The Battle of the Two Natures
Part Four
The Warfare
Romans 7:15-25
Introduction
The doctrine of the two natures has been called the “secret” to the victorious Christian life. However, it really is not a secret at all. It is taught clearly in the Bible. You might think that it is a secret, though, since there are so many Christians that are ignorant of it.
The truths about the two natures teach us how to live victoriously (whatever that means,) or why we are defeated in our Christian life.
Scriptural Truth
Romans 7:15-25 (KJV)
“ For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
There Is No Good in the Flesh
Here in this passage, we begin to see a conflict between the two natures. In the earlier sections we saw the reality of the flesh and spiritual births. The flesh is of Satan. Jesus said in John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil,” when speaking of our flesh. He is talking about the flesh in which we are living, NOW! Our flesh is of the devil. Therefore, it never gets any better. It never improves. The flesh is corruptible. It is going to age, become diseased, die, and rot. It can, consequently, be called a body of death. It is dying.
Our spirit’s Father is God. It is incorruptible. There are some things that the spirit cannot do. It cannot sin.
The flesh can sin. Verse eighteen of this passage says, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing:” Now that we are saved, there still is no good thing in our flesh. There is nothing good in our flesh.
Paul said in I Timothy 1:15:
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I AM chief.”
Paul said, “I AM the chief of sinners.”
John said in I John 1:8:
“If we say that we HAVE no sin we deceive ourselves.”
So we can see that we continue to sin after we are saved. However, it is our flesh that continues to sin. In it is still no good. There is no good in our flesh at all. Since we are in this body of sin and death, we have a birth that cannot do any good. Any time that you yield to the flesh, you are going to sin.
Temptation to sin usually comes from the flesh, and not from the devil. The devil’s temptation is usually to try to get you to exalt yourself through religion, or through your own goodness and righteousness, but not through sin. In II Corinthians 11:13-15 God says that the devil has his ministers who are called apostles of Christ and appear as angels of light, but they are teaching human righteousness by works. Of course, the Bible says clearly in Titus 3:5 that salvation is not of works:
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”
From Where Does Temptation Come?
It is not the devil, but rather our flesh that tempts us to sin. James 1:14 tells us:
“Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”
The Flesh Has Lusts
We see in Galatians 5:16-17, where we shall look in more detail later, that the flesh has lusts. According to I John 2:16, we find that the three areas of temptation are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Not Just Different, But Opposite
So we see that the flesh cannot do any good, while the spirit cannot do any evil. They have contrary desires. You see that illustrated in verse fifteen of our text:
“For that which I do I allow not: For what I would, that do I not: but what I hate, that do I.”
That is pretty confusing at first. Let me try to explain.
“For that which I (my flesh) do I (my spirit) allow not: for what I (my spirit) would, that do I (my flesh) not.”
Not much better, huh? Let me give you an example. When your spirit wants to do something good like, say, go to church, your flesh does not want to do it. So, whenever a person does something righteous, it is the spirit that does it, and not the flesh, because your flesh can do no good thing. When your spirit does something right, that is not what the flesh wants to do. The flesh had no part in that.
“For that which I do I allow not: For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”
When you do what your spirit wants, you do that which your flesh does not want to do. When your flesh does something, your spirit does not want to do that. It is important to realize that when we sin (and we are going to sin until the day we die), it is not our spirit that does it. The spirit has no part in that sin. It did not want to do it. Your spirit did not yield to it. YOU did, but your spirit did not.
“For that which I do, I allow not: For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do If I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.”
Laws of Nature
This is a law of nature, or, maybe, we should call it a law of “natures.” This is the law of the old nature and the new nature.
“Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
When We Choose to Sin, Our Spirit Does Not
That is extremely important! When I sin, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. When we sin, it is not our spirit that does it. That is why we can be righteous when we go to heaven even though we continue to sin after we are saved. It is because of this new birth. It is righteous. It remains righteous! It cannot sin. When our flesh dies, all we have left is our righteous spirit. If our spirit sinned, we would be in trouble when we died, because the wages of sin is still death.
The wages of sin is not confession. The wages of sin is not contrition. The wages of sin is not baptism. The wages of sin is death. Either Jesus died and paid for all of our sins: past, present, and future; or we have a real problem. You see, if we had to pay for even one of our sins, then we would have to spend an eternity separated from God, but praise the Lord! He took care of ALL of our sins, and He is going to destroy this sinful body. When it dies, then all we will have is our righteous birth, which is born of God.
It Is Natural to Sin
Have you ever wondered how we will be able to keep from sinning when we get to heaven? It just seems to come so naturally.
Of course, it comes naturally! It is of the natural man! We sin without thinking about it, because it comes from our old sinful natural man. However, when our flesh is gone, then all we will have is a righteous nature, and when we go to heaven, we will no longer have any desire (lust) or even capacity to sin. We will never have to worry about falling into sin when we get to heaven.
If a person could lose eternal life before he dies, what would keep him from losing eternal life after he dies? The fact is we get eternal life NOW. I John 5:13 says:
“These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have(present tense) eternal life.”
In John 6:47 God says:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me HATH everlasting life.”
You Cannot Lose Eternal Life Once You Get It
Since we have eternal life, now, if we could lose eternal life, now; then we could lose eternal life later after we die.
“But the devil won’t be there.” Some might say.
The devil will not be around during the millennium, either, but people are still going to sin. It is not the devil that tempts you to sin, it is your flesh.
If you did not have a righteous spirit when you got to heaven, then you could lose salvation after you went to heaven.
When our flesh dies, then that sinful part of us dies, too, and we are left with only the righteousness that is required to get us to heaven. That is why we can have eternal life right now.
Verse eighteen tells us:
“I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth (present tense) no good thing.”
This was written around A.D. 55[1] Paul wrote this about twenty years after his conversion. He had been serving the Lord for twenty years, and he still said:
“I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I (my flesh) find not.”
What is he saying?
“For the will (the spirit) is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I (my flesh) find not.”
Our Spirit Is Perfectly Righteous
When my spirit desires to do good, my flesh cannot find it within itself to do it. Then how did Paul do good? His spirit did it!
“He that doeth righteousness is righteous even, as He is righteous.[2]”
His flesh had no part in the good he did.
“I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.”
When Paul did good, his flesh was still looking for some way to get something selfish out of it. It appears that there is nothing that we do good that our flesh is not trying to twist to our own selfish advantage. It is entirely possible that nothing that we do is completely spiritual as long as we are in this flesh.
When we go to church, we say, “I go to church, because I love the Lord.” However, we also get rewards for being obedient to God’s commands. Church makes us feel good. Besides, if we pay attention we might learn something to make life easier and obtain the blessings of God. Plus there is the added advantage of avoiding the chastening of God. The flesh takes even the good that we would do and finds some selfish motive in it. God understands that and dangles these selfish motives before the flesh so that we might benefit spiritually. However, there are darker motives for doing right. There is the desire to create a clientele for our business, or to show off our talents or our new hat. We may seek to gain leadership and control of the church, or we might just enjoy gossiping and hurting people at church. So when we would do good, evil is still present with us in our flesh.
God is going to reward our obedience to what the spirit prompts us to do, even though it is tainted by some selfishness of the flesh. He realizes that our flesh never gets a bit better even
after we have been saved sixty or more years. The flesh is still as wicked as it was before we trusted Christ as our Savior and is probably more so. If we ever yield to the flesh again, (or I should say “when” we yield to the flesh again), the flesh will take us back to the most wicked time of our fleshly life. The person who used to drink to excess can never go back to social drinking. The person who used to view hard pornography will never be satisfied by soft pornography.
“We just got out of revival. I think I’ll take a vacation from church. I just came from a great service, and I’ve been strengthened spiritually, so I can overcome temptation. I can let my guard down for a while.” Some might think.
Do not believe it for a minute! Your flesh is just as wicked as it was before the revival. When you give in to the flesh, it will take you just as far into sin as you have ever been, and then desire more.
Isaiah 64:6 says:
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
We get “carried away” in our sins. If you yield to the flesh then you will get “carried away” with sin. So you must not yield to the flesh. God is pointing out here that when the flesh sins, the spirit remains righteous. And since the flesh and spirit have different desires, they are going to do battle with each other.
“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me,” V21.
This is a law of nature. Some would deny that a Christian still has a wicked sinful nature. Some think that it has been annihilated. However, the Bible states that when we would do good, that evil nature is still present with us. It is the law of the nature of the natural man.
“For I delight in the law of God after the sinful man.”
He calls the spiritual birth the “inward man” here.
“But I see another law in my members.”
The Members of Your Body
Does that mean in the members of the church? No. What He is talking about is your body. If someone got run over by a train and got a leg cut off, we would say that he had been “dismembered,” because one of his body members got cut off. “Members” refers to our bodies.
“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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” V23-24
Wait a minute! It says, “O wretched man that I AM!” Paul’s flesh was still wretched at the writing of the book of Romans. Let me illustrate. On Wednesday night your spirit wants to go to church. Your flesh wants to stay home and watch T.V. Your spirit wants to do righteousness, but your flesh does not. Your flesh will find a good excuse to stay home from church. Your flesh has plenty of good excuses. You do not have to worry about coming up with an excuse to keep you away from church. Your flesh will come up with several good ones. You may not “hear” the excuse. Your spirit may be so strong that you do not hear what the flesh is telling you, but I guarantee that the flesh will always have an excuse handy when your spirit wants to go to church. All you have to do is “listen” for it, or as God puts it in Romans 13:14 make “provision” for it. That means to provide a place for it. On the other hand, your spirit will ALWAYS want to be at services. That is where the spirit of God wants to be.
The Warfare
Therefore you have a warfare. Your spirit says, “I want to go to church.”
Your flesh says, “No, I’m tired. I don’t feel so good. I’ve got too much to do, and, besides, I was just at church last Sunday. That’s enough. I think we should stay home.”
Which one is going to win? The one that is strongest is the one that is going to win. Which one is strongest? The one that is strongest is the one that you feed. So, it is up to you which one will be victorious, because you choose which one you feed. Some Christians say that the spirit is strongest, so it will win. If you want to see how true that is, just come to the mid-week service and see how many believers’ spirit is stronger than their flesh. Those who are absent at the mid-week service are probably either not really Christians, or the flesh is controlling their life.
Some believers say, “I’m living just as close to the Lord as I can, but I just couldn’t make it to the mid-week services.”
Doesn’t that at least make you wonder how strong their spirit is? Actually, there is no “wonder” to it. You KNOW that the flesh is controlling their life. There will be a BUNCH of believers that cannot make it to the mid-week service, because their flesh will have won the battle. There will be a few that the spirit won the battle and they are in church during the mid-week service. There will even be a few at church that the flesh won the battle, so they are at church for the wrong reason. We do know, however, that the spirit wants us to be obedient to God by not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. God has commanded us to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. If we are not in attendance, then we are in direct disobedience to God’s direct revealed will in His Word. The spirit wants to obey God’s Word. The flesh will never want to obey God’s Word. It will always give us an excuse.
Who Will Win the Battle?
Who will win? The one you feed is the one that will win the battle for your mind.
Only Three Alternatives
We, as believers, have only three alternatives concerning feeding the flesh and the spirit.
ALTERNATIVE #1
Feeding the Flesh and Starving the Spirit
You can feed the flesh and starve the spirit. If you do that, then the flesh will rule your life. As your flesh becomes stronger, your spirit may become so weak that your soul, that part of your being that decides which of the two natures to yield to in this struggle for the mind, may not even hear the urgings of the spirit. The Bible warns believers against having their conscience seared, or having an evil conscience. That is why it is bad advice to tell someone to let their conscience be their guide. We should let God’s Word be our guide. For example, some Christians no longer even feel badly about missing mid-week services. That is because the flesh has become so strong in their life.
Other Christians mistakenly say about them, “They aren’t even saved.”
While the lost say about them, “I’m better than they are. At least I am not a hypocrite.” They just may be right.
ALTERNATIVE #2
Feed the Flesh and Starve the Spirit
The second possibility for the Christian concerning feeding the flesh and spirit is: You can feed the spirit and starve the flesh. Believers like that will not even have to think about whether or not to go to church for the mid-week service. Their flesh is so weak that they probably do not even hear the excuses that the flesh is throwing at them. Any Christian that really thinks about it can find a good excuse not to go to church if they try. The trick is not to try.
“I’ve got to get up early tomorrow.” “I don’t really feel that good.” I’m really tired.”
All you have to do is think about it for a while, and the flesh will start giving you a number of excuses to sin. You make the provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof, and it will go to work.
On the other hand, any Christian that really wants to can find a way to get to church. What you need to do is simply consider only what the spirit wants you to do. You give the flesh an opening, and it will give you an excuse for any sin that you imagine. It will slip right in and go to work on whatever you imagine. It will give you a good excuse. If you decide to do what the spirit wants you to do, and not even consider the alternative, then there is a good chance that you will not even hear the excuses of the flesh.
ALTERNATIVE #2
Feeding Both the Flesh and the Spirit
That being said, we come to the third alternative. This alternative is by far the most common.
Feeding the spirit and starving the flesh is the key to the victorious Christian life. Feeding the flesh and starving the spirit is the reason for so many Christians becoming backslidden and carnal.
However, most Christians do the third alternative. They feed the flesh and they feed the spirit, too. In this case, sometimes the spirit will win in the battle for the mid-week service attendance, and the flesh will win sometimes. You cannot count on them. If you give the responsibility of teaching a class, you do not know if they will be there or not. It depends on what kind of excuse the flesh comes up with. That is a defeated Christian life. That will cause a Christian to become neurotic. That will give a carnal Christian ulcers along with any other Christian that makes the mistake of counting on them.
The Bible calls that type of Christian “lukewarm.” Today’s society tends to call them “well rounded.” I guess that means that they roll whatever way the crowd pushes them. That is generally the condition of most believers. You will not find many that are “on fire for the Lord.” There are not many that are “sold out” for the Lord. Why is that? It is because most Christians feed both the flesh and the spirit. Sometimes they do not even know that they are feeding the flesh.
How Do We Feed the Flesh?
How does a person feed the flesh, anyway? According to II Peter 2:8 we find that Lot’s righteous soul (his new nature) was vexed by the things which he “saw and heard.” So the main way the flesh is fed to become strong and vex our righteous spirit is by what we see and hear. In other words we feed the flesh by who and what we watch and listen to.
We mistakenly get the idea that we feed the flesh by sinning. No, that is not the case. That is the “fruit” or results of feeding the flesh. If you listen to the wrong people and things, then you are feeding the flesh. If you watch the wrong things, then you are feeding the flesh. Be careful. Watch what you watch. Watch what you listen to.
Ephesians 5:15 tells us to walk circumspectly. “Circum” refers to something round such as as a circumference, while “spect” refers to seeing, as in spectacles. So, God commands us to walk around with our eyes open. Be careful little eyes what you see, and be careful little ears what you hear. Look out for things that will slip in and strengthen your flesh. Be careful what you watch on T.V. and who or what you listen to on the radio or your telephone. The problem is you have to listen to the rotten garbage to find out that it is rotten garbage. By that time the damage is already done. You may turn the bad program or bad music off, but you had to listen to it to find out it was bad. Then every time you hear the introduction to that song or program, you are reminded of the bad things that caused you to quit listening to it in the first place. If you did not remember the bad words or scenes, you would not remember to turn it off. Maybe we should listen to Christian music so that we can know that the philosophy will not be immoral and the language will not be foul. Many times I have asked Christians who do not seem to be discerning about what they listen to on the radio or CD, and they respond, “Oh, I don’t even listen to the words, anyway.” Yet that is feeding the flesh. Usually, the same ones who are not listening to the words can sing or rap along with the artist to which they are listening without missing a word. We need to be more discerning about what we watch on TV and around whom we associate.
I have had people tell me, “You ought to watch this movie. It’s a good one. There’s nothing bad in it.” Occasionally, we used to rent one of those movies and find that there would be foul language in them. When I would confront them about it, they would say, “I don’t remember any foul language.” Apparently, their flesh is being fed, and they do not even realize it. It may be that some Christians do not realize foul language is foul language, any more. They do not even think about it, anymore. They hear it on TV and are no longer appalled. They are hardened to sin. Their conscience has been seared. Where is the offense? Where is the outrage? The rules were not changed by the spirit. The spirit is still offended by corrupt communication, but the flesh has silenced the spirit in many believers’ minds.
Sometimes we listen to the dirty jokes of our friends. Maybe we have not sunk that low yet, but we like to listen to the off colored ones. That is feeding the flesh. Therefore, we need to be careful who we choose to be our friends.
How to Feed the Spirit?
How do we feed the spirit? Actually, it is also through what we see and hear, but there are four basic ways. You could call them the four talks. Talk to God through prayer. Allow God to talk to you through studying His Word. Talk to other Christians at church, and talk to the lost about Jesus. That is called witnessing or soul-winning.
Which of the four is most important? We will be able to talk to God in heaven face to face, and God will talk to us face to face. We will talk to other Christians in heaven in unbroken harmony in contrast with the dissention that many times goes on, today, here on earth. The only thing that we will not do better in heaven is talk to the lost about Jesus Christ. There will not be any lost there. If the first three talks were most important then we would be better off dead. There would be no reason for God to leave us here. However, God has left us here for a purpose. That purpose is to tell people about Jesus Christ.
Why does God tell us to pray? According to Ephesians 6:18-20 it is so that
“Utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel…that I might speak boldly as I ought to speak.”
Why does God want us to study His Word? The Bible says in Proverbs 15:28:
“The heart of the righteous studieth to answer.”
According to I Peter 3:15, then we can:
“Be ready always to have an answer for every man that asketh you the reason of the hope that is in you.”
Why does God tell us to go to church? It is so we will be trained and encouraged to witness. The reason God has left us on earth is so that we can share the gospel with the lost. That is the most important one of the four talks. If you are consistently sharing the gospel, that will drive you to study, that will drive you to pray, and that will drive you to have fellowship with other Christians. Then you will be living the victorious Christian life.
QUESTIONS:
1-What are the four talks?
A- ______________________________________________
B- ______________________________________________
C- ______________________________________________
D- ______________________________________________
2-Which of the four talks is most important?
____________________________________
3-Why? _________________________________________
4-What are the two natures?
A- _____________________________________________
B- _____________________________________________
5-What two ways do you feed the flesh?
A- _____________________________________________
B- _____________________________________________
6-What are the three alternatives concerning feeding the flesh and the spirit?
A- ______________________________________________
B- ______________________________________________
C- ______________________________________________
[1]Curtis Vaughn and Bruce Corley, Romans (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976), p. 14.