I have heard it taught for years that we Christians still have the old nature, and we have to fight daily to maintain our equilibrium in Christ; however, we can never hope to get rid of this monstrous old nature in this lifetime. We are told that there is a white dog in us and, at the same time, there is a black dog in us. Who wins the battle? It all depends on which one we "feed" the most. Some years ago, I actually owned a small white Poodle and a large black Doberman Pinscher. In my case, the small white Poodle won because she was the oldest and, believe it or not, bossed the Doberman around. That is fun for me to think about, but this kind of erroneous teaching is very serious: it keeps us Christians in bondage, always striving to maintain the power of the white dog.
Some years back, several friends of mine and I went to Memphis, Tennessee, to visit a huge church. We three housewives were sitting in the office of a well-known and respected minister in that area. As I shared these union truths, the minister stopped me. "Are you saying that you believe that Christians today can really experience union with Christ and live without condemnation? Do you think that we Christians can really get out of the Romans 7 and experience the freedom of Romans 8?" I said, "Yes I do." He went on to say, "Don't you know that 98% of all teachers, preachers, and theologians don't believe that we will ever be free from the 'Old Nature' until we are in Heaven?" "Yes, I do know that false consensus, but it is not what the Bible says, and is therefore not true." The minister was amazed at the audacity of us women. So were we!
Romans 6:6-7 clearly says, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified WITH him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." Why would this minister say that we can never be delivered from the old nature if the scripture clearly says that we have been delivered through Christ's crucifixion? I believe it's presented that way by bible teachers because most can't explain why we Christians still feel and think things that are clearly not Christ. Therefore, the theologians make these verses in Romans only a positional benefit, but never a present tense personal experience. To me that is much more a "license to sin" than taking God's word for face value. Why? Because it keeps Christians always struggling with and fighting themselves, always trying to improve themselves through self-effort. The irony is that we actually sin more when we operate from fleshly self-effort. Self-Effort is the sin!
What we need is clarification on where the bad thoughts and feelings are coming from. Most theologians say they come from the old nature. The Bible says that the Old Nature is crucified with Christ therefore the old nature doesn't live any longer. Who is right? I think we better believe the Bible. The problem is that there is no discernment between soul and Spirit, that is, between our Spirit (nature) and our soul/body, or our flesh reactions. Our flesh is wide open to Satan's temptations and we spontaneously react to them. If you touched a hot stove, wouldn't you react? Well, since we are not condemned for having a bodily reaction, why are we condemned for having a soul reaction? Both are flesh reactions, and both are neutral, neither good nor bad. It is just a normal human flesh reaction. The problem doesn't lie in our having reactions; the problems lies in our lack of discernment and, as a result, what we do with these reactions.
Actually, we are blaming our flesh for the lies that Satan is continually pouring onto us from the outside. Satan even disguises himself as you and me, in order to defeat us through his accusations. He speaks to us in the "first person," making us believe that it is coming from our own minds and our own feelings. I personally believed these lies for years and needlessly hated myself for it, too.
What I hated most is that I couldn't change myself. Unknowingly, I automatically assumed that I ought to be able to fix myself, especially now that I was a Christian. Hadn't I managed myself for years? I thought that now that I was in Christ, I could do an even better job. Wrong--the lie again! My identity is not my flesh. My personhood is in my spirit where the Holy Spirit makes His home in me. Our flesh is only the means to express our Spirit union.
However, if we function from our soul as we have all our life, we will identify our soul to be "who we are." If that is true then John Denver's song, "Some days are diamonds, some days are stone," will be how we see ourselves. This is how Satan tricks us into believing that we still have the old nature. We are identifying ourselves to be our soul, and not our spirit joined to Christ. What a dilemma!
The answer to our dilemma is to take by faith that Christ has already delivered us from the old nature. Otherwise we are trapped in our soul reactions with no apparent way out. There is a way out, but not the way we think. The way out is what Christ has already provided for us at the Cross. The provision is yours, but if you refuse what is provided, then you are calling God a liar, and continuing in Satan's lie.
Why would God put Romans 8 in the Bible if it were only a carrot on a stick, dangling there to tease us with an impossible freedom, when in reality we can only have that kind of freedom in the eternal future? That makes God cruel. The minister in Memphis was stopped by my comments, but not convinced. Someday this truth will be common among God's people, but for now there is still much strife when these insights are presented.
The liberating truth in Romans 7:17 clearly reveals that the human is not the culprit: "It is not I that do it." Satan is the culprit, disguised as a big, able, "Independent I." Around and around we go trying and failing and ignorantly putting trust in ourselves, but all along being deluded by Satan's lie of self¬improvement. I always say that Romans 7 is a "lie"! It is the truth about Paul's experience, but he believes the lie concerning his identity. The fact is that "the Old Man was and is crucified with Christ, in order that the body of sin might be done away with" (Rom. 6:6). If you don't believe that fact, but instead believe the lie of independent-self, you are giving power to your tug-of-war experience. The tug of-war experience is happening because you are being deceived by Satan into believing in the power of "your supposed human abilities to conquer your besetting sins. And when you don't succeed you are condemned because you think you should be stronger or try harder. So we make vows to our self, or to God, to try even harder the next time. That makes us experience false guilt, and self hatred. The human ends up taking the blame as the guilty evil culprit because you think you should be more holy and good. So around and around you go spinning on the wheel of failure, frustration, and defeat. The whole premise of that kind of thinking is based on a big lie, or I should say, "THE BIG LIE."
The human is a derivative being, deriving its nature from the one who indwells it, because the human has no nature of its own. What does the word NATURE mean? The Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Creek New Testament written by E. W. Bullinger, says, nature is the "generative and productive power, i.e., the essence." Only a divine Spirit can have generative and productive powers from which the human can only derive its life. The human vessel was created to derive its nature or power source from the one who indwells it, either Satan or Christ, and not from itself. It is impossible for the human by itself to have and be its own generative power.
So does the Christian still have an evil human nature able to produce evil? If the human vessel has the power to produce evil, then there is a strong possibility that the human has the power to produce its own righteousness. Then why would we need a Savior at all? The human cannot contain but one nature at a time. The evil human nature supposed in Roman 7 is really Satan disguised as a good and performing me, and is not who we are. The power never comes from our might, nor our power, but by the divine power of Christ's Spirit within us.
