Now that you are saved and have experienced the joy of knowing all your sins have been forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ, how’s it going?
You had been praising God for the assurance of your salvation and resting on the promises of God’s Word, and you realized you would not come again into judgement for sin.
Then it happened! You were shocked to discover that the old desires and habits still demanded your time and effort. What happened was that Satan began to put doubts in your mind about your salvation or maybe you were not saved in the first place. Jesus had promised eternal life but perhaps He could not keep His promise and He had failed you.
NO, God has not failed you in even one promise. But you made a BIG discovery – and a fact of life – that you still have the old nature (sometimes call the “old man”). At the moment you were saved, God gave you a NEW NATURE with desires that God implanted in the new nature. Let the Word of God speak to your heart. Believe God and ask for grace and strength to live out the new nature and not yield to the old nature.
The Word of God explains how these two natures were received. The old nature was passed on to us from Adam and is called the “Adamic nature.” The new nature is received from God when a person becomes a child of God and is called the “new man.”
A. YOU AS A BELIEVER HAVE TWO BIRTHDAYS
1. The first birthday is the day you are born into this world.
- You received the old nature from your parents.
- We all can trace our old nature back to Adam Romans 5:19; “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.“
- All descendants of Adam became children of “disobedience” Ephesians 2:1,2 “And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.“
- This old nature aims to please self and expresses itself by the use of “I”,”Me,'”‘Mine.”
2. The second birthday occurred when you were BORN AGAIN.
- You received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, and in that moment you were born of God (Romans 10:17), I Peter 1:23 “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”
- You received new life from God, and it gave you a new spiritual nature, one that desires to please God. H Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away behold, all things are become new.”
- You were given the Holy Spirit to indwell you the moment of your new birth. (Ephesians 1:12,13,) I Corinthians 6:19, 20 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” We glorify Him by allowing Him to live His life in and through us.
- The Holy Spirit came into you to be your helper, Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” in prayer and in Bible study; I John 2; 27 “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.”
B. YOU AS A BELIEVER NOW HAVE A WARFARE-YOUR LIFE, THE BATTLEGROUND
- The old life challenges the new. Romans 7:15 -24
- The new life challenges the old life. II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things have passed away and behold all things have become new.”
- The challenge given in His Word. Ephesians 4:22-28, Colossians 3:5-10 is: To put off (put away) the old desires and ways. To put on the new man (nature) with its desires and ways. Colossians 3:10 “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him:”
C. YOU AS A BELIEVER ARE TO LIVE AND WALK IN THIS NEW LIFE
- Fully yield to the Lord in all things Romans 12:1, 2 “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service, And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
- Seeking God’s will and way at all times Proverbs 3:5, 6 ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path.
- Confessing any sin as soon as known Psalm 32; 5; I John 1;9 “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
- Walking in love and light I John 1:7 Ephesians 5:2, 8 “And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light.”
- Serving as a faithful steward I Corinthians 4:2, II Corinthians 5:10
- Living in the expectancy of Christ’s return without warning I Thessalonians 1:9, 10, Titus 2:13; II Timothy 4:8; 1 John 3;2, 3
Learn a lesson from life. We have seen a baby learning to walk. Note how often it will fall and get bad bumps. The baby gets up and tries again until it masters the idea of walking. It is God’s will that we learn to walk in the spiritual life. There will be times that we will stumble in sin but by confessing to God, we can continue to learn how to walk with God. Someday, Jesus will take us home to glory to be with forever, and then we will be perfect. (John 14:1 – 3) God wants us to live victoriously down here. As we study and obey His Word, we being changed into His image.