March 21, 2021 THERE ARE TWO OF US
Galatians 5:16-17 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”
Ephesians 4:22-24 “that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
Ephesians 5:8-10 “for you were all formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consist in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.”
It is helpful for us to know that there are two of us; we have an old self (the flesh) and we have a new self. The scriptures refer to our old nature as the ‘flesh’ or the ‘old man.’ The New Testament centers around the central truth that we have been made new creations, and only because we have been made new can we live according the wonderful and life-giving commands and instructions of God that are found in the scriptures-particularly in the New Testament. The good news is that we do not have to live according to our old man-our old nature-who we use to be. We must understand that we have a choice; we choose to walk by the Spirit, or we choose to walk by the flesh. This choosing is not a one-time choice, but rather is an on-going process; we must choose daily, even hourly as to whether we will walk by the Spirit or by the flesh. According to the verses above, we are instructed to ‘lay aside the old self’ and to ‘put on the new self.’ The amazing thing is that our new self is made in the likeness of God-in righteousness and holiness! Wow! The new self and the old self have nothing in common, and they cannot co-habit-and that is where we may err so often. We tend to think and act as though God is refurbishing us rather than making us a new creation with a new mind, a new spirit, and a new heart. It may be that we in a way like to think that we do not have a choice-we can simply blame our ‘short-comings’ and our sins on our old nature-claiming that we are not perfect and that even though we are saved, we still continue in sin. If we view ourselves as being saved but still under the power of sin, we miss the central truth and the implications of the new birth. We have been redeemed, the power of sin has been broken; we have been given a new spirit, a new mind, and a new heart; we no longer want to sin; and we have the power and the choice to lay aside our old sin nature, and the power and the choice to put on our new man-our new nature. Laying aside the old us and putting on the new us is not an emotional choice or dependent on how we feel, but is a conscience choice of our will. This is all possible only because the Spirit of God lives in us to enable us and empower us to live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.
Romans 6:1-2, 4, 6-7 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” “knowing this, that 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; for he who died is freed from sin.”
1 John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (Note: if we sin. I am not talking about sinless perfection, but the power to live without sin when we walk according to the Spirit.)
Blessings,
Buddy
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