The Two Opposite ATTITUDES
Notice now this BASIC TRUTH.
There are just the two opposite philosophies of life — two OPPOSITE WAYS.
1) The WAY of human nature. This is the self-centered way of vanity, greed, envy; the way of getting, taking, and accumulating; the way of competition and strife. It is the WAY of SIN — of Satan.
2) The WAY of the divine nature, which may be implanted within by the Holy Spirit. This is the GOD-centered way of humility, exaltation of GOD, submissiveness to God; the way of outgoing concern for fellowman; the way of GIVING, sharing, serving, helping. It is the WAY of righteousness — GOD'S WAY.
Also, there are the TWO opposite and opposing ATTITUDES of mind.
You were born with the natural, or carnal, mind. The ATTITUDE of the carnal mind is that of human nature — the attitude of mind and heart that travels THE WAY of SIN as explained in1) above. Of this natural carnal mind, God says: "the carnal mind is enmity [hostile] against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7).
The opposite ATTITUDE is that of the repentant Christian — that of the divine nature implanted by the Holy Spirit. It travels THE WAY of 2) above. This is the spiritual mind. The mind of CHRIST — in you!
Now remember, there are TWO required CONDITIONS, which you must supply, before you receive the GIFT of God's Holy Spirit. Neither of these supply or earn salvation. But God will not GIVE His precious GIFT until we put down the hostile rebellion. These two conditions, as stated before, are repentance and faith.
What is repentance?
This comes to the very crux of the whole question.
Just What IS Repentance?
Repentance is a change of mind and ATTITUDE. It is a change from this carnal attitude of hostility toward God — of rebellion against God's Law, to the opposite attitude of love, submission, obedience, and worship of God, and reliance on Him. It is an "about-face" in attitude and intent, to THE WAY of God's righteousness.
Repentance means that you come to really SEE yourself as you ARE — as GOD sees you — as a self-centered, hostile, shriveled-up, rotten, vile, filthy, sinning hulk of rotting human flesh, unworthy to breathe the free air God gives you! It means to be so SORRY, not only for what you have done, but also for WHAT YOU ARE — that you so ABHOR yourself that you come, emotionally broken up, throwing yourself on God's mercy, asking His forgiveness, and His redemption! It means wanting to be made righteous.
To REPENT means a total change of ATTITUDE and HEART! A continuously repentant attitude! For God's Spirit will dwell only in such a mind!
FAITH means to accept the living Jesus Christ as personal Savior, RELYING on Him, in full confidence that HIS SACRIFICE of His very life for YOU is altogether sufficient to pay the penalty of your transgressions; relying on Him completely to SAVE you from sinning, and to GIVE you righteousness and Eternal Life.
When you receive God's Holy Spirit, you have received the very life of God. But that does not make you, as yet, an inheritor of eternal life. You are not yet Immortal.
You are then an HEIR of God — and a joint-heir with Christ. You are a BEGOTTEN child of God, not yet Spirit-BORN; that is, an heir, not yet a possessor or inheritor. Still mortal flesh and blood — not yet composed of spirit.
But as long as God's Holy Spirit dwells in you (active, as described above), you remain an heir of God, later to inherit and share with Christ ALL that the heavenly Father has!
Given a New Nature
Now we come to an ALL-important fact.
God's Holy Spirit within you is the presence of a NEW NATURE — a DIFFERENT nature — you are now a partaker of the DIVINE NATURE (II Pet. 1:4). The nature that not only wants to BE good — but wants to DO righteousness.
But, mark this well! The reception of God's DIVINE NATURE within us DID NOT remove the old HUMAN NATURE, with its pulls and temptations. Nor will the HUMAN nature be completely REMOVED until the resurrection, and change into SPIRIT COMPOSITION — until you are no longer composed of matter, but of spirit.
War Between TWO Natures
Notice the apostle Paul's teaching to the Gentile converts of Galatia: "This I say, then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (Gal. 5:16-17).
In Romans 8:14, it is written: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
I want you to UNDERSTAND this!
When one receives God's Spirit, it opens the MIND to spiritual comprehension — spiritual KNOWLEDGE. It shows him THE WAY to live — the way of GOD'S LAW. It opens the MIND to understand God's Word — and we must live by "every Word of God" — so said Jesus.
God's Holy Spirit never possesses one — never forces one. It enlightens one's mind — LEADS in the right way. But the individual must make the decision, and exercise WILL, to go that way.
Now to the Galatians, Paul wrote that when we "walk in the Spirit" — that is, are LED BY the Spirit, then "YE" — that is, YE CHRISTIANS — shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The sense, here, is that IF and WHEN you — through lack of vigilance — relax and neglect to "walk in the Spirit," you may be caught off guard and yield to the PULL of human nature, still in you, and thus fulfill the lust of the flesh — commit a SIN!
In other words, IF, as long as, and WHEN, you WALK in the Spirit, you will NOT commit sin. But, Paul continues: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit" — and, as the RSV translates the rest of the sentence, "the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are OPPOSED to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would" (Gal. 5:16-17).
What you WOULD, what you really WANT to do, now that you have become spiritual minded, is to DO RIGHT — go the WAY of God's Law — be LED by God's Spirit. But is it easy?
Did Paul Sin?
This leads us directly to the FIGHT to be obedient the apostle Paul experienced.
After explaining that THE WAY of God's RIGHTEOUSNESS is THE WAY Of God's Law, Paul was inspired to write: "What then shall we say? That the Law is sin?"
When God inspired that question, He knew that multiple thousands of professing clergy of today's deceived "Christianity" would be saying that God's, Law is EVIL — it is BAD — it is a yoke of BONDAGE — that it is bad for us — that Jesus "nailed it to His cross" — that that "terrible Law" is "done away." So God inspired the ANSWER: "By no means!"
Read the question and answer again: "What then shall we say? That the Law is sin?" And GOD'S answer through Paul: "BY NO MEANS!" (Romans 7:7 RSV) Continue, (Moffat translation) : "Why, had it not been for the Law, I would never have known what sin meant."
In other words, the Law DEFINES sin — the definition of SIN is, "Sin is the transgression of the Law" (I John 3:4). God does not allow MAN to decide what is sin — but God compels man to decide whether to sin. Man could never know what is sin, except by God's Law.
Continue: "Thus I would never have known what it is to covet, unless the Law had said, You must not covet."
Paul says further, "Wherefore, the Law is HOLY, and the Commandment HOLY, and JUST, and GOOD . . . For we know that the Law is SPIRITUAL" (Rom. 7:12, 14).
Yes indeed — it is a SPIRITUAL Law — a Law of SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES of living — the HOLY, GOOD, SPIRITUAL WAY OF LIFE! Yet God says the CARNAL mind hates it — is hostile to it, not subject to it (Rom. 8:7). According to THAT inspired Word of God, a vast segment of the clergy of professing "Christianity" is CARNAL minded! Tragic, but true!
Now notice that it is NOT EASY to GO that way! It requires struggle! And WHY? Because human nature pulls you the other way!
Paul continues: "But then I am a creature of the flesh, in the thralldom of sin. I cannot understand my own actions. I do not act as I desire to act; on the contrary, I do what I detest" (verses 14-15, Moffat translation).
Notice, Paul is not talking about how he formerly DID, before conversion. He is speaking in the PRESENT TENSE. He is telling us of the struggle against sin that even the apostle Paul experienced.
Continue: "For in me (that is, in my flesh) no good dwells" (verse 18). That is, in human nature.
Psychiatrists today reason from the false approach that human nature is essentially good. God Almighty says it is NOT good, but essentially evil. The VANITY in human nature wants to be thought of as good — would like to BE good, but not to no good. Thus it is deceptive, deceitful. It "kids itself" — to use modern slang. God says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9) Yes, who can know — or UNDERSTAND it? Assuredly modern psychologists and psychiatrists don't!
So Paul says that in him — in his human flesh — his human nature — no good dwells. The ONLY good that can be in us is CHRIST in us, by His Holy Spirit.
What Was This OTHER Law?
So Paul continues: ". . . the wish is there, but not the power of doing what is right" (verse 18). Continue (Authorized Version), "For I delight in the Law of God."
Paul had changed his mind — REPENTED. He had been converted — received God's Holy Spirit, was now SPIRITUAL-MINDED. God's Law was in his mind — it was now "the law of his mind" — He delighted in it — said it was holy, just and good — a spiritual Law. In his now-converted spiritual mind, he desired to DO good.
So he said, "I delight in the Law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, WARRING against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (verses 22-23).
What was this "another law in his members"? It is also called "the law of sin which is in my members." It is simply the HUMAN NATURE that was still in him. It was warring against GOD'S LAW, which was now "the law of his mind." So Paul is describing his experience AFTER conversion — WHILE God's Holy Spirit was "dwelling in" him. And this other law, which was his human nature, was bringing him "into captivity" as its slave!
Paul Did EVIL?? ! !
As explained in Galatians 5:16-17, human nature — "the flesh" — lusted against God's Spirit in him — against God's Law in his mind, "so that ye cannot do the things that ye would," as he wrote in Galatians 5:17.
It was thus with Peter. It was thus with Paul. And that is the way it is with YOU if God's Spirit dwells in you.
Paul said, ". . . but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Rom. 7:19).
So what is Paul saying? He is saying that the PULL of human nature, warring against his converted spiritual mind, did cause him to sin!
Do not blame me, because THAT Is WRITTEN IN YOUR BIBLE! Let's become undeceived, and UNDERSTAND the TRUTH as God inspired it!
But there is a HAPPY ENDING to Paul's experience, after all. So let's make it PLAIN!
After Paul recounted his problem, no wonder he exclaimed, "O wretched man that I am! WHO shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Verse 24) The Moffat translation is more clear: "Miserable wretch that I am! WHO will rescue me from this body of death?" And his answer: "GOD WILL!"