II.  Understand the habitation and hostilities of these two natures: the Christian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

A.  These two natures abide side by side in the believer.  They cohabit in the believer's life.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:7-8).

Remember that the Apostle Paul is speaking to Christians here.  So, when he implies that the believer may sow either to the flesh or the Spirit (and the sowing must necessarily be to himself), the Apostle Paul demonstrates that the Christian possesses in himself, and side by side, the two natures of flesh and Spirit.

B.  The flesh nature is constantly fighting the Spirit nature.

8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire.  For apart from the law sin was dead.  9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.  10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.  11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.  12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

13 Has then what is good become death to me?  Certainly not!  But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.  14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.  15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

 

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  (Romans 7:8-23).

This is a perfect portrayal of the Christian life.

(1)  The "inward man" refers to the new nature born of the Holy Spirit.

The misery which led the Apostle Paul to cry out in Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am!" is the frustration of the continuing assaults against every effort of the new man to live in the way of righteousness and truth.

Paul displays himself as being led one moment by an irresistible force to seek after God in all His ways and, in another, falling prey to a force carrying him off his feet by the sweep of evil powers that he is just beginning to understand as having their headquarters and source in him.  His testimony in this passage represents the average Christian's sinning and repenting, anxious to do the will of God and doing it in a measure until in an unexpected moment some powerful surge of that old nature's sin proves stronger than all the desires of the spirit.

Now discouragement sets in.  For some Christians a disaster begins.  In spite of God's promised strength and victory these Christians, who have not grasped the way of Spirit domination, suffer under the whiplash of sinful impulses.  More frustrating yet, the inclination to sin seems all the more powerful after the endeavor to do the will of God in Christ.

(2)  Not until we are born again do we begin to comprehend the depths of the 

      flesh and its power for sin.

Some Christians are dumbfounded to discover in themselves inclinations they never knew they had until they turned to the Lord.  This is understandable.  Prior to the Christian receiving this new nature, the body had been the stronghold of sin.

Now a new tenant has come into the life.  This tenant is the very nature of Christ, and this new nature stirs up the hostility of the old nature.  The old nature, the flesh nature, will never give up in its assaults on the Christian as long as he is in this life.

When Jesus was on earth, all the forces of earth and hell moved against Him.  Satan continued the assaults to the end of our Lord's life.  Now our Lord is once again upon the earth, but this time in the lives of those who believe.  And once again, the same forces of earth and hell under the domination of Satan arise with renewed effort to defeat and to obstruct.  They will continue until our release at the time of the second coming of Christ or death, whichever is first.

For Meditation and Discussion

1.      To what does the believer sow? (Galatians 6:7-8)

2.      What is the "inward man"?

3.      Give the Scripture's portrayal of the Christian life.