The struggle in living for God comes from not understanding the two natures of believers. Part One looks at the perfection of Adam in the garden, as a tri-part being comprised of body, soul and spirit.
God created Adam a living soul empowering his human spirit to rule his soul and the soul ruling his body. Eve’s sin, then Adam’s sin turned this divine order upside down.
Outside the garden we see a different Adam. Pain and sorrow comes at him from many directions. It is now a struggle to build altars, to offer sacrifices, and to worship with freedom his Maker. The three parts are still there, but the spirit has grown darker without the living Spirit of God walking closely with him.
His very personality and nature has changed.
Now his soul fights his spirit and his body fights his soul, each demanding its own way. The spirit became subject to the soul. The soul became subject to the flesh. The flesh seeks out all that opposes God. Before sin, Adam was a ‘living soul’, after sin, Adam was referred to as ‘flesh’. (Genesis 6:3) Flesh is now the sinful nature and it is passed onto all descendants of Adam. Flesh and blood cannot enter into God’s Holy Light because it is sinful.
This is why the unbeliever is under God’s Wrath. Sin reaps death which God has to judge, either now, through His Son, or after we die, at the Judgment.
“All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.” Romans 3:23
“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:” Romans 5:12
Two Natures-
The Old Nature-
Believers can’t change their old nature Doing good works will never change the flesh. Exercise will not keep the flesh from dying. Everyone dies eventually. Money cannot stop the process. Flesh is death; it is aging, dying second by second.
Unbelievers can’t change their old nature via New Age or Eastern Occult teachings.
Our nature is the principle of life that directs our whole being. The character of the flesh will never improve. It is sinful. The wages of sin is death. The flesh will never desire the things of God. It wars against the soul, whether that soul is saved or unsaved. New Year Resolutions are broken because of flesh. Vows and promises are not kept because of flesh. Diets are given up by the demands of the flesh.
This is why Christ took on flesh, so he could be tested like humans, and by submitting to His Father, be able to overcome it all. His shed Blood covers our sins. His Holy Spirit empowers us to be changed into a New Creation with a New Nature; a Spiritual Nature.
The Divine or Spiritual Nature-
Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh…” (John 3:6)
II Peter 1:4 says, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
The spiritual nature does not come from a personal commitment to be fit, to fast more, to pray more, to serve more, to give up this or that, to improve our minds; but it comes from the resurrected and glorified Nature of Christ dwelling in ours.
The Empowerment of the Holy Spirit-
When God fills us with the Holy Spirit, He empowers our human spirit to take its rightful position of authority again. New Birth puts the divine order of spirit, then soul, then body, in place again.
Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be Born Again.” “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:7-8) We can’t control the Holy Spirit, but we can submit to its influence and allow the power to change us into his character.
Two Natures emerge in the believer. One is sinful or natural or the outer man, the old carnal flesh.
One is the inner man, spiritual, new, righteous with sin covered by His Blood, a new creation. One is life springing up from our innermost being into eternal life.
One is the outer man, carnal, fleshly, sinful, lawless, dying and aging, heading for the grave. Jesus promises believers a Glorified Body like unto His at the Rapture.
Paul tells us about the struggle-
Paul struggled with keeping his soul and body subjected to God just like you and I do today. Even with a Born Again spirit, infused with power of the Holy Spirit, Paul still had to fight his self, by purposely ‘willing’ and purposely ‘submitting’ to God’s Spirit in prayer and fasting.
Romans chapter seven gives the details of the struggle between the old nature and the new nature.
Look at just a few verses here and listen for the struggle and tension in Paul’s words. The struggle is real and can be overcome with God’s daily help.
“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.’ (v 18)
“For the good I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (v 19)
“Now if I do not that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (v 20)
“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” (v 21)
“For I delight in the law of God after the inner man.” ( v 22)
Unbelievers continue walking with their body ruling their soul, while their soul rules their spirit.
Continual sin will eventually harden the spirit so much that you cannot tell the spirit apart from the soul, while the soul merges more and more with the demands of the body. Most psychologists only recognize two parts of man. Evil people become more evil over time and turn into wicked souls, with decimated bodies and evil eyes.
Think about it. Everyone has to pay death its wages. Jesus is our only hope of being saved from eternal death.
To be continued….Part Three