The Sin Nature- Part I
December 2019 |
What Exactly Is The Sin Nature?
It’s what happened to Adam and Eve at the time of the fall. Before the fall, the Lord had been the supreme advocate for Adam and Eve, in everything that they did. The Lord moved upon them and worked with them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week—that is the most wonderful position for a person— to be in the presence of the Lord. I’ve never taken any drugs, I don’t know what they do to you; I don’t know what alcohol does to you, I’ve never tasted of alcohol of any nature. But I do know what the presence of the Lord is—and there is nothing in the world like it. To try to explain it, one cannot do so—not successfully, at any rate. Many of you know exactly what I’m talking about, but sad to say, a lot of you do not.
Self-Consciousness
Whenever Adam and Eve fell, they fell from a position of total God-consciousness down to the far, far lower level of total self-consciousness. That’s the reason man thinks as he does, does as he does, and acts as he does, because it’s all wrapped up in self. After conversion, that’s probably the greatest problem for the saint of God—to climb over self.
Let me say it again: Adam and Eve fell from the higher position of total God-consciousness down to the far, far lower level of total self-consciousness, and from the moment of the fall, the sin nature controlled and ruled them. From that day until now, the sin nature has ruled every individual born into this world—except for those who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ and have been born again and become a new creation in Christ Jesus.
However—and this is important—if the believer is not careful and does not understand the sin nature, he will also be controlled by it. Now let’s look at that a little deeper: that means that everything that sinful man does—man who is not born again, not a new creation—everything he does is looked at by God as sin. Let’s say that again: Every single thing that the unconverted person does—even that which the world lauds as wonderful: “He provided money for an orphan home; he’s done this, that, or the other”—but the motive is wrong. That unconverted person may be doing some good things, but the motive is wrong; it cannot be right—it’s impossible for it to be right.
Sin
Before you, me, or any other person was born again, our every activity was sin. Our every thought was looked at by God as sin. The sin nature ruled. You’ve heard the statement made many times, when a person does some peculiar thing, it is said of him, “Well, that’s just his nature.” And that’s right, it is his nature. But the sad part of it is that every single individual in the world who is unsaved, who is not born again, his nature is nothing but sin.
Now, how does the child of God get involved in this? The moment that the believing sinner comes to Christ and is born again—at that moment—the sin nature is made dormant. It’s not a physical thing, but to use an example, it’s like an electrical appliance—when a stove or refrigerator is plugged in, it works; when it’s unplugged, it has no power to operate. Well, the moment a person gets saved, regardless of how wicked, ungodly, degrading, dastardly, or darkened he may have been, the moment he comes to Christ—at that moment—the sin nature is unplugged, so to speak.
Again, it’s not a physical thing; it’s spiritual. Now it’s meant to stay that way—unplugged—but what happens? If the believer anchors his or her faith in anything except Christ and Him crucified, and this is so important, if he believes anything except Christ and Him crucified no matter how good it may be—Paul said that which was good deceived me.
Paul
Paul, in the seventh chapter of Romans catalogues his own experience with the sin nature saying, “but what I hate, that do I” (Rom. 7:15). Millions and millions of Christians are operating in this failure: “but what I hate, that do I.” In other words, they don’t want to do it; they don’t want to fail. Some call such people hypocrites, and the devil is very fond of jumping on that and claiming, “You’re nothing but a hypocrite or you wouldn’t be failing like this.” But they’re not hypocrites. They are individuals who do not understand the sin nature.
Cross
The only answer for sin is the cross. That’s why the believer is importuned to place his or her faith exclusively in Christ and Him crucified because the cross is the only answer for sin, there is no other. That’s the reason the church is a thousand miles off base; it has ventured into the foray of humanistic psychology—it is an insult to God and an insult to what Jesus Christ did at the cross of Calvary.
So, as a believer, how do you have victory over the sin nature? How do you overcome this thing? You do so by placing your faith exclusively in Christ and the cross and maintaining it exclusively in Christ and the cross. That’s why Paul said, “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect” (I Cor. 1:17).
He was not knocking water baptism; water baptism is good; it’s a biblical, scriptural ordinance. But Satan wants us to place the emphasis—that’s what Paul was talking about—you put the emphasis on water baptism, and the emphasis must be on the cross of Christ because that’s where all sin was addressed, and all sin was atoned.
Now, whenever you place your faith in anything except Christ and Him crucified, you then start to be controlled by the sin nature. And millions of Christians—they don’t know what’s going on; they don’t understand; they’re struggling, doing everything they know how to do to overcome and to be victorious, but they’re going the very opposite direction. They’re failing, failing, failing, and it’s because their faith is in something else other than Christ and the Cross.
No Victory Outside The Cross
Please understand it: there is no panacea, no hope, no victory outside of the cross of Christ. That’s why Paul said, “That which was good deceived me.” What was he talking about? He was talking about the commandments—“I can keep them now that I’m saved; I’m Spirit-filled.”
Notice this: Paul was a Spirit-filled man, and an apostle. He had been miraculously saved on the road to Damascus and baptized three days later with the Holy Spirit; but Ananias had long since come and laid his hands on Paul and prayed for him. Still, Paul could not overcome—“the thing that I hate, that’s what I do.”
The church has come along and said, “Oh this was Paul talking about his before conversion experience.” That is stupid. Why in the world would the Holy Spirit want to catalogue such as that? That’s something every person goes through. No, Paul was a saved man; he was a Spirit-filled man; he was an apostle, and he was no doubt being used of God, but he was failing because at that time he didn’t understand the cross. But thank God, shortly thereafter the Holy Spirit gave him the meaning of the new covenant, which is the cross.
You see the Holy Spirit wants to develop character in the heart and life of the believer. He sets out to do that the moment that person gets saved, and the only thing that He requires of us is that we place our faith exclusively in Christ and the cross. If we don’t, God may use us, but after a while it’s going to catch up with us.
The Holy Spirit develops our character strictly by and through the cross of Christ, and our faith in that finished work. If we try to function any other way, then we’re going against God, and it won’t work—it can’t work.
That’s where the modern church is today—it staggers and stumbles. The Lord told me, “My people are in the same condition that the children of Israel were in as slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.”
Most of the modern church today is a slave to evil passions, ungodliness, filth, the worst type of sin, even doing things they would not have done before they got saved because the sin nature is controlling that person, and there’s only one solution for it, and that’s the cross. But the believer is trying to get victory by other means.
No Other Means
Justification delivers us from the penalty of sin. Sanctification delivers us from the power of sin. And there is no other means to control it except by the cross of Christ.
We have labeled our address toward the sin nature, and the believer deals with it in several different ways: The first one is ignorance. The second is denial. The third is license. Number four is struggle, and number five is grace. The only one that’s legitimate is the last one, grace.
Ignorance
Let’s touch on ignorance. The modern church has no understanding of the sin nature. There are a few that do, but so few that they’re almost non-existent. They don’t know anything about it.
Years ago, traveling from city to city in evangelistic work, which we did for twenty-odd years, Frances and I would go into a place to preach a meeting, and the next morning I would find a used book store in the city—they always had a section of religious books—and I’d buy several of them, some written by the greatest preachers who ever lived. But in reading hundreds of these books—and I read them all—hundreds and hundreds of books, hundreds of messages—not one time did I read a single message on the sin nature; not one time. Coming up in an Assembly of God church, not one time did I hear a message on the sin nature. I’m going to go further than that: Not one single time do I remember hearing the term sin nature used in any message that I heard coming up as a kid, all the way up to when I was grown—not a single one. It’s because they didn’t know anything about it; they didn’t understand it.
I was writing one of the commentaries on the sixth chapter of Romans (I later rewrote it, as would be understandable), and I looked in my desk, and there was a book by Kenneth Wuest, the Baptist theologian and Greek scholar and probably one of the best Greek scholars of the twentieth century. He had a whole dissertation on the sin nature from Romans 6, and the strange, odd thing about it is, I had read it before; this was not the first time I saw it, I had read it maybe two or three times, but somehow or another it never clicked, it never connected. But that morning, before daylight, in my office, the Holy Spirit began to outline it and open up what the man said. In dealing with Romans 6, I think it’s seventeen times that the sin nature is mentioned—really the word sin is mentioned. And every time but one, it is speaking of the sin nature, meaning that Paul is not talking about acts of sin; he’s dealing with the sin nature. And, if we don’t function ourselves as we should, we will be taken over by the sin nature no matter how much we love God. No matter how sincere and earnest we are. It doesn’t matter if we’re ignorant, the Lord will deal with us in that capacity just so long, and after a while, we’re going to have to answer for it.
I remember the morning before daylight that I read what the brother wrote about the sin nature, walking across the floor in that office, tears rolling down my face. For the first time, I understood why. To fail and you don’t know why, and you’re struggling not to fail—Paul said the thing I hate, that’s what I do—it’s a terrible situation. And it’s because My people fail because of lack of knowledge, and I did not know; I had no knowledge of it. But still, the laws were there, and God made those laws, and He’s a patient God; He’s longsuffering—thank God He is—but after a while, it’s going to catch up with us.
Some might say, “Well, if you’re ignorant, and you don’t know, then you’re not responsible.” Yes, you are.
A few years ago, I was stopped by a police officer on the interstate. He pulled me over and said, “Did you see that sign back there that said the speed limit is 45? You were making 60.” I really hadn’t seen the sign; I didn’t know—it was just a straight highway with no businesses or housing around, so I’d put the pedal to the metal you know. I wasn’t lying to that officer, I just didn’t know that it was a 45 mph zone. But it didn’t matter, I had broken the law, and he had the power within his hand to write me out a $300 ticket if he wanted to do so. Thank the Lord he didn’t, but I was still responsible.
Likewise, the believer who doesn’t know anything about the sin nature—and most out there don’t; some few do; I’m sure there are preachers somewhere preaching it, but it’s not many—it’s a problem of ignorance, and that’s why we’re teaching it as we are.
Dominion
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). In effect, he’s saying, if we are under law, sin will have dominion over us, and the sad fact is, the far greater majority of the modern church is functioning under law. It’s done through ignorance; they don’t know any different, any better. But they’re functioning under law, and there’s a curse to law. And I mean no good thing is going to come out of it because we can’t keep it ourselves—whether it’s the law of Moses or laws that we devise out of our own minds, or some other person or preacher devises. If you’re under law, the sin nature is going to rule you—it’s a guarantee. And most of the modern church is not understanding the cross of Christ and not understanding grace because grace comes from the cross; it’s functioning under law and is ruled by the sin nature, and the situation just gets worse and worse and worse as it goes along.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). In effect, he’s saying, if we are under law, sin will have dominion over us, and the sad fact is, the far greater majority of the modern church is functioning under law. It’s done through ignorance; they don’t know any different, any better. But they’re functioning under law, and there’s a curse to law. And I mean no good thing is going to come out of it because we can’t keep it ourselves—whether it’s the law of Moses or laws that we devise out of our own minds, or some other person or preacher devises. If you’re under law, the sin nature is going to rule you—it’s a guarantee. And most of the modern church is not understanding the cross of Christ and not understanding grace because grace comes from the cross; it’s functioning under law and is ruled by the sin nature, and the situation just gets worse and worse and worse as it goes along.
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