In This Issue:
Die, Old Nature! Die!
Remarried
Volume: 854 April 11, 2022
Theme: Our Sinful Nature
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Die, Old Nature! Die!
Bill Brinkworth
When a person is saved, he becomes a different, “new” person. One may be “new” on the inside, but all have the same “flesh” they were born with. Those fleshly, worldly desires may be tucked away out of sight for now, but they will always be waiting for their chance to make an appearance. If the indwelling “new man” does not keep them in check, they will ruin one’s life and cause one to be in the same miserable state, or worse, than before.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” II Corinthians 5:17
No, one does not get unsaved because he does not follow the “new,” Holy Spirit’s guidance. However, his life may not appear much different than an unsaved person’s life. He will not have the joy he could have had, and he will not be all he could have been. He will go through many hardships that he would not normally go through, and God will not use that person the way He desired.
All have to battle the pull from the old nature’s stranglehold to rule and get its way. Many of our personal and social problems are because someone’s “old man” is trying to rule the roost — again. It is that old man that is prevailing when the green-eyed monster of jealousy raises its unruly head between brother and sister, or when one gets angry quickly with another. He surfaces again when a lie is offered to get one out of trouble.
It is the “old man” (the old self) that creates power struggles between peers, becomes selfish, and it is that same villain that spreads gossip to defame one’s testimony because someone hurt the gossiper’s feelings.
The “old man” exposes himself when a mouth spews out hurtful words and filthy talk. The old nature gets control again when we allow it to criticize someone that is not doing something our way, or when we are scared others are not accepting us, and other countless ways. The “old man” will always haunt our lives, until we do what God commands we do to our old, could-be-dominating nature. Our “old man” must die, sometimes even daily. He must be forgotten and ignored!
No, do not even suggest one’s committing sin and taking one’s life. That is definitely letting the “old man” have his lecherous control on one’s life. Everyone, if they want to please God, must put the “old man” of the flesh to “death” and let the new, spiritual man lead. The old nature must have as little control of one’s life as possible.
Here is some of what the Bible says about the subject:
When one is saved, he is a new, different person with new needs, desires, and purpose. His second “birth” creates in him a new part of him that never existed before.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 Also: II Cor. 5:17 (see above).
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Galatians 6:15 Religious ceremonies, traditions, and works should not be the governing factor in one’s life, but a new, spiritual life in accordance with God’s Word should be guiding him.
Do not live for “self.” Let the “new man” in you be your life’s leader. Put self-ambition, self-goals, and self-desires behind you and let your leading force be the desire to be obedient to God’s commandments found in His Word and to be a godly testimony (example). Listen to the indwelling Holy Spirit. Let many of your self-motivated desires “die,” and not have any control in your life. In so doing, God will live through you. The “new man” has a new mind, new spirit, new master, new goals, and a new joy.
“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:24
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4
“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” Colossians 3:9-10
Let your “old man die”. Self-will will have less dominance when the “new man” is leading.
“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.” Romans 6:6
Do not let worldly desires and habits rule and reign in your life. Being born-again is being born into the family of God. What kind of child are you that, while a member of one family, acts like and wishes you were a member of another family? That is what those that are living for the world, by living the world’s way, are doing. By their actions, they are telling God, “I love you Father, BUT I like how the unsaved live; and I will behave, have the same goals, and strive to be like them.” That is what Christians do to their own Creator!
We are on the winning side! Why would anyone ever want to act and live like those on the losing side?
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts … And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. … Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:22-32
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:24
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Romans 13:14
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16 “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; ….” Isaiah 43:18-19
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Romans 8:9
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I John 2:15
“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;” Colossians 3:9
You are not your own anymore, if you are saved. “I’m born again, but I don’t want to do all God wants me to do,” is what too many say by their actions and words to God. You are not your own, you are purchased by God when you are saved. The blood that Christ shed on the cross purchased you. You did not like how you were before, and how you were headed to Hell claim many when they got saved. He has done great things for you, including rescuing you from an eternal Hell. Don’t you want to do something for Him? Live the life He wants you to live!
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” I Corinthians 3:16
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2
“Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3
If all the children of God would obey the “new man,” and let their “old man” “die”, their lives would be much different. There would be fewer disagreements, tensions, and disunity in churches, families, schools, and even the workplace. All would have the same godly purpose and direction when the “new” creature guides them through life. If you want the “new” life God desires you to have, let your “old man” die — and please, don’t ever let him be resurrected!
“There is but one question, and that is, what is the will of God? That settles all other questions.” — William E. Gladstone
In Romans 6, Paul lets us know that when we trust Christ as Saviour, our “old man” is “dead” (Rom. 6:6). The part of us that was once unrestrained, did whatever it wanted to, even things that were against God’s desires for us, is “dead”. Once we are saved, we no longer have to serve our sin nature.
Romans 7 takes that understanding and explains how we are no longer under sin’s dominion, and the Old Testament laws that identified the sins. Paul likens the new arrangement of being saved to a new marriage (Romans 7:2-3). Like a marriage, one is bound to one spouse as long as they are alive. Before we were saved, we were bound to sin, until that nature died. It led us where we allowed it to take us: into bars, into adulterous relationships, into bitterness, into blasphemy, and hosts of other places. Our sin nature was in control.
Like a marriage, we are no longer bound to the first spouse, when that spouse dies. Our first “spouse” died when we got saved. That first “husband” contained over 600 Old Testament laws. A saved person is “… dead to the law by the body of Christ …” (Romans 7:6).
The law is important, however. It shows us what God likes and dislikes. From it we learned that lying is wrong; as is adultery, deceitfulness, disobedience, rebellion, hatred, and on and on the list goes (Romans 7: 7). Without the law of God we would not have known the whole mind of God concerning sin.
The law is very hard, however. It curses and condemns us for the sins we have committed. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, when accepted, pays for our sins, and now we can have grace and mercy. As Matthew Henry put it, “The sentence of the law against us is vacated and reversed by the death of Christ to all true believers.”
For the believer, the “old man” is dead. We can be “married” to another. The second spouse is Christ. We are not bound to the “old man” and his laws. Yes, the old nature and new nature will still battle for control (Romans 7:18-19), but with the new mind a Christian has, he can be free from the control of sin (Romans 6:7).
“If you are saved, you sin by choice, not by chance.” — Barbara Brinkworth