The Two Natures in the Believers

For: Gordon Hayhoe (1911-2003)

We are told in Rom. 8:23 that we must wait for the redemption of our bodies, which is at the Lord’s coming, but we can rejoice in the present knowledge that God has put away our sins through the precious blood of Christ, and also in what He has done about that fallen nature in us (called the “old man”).

The more one desires to please the Lord, the greater will be the conflict within, until we, like Israel of old, “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Every spiritual blessing is a gift, not attained by our own efforts. It is the knowledge of His love and of what He has done for us that constrains us to live unto Him.

“The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Rom. 8:16.

The Lord Jesus Christ said, “Ye must be born again.” John 3:7, and I would like to speak about this very important subject and about the two natures in the believer and why it is that the believer sins. The Bible shows us this. It is very blessed for us to know that God has not only forgiven our sins but He has brought us into a new position before Him. The Scripture explains to us that He has done in connection with that old sinful fallen nature which we all received by our natural birth, and how He has given us a new nature with new desires so that we might walk before Him in holy liberty.

There is much in this third chapter of John about the necessity of this new birth. Today there are many people that think of the new birth as a kind of change that takes place in one’s life, what they call a Christian experience when you make a change in your way of life. But when the Bible talks about new birth it is because God actually gives to the one who believes on the Lord Jesus, a new life. It is not the improvement of the old one, but a new one—born from above—and this is what the Lord was bringing before Nicodemus. New birth is to have a new life from God, and we will see too that the life God gives is the life of Christ. This He gives to the one who believes. Of course, the result will be a change because the new life wants to please God.

Nicodemus came to the Lord with the thought that he would get some teaching. Indeed, the Lord Jesus is and was a wonderful teacher, but what the sinner needs first of all is to receive a new life, and so the Lord replied, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Man had teaching under the law, for “the law is holy, just and good.” Rom. 7:12. All those precepts laid down for man in the Old Testament were from God. But they did not give a new life, for the Scripture says, “If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” Gal. 3:21. Another verse says, “Oh that there was such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always.” Deut. 5:29. That is, the law asks of man something that he does not have either the desire or the power to give. He needs a new life. Why then did God give the law? Well, if you talk to many people, you will find that they do not believe what God says about us and He needed to show us. God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Jer. 17:9. The Apostle Paul said, “In me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing.” Rom. 7:18. In our natural state there is nothing for God. Our hearts are at enmity with God, as the Bible says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7.

What did the law prove and why was it written on tables of stone? Man has a stony heart and God knew that he could not live up to the commandments, but man thought he could. If I have a child and there is a heavy suitcase which he thinks he can carry, how can I prove to him that he cannot? Just give him a chance to try. Israel thought they could fulfill God’s requirements for they said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” Ex. 19:8. But they failed miserably as we all have.

Now what the Lord is showing here in John 3 is that there must be a work of God in the soul. There has been a work of God for us at Calvary’s cross, but there has to be something wrought inside us because the natural heart of man will never respond to the claims of God. The Lord is telling Nicodemus that he must be born again—born from above. He must receive a new life, and God uses His precious Word applied by the Spirit of God to accomplish this. It is made very clear in 1 Peter 1:22,23, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit… Being born again… by the Word of God, which lived and abided forever.” Once we were sinners having only a fallen sinful nature, but when God brings His Word to the soul by the power of the Spirit of God we are born again, receiving a new life from God. That is why we now desire different things.

This, however, is not the improvement of that fallen nature in us. God does not improve it, He condemns it, as we learn from Rom. 8:3, “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” He forgives our sins, but not the nature that causes us to sin. It will remain with us as long as we are in this body. Even if one has been saved for fifty years the fallen nature has not improved one bit, and it never will. That is why Christian’s sin. They allow the fallen nature to act, and with the Lord’s help we will look at other Scriptures later as to God’s way of deliverance.

Nicodemus should have known as a master in Israel that their whole history as a nation proved that after all God had done for them as a nation, their stony heart was unchanged. In a future day, when God finally brings them into blessing, He will “take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.” Ezek. 11:19. Then a nation will be “born at once.” Isa. 66:8. When Nicodemus asked here, “How can these things be?” the Lord brought two very important things before him. First, He spoke of the glory of His Person, for while talking to Nicodemus He was in heaven at the same time, as He said, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.” John 3:13. He is God as well as man, and the value of His work is because of the glory of His Person. It is because He is God that He can be our Savior. (Isa. 43:10,11). He then speaks of His work on the cross as the Son of Man lifted up there for sinners. There is no blessing for fallen man apart from these two things, and so after this the Lord Jesus spoke those blessed and wonderful words, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

We see then how the Lord was bringing before Nicodemus the necessity of being born again, the necessity of receiving a new life, and also showing him that the old nature cannot be improved. That old nature is called the “old man”. Look at Eph. 4:21-24, “If so, be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Also in Col. 3:3-4. “For ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Then again in 1 John 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remained in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Now in John’s gospel chapter 3, we saw the necessity of new birth, and here in these portions we see what God speaks of as “the old man” and “the new man”.

What is the result of being born of God? Well after you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ your body becomes like a house with two tenants. Before, you had only one nature, the fallen nature with which we were born into this world. But the Lord Jesus said that unless we are born again, we can never enter the kingdom of God. So, when we put our trust in Him, He gives us a new life, and that life, as we are told in those verses we have just quoted, is “created in righteousness and true holiness”. It is the life of Christ and it cannot sin. What a marvelous thing this is! Now this does not mean that “the old man” has improved, for it is still “corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,” as we have just read. It always acts the same, for “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and again the Lord Jesus said, “It is the Spirit that quickened, the flesh profited nothing.” John 6:63. We can see then that if the “old man” (the old tenant) takes over in our bodies then we sin. Not that God excuses this, but He makes provision for our restoration. God has undertaken our whole case, both as to our sins and also the nature that produces them, and He would have us know and rejoice in His gracious provision.

In Rom. 6 we are told about what God has done in connection with our old nature, sometimes called “the flesh”, “the old man” and “sin” or “sin in the flesh”. In verse 6 we are told “Our old man is crucified with Him… that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Sin is the root, sins are the fruit, like an apple tree and the apples that grow on it. The nature of the apple tree is to produce apples. You can take all the apples off it, but next year it will produce apples again, because you have not changed the nature of the tree. The Lord Jesus “bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2:24. But it was necessary that He should do something about that “old man” that caused me to sin. Here we find what He has done, “Our old man is crucified with Him” so we see that it came to its end before Him in His death. Baptism is the figure of this as it says, “buried with Him by baptism into death” (verse 4). The “old man” is “condemned” (Rom. 8:3) “crucified” (Rom. 6:6) and “buried” (Rom. 6:4). At the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus not only bore my sins, but His death was the end of my standing before Him as a child of Adam. God no longer sees the believer as a child of fallen Adam, for we have died out of that position and entered a new position before Him by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. (Rom. 6:9-11).

Perhaps we could illustrate this new position by a change of citizenship. As a citizen of the country where you were born you cross the border into another country and you have to declare your citizenship. Now supposing you were to change your citizenship and were accepted, naturalized, as the citizen of another country. Then when you crossed the border, you would have an entirely new standing in the eyes of the officer at the border. As far as he is concerned you no longer exist in your old position, and you are alive in a new position and standing. Now God sees you in a different position since you have been born again and entered the family of God. Even though you still have the “old man” within you, the ‘two tenants’ in your body, God only sees you in that new standing, that new position before Him.

He sees you as a person who has died out of your old position and you are “a new creature in Christ” 2 Cor. 5:17.

Now God shows us the practical side of this in the verses that follow. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive unto God. (Verse 11). Before we were saved, our hands did what that fallen nature wanted to do, and our eyes looked at those things our fallen nature (the old man) wanted to see, because our bodies were under the control of that “old man”. Now God has given the believer a new life, the “new man” that wants to please Him, and He says, “Reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.” Now when temptation is presented to us, we can say “No, we are dead to those things that the fallen nature wants to do.” We can yield the members of our bodies to do what the “new man” wants to do, things that are pleasing to the Lord. Let me say here that if you do not have any desire to please the Lord you are not a believer at all, for if you are born again you have within you the very life of Christ.

Oh, you say, sometimes I want to do what is wrong! Now it is not the new life that wants to do what is wrong, it is because you are allowing the “old man” (the old tenant) to be active. God says, “Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The “old man” has no rights in the body any longer. God says we are dead to sin, and so we read in 2 Cor. 4:10, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” Many Christians have doubts about their salvation because they have not been “taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus.” Eph. 4:21. They are surprised that after they are saved, they still want to do the things that are wrong. So, Satan says, “perhaps you are not saved at all because some of those old desires are there.” But did not the Lord say, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” John 3:6? And the apostle Paul had to say, “In me, (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” Rom. 7:18. He still had that fallen nature within him, even after he had been saved those many years.

Now in the 7th chapter of Romans the whole subject of this conflict is taken up in a practical way. The person looked at in the chapter is seeking to get deliverance under the law. He is “born again” possessing a new life, but he is not in the enjoyment of his new position. The Spirit of God takes this up to show us the way of deliverance from the law and from the “old man”. All through the chapter up to the 18th verse this person is calling the old man “I”, and at another point he calls the new man “I”. That is why he is having this conflict, because he is thinking that the “two tenants” have equal rights; but they do not. The “old man” is to be reckoned dead. The “new man” is the only lawful tenant. We are to recognize that the “new man” is the only one with a right to say what is done in the body, and this “new man” is the life of Christ.

There are three important things brought out here. First, we must learn this great and important lesson “that in me, (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” (Verse 18). Did you ever have a bad thought come into your mind, and then immediately you said, “I never thought a Christian would think a thing like that.” Now if you really believed this verse, you would not be surprised, for that old nature (the old man) has not changed since you were saved. We need to learn this. We need to realize this. The enemy of our souls who works on that “old man” tries to upset us by bringing evil thoughts before us and the old nature responds. Someone said of his old watch that it never disappointed him for he never trusted it. Do you trust your old nature now because you are saved? Do you think you can put yourself in temptation’s ways and trust it? The Bible says, “He that trusted in his own heart is a fool.” Prov. 28:26. That old nature does not improve—never. Remember what it says here, “in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing”. Who was saying this? The beloved apostle Paul, one of the godliest men that ever lived, for his “old man” was no better than any other believer.

Now notice the second thing in the 20th verse. “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” He had learned that there was nothing good in the flesh (the old man), but here there is something wonderful to get hold of. He does not recognize that “old man” as being “I” any longer. Let me illustrate it this way. Here is a person that has just been saved a short time and many old sins have dropped off, for he is living to please the Lord. One day someone asks him to do something he had done in his unsaved days which he now knows to be wrong. He replies, “No, I don’t want to do that anymore for I am a Christian.” Now after he has refused something else happens. Satan whispers, “You did not tell the truth; you did want to do it, and you told your friend you did not.” Did he tell a lie? No! He just let the right tenant—the new man—answer the door! Did the new life in him want to do it? No! What was it in him that wanted to do it? Well, he could say, “It is no more I, it is sin that dwelleth in me.” We still have that old nature, but we should let the “new man” answer the door. Yes, he told the truth, for the “old man” is no more “I”, it is the “new man” who is the real “I”, the “life of Jesus” in every believer, a life that always pleases God and cannot sin. Always let the “new man” make the decisions and they will be right decisions, for though the “old man” is still in us, never improved, it is no more “I”. What a blessed deliverance!

Now we come to the third thing in verses 22-25. “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Even knowing those two things we have just considered, he says the conflict still goes on, he says I want to please the Lord but this conflict makes me very unhappy. This fallen nature is still trying to drag me down into the things that are wrong. But after saying, “0 wretched man that I am!” he says, “WHO shall deliver me?” He looks outside of himself to the Lord Jesus Christ for deliverance and then he has the answer at once. He then begins to give thanks. This is so important. Have you tried to fight away bad thoughts, only to find that they came back more than ever? Someone has said that you can get just as dirty fighting a chimney sweep as hugging him!

What is God telling us here? We can turn from those bad thoughts that come through the “old man” and allow the Spirit of God through the “new man” to occupy us with Christ. We can thank God that through the work of the Lord Jesus we have been brought into a new standing before Him where we can reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, and the new man finds its joy and deliverance in looking away from self to Christ.

Let me use an illustration to help make this point clear. Let us suppose I plan to build a garage for my automobile and I have a pile of lumber which I have been saving for this purpose. I decide to hire a carpenter to build it for me and I ask him to please use this lumber for the building. He goes out to look at the lumber and after a while he comes back saying, “I have looked over your pile of lumber and I have some bad news for you. Your lumber is all rotten. There is not one good piece in the whole pile.” What did he do? He did not try to improve it. No! He condemned it. Notice the 3rd verse of Rom. 8 and you will see this is what God has done with our old nature—the “old man”. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” My carpenter condemned my pile of lumber, but then he said, “I have some good news for you. I have brought you all the new sound lumber you need to build your garage, and it will not cost you anything. It is a gift.” I was so unhappy when he told me that my old pile was rotten, for I had depended on it, but now I change from misery to thankfulness. I say, “Thank you very much!” Can you see the force of these verses in Rom. 7, “O wretched man that I am!” and then, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Verses 24, 25). I have looked away from self to Christ and rejoicing in what He has done, I am full of thankfulness.

Now we all have that pile of “rotten lumber” inside us—the “old man”, and some Christians make themselves miserable thinking about that, and how it still wants to take control of their bodies. Let us look away from self and give thanks that God sees us “in Christ”. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:1. Are you condemning yourself because you have a fallen nature? God says that He sees us “in Christ Jesus” and “holy and without blame before Him in love.” Eph. 1:4. It is indeed a sad discovery to find out how very bad the old nature really is, but this should only lead us to be more thankful for deliverance, knowing our new standing before God because of that blessed work accomplished for us at Calvary.

Let me carry the illustration about the carpenter a little farther. After he has gone, I begin to think of that old pile of lumber. Is it really all rotten? Perhaps there is some good lumber in the pile, so I go out and start pulling the pile apart to see if there are some pieces that are not rotten, for I had counted on it for a long time. Just then the carpenter comes along and asks me what I am doing. I explain to him how badly I felt when he told me that the whole pile was rotten. I just felt that there must be some good pieces in it. Oh, he says, “You are just making yourself unhappy for nothing. Why not give thanks for the new pile of lumber instead of looking for something good in the old pile?”

Are you, dear reader, looking for something good in the old nature? God gave it up long ago, and if you will give it up now you will be a happy person. The carpenter then proceeds to get a tarpaulin and throws it over the pile of rotten lumber. Of course, it will not improve under the tarpaulin, but he says just to consider it is not there. That is what it is to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.”

Rom. 6:11. We can say that the old nature—the “old man”—is “no more I… but sin that dwelleth in me.” Our standing is in Christ before God.

How can we be set free from the activity of that fallen nature in us? That is explained to us in Rom. 8:2, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” If I were to hold a book in my hand and then let it go, the law of gravitation would take it down. How could I set it free from that law without changing the law, or the weight of the book? If I were to attach a balloon with helium gas to it, you would see the book rise. I did not change the law of gravitation nor the weight of the book, but I brought in a new law. Helium gas is lighter than air. In this way the book was set free from the law of gravitation.

Let us apply this to our own lives. When some bad thought comes into your mind, how are you going to be set free? You cannot change the fallen nature. It always acts the same way. There is nothing good in it. But if you allow the Spirit of God through the new man to occupy you with Christ, you will be set free. The Spirit of God working upon the new man will fill your heart with Christ. He will give you to see what Christ has done for you, what He is doing for you now as your Great High Priest and Advocate, and what He is going to do for you when He makes you eternally happy in the Father’s house. So, when that bad thought comes into your mind, remember you cannot change the fallen nature, but you can let the Spirit of God work on the new man. Think about what you have in Christ. Rejoice in the fact that God sees you in Christ. That is the only way to be made free from the activity of the old man within.

There is no use trying to fight away those bad thoughts for they will just come back. It is like fighting the chimney sweep. Turn from them, giving thanks for God’s way of deliverance and rejoice in the Lord.

How wonderful it is to know that God has not only forgiven our sins but has condemned that fallen nature. It was crucified with His Son. He sees us in a new position before Him of “no condemnation”, dead and risen with Christ. Let us rejoice! Let us give thanks! He has given us a new life, the very life of Christ which we will have forever in heaven. When you were born again you received that new life. You were born from above and the new man is created in righteousness and true holiness. God wants you as a Christian to live a life of holy liberty and joy in the position into which He has brought you.

We are not speaking at this time of what a believer should do if he allows that sinful nature to act, but simply of what God has done in regard to his old nature. But it might be helpful to add a few remarks about this. If we allow sin in our lives, God has provided an Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1) and we are to come confessing our sin, acknowledging that we allowed the “old man” to act. This is not to restore our standing before God, for it is always “in Christ”, but to be restored to fellowship with God in our souls. What full provision has been made for all our needs in Christ.

How important it is that we read God’s Word and pray, for if we neglect this, the enemy knows our weak points and he will come and work on that “old man” and lead us into sin. This will rob us of our joy in the Lord, and if we do not confess the little sins, they soon grow into greater sins for which we may come under the Lord’s hand in discipline, or it may even bring us under the discipline of God’s assembly. We are not required to confess bad thoughts, for the act of turning from them is the way we judge them, but if we allow them in our lives then we need to confess our sins in order to be restored. (1 John 1:9).

A true believer can never be lost, but he can, like David of old, lose the joy of God’s salvation and dishonor the Lord. The prayer of the Psalmist is good for us all. “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer.” Psa. 19:12-14.