01 Feb “Two Natures”

I heard this poem recently in my Bible in a year program and I absolutely love it:

“Two natures beat within my breast
The one is foul, the one is blessed
The one I love, the one I hate.
The one I feed will dominate.”

-Anonymous (Shared by Tara Leigh Cobble)

Whoever wrote this captured the essence of a difficult biblical passage that I have long struggled with:

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now 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. Romans 7:14-21 (NIV)

This is the Apostle Paul struggling with his own sin. The thought of Paul fighting the same fight against sin that we all do has troubled some biblical scholars so much that they argue that Paul is referring to his former self, Saul of Tarsus, before he was rescued by Jesus on the road to Damascus. To that I say: nonsense. So does gotquestion.org:

Romans 7:14–25 is a passage that has caused some confusion among Bible students because of the strong language Paul uses to describe himself. How can the greatest of the apostles characterize himself, and by extension, all Christians, as “unspiritual,” a “slave to sin” and a “prisoner of the law of sin”? Aren’t these descriptions used in Romans 7:14–25 descriptions of unbelievers? How can Paul describe himself in these terms if he is truly saved? The key to understanding Romans 7:14–25 is Paul’s description of the two natures of a Christian. Prior to salvation, we have only one nature—the sin nature. But once we come to Christ, we are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), but we still abide in the old flesh which has the remains of the sinful nature within it. These two natures war constantly with one another, continually pulling the believer in opposite directions.

And this is why I love the poem I shared so much. Especially the last line: “The one I feed will dominate.” Will I feed the new creation or the old one?  How do we feed the new creation and starve the old, fleshy self? The answer is simple, but not easy: surrender to the Holy Spirit.

The same power that raised Jesus from the grave resides in us when we’ve accepted Christ and the Holy Spirit lives in us. That power lies dormant, however, if we don’t surrender to the Spirit. When we do, we naturally starve the old self and life in the new self becomes easier. C.S. Lewis called it: “the hardest easy thing you’ll ever do.”

Giving up total control of yourself is hard; self-reliance is the foundation of your old self. Once you do surrender, trusting your life to God is a lot easier than trying to be who God wants you to be under your own ability. In fact, that’s impossible.

If you haven’t yet, I pray that you starve your old self and surrender to the power of the Spirit today. You won’t believe how easy life is when you live it with the “nature that is blessed!”