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SOMETHING OLD,
SOMETHING NEW

“When you came into spiritual relationship with God through your new birth, you didn’t add a new, divine nature to your old, sinful nature. You exchanged natures.”

Our spiritual identity is anchored to the truth that we are saints who sin, not sinners. Because of God’s grace and our faith in Christ, we have been born again. We are spiritually alive and we enjoy a relationship with God as Adam and Eve did before the Fall. Being in Christ, we are forgiven, justified and completely acceptable to God. Understanding and acting upon this truth of who we are in Christ is the basis for our growth and victory.

But we have also discovered that, despite God’s provision for us in Christ, we are still far from perfect in our behavior. We are saints who sin. Our position in Christ is settled and solid. But our daily actions are often marked by failure and disobedience, which disturb the harmony of our relationship with God. This is our biggest problem as Christians. We groan with the apostle Paul: “When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Oh, what a miserable person I am!” (Romans 7:19,24, NLT).

When we talk about the problems of disobedience that make us feel more like sinners than saints, a lot of interesting terms pop up: old nature, old self (or old man), flesh and sin. What do these terms really mean? Are we saints or not? And if we are, why do we sometimes live like we’re not?

These are tough questions for Christians of any age. Bible scholars have wrestled with them for centuries, and we don’t pretend to have the final answers in this book. But in this chapter we want to talk about some of the terms that often confuse Christians who are trying to deal with the sinful side of their sainthood. The more we understand about our old sinful self, our new self in Christ and the sin that bothers us, angers us and embarrasses us, the better prepared we will be to grow in our identity in Christ.

FROM SINNER TO SAINT

Colossians 1:13 says that God “delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” We have changed kingdoms—from Satan’s to God’s; we are not members of both.

God declares that we “are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9). We’re one or the other, not half and half. Ephesians 5:8 states that “you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Darkness and light are not fighting for control within us. When we trusted Christ, the darkness departed and we are now light.

The Bible says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, the new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Does that sound like we are partly new creature and partly old creature and that the two creatures are battling for supremacy within us? Not at all.

A good illustration of what has happened to us is found in the character Eustace in C. S. Lewis’s book Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the Narnia series. Eustace was a boy who was so awful and nasty that he turned into an ugly, evil dragon. Then he met the lion, Aslan, who represents Christ. And Aslan changed him from a dragon into a fine young man.

At first Eustace tried to change himself by scratching and peeling off layers of his dragon skin. But for every layer that came off, another layer of wrinkled, scaly skin appeared underneath. Finally Aslan stepped up to do the job. With one painful swipe of his powerful claws, the lion cut to the heart of Eustace’s dragon flesh and peeled it away, and Eustace the boy stepped out

One moment Eustace was a dragon; the next moment he was a boy. He went from one to the other; he wasn’t part dragon and part boy. Eustace pictures what the Bible says about us. Once we were in the kingdom of Satan; now we’re in the kingdom of God. Once we were of the flesh; now we’re of the Spirit. Once we were darkness; now we are light. Once we were old, sinful creatures; now we are new, saintly creatures.

If we believe that we are part light and part darkness, part saint and part sinner, we will live unfruitful lives with little to distinguish us from non-Christians. We may confess our tendency to sin and strive to do better. But we will live continually defeated lives because we think of ourselves only as sinners saved by grace who are hanging on until the rapture.

Satan knows he can do nothing about who we really are. But if he can get us to believe we are no different from non-Christians, then we will behave no differently from them.

God’s work in changing sinners to saints through Christ’s death and resurrection is His greatest accomplishment on Earth. Your inner change (justification), when God took away your sin and gave you His righteousness, happened the moment you trusted Christ as your Savior. That’s when the dragon skin was cut away and you became a new creature. The outer change (sanctification), learning to think and act like a new creature in Christ, continues throughout life. But learning to live successfully like a new creature will only happen when you accept the truth that you already are a new creature.

The Nature of the Matter

What does the Bible specifically say about our nature? Ephesians 2:1-3 describes the nature we all shared before we came to Christ:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

What was our basic nature before we were born again spiritually? We “were by nature children of wrath,” dead in sin, subject to Satan’s power, living completely to fulfill sinful lusts and desires. This is the condition of every unbeliever today.

Second Peter 1:3-4 describes our nature after we came to Christ:

His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

When you came into spiritual relationship with God through your new birth, you didn’t add a new, divine nature to your old, sinful nature. You exchanged natures. Salvation isn’t just a matter of God forgiving your sins and issuing you a ticket to heaven when you die. Salvation is a complete change. God changed you from darkness to light, from sinner to saint There is a newness about you that wasn’t there before.

If God hadn’t changed our identity at salvation, we would be stuck with our old identity until we died. How could we expect to grow to maturity if we didn’t start as transformed children of God? Receiving God’s nature is basic to our identity and maturity in Christ.

Either One or the Other

Ephesians 5:8 describes the needed change that occurs at salvation: “You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” It doesn’t say we were in darkness; it says we were darkness. Darkness was our nature as unbelievers. Nor does it say we are now in the light; it says we are light. God changed our basic nature from darkness to light.

The issue in this passage is not improving our nature. Our new nature is already settled. The issue is learning how to walk in harmony with our new nature. How do we do that? By learning to walk by faith and walk in the Spirit, which are the subjects of the chapters ahead.

Why do you need the nature of Christ within you? So you can be like Christ, not just act like Him. God has not given us the power to imitate Him. He has made us partakers of His nature so that we can actually be like Him. We don’t become Christians by acting like Christians. We are not on a performance basis with God. He doesn’t say, “Here are My standards, now you measure up.” He knows we can’t solve the problem of an old sinful self by simply improving our behavior. He must change our nature, who we are, and give us an entirely new self—the life of Christ in us—which is the grace we need to measure up to His standards.

IS THE “OLD MAN” ALIVE, DYING OR ALREADY DEAD?

Before we came to Christ, we were sinners because it was our nature to sin. That nature was our old self. The King James Version often refers to our old self as our “old man.” First Corinthians 2:14 in the New American Standard Bible calls him the “natural man” who cannot accept or understand the things of the Spirit.

Rest in Peace

What happened to the old you at salvation? You died—not the physical you, of course, but that old inner self that was powered by the old nature you inherited from Adam (see Romans 6:2-6; Colossians 3:3). What was the method of death? Crucifixion with Christ. Romans 6:6 states, “Our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” Paul announced in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ.” At salvation you were placed into Christ, the One who died on the cross for your sin. Being in Christ, your old self died with Him there.

Why did the old self need to die? Romans 6:6 tells us that the old self was independent and disobedient to God, so it had to die in order that “we should no longer be slaves to sin.” When your old self died with Christ on the cross, your relationship with sin ended. Your old self—the sinner—and your old nature—sinfulness—are gone forever.

Does this mean that we are now sinless? No way! The death of our old self ended our relationship with sin. But sin and Satan are still around, and they are strong and appealing. But because of the crucifixion of the old self, sin’s power over us is broken (see Romans 6:7,12,14). We are no longer under any obligation to serve sin, to obey sin or to respond to sin.

We commit sin when we make a willful decision to allow ourselves to act independently of God, which is how our old self acted all the time. When we make that wrong decision, we violate our new nature and our new identity. Such actions must be confessed and turned away from.

Once Dead, Always Dead

A pastor visited me (Neil) a few years ago, and he was in real turmoil. “I’ve been struggling to live a victorious Christian life for 20 years. I think I know what my problem is. Colossians 3:3 says, ‘For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ I’ve been struggling all these years because I haven’t died like this verse says. How do I die, Neil?”

“Dying is not your problem,” I said. “Read the verse again, just a little slower.”

“ ‘For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ I know, Neil. That’s my problem. I haven’t died.”

“Read it once again,” I pressed, “just a little bit slower.”

“ ‘For you have died—’ ” and suddenly a light switched on in his understanding. “Hey, that’s past tense, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely. Your problem isn’t dying; you’re already dead. You died at salvation. No wonder you’ve been struggling as a Christian. You’ve been trying to do something that’s already been done, and that’s impossible. The death Paul talks about in Colossians 3:3 isn’t something God expects you to do; it’s something He expects you to know, accept and believe. You can’t do anything to become what you already are.”

Christ paid the debt for our sin through His death on the cross. Thanks to Him, your old self has been replaced by a new self, controlled by a new nature, which was not there before (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). Your old self was destroyed in the death of Christ and your new self sprang to life in the resurrection of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 15:20-22). The new life that characterizes your new self is nothing less than the life of Jesus Christ implanted in you (see Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4).

WHERE DOES THE FLESH FIT INTO THE PICTURE?

When I (Neil) was in the Navy, we called the captain of our ship “the Old Man.” Our Old Man was tough and crusty, and nobody liked him. He was not a good example of a naval officer. So when our Old Man got transferred to another ship, we all rejoiced.

Then we got a new skipper—a new Old Man. The Old Man no longer had any authority over us and we no longer had any relationship with him. But I was trained under that Old Man. So how do you think I related to the new Old Man? At first I tiptoed around him expecting him to bite my head off. That’s how I had lived for two years around my first skipper.

But as I got to know the new skipper, I realized that he wasn’t a crusty old tyrant like my Old Man. He was a good guy, really concerned about us. But I had been programmed for two years to react a certain way when I saw a captain’s uniform. I didn’t need to react that way any longer, but it took several months to recondition myself to the new skipper.

Reacting to Your Old Skipper

We once served under a cruel, self-serving skipper within us: our old sinful self with its sinful nature. The admiral of that fleet is Satan himself, the prince of darkness. But by God’s grace we now have a new admiral, Jesus, and a new skipper: our new self, which is powered by the divine nature of Jesus Christ. As children of God, saints, we are no longer under the control of our Old Man. He is dead, buried, gone forever.

So why do we live as if our old skipper is still in control? Because everything we learned before we became Christians was programmed into our brains. Much of what the Bible calls “the flesh” are those programmed habits and patterns of thinking we learned from the world. The flesh is that tendency within each person to operate independently of God and to center our interests on ourselves. Unsaved people live out their lives totally in the flesh (see Romans 8:7-8; 2 Corinthians 5:15).

Since we were born physically alive but spiritually dead, we learned to live our lives independently of God, doing our own thing. During the years we spent separated from God, our worldly experiences thoroughly programmed us with thought patterns and habits that are alien to God. When we were born again, our old self died and our new self came to life. But our flesh remained. So even though our old skipper is gone, our flesh remains in opposition to God as a programmed tendency for sin— living independently of God.

Responding to Your New Skipper

There is a difference in Scripture between being in the flesh and walking according to the flesh. As a Christian, you are no longer in the flesh. That phrase describes people who are still spiritually dead (see Romans 8:8), those who live independently of God.

You are not in the flesh; you are in Christ (see Romans 8:9). You no longer live independently of God; you have declared your dependence on Him by placing faith in Christ. But even though you are not in the flesh, you may still choose to walk according to the flesh (see Romans 8:12-13). You may still act according to the flesh (see Romans 8:12-13). You may still act independently of God by saying yes to the patterns and habits programmed into your mind by the world you lived in.

Unbelievers can’t help but live according to the flesh because they are totally in the flesh. But your old skipper is gone. You are no longer in the flesh and you no longer need to live according to its desires.

Getting rid of the old self was God’s job, but keeping the flesh and its deeds from dominating our lives is our responsibility (see Romans 8:12). God has changed our nature, but it’s our job to change our behavior by “putting to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). How do we do that? There are two major parts to gaining victory over the flesh.

First, we must learn to base our behavior on our new master and our new self, which is joined with the nature of Christ. Paul promised, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). We will talk about walking in the Spirit in chapter 5. Second, our old pattern for thinking and responding to our sin-trained flesh must be transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Romans 12:2). Renewing the mind is the topic of chapters 6 to 9.

WHAT ROLE DOES SIN PLAY IN OUR STRUGGLE
TOWARD SAINTLY BEHAVIOR?

When you received Christ, the power of sin was not broken, but its power to dominate you was broken through your death, resurrection and righteousness in Christ (see Romans 6:7; 8:10). You no longer have to sin because you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ (see Romans 6:11). Sin still strongly appeals to your flesh to continue to act independently of God. But you no longer have to sin like you did before receiving Christ. It is your responsibility not to let sin reign in your life (see Romans 6:12). You do that by not allowing your thoughts, eyes, hands, feet and such to be used for sinful purposes (see Romans 6:13).

Doing What I Don’t Want to Do

Perhaps the best description of a believer’s struggle with sin is found in Romans 7:15-25. In verses 15 and 16, Paul describes the problem: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good” (NIV).

Notice that there is only one player in these two verses—the “I,” mentioned nine times. Also notice that this person has a good heart; he agrees with the law of God. But this good-hearted Christian has a behavior problem. He knows what he should be doing but, for some reason, he can’t do it. He agrees with God but ends up doing the very things he hates. Does that sound like every Christian young person you know?

Verse 20 uncovers the reason for this behavior problem: “If I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (NIV). How many players are involved now? Two: “sin” and “me.” Sin dwelling in me prevents me from doing what I want to do. Whenever that happens, I am responsible for allowing sin to reign and for getting rid of it.

Do these verses say that I am no good, that I am evil or that I am sin? Absolutely not. They say that I have something dwelling in me that is evil and sinful, but it’s not me. If I have a sliver in my finger, I could say that I have something in me that is no good. But it’s not me who’s no good. I’m not the sliver. The sliver that is stuck in my finger is no good. I am not sin and I am not a sinner. I am a saint who has allowed sin to reign in my mortal body, which causes me to do what I don’t want to do.

On the Battleground

Verses 22 and 23 pinpoint the battleground for the contest between me and sin: “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members” (NIV).

Where does my desire to do what’s right come from? Paul uses the phrase “my inner being,” referring to my new self where my spirit and God’s Spirit are joined. This is the eternal part of me.

And where does sin attack me to keep me from doing what I really want to do? My flesh, my previously learned independence, continues to tempt me to rebel against God (see James 4:1). This is the temporary, earthly part of me. Where then do these two opponents wage war (see Galatians 5:17)? The battleground in my mind. That’s why it is so important that we learn how to renew our minds (see Romans 12:2) and to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (see 2 Corinthians 10:5).

Paul finished his description of the contest between sin and the new self by saying, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24, NIV). Notice that he didn’t say, “Sinful man that I am!” “Wretched” means “miserable,” and there is no one more miserable than the person who wants to do right but can’t. If we use our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness, we give the devil an opportunity in our lives, and he brings only misery.

The good news is: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! … There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 7:25; 8:1). The battle for the mind is a winnable war, as we will see in the chapters ahead.

TRUTH ENCOUNTER

1.   What does it mean to you to have a new nature as a believer?

2.   Write a personal experience where you gained victory over the flesh.

3.   Where does the battle between you and sin occur?

4.   What does “there is evil present in you, but it’s not you” mean?