do whatever He asks me to do, be responsive to Him. My obedience will not only reinforce the atrophy in that dead evil twin, but also feed, nourish, encourage, and give strength to the new life He has given me.
3 comments:
When we are buried in Christ (then resurrected with Him) as it says in Rom 6, the old self is entirely gone, but there is still a spiritual battle (Eph 6) and so we have to continually and diligently choose to walk in the Holy Spirit, and ask for more of the Spirit, so that the spiritual realm (which often drifts into the physical realm) will not affect us (Gal 5:16).
We must not quench the Spirit by going to battle without Him. The Holy Spirit is the person of the trinity that is physically available to us—Jesus intercedes for us from the throne room and the Father hears and sees all that we do, but the Holy Spirit is with us ALL the time just waiting for us to talk directly to Him and to invite Him to come more fully into our hearts. There is no one more ignored than the Holy Spirit—just think over your life, how many times a day do you say, “Holy Spirit, what do you think about ___?” Even Christians who address Him by name tend to engage their minds with ‘secular’ thoughts a certain percent of every day. This is why Paul exhorts the Ephesians to “pray at all times in the Spirit” directly after speaking of the spiritual battle and the spiritual armor that must be worn to resist and it! When we truly begin to “take every thought captive” (2 Cor 10) we realize that deceptive spirits talk to us a great deal and we must be diligent in filtering all our thoughts through the Holy Spirit and casting those others to the obedience of Christ.
Similarly, Luke 11 talks about seeking the Holy Spirit diligently. It says that if we were to ask a friend for bread (and we really needed the bread) that we would keep knocking and asking until he gives it to us. The Lord promises that as a good Father He will also give the Holy Spirit in abundance to those who ask (Luke 11:13). It is a harmful mistake to believe that all of the Holy Spirit is available to us the moment we are justified in Christ and baptized in the water baptism of repentance (Mat 3:11; Eph 4:5—we only need this one baptism to be justified in Christ for salvation). The Lord will only give us as much the Holy Spirit as we can handle and as much of Him as we want, so we must continually ask Him to baptize (fully immerse) us in the Holy Spirit (a baptism of power, which is necessary for our sanctification, 2 Thess 2:13, and manifests itself as Paul describes in 1 Cor 12) and in fire (refining) so we can walk at all times in the Spirit as our Lord, and perfect example, Jesus Christ, asks us to walk.
True, yet if the old self is "gone" what or who then is guilty when a Christian sins? My post is to ponder whether that new nature that is wholly united to Christ can fall into sin, or is it the flesh?
I know the battle and how to win it in the power that Christ gives. I also know my continual need of Holy Spirit power. Praise God that He gives victory.
Thanks for your comment.
I just read your blog and wanted to put this in here too. "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:15,16) "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26:41)
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