The Old Nature…

What I’m about to tell you will literally change your life, that is if you have been struggling with trying to do “works” in order to earn God’s blessings in your life. All throughout the history of mankind a multitude of people have been caught in this trap. These are good people who care about the things of God and doing what is right in His sight. I’ll explain it as follows. Everyone who is born into this world is born with an old nature. The old nature is as old as the person is. After Adam lost his spirit connection with God as a result of the “fall” every person thereafter has been born without God and without hope in this world. The old nature, passed down from generation to generation, has contained within it sin in the bloodline extending all the way back to the first man, Adam. The old nature, because it has the seeds of sin within it, can never be improved upon or cleaned up by good works, good thoughts or good behavior. It is an impossibility. Enter the new nature. Once a person gets born again or born from above (Romans 10:9-10) they receive God’s spirit inside of them. The newly created spirit inside of them carries within it a new nature. The new nature is perfect and cannot be improved upon, neither can it be corrupted or polluted in any way. The new nature has no sin in it nor can it sin. Now the Christian finds himself with two natures, one old and one new. These two natures are in a perpetual battle for supremacy. However, the new nature is the ultimate winner in the contest because it results in eternal life for the believer while the old nature only leads to death. The new nature came from God and the old nature came as a result of evil.

So why does this even matter? What about knowing the reality of this is so life changing? It matters because you and I can never do anything to improve our old nature. The apostle Paul said that he knew that in him, in his flesh, in his old nature dwelled no good thing. So why are Christians with God’s perfect, new nature inside working so hard to clean the old nature up? This, sadly, is the very essence of the commandments and doctrines of men frequently referred to as religion. Religion, if you haven’t noticed already, carries with it a litany of things people must do in order to be approved by God. Touch not, taste not, handle not! The focus of religion will always be what men do, rarely what God did. And while someone may be considered to have a “good character” or even good morals, the essence of religion will always be to try and clean up the flesh and make the flesh bring forth spiritual fruit. However, no-one, no religion, no set of principles or codes has the potential to make something inherently evil, good. It is impossible. Can you imagine spending a lifetime battling with sin and committing yourself to lofty, arduous rules and regulations only to find out that in God’s eyes your efforts were in vain because you chose to do it your way instead of doing it His way?

God’s solution to this dilemma was in providing a way out for man. He knew that man’s old nature was corrupted and could in no way be made incorruptible. So He gave His only begotten son, the perfect for the forever imperfect to pay the ultimate price for sin and the consequences of sin. And in so doing solved the sin problem for mankind. By believing in His son’s completed work and accepting his sacrifice for sin led to man being able to get born again complete with a new nature inside. And with that God forever solved the sin problem for us. Once we got born again, God considers our old nature as being dead, in that when Jesus died on the cross, our old sin nature died with him. From that day forward no man or woman has to do anything in order to earn God’s favor or to escape His wrath. Both were accomplished in the work of His son. Now the believer is forevermore righteous in God’s sight and will never come into condemnation or judgment from Him, not because of what man did or does, but because of what God did! That is God’s way which always contradicts the works of the flesh.

This being said, and truer words were never spoken, mankind is still left with a battle inside of himself. The battle is between the desires of the old nature versus the desires of the new nature. The two natures are diametrically opposed one to another. God’s solution for us? Put off the old man and put on the new man! Simple. We are never instructed to try and make our old nature into something good. It is impossible. All of that garbage we have been caught up in, following the promptings of the accuser, is dead, pointless works. Those works can never bring about what God already did! This is what sets us free to love God and to serve Him. Outside of this we can never serve Him for we will find ourselves perpetually enslaved to all that is not right about us. We will seek out a religion that promises to outline a set of rules we can follow in order to “get there” and with much hard, impossible work we will find out it is not enough. It was never enough because that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Because of what God did you can finally take the focus off yourself and all of your sin and shortcomings and failures. As Galatians aptly says, having begun in the spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh? This is God’s solution for mankind and the end of sin for the believer. Sure your old nature will still sin, have you noticed? But God considers your old nature now dead and thus will never judge you for what the old nature does. It’s almost impossible to believe, but by golly it’s true!

Gone are the days where you have to whip yourself and live in continual condemnation and guilt for the effects of your old nature. Again the Apostle Paul said, when I would do good evil comes. The good which I want to do, I don’t do. But, that which I hate, that I do! (Romans 7) Finally he exclaims, who will deliver me from this dead body? In other words, he is lamenting the existence of the old nature he has to drag around as long as he has this old body. But, God will deliver him and us because at the return of Christ we will get a new body, one without sin programmed in it. What glorious freedom God has given us. We no longer have to live our lives under the thumb of the adversary and his whole sin game. Yes, we are still going to blow it at times. Yes, we are going to go south on occasion. But, God’s solution isn’t to cover ourselves in sackcloth and ashes crying over our dreadful ways, languishing in guilt and condemnation. His solution is to simply put off the old man (in your mind, by your free will) and put on the new man created in true righteousness. God already knew that you and I could never do this on our own. We didn’t even have a fighting chance. So He made a way out for us and set us free from the claims of sin and all of its horrible consequences.

Folks, knowing this will change your life. Now you can stop working so hard to earn something God already gave you! You are, in His sight, as sinless as Jesus Christ himself. You will never come into judgment from God no matter what dastardly deeds you did, because you didn’t do it, your old nature did and it is DEAD! Now you can live and enjoy your new nature no matter how many times you may have blown it and will still blow it in the future. Put all of those dead works behind you that glorify men and not God. Stop trying to earn something God freely gave to you already. Put on your new nature and enjoy this life God has blessed you with… There is no other way.

Just some good thoughts.