The Believer's Two Natures

 

Pulling in two directions.

1. The need for the New Nature.

2. What God says about the Old Nature:

a. It cannot please God - Psalm 51:5; Ephesians 4:22; Romans 8:8; Jeremiah 17:9

b. It cannot obey God - Mark 7:21-23; Ephesians 2:2.

c. It cannot understand God - 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 1:18; Romans 3:11.

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Someone has drawn a picture of a wagon with a horse hitched to the front and another horse hitched to the back, both pulling as hard as they can. Of course, they cannot get anywhere. In a tug of war you do not go very far just back and forth. There is a tug of war in the Christian's life, and the only one who can stop it is the Holy Spirit.

Everyone is born with sin in his heart. When a baby is very, very tiny, you cannot see the sin, and the baby does not do anything wrong. But the sin is there, hidden in his heart, and before he gets much bigger it will show forth. We think some people are very bad; others seem to be very good. But God does not see that goodness. He says that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6). One day there came to Jesus a man who seemed to be very good. He was respectable, for he was a teacher. Probably he was one of the best men in Jerusalem. He came to the Lord Jesus at night, and wished to talk with Him. The very first thing that Jesus said to him was Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). All Nicodemus goodness was not enough. Jesus said he must be born again. Why is this? Why must a person who has never done any thing which seems terrible, be born again? What did Jesus mean?

 

The answer is this: Everyone is born with an old nature. This old nature is sometimes called "the flesh.” That does not mean the flesh of the body, but is the name used for what we are before we believe in the Lord Jesus. This old nature may be educated, and trained so that it does not murder or steal or even lie, but that does not make it good. God says there is nothing good about it. It cannot please Him. Because of this, He wants us to have a new nature that can please Him. That is what He means by being born again. The first time you were born you became alive. But even though your body was alive your soul was dead. When Adam and Eve sinned their souls died, just as God has said For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:17). God wants you to be alive, and so He tells you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you do, He gives you a new life. He does not patch up the old one.

 

The things that God says about the old nature, the flesh, are not at all pleasant. He had to speak very plainly about it, for if He did not, people would think they could patch up their old nature enough to please God. First He says that the old nature cannot please Him. (Discuss the passages under 2a) Even if one who was not saved should give money to a poor man, the Lord would not be pleased, for it would be the old nature that would be doing it, and as long as one does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing that he can do is good.

 

Then the old nature cannot obey God. That is why we cannot save ourselves. (Discuss passages under 2b.)

 

The old nature cannot understand God. Some people say that the Bible seems foolish to them. That is because they do not have the new nature. The natural man that is, the one who has only the old nature cannot understand the Bible, or any of the things about God. If a person says that the cross, and the Lord Jesus dying for our sins seem foolish to them, you can be sure that that is because they have only the old nature. They are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18).

 

But when we have been born again, we receive the new nature, which can please and obey and understand God. All this God gives us when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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