Life On The Highest Plane
These two natures co-inhabit every believer. This truth is repeatedly brought out in 1 John. John wrote to those believers as though he did not expect them to sin because they had within them this God-inspired, God-begotten nature.
1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not."
Yet he made full provision for their sinning because they had within them this satan-inspired, devil-begotten nature.
1 John 2:1, "And, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
God makes no attempt to change or to improve the old nature because it is unchangeable and unimproveable. Cultivation through education and travel do not change it one iota but simply clothe it in a more refined and respectable costume. God makes no attempt to subject it for it is incorrigible and irreconcilable. Government and laws may keep it partially suppressed but but it is planning and secretly executing a world-revolution against God and His government, and stands ready to break out in vehement action at every favorable opportunity. God makes no attempt to eradicate it because He has a far more wonderful way of conquest over this sinful nature which we shall soon consider.
The Conflict of These two Natures in Every Believer
To admit the co-existence of these two diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive natures is to admit the necessity of fiercest conflict. It is indeed the age-long conflict between satan and Christ with the believer's inner life as the battlefield. It is Self contesting Christ's right to His purchased possession.
This conflict is personalized in the spiritual experience of the Apostle Paul. He has been reborn, he was justified and sanctified in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus had come in to possess His possession and to take control. But there was one who contested His right. A conflict ensued between the old Saul and the new Paul. Two antagonists were fighting a deadly battle for a coveted prize. Romans seven pictures a Christian torn to pieces by this awful conflict and baffled and discouraged beyond words by it all. He wonders if there is any possible way into victory and rest.
It is this conflict which staggers many a young Christian and often causes a total eclipse of faith or a gradual backsliding into the world. He took the first step into the Christian life because his conscience was awakened to the evil of his doings. His chief concern was for his sins. He had been convicted of the sinfulness of acts and habits, and felt a sense of guilt because of them. He came to Christ and accepted Him as Saviour that he might be rid of certain sins. In the realization of forgiveness and the assurance of pardon he experiences great joy and gladly witnesses for Christ.
But he soon finds himself doing the old things again; and evil habits persist; the sinful disposition manifests itself in hydra-headed fashion; wicked practices return; worse than all, the joy in fellowship with Christ lessens; the heart grows cold; the spirit is dulled; he grows utterly discouraged. But his love for God has not been altogether quenched and flames up into intense desire under the inspiration of some message from God's Word or by the glimpse into a life which reflects peace and joy. Something in him cries out for God while another something contests every inch of God's claim upon the life. He is wholly nonplussed by this duality within himself.
Something within him will not let him release his hold upon God. Consequently he strives against these sins, agonizes over them, prays for release, makes every effort possible within his own power to get victory. But in spite of all he does his life is a kingdom divided against itself. Then something tells him it is no use trying to live a victorious life and he may as well give up. Over and over again he asks himself the question "Is it all worth while?" He tries even to persuade himself that the man who makes no profession of Christ is much happier than he. But one day when on the very verge of absolute despair he cries out of deep heart desire for deliverance, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
What seems like this utter downfall is really his hour of deliverance for it is the time of abject self-despair to which he had to come before God could step in and open before him the way of deliverance.
Dear friend, are you living in Romans seven today? Are you worn out with the conflict? Do you wish to know the way out? Then just close this article for a moment and tell Him so; then open it and ask Him to show you the way out into conquest and victory.
The Conquest of the Old Nature
God gives to us very clear and definite instruction regarding our part in the dethronement of this usurper Self and the enthronement of Christ as sole Possessor and only Ruler over His inheritance in us.
We must condemn the flesh. God condemns the flesh as altogether sinful (Romans 8:3); He sees in it "no good thing" (Romans 7:18); and no Christian will ever have conquest over it until he accept God's estimate of it and acts accordingly. This may seem like an easy thing to do but on the contrary it is exceedingly difficult. God's standard is very exacting. He says there is "no good thing" in the flesh. God says that "the flesh" both at its center and circumference is sinful; He condemns both its innermost desires and its outermost deeds (Ephesians 2:3, Col. 3:9), and declares that it is unworthy of any confidence on our part. The first step which the Apostle Paul took to the life on the highest plane was this - to condemn as unsafe, unclean and untrustworthy, the flesh which formerly he had so highly regarded.
Phil. 3:3-4, "For we re the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more."
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 3
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