25 May Embracing Your True Spiritual Nature
Blog Series:
Renew Your Mind ~ Transform Your Life
We are trying to understand something that many Christians do not understand: who we really are. Because we act consistently with our self-image, if we do not understand who we are, as Christians, we are hampered in our ability to live up to our spiritual potential.
Two weeks ago, we made the observation that when we became a Christian, we didn’t turn over a new leaf, but God turned over a new life, resulting in these profound changes:
- We were born again, spiritually: 1 Peter 1:3 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”
- We were created in the likeness of God: Ephesians 4:24 – “Put on the new self which, in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
- We are partakers of the divine nature: 2 Peter 1:4 – “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature…”
This is wonderful news, on the one hand. But on the other, it presents us with a conundrum: if we are born again, in the very likeness of God, partaking of the divine nature, how is it that we still sin?!?
Last week, we saw that Scripture does, in fact, teach that a Christian can sin and still be a Christian. Now this week, we look at how that can be, because instinctively it seems we would lose our salvation when we sin, and would then have to be saved again.
We are a righteous spirit still housed in an unrighteous body
The answer lies in an understanding of Romans 7:14-25, which teaches that our true self, our inner man, was born again in the likeness of God and does not sin, but our body (our outer man – the flesh), has not been born again, is still corrupted by the fall, and still sins.
Our holy and righteous spirit, the true “us,” is still housed… trapped, as it were… in an unredeemed body, corrupted by sin. It is the outer man that sins, not the inner man.
Paul describes this incongruous duality more fully in Romans 7:15–21 where he uses language that refers to the outer man and the inner man. So, I’ll compare the outer man and inner man as I read through the Romans passage:
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing (in the outer man) what I would like to do (in the inner man), but I am doing (in the outer man) the very thing I hate (in the inner man). But if I do the very thing (in the outer man) I do not want to do (in the inner man), I agree (in the inner man) with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it (in the inner man), but sin which dwells in me (in the outer man). For I know that nothing good dwells in me (in the outer man), that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me (in the inner man), but the doing of the good is not (in the outer man). For the good that I want (in the inner man), I do not do (in the outer man), but I practice the very evil (in the outer man) that I (in the inner man) do not want. But if I (in the outer man) am doing the very thing I (in the inner man) do not want, I (in the inner man) am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me (in the outer man).
I find then the principle that evil is present in me (in the outer man), the one who wants to do good (in the inner man). For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body (in the outer man), waging war against the law of my mind and making me (in the inner man) a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members (in the outer man). Wretched man that I am (in the outer man)! Who will set me (in the inner man) free from the body of this death (in the outer man)? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind (in the inner man) am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh (in the outer man) the law of sin.
This is why Paul said, in Romans 8:1, “There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Because those who are in Christ Jesus are already holy and righteous in the inner man, and all the sin is in the outer man, which is not going to heaven anyway.
Scripture puts sin in the outer man, not the inner man
So, notice the summary of where Paul puts sin:
- “Nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh ”
- “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body.”
- “Making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members ”
- “Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
- I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
So, in the words of Romans 7, sin is
- in the flesh
- in the members of the body
- in my members
- in the body of this death
- and in the flesh
John MacArthur said it well in his commentary on Ephesians:
“Biblical terminology . . . does not say that a Christian has two different natures. He has but one nature, the new nature of Christ. The old self dies and the new self lives; they do not coexist. It is not a remaining old nature but the remaining garment of sinful flesh that causes Christians to sin. The Christian is a single new person, a totally new creation, not a spiritual schizophrenic. It is the filthy coat of remaining humanness in which the new creation dwells that continues to hinder and contaminate his living.” [1]
So, he is saying that the Christian is a single new spiritual person, housed in a still-sinful body.
Then, MacArthur goes on to write that this new spiritual person does not sin:
“So righteous is this new self that Paul refuses to admit that any sin comes from that new creation in God’s image. Thus his language in Romans 6–7 is explicit in placing the reality of sin other than in the new self. He said, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body (6:12) and “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin.”
In these passages Paul places sin in the believer’s life in the body. In chapter 7 he sees it in the flesh. He says, “No longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me (v. 17), “nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (v. 18), “I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me (v. 20), and “…the law of sin which is in my members” (v. 23).
In those texts Paul acknowledges that being a new self in the image of God does not eliminate sin. It is still present in the flesh, the body, the unredeemed humanness that includes the whole human person’s thinking and behavior. But he will not allow the new inner man to be given the responsibility for sin. The new “I” loves and longs for the holiness and righteousness for which it was created.” [2]
Conclusion
Because of the fact that the inner man is holy and righteous, when a Christian dies, his spirit/inner man goes instantly to be with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). This person, in that nanosecond between leaving the body and being present with the Lord, does not have to be born again, again! Nothing has to happen to him between the death of the body and the union with the Lord, because when he was born again, he was created in the likeness of God, ready, from that moment, to meet Him face to face (Ephesians 4:24).
That is how we can still have sin in our lives, but not lose our salvation. Next week, we’ll look at how we live so that we (the inner man) gain increasing mastery over sin (in the outer man). See you then.
[1] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Ephesians (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1986), 164.
[2] Ibid., 178-179.
In case you’re new here
This blog post is part of a series titled “Renew Your Mind, Transform Your Life”, introduced on January 5, 2021. As the series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives at www.maxanders.com.
If you know anyone who you think might enjoy joining us in this study, please forward this blog to them and encourage them to go to my web site (www.maxanders.com) and sign up for the free video, “Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You”, available there on the home page. This will put them on my regular mailing list and they’ll receive my weekly blogs on this subject.
In addition, I am creating a new online membership site, The Change Zone, that will provide information, strategies and resources to help motivated Christians renew their mind and transform their lives. If you would like to learn more about this and get updates to know when The Change Zone will be available, click here.
I look forward to going through this life-changing journey with you.
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