There is a war going on with my two natures! Do you ever have a ‘tug of war’ going on in you as well?
So, I went searching for a treasure of a book with a sketch of the struggle, Donald Barnhouse’s “Teaching the Word of Truth”. Pictured was a wagon with a horse hitched to the front of the wagon and a horse hitched to the back, both pulling in opposite directions, with all their strength – at the same time! The wagon is going no-where!
Then there is a stick figure of a man, on the left the words, ‘old nature’, ‘unhappy Christians’, with some rough words connected to them, like: hatred, wrath, strife and envyings. On the right, were the words, “new nature”, happy Christians, and connected with terms like: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
We begin to think that there are some people that are ‘very’ bad, and there are others that don’t seem bad, like babies or nice people. But God does not see any of our ‘own’ goodness. The Bible says quite strongly that ‘all our righteousness is as filthy rags’, (Isaiah 64:6). God’s word is truth and sometimes the truth is hard: ‘All our righteousness is just as a filthy rag’. This sounds even disgusting. How can that be?
Is there hope? What does God look for? What’s the solution. Well, a very, very ‘good’ man came to Jesus one night. Many of us know the story of ‘Nic at night’. Yes, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, one who even taught the law and a ruler of the Jews ‘came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2).
Something was missing in ‘Nic’s life. He had to have answers. This man was a ‘good’ man. Wasn’t all his ‘goodness’ enough? What did Jesus say? Jesus gets right to what Nicodemus needed – this good and righteous man needed one thing. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3.
What is Jesus saying? In order to ‘see’ the kingdom of God, we all have to be born again? Well, then this is VERY important then. Who cares if the media and the world is hung up over ‘vocabulary’! We must be born again in order to ‘see the kingdom of God!
I want to ‘see the kingdom of God, today and everyday, don’t you? Don’t we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name, your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6).
We all have an ‘old nature’. Our ‘old nature’ can’t please God, it can’t obey God, and it can’t understand God! God doesn’t want us to just ‘stay there’! He wants us to be born again of the Spirit that we may have fruit.
I must first, believe on Him whom the Father has sent. I must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! The hymns tell us how!
“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because
“All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever!” (1 Peter 1:22-25, exclamation point mine).
God doesn’t want me to ‘fix up’ my old nature – He wants it dead to make room for the NEW! “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:11-15, emphasis, mine).
I’m asking LORD, “Fill me with Your Spirit that I might abound in the fruit of the Spirit, not the outcome of the flesh! My ‘new nature’ is the life of Jesus in me. “Lord, that others might see more of You and less, so much less of …me”” In Jesus Name, Amen.” “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:11-15).
“This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. “Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus!