Two Natures in Conflict: Winning Over Fleshly Battles

Dr. Ephraim J. Udofia

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While they have different nuances, they basically describe the same thing: All of these terms refer to the old man and its method of operation. The old man is not eradicated at conversion, but continues to be corrupted according to the lusts of deceit Eph. As we saw last time, positionally the old man was crucified with Christ, in order that our body of sin might be done away with Rom. But pra c tically , we have to reckon this to be true in our daily experience by putting it off Rom.

Note how the old man operates:. In this sense, it rules us and with authority tells us how to live although wrongly! It promises rewards if we obey it: It operates as a law, commanding us, threatening us, and enticing us. In other words, sin is subtle and cunning. It lures you into traps where you get ambushed. It keeps coming at you until it brings you down. We need to be careful here or we could fall into an error that became prevalent in the early church. Gnosticism taught that the body is inherently evil, whereas the spirit is good. This led to two different extremes. Some said that since the body is evil, we must treat it harshly by depriving ourselves of food, comfort, and physical pleasure.

This is asceticism, which Paul strongly condemns Col. The other extreme was that some said that since the body is evil anyway, you might as well indulge it. What the body does is unrelated to the spirit. So you could indulge in sexual immorality, but at the same time claim that your spirit was not in sin. Since Paul elsewhere clearly denounces these errors, we would be mistaken to take his teaching here in that way.

Rather, he is saying that the law of sin works through his physical body and manifests itself in evil deeds. But it takes his entire person captive 7: In this sense, by his members, Paul means his flesh 7: Temptation always begins in our minds, but it appeals to and works its way out through our bodies. Thus one strategy against sin is to make it your aim always to glorify God with your body 1 Cor. Sin uses reason, however faulty, to appeal to us. Satan reasoned with Eve that God surely would not impose the death penalty for eating a little piece of fruit.

The fall brought our minds as well as our bodies into captivity to sin. But in addition to reason, temptation always appeals to our feelings. In fact, sin is usually irrational. So, in the first corner, we have the reigning champion that has dominated the human race ever since the fall: Paul wants to do good 7: This must refer to the mind of a regenerate man.

One of the marks of the new birth is that God gives you new desires. You have a new love for Christ, who gave Himself on the cross for you. You long to be holy, just as Jesus is holy. You hate your own sin. And yet, at the same time, you know that in your flesh there is still a strong desire to do evil. In new believers, the desires of the old nature the reigning champion often win out over the new desires of the new nature the new challenger until the new believer learns how to fight. But mature believers have learned to put on the new man and put off the old, so that they experience consistent victory over sin.

But before we begin to see consistent victory, we often experience frustrating defeats because of the power of the reigning champion, the old man.

We lash out in anger at our loved ones. We act selfishly with no regard for others. We see a seductive woman and lust floods into our thoughts.

Vincent C. Finnegan

But I do not see Paul describing here a lack of perfection, but rather a lack of obedience. He is not doing what he knows to be right. He is practicing what he knows to be wrong. This means he is born again, born from above of God's incorruptible seed. The new nature is called in the Word of God the divine nature, and being from God, has in it the traits of God.

All Christians have these two natures.

Do Christians have a battle to fight?

The divine nature from God is all good. The nature from Adam is sinful and evil. The divine nature is called the new man, spirit. The nature from Adam is called the old man, the natural man, flesh. The new nature is so good that it needs no change. The old nature is evil and cannot change. Far too many well-intentioned Christians have attempted to change the old nature to the new.

This is, in fact, an effort to change the unchangeable, to discipline the unruly, and to reform that which will always be unreformable. Trying to change the old man nature always leads to failure, sin consciousness, and condemnation. Not understanding the two natures has caused many Christians to give up, and worst of all, blame our loving heavenly Father for their failure. Rather than carrying out the greater works God has ordained for us to do, as stated in John This scripture clearly depicts the internal conflict in each child of God because of the presence of these two natures.

It is therefore imperative that we have an understanding of both natures, the con-flict, and most importantly how to be victorious. Once we as Christians understand these truths, we can grow to manifest the peaceful, joyful, powerful life Christ came to make available. Two men had the most profound impact on mankind: Adam and Jesus Christ. Adam was the original man. Jesus Christ, God's only begotten son and man's redeemer, is called the "last Adam. The first Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, a quickening or life-making spirit. Adam came first and was earthy.

Jesus Christ came second and is the lord from heaven. Every man born is associated or identified with Adam, therefore, earthy. Being born into the world, we bear the image of Adam. Those of us who have confessed Jesus as our lord and believed God raised him from the dead are also born from above and identified with Christ. Being born again, we bear the image of Christ. Verse 49 refers only to Christians. As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall bear the image of the heavenly.

The context of these verses specifically refers to when Christ returns. Then we shall bear the image of the heavenly, and no longer the image of the earthy. Until his return, in us we have both: By man, Adam, came death; by man, Jesus Christ, came also the resurrection of the dead. Their impact is indeed profound and completely contrary to one another.

In Adam all die, and in Christ all shall be made alive. To begin to understand the two Adams, our study must start in Genesis with the beginning of the first Adam. The Lord God formed man's body from the dust of the ground and made man's soul or breath-life. Once man had body and soul, God created spirit in him.

The spirit was the crowning accomplishment of all of God's creation in Genesis. The word "image" means likeness or resemblance.

According to John 4: The original man, Adam, was a threefold being of body, soul, and spirit because man was created in God's image, spirit, an intimate, loving relationship between God and man could ensue. God's man, Adam, walked and talked with God and lived in paradise. Adam was given complete dominion over the earth with only one stipulation.

When God said, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," He literally meant it. God means what He says and says what He means. They listened to the Devil above God and man fell. When Adam and Eve lost spirit, their behavior immediately changed. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Their behavior went from a loving, intimate fellowship with God to hiding. God had said, "in the day When they sinned, the image of God, spirit, left them.

The absence of spirit in the Scriptures is referred to as death, spiritual death. The moment man lost spirit, he became body and soul only, and he took upon himself the sin nature. Spirit nature was gone; sin nature was present. His realm changed from God's realm of the spiritual to man's restricted realm of the natural. This was the origin of the sin nature, the "old man" nature which is evil, completely contrary to God and which cannot be changed.

According to Ephesians 4: We should consider another important truth in Genesis before we move ahead in our study. This truth concerns how God designed reproduction so that everything is after its own kind. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his [its] kind , whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his [its] kind , and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his [its] kind: The English word "genus" is a derivative of the Latin word meaning "kind.

Everything in the plant kingdom is after its kind. When one plants a tomato seed, one reaps tomatoes. There is never any exception to this law. You have never seen a tomato plant with a cucumber hanging off it! Everything is after its own kind. The seed for reproduction is contained within each plant. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind , and every winged fowl after his kind: In the animal kingdom everything is after its kind.

Dogs have puppies; cats have kittens. You cannot cross kinds and get a puppy-kitten. The seed for offspring in animals is contained within them. This law is also true with man kind.

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As with the plant and animal kingdoms in which everything is after its kind, so it is with man. The seed for offspring in humans is also within them. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. Since the spirit was now gone, Adam no longer had the spirit to pass on, but he did have the sin nature. Adam's children were not created in God's image but rather born after Adam's image or kind. Every person born is in Adam's likeness, after his genus.

Thus the human race is referred to as man kind. We are all after the kind of Adam. This makes Adam the head of the human race, the head of all mankind. Every man is after the same kind as Adam with one exception, Jesus Christ. The soul life of mankind is in the blood. The aspect of the blood which has that soul life is contributed in reproduction by the male seed.

Thus the soul life God made in Adam was passed to all mankind in the blood.

Everyone else has the same soul life as Adam, and is therefore born with sin nature. And you hath he quickened , who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

By nature, just being born, we bear Adam's likeness, inherit sin nature, and are children of wrath. We are born in sin, separated from God. Therefore, I Corinthians Tomatoes inherit that which a tomato seed provides. Puppies inherit that which dog seed provides. Romans show the pathetic, hopeless, helpless state of man as being identified with Adam. No, in no wise: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

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They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: This is not a very cheerful, positive summary of man's kind. Man's dilemma in being associated with Adam was the reason the second Adam, Jesus Christ, came. He was God's plan for mankind's redemption. God's plan of redemption had to be in alignment with His Word, on legal grounds, and carried out in a just manner. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, was the just way to redeem man. Obviously, in this ungodly, pathetic, hopeless state, man was and is helpless to help himself.

And not only so , but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement [reconciliation]. In Jesus Christ we received atonement, reconciliation. In Adam we received sin nature, also called the flesh, which is corrupt and corruptible. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. By Adam sin entered into the world.

All men are born in sin, spiritually dead. For until the law sin was in the world: Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible which contain the Law, among other things.

Two Natures in Conflict - Winning Over Fleshly Battles (Paperback)

Moses lived thousands of years after Adam. Sin began with Adam, so it was in the world long before the Mosaic Law. However, sin was not imputed or recognized as sin until the Law was written. The Law gave man a knowledge of sin. But all the years of ignorance of sin did not eliminate sin and its effects: And though the Mosaic Law could reveal the sin nature, it could not rectify it. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude [likeness] of Adam's transgression When a child is born he is born with sin, not because he sinned the same way Adam did, but because the child is associated with Adam.

The issue is not sinning as Adam did; rather being identified with Adam, every child inherits the sin nature. Its basic charac-teristics are common to all men. Adam is the "figure," meaning type or pattern, of Jesus Christ. In what way was Adam a pattern for Christ? Certainly not in the way he disobeyed or sinned or brought death. One way he was a pattern is that he originally had pure blood and no sin and so did Jesus Christ. There are other ways he was a type for Christ, but in this context, he is primarily a pattern in the way mankind is identified with him. The preceding verses show Adam as the head of the human race and his influences on all mankind.

All inherit sin and death by being descendants of Adam. Man's association with Adam as the head of the human race gives a clear pattern for the believer's association with Christ as the head of the "spiritual race. The nature inherited from Adam is unmerited. The nature inherited from Christ is also unmerited. The reality of the sin nature in every man's life has nothing to do with his actions; it is automatically inherited at birth. Likewise, the reality of the new nature, with all its spiritual benefits, has nothing to do with the believer's actions; it is automatically inherited at the new birth.

The rest of Romans 5 shows the influence both Adams have on mankind. Remember the influences of both are inherited with each birth. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one [Adam] many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

And not as it was by one [Adam] that sinned, so is the gift: For if by one man's [Adam] offence death reigned by one [Adam] ; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one [Adam] judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness [righteous acts] of one [Jesus Christ] the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience [Adam] many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one [Jesus Christ] shall many be made righteous.

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Through the one man, Jesus Christ, the new nature was made available. This new nature made the Christian free from the old nature. For the law of the Spirit of life [the new nature] in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death [the old nature].

Adam's wrongdoing ill-effected mankind to a great degree. In comparison, Christ's right doings effected mankind to a "much more" degree. Adam's effect on mankind will come to an end. For the born-again, the effect ends spiritually at the point of the new birth and will be manifested fully when Christ returns. Therefore, Adam's effect is temporal, but Christ's effect is eternal. That is much more, would you not agree? In Christ salvation is available, righteousness, justification, sanctification, seated in the heavenlies, sonship, Christ within, and all of these realities are eternal, never to be lost.

That is much more, don't you think? The seven Church Epistles explain the "much more" gained in Christ that was lost in Adam. The profound impact on mankind of two men, the two Adams, truly explains so much about life. Jesus Christ was indeed the counterpart of Adam. As one of a pair of gloves is to its mate, corresponding, but in reverse, so was Jesus Christ to Adam. Adam's fall; placing sense knowledge above God's Word Genesis 2: Jesus Christ's stand; always placing God's Word above sense knowledge Luke 4: Jesus Christ's accomplishments were in the midst of extreme adversity, while Adam's wrongdoings were in the ideal circumstances.

Adam lived in paradise. Jesus Christ was born into an evil world. In paradise there was no sin; in the world in which Jesus Christ lived, sin abounded. Our lord was born without spirit and did not receive it until he began his ministry. Adam had only one other person to influence him, Eve. Jesus Christ had to contend with a world filled with unbelieving people. The just recompense for mankind with its sin nature is con-demnation and death. To redeem man, a just price had to be paid. The price paid was in the sacrifice of the perfect man, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was man's substitution for sin. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: When Jesus Christ was crucified, we were crucified with him Romans 6: When he died, we died with him Romans 6: When he was buried, our old man was buried with him Romans 6: When God raised him from the dead, we were raised with him Romans 6: He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification Romans 4: When he was raised, we were raised with him.

We received the new nature making us redeemed, justified, righteous, and sanctified. In Christ our old man died, and our new man was made alive. When he ascended, we ascended with him. When he was seated at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, we as well were seated with him Ephesians 2: When he comes back, we will be gathered together with him in glory I Thessalonians 4: Now that we have looked at the two Adams and their influence on mankind, we can begin to understand the two natures in the child of God.

A good place to begin to develop our understanding of the sin nature is Genesis. The temptation which seduced Adam and Eve to sin, and their behavior after the fall, reflect the sin nature which is now common to all men. Although manifested behavior varies widely, all mankind has the same sin nature with identical characteristics. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

One of the lies was, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Hence, we learn the first and most basic aspect of the sin nature, self-worship. One only has to watch a newborn infant to see every person is born selfish, self-concerned, self-centered, and self-absorbed. Some may be very capable at covering their selfishness, and even at convincing others of how selfless they are, but no cover can change that which is ours by nature.

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You can put any label you want on a jar of pickles, but inside are still pickles. You can do that which you want on the outside, yet inside remains the sin nature which is selfish. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Verse 6 shows they allowed their senses to rule over the Word of God. They lost the spirit, and their behavior immediately changed. Others argue that Paul is describing the ongoing battle that he was experiencing as he wrote. Even mature believers have to fight this battle against indwelling sin as long as they live. While I agree that mature believers must fight a continual battle against indwelling sin the flesh or the old sin nature , I disagree that such a description adequately explains these verses.

Paul is not just describing a battle here, but a losing battle. He describes himself as 7: He was a prisoner of the law of sin 7: We looked at the first two cycles 7: Now we come to the third time around the merry-go-round, which follows the same three-fold progression: Fact, proof, and conclusion:. I reject the view that Paul is describing his experience as an unbeliever because he says things that are not true of unbelievers. I reject the view that he was writing primarily about his struggle as a mature believer because while mature believers struggle with sin and sometimes lose the battle, they do not live in perpetual defeat and bondage to sin.

I contend that these verses primarily describe an immature believer who has not yet come to understand that he is no longer under the law, but under grace. He has not yet learned to rely on the indwelling Holy Spirit to overcome the lusts of the flesh. There is no mention of the Spirit here, but much is said of the Spirit in chapter 8. But at the same time, the war that Paul describes here does go on, even for mature believers.

The difference is that while sin is winning the war in chapter 7, Paul through the Holy Spirit is winning against sin in chapter 8. We do not have to yield repeatedly to sin, which is the frustrating cycle that Paul describes here. This third cycle teaches us:. To win the war within, we must understand the magnitude of the inner conflict so that in despair we cry out to God for deliverance. Who will deliver me from the body of this death? So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

I see three lessons in our text:. The Christian life is a constant battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Here the focus is on the flesh. He discovered this truth in the school of hard knocks. And so he portrays here the two combatants in this battle. We can picture them as boxers:. Paul uses several terms here to describe the evil within. While they have different nuances, they basically describe the same thing: All of these terms refer to the old man and its method of operation.

The old man is not eradicated at conversion, but continues to be corrupted according to the lusts of deceit Eph. As we saw last time, positionally the old man was crucified with Christ, in order that our body of sin might be done away with Rom. But pra c tically , we have to reckon this to be true in our daily experience by putting it off Rom. Note how the old man operates:. In this sense, it rules us and with authority tells us how to live although wrongly! It promises rewards if we obey it: It operates as a law, commanding us, threatening us, and enticing us.

In other words, sin is subtle and cunning. It lures you into traps where you get ambushed. It keeps coming at you until it brings you down. We need to be careful here or we could fall into an error that became prevalent in the early church. Gnosticism taught that the body is inherently evil, whereas the spirit is good.

This led to two different extremes. Some said that since the body is evil, we must treat it harshly by depriving ourselves of food, comfort, and physical pleasure. This is asceticism, which Paul strongly condemns Col. The other extreme was that some said that since the body is evil anyway, you might as well indulge it. What the body does is unrelated to the spirit. So you could indulge in sexual immorality, but at the same time claim that your spirit was not in sin.

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