ARE YOU A BELIEVER WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH SIN? If we are honest, all of us must answer in the affirmative. We want to do right. We want to do those things which please the Lord, but there is a struggle within. It seems as though a part of us wants to go in one direction and a different part wants to go in another.

This inner struggle confuses the new believer and causes older believers to despair. Many a new Christian has lost his joy because he cannot reconcile his new relationship with Christ and his own repeated failures to do the things that honor Him. Many an older believer has given up all attempts to live the Christian life because of the discouragement that comes from constantly recurring defeat. A simple key can help us!

All believers have two natures. When we were born the first time--born of the flesh, we received a fallen, Adamic nature..."that which is born of the flesh, is flesh." (John 3:6). When we were born the second time--born of the Spirit, we became "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4) ..."that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." (John 3:6). These natures are in conflict (Galatians 5:17). It could not be otherwise. For this reason, all believers have a lifelong battle. But it is a battle we can win! (Galatians 5:16).

First, we need to know that we will have both natures with us until death or rapture. This side of Heaven, the battle will rage because flesh never becomes spirit--that’s the bad news. Spirit never becomes flesh, either, and that is the good news. The secret of victory is not eliminating the old sin nature, we can’t. Nor is the secret making our old nature into a Christian. I tried to do that for my first 20 years as a believer and that doesn’t work either. The secret lies in feeding the new nature. We are born again as spiritual babies. Growth comes only from ingesting the Word of God. Nothing else can produce spiritual growth. No other food will do! Our Lord said that man is to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). The most effective way of starving the old nature lies in concentrating on feeding the new. Besides, a well-fed, strong, and growing new nature is the real goal anyway.

Second, we should take heart because this inner conflict is an evidence of our new birth. The unsaved do not have this conflict. When we were unsaved, we sometimes listened to and sometimes stilled the voice of conscience, that imperfect knowledge of good and evil which we inherited through the Fall. But that was different. To be stroked or smitten by conscience is not the same as having a nature that loves the Lord and wants to see Him glorified, but is opposed by a nature that doesn’t.

Third, we need to realize that this conflict is the normal experience of every child of God. We must not suffer the anguish of thinking that it is peculiar to us and that we are some sort of spiritual freaks.

And Fourth, we need to know that the New Nature, operating in total dependence upon the indwelling Spirit, is infinitely more powerful than our Old Sin Nature. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16). The word "not" means "in no wise." In other words, while the believer is "walking" (conducting himself) in the Spirit he cannot fulfill the desires of the flesh--it is impossible. The doctrine of the two natures is almost never taught today although it has been in the Scriptures for two thousand years. When it is taught, the power of the old sin nature is nearly always emphasized to the detriment...even the exclusion of the power of the new nature. Stated another way, most believers do not clearly understand even that they have two natures let alone that the new is more powerful than the old. The Christian life is so different from anything that preceded it that one must understand the mechanics and the dynamic of it before it can be lived. All true believers have eternal life, but most do not know what to do with it.

Life is to be lived! A baby has human life but knows nothing about how to live it. Babies must be taught how to exploit the gift of life. Until they learn this, most of their lives are "lived" by others. They live by the attitudes, plans, and decisions of others. Left to themselves, they would not fare well for very long. Spiritual babies are no different. We must be taught the nature of our new lives and how to exploit them or we don’t fare well either. The one difference is that our physical life is temporal and may be forfeited through neglect. Our spiritual life is eternal and can never be forfeited. At death or rapture we join the Lord regardless of the amount of neglect our spiritual lives have suffered. But our purpose on earth is never realized unless God is glorified, and God is never glorified until we understand who and what we are and what to do with who and what we are.

Romans Six is the great chapter on the Mechanics of the Christian life, and, interestingly it is the classic chapter on the Two Natures of the Believer. If this doctrine were not vitally important to your success and mine, God would not have spent so much time on it in His Word. Actually, it runs all through the Pauline Epistles--the message of Christ risen and glorified.

In Romans Six, the person you were as you came from Adam’s loins was executed through the death of your Substitute on Calvary. However, the sinful nature of your former person--your "old man"--continues to dwell in and seek to rule your mortal body. God sees you now, not as the person you were under condemnation and death, but as the person you are in righteousness and life. You and I were taken out of the realm of the flesh and placed in the realm of the Spirit the moment that we were saved (Romans 8:9), but the flesh was not then taken out of us. That old sinful capacity is still with us this side of Heaven. We are saved people living in unsaved ("mortal") bodies. When we lose the unsaved body, we will lose the sin nature that belongs to it.

Take heart! God designed you to live a life characterized by an ever increasing measure of victory. You will have defeats...we all do, but never accept defeat as your lifestyle. Guard your attitude with extreme care (Proverbs 4:23). Sprinkle each hour with short, powerful prayers...Lord help me to live in dependence on you... Help me to concentrate on things above...Assist me in applying doctrine here...help me to love you more...Make me an honest person...Open my eyes to the truths of your Word. Prayers don’t have to be long to be powerful. Look for God’s will in verse after verse of the Pauline Epistles... prayer is always powerful when it agrees with the revealed will of God in Scripture. Never accept last week’s level of success in life and ministry. Spiritual growth is always improvement. "...[S]eek those things which are above..." (Colossians 3:1) and life will be full of desirable changes, both instant and gradual.

Determine once for all to win the struggle within you, and then never look back. Never quit! There is no reason to quit--your new nature is more powerful by far than your old. Feed it the only food it knows--the Word of God rightly divided. WIN!