Recognizing the Sin Nature and The Flesh
Began writing May 11, 2022
First Things First
This is a subject that is rarely spoken of in the time in which we now live and when it is, there are many different avenues of thought concerning the Sin Nature and the Flesh of man. If we remain faithful to trust only in the Scriptures, the Scriptures themselves will explain the Scriptures, we will find the answers with great clarity which we seek. God’s Word is meant to be in our hearts line upon line and precept upon precept without any of our input in between (Isaiah 28:10, 13).
Looking through the lens of Calvary’s Cross and learning God’s wisdom and power through that exclusive avenue is what has opened our eyes in the beginning of our Salvation (John 3:3-5), and if we will continue to see we will continue to look through the Blood of Jesus (2 Peter 1:9), or our vision will surely go dim.
As we travel through the Scriptures, let us first of all come to the conclusion that all of God’s Words are in Righteousness (Proverbs 8:8), therefore to hear and receive properly, we must hear God’s Word in its Righteous context. The Righteous context of God’s Word is the Gospel, which is the Message of The Cross of Christ, for therein alone is God’s Righteousness revealed (Romans 1:16-17). Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17), but the only avenue through which Faith comes by hearing the Word of God is through Righteousness (2 Peter 1:1).
Our hearts first Believed unto Righteousness and our mouth followed and began to speak about the Salvation of our God (Romans 10:10).
If we, in ignorance, hold God’s Words in an unrighteous context, God will resist all of the ungodliness and unrighteousness, which is all that can take place in the wrong context (Romans 1:18). Faith cannot come just because our physical ears hear the Word of God, but rather when our hearts Believe moment by moment unto
God’s Words of Righteousness.
Maturity in the heart and life of the Believer will require moving from the Milk of God’s Word to the Meat of God’s Word, which described by the Holy Spirit is to begin EXPERIENCING God’s Word of Righteousness (Hebrews 5:12-14). This is simply the application of God’s Words of Righteousness in experiential application which takes place as The Holy Spirit shows us more of the Cross of our Lord and applies this great Truth to our lives.
This never happens without the Child of God seeking God diligently and His Way of Life. There must be a desire to live and to please our God in our hearts, and we must learn that the one and only Way in which He leads is in the paths of Righteousness (Proverbs 8:20).
The Sin Nature and the Flesh
Before we get too involved in this subject, let us know up front that the Sin Nature, just the same as that old Devil, although they have lost their power over us through Faith in the Cross of Christ, they have not been utterly removed without the possibility of finding a way to dominate again (Romans 7:9, 1 Peter 5:8).
There are many who attempt to teach that the Child of God no longer has a Sin Nature, because that would mean they would have two natures. This avenue of thought is only due to not understanding Romans Chapters 6 & 7. There is a devil and there is surely a Sin Nature as well, and again, though both have been rendered powerless through the Born-Again experience which took place through one’s Faith in Jesus Christ and His work on Calvary’s Cross for the forgiveness of their sins, they can both regain access and power to dominate our lives if our Faith is moved away from the Cross.
*AH - The misunderstanding of Romans chapter 7 mostly occurs because of confusion over whether the Apostle Paul was describing life before or after salvation. If we read verses 8 & 9, it becomes clear that Paul was indeed referencing his struggle with sin as a born-again believer. In vs. 9, Paul says that he was “alive without the Law once.” This refers to his born-again experience, the period of time where Paul placed his faith in Christ and the cross alone. The last part of vs. 9 refers to the revival of the Sin Nature, what causes it, and the result of it. Paul trusted in “the commandment,” which caused the Sin Nature to revive, which resulted in “death.” This is not physical death or the loss of salvation, but death in the sense of separation from God, through the wrong object of faith. We are separated from everything that flows from Calvary when we separate our faith from it. - AH*
The Sin Nature and the flesh are two different things, but can both work very much together, for the Sin Nature’s outlet is the flesh, but nevertheless even if the Sin Nature has become dormant through Faith in the Cross or not, the flesh rages on as the residue of that old Sin Nature.
Romans 7:9-11
Galatians 5:17
When the Sin Nature is at work, it is deceiving and slaying, this takes place through any attempt at all to live for God outside of Faith exclusively in the Cross of Christ.
Romans 6:14
The Sin Nature is the fallen nature of man which came into being when man sinned against God in the Garden of Eden. There was no Sin Nature until man chose to disobey God. His human nature then became unable to communicate with God and was only evil. The Sin Nature is man’s fallen nature under the dominion of the Law of Sin and Death. The Sin Nature is the Old Man who was crucified with Christ on Calvary’s Cross through one’s Faith in His sacrifice.
When anyone Believes upon Christ and His atoning Sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary, they are Born-Again and the Old Man is crucified with Christ and put away in baptism unto death (Romans 6:4). The Sin Nature becomes dormant, which refers to it being rendered powerless in the Believers Life. When one is living under Grace, The Spirit of Life is in control and the Sin Nature is no longer dominating as it did when we were under Law.
Romans 6:14
Simple but True and very Real
In the sixth chapter of the book of Romans we see the word ‘sin’ used 16 times. All but one of those instances it is used as the noun, which is referring to the Sin Nature. Verse 15 in that sixth chapter the word ‘sin’ is used as the verb and is referred to as an act of sin. This is very simple but true and very real to those who are seeking Truth and the victory purchased and promised by our Lord to all who will only Believe. Let me add that the victory of our Lord is not experienced daily simply because we were saved, nor simply because we are believing just anything, but rather that we have been crucified with our Lord, buried with our Lord, raised in resurrection with our Lord, and yes, even ascended with our Lord! The more real this becomes in one’s walk, the more the victory of Christ will be experienced in the Spirit now. The object of one’s Faith must be in Calvary’s cross, or it is not in Christ, and is why much of the Church is disoriented today and overtaken by the world.
Keeping this great Truth simple we will see that an act of sin is not what causes the Sin Nature to be revived and found dominating the child of God again, but rather when one is attempting to live for God outside the perimeters of simple Faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ. Simple Faith in the Cross is not just saying the word ‘cross’ or pleading the blood of Jesus with our lips, but rather it is a participation by Faith in the death of Christ daily. (Romans 6:11). Faith in the Cross is the denial of Self and the taking up of one’s Cross to be able to follow Christ (Luke 9:23, 14:26-27). Where there is no participation by Faith in the death of Christ, there is really following Christ, for He has taught us that if we are to follow Him, there must be the denial of self and the taking up of our Cross (Luke 9:23, 14:26-27). Our Cross is simply Faith in His Cross, for it is by His Faith wherewith He loved us and gave Himself for us that we live (Galatians 2:20). Believing these Truths does not make them real, as they are already real, but Believing them surely makes them real to us in our experience in the Spirit.
Initial Salvation and Daily Salvation
When one Believes in Christ and accepts His death on Calvary’s Cross as the payment to God for their sins, they are forgiven, and the wrath and condemnation of God is removed from their heart. This is being initially forgiven, but there’s more which our God is looking for, and that is the fruit of what we say we have Believed initially. He is looking for the fruit of who we claim we are and that we claim we have. He keeps us through Faith by His power UNTO SALVATION. God has forgiven us and has removed His wrath and condemnation from being against us, and now also wants us to learn HOW to live without the Power of Sin dominating our lives through selfish lusts.
Unless the Child of God becomes aware of the Sin Nature and what keeps it dormant and what allows it to be revived, they will experience much unneeded heartache and disappointment, and most probably much oppression throughout their journey in this old world. It is a Biblical Truth that if one is trusting in anything other than Christ AND His atoning death on Calvary’s Cross for any aspect of what God offers to man, the Sin Nature is dominating, deceiving and slaying the Child of God.
Initial and daily Salvation require Believing unto Righteousness with the heart (Romans 10:10). Just as the Child of God Believed to become a Child of God, they must continue to Believe or they cannot advance as a Child of God in the things of God, for God does not just carry us along the Way, but rather expects us to Believe along the Way just as we did initially (Colossians 2:6). Just as we received Christ, we are to walk IN Christ, which was simply through the exercising of our Faith in who He is and what He did in death on Calvary’s Cross concerning the forgiveness of our sins. That was Believing with our heart unto Righteousness, but it was also described in Romans chapter 6 as obeying that form of doctrine which freed us from sin and made us servants of Christ’s Righteousness (Romans 6:17-18).
*AH - Upon salvation, we are given the only tool necessary to continue living a life that is pleasing to our Lord, faith. There is no other way that we can operate in the kingdom of God besides faith. God’s Kingdom is not in meat or drink, but in “righteousness,” Romans 14:17, and we only obtain God’s righteousness by faith, Romans 3:22. This is the process that God has chosen for his people, and he has made this a possibility through the finished work of his son Christ Jesus. As we continue in this faith, the power of the Sin Nature is stripped away, and grace reigns through righteousness. - AH*
Now, let us look at a great Truth, which if we are ignorant of, will cause us great forfeit and much uncalled hardship. All of God’s Words are IN Righteousness (Proverbs 8:8), and His Righteousness is only revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16-17). This reveals to us that ALL of God’s Words can only be revealed in their Righteous context when viewed through the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is His Redemptive work on Calvary’s Cross.
What Makes it so Deceptive
Romans 7:9-13
[9] For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin (The Sin Nature) revived, and I DIED.
[10] And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
[11] For sin (The Sin Nature), taking occasion by the commandment, DECEIVED ME, and BY IT SLEW ME.
[12] Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
[13] Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
We see in these Scriptures written by the Apostle under the guidance and authority of The Holy Spirit, his experience of desperation and not being able to live for God in the victory he knew must be available. He declares that he was alive once without the Law, referring to his Born-Again experience, for he was never alive with the Law and he was never without the Law before he was Born-Again.
Paul says that he found the very Law of Moses which was ordained to Life to be death unto him when he attempted to keep it (Romans 7:10). Before we go further we must understand that “Death” must always be seen as what it really is, which is separation. For the lost world who is without Christ, just as we were before we were Born-Again, they are dead in their sins. This means they are separated from God and need to be reconciled to Him through Faith in the Blood of Christ’s Cross.
Now on the other side of the coin of death, there is also a meaning for those in the Body of Christ, which is death as it pertains to separation from fellowship or rather being fallen from Grace. Death is separation no matter how you look at it. Here, as the Apostle writes, we will see the latter description of death and how it pertains to those who TRUST IN “THE DOING” of things (LAW), instead of what Christ did and finished on Calvary’s Cross.
Paul says the Sin Nature revived (Romans 7:11) because it took the occasion to do so through his trust in the Law/Commandment. What makes this so deceptive and refuted by most all Christians is that it is not the OLD ACTS OF SINS that our Faithful Lord brought us out of and delivered us from in the beginning which we have gone back to, but rather now, just because we are Born-Again we think we can keep the Law. If you will be honest with yourself, you will find that there are only two avenues of which we can trust. One is Christ and His Way of The Cross and the other is SELF. The one produces victory and all the provisions of God’s great Salvation in our lives resulting in the fruits of His Righteousness, while the other produces SELF-righteousness and results in death, which is spiritual separation of fellowship and from Grace ( Galatians 1:6, 3:1-3, 5:1-4).
Paul says when the Sin Nature revives due to his trusting in the Law/Commandment instead of Christ and Him Crucified, it DECEIVED HIM AND SLEW him. Notice how Paul says the Sin Nature DECEIVED HIM AND SLEW him. That old man, the Sin Nature was put away on Calvary's Cross in death, and a trust in anything other, and that means anything other will always revive the Sin Nature because it takes the legal right and occasion in our thinking we can do this now. This is why so many Christians are failing today and not understanding why, and many others are in the group of the “I use to’s”. I used to be in church, I used to sing in the choir, I used to teach Sunday School, I used to…
The Sin Nature can only deceive and slay the Child of God when it finds its legal right and authority through the occasion of our trusting in those things that have ALWAYS crept into the church in the attempt to make us think, “OK this is it, this new program, this particular preacher, this program, this surely has to be the avenue through which I’ll be able to live right and find victory and deliverance before my God.” But, it is always the same old story year after year, new fad after new fad that can only tease OUR FLESH which so easily causes us to be carried away unto these idols through its lust. We as God’s people desire to live for Him, and to please Him, but when we attempt to do it through any other avenue than simple Faith in the Cross of Christ, which means participating BY FAITH in His Death again today, the Sin Nature is revived and begins its great work of deception and death. Our fellowship then is no longer as we think it is.
There are only two avenues of spiritual service which exist among humanity, and they are the spirit or the flesh. Romans 6:16 reveals these two, as well as Galatians 6:14. We are either serving the Sin Nature unto death, or we are serving obedience unto Righteousness. We are either glorying in the flesh or the Cross. There is not a third option. All the lost world is bound in the chains of the Sin Nature under the Law, and yes that means even the Gentiles (Romans 2:14-15). The old devil says to the Church that if it isn’t the Law of Moses that it cannot be a Law, but anything we are trusting in other than Christ and His atoning work on Calvary’s Cross causes us fall from Grace and die just as Paul and the Churches of Galatia and Sardis found themselves. What makes it all so deceptive, is that our old flesh, that in which nothing good can be found (Romans 7:18) continues to tell us “We can do it”, when in all reality, we cannot do anything without our Lord Jesus Christ (John 15:5). This means without our Faith in that which allowed our entrance into Him, and Him to begin His good and pleasurable work within our hearts, He will not be able to continue that work. Remember, we are kept by the power of God, THROUGH FAITH, unto Salvation (1 Peter 1:5). Being with Christ is being by Faith Crucified with Him, buried with Him, resurrected with Him and yes, even Ascended with Him, but the experience of all this is in the Spirit and based on what we do with Christ and His Cross. Everything is surrounding the Lamb of God and His work of Redemption, for even in the midst of the Throne of Heaven is the Lamb of God found (Revelation 7:17).
Paul says in his attempt to serve God through DOING the Law, that it resulted in his death. This is the death we spoke of earlier. This death is not physical, nor is it being spiritually lost and without God as was the case in our lost state, but rather it is the place of not experiencing the Grace of God. God’s Grace is the only avenue through which the Life of Christ is experienced and His fruit bear in the life of the Child of God. This marvelous Grace is only offered and experienced through the tasting of Christ’s death by Faith, for He tasted death for us by the Grace of God (Hebrews 2:9), and only when we are tasting THAT death by Faith can we like the Psalmist proclaim, “O taste and SEE the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Jesus taught the same thing as He told Nicodemus that no one could enter the Kingdom of God or even SEE it (John 3:3-5) unless they were Born-Again. It always requires Faith in the Blood to be able to SEE the Kingdom, which is God’s Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). This does not mean that just because we have been Born-Again that now we will SEE properly at all times, for if that was the case, what we are reading which our Faithful Lord has given to us through the Apostle would not be needed. The Sin Nature would not have been legally allowed to DECEIVE and SLAY Paul.
There are other examples of this same very alarming experience found in the Word of God. Let us look at a couple more. The Church in Galatia had fallen from Grace through the lust of their own flesh (James 1:14) while being enticed to be circumcised they were being told to REALLY be saved (Acts 15:1). Imagine being told that you are not really saved unless you DO SOMETHING. This is the legal ground for the Sin Nature to be revived and to DECEIVE us all on the basis of our hearts being DECEIVED and made to believe that the Cross of Christ was not enough to save me, or that Christ really did NOT purge me from my sins ALL BY HIMSELF (Hebrews 1:3). These Galatians had fallen prey through their own fleshly lusts, to those who only wanted them to join in their glorying in their own fleshly and carnal deception (Galatians 6:12-14). Some of these Galatians fell from Grace and were found in the place where Christ could no longer profit them or have the proper effect on their lives (Galatians 5:1-4).
There is another example of Christians, though alive in Christ, NOT living in Christ, and we see this again in the third chapter of Revelations. We find here the Church of Sardis having a name that they were alive, which means they were the Church that had an appearance through all they were DOING that they were alive (Revelation 3:1-6). Our Faithful Lord writes to them through the Apostle John revealing to them that though they thought they were alive, THEY WERE DEAD. DECEPTION. Always remember that deception means I do not know that I do not know. No one who is deceived knows they are deceived until the Lord shows up with the message of “Return to the Cross”, for there and only there can deception be removed as we see through the Blood. These in the Church of Sardis were told by our Lord to return to the place where they could hear and receive. There is only one receiving and hearing place, and that is the place where our Lord began His good work in us based on our Faith in His Cross. At the Cross, at the Cross where first saw the Light! Their garments had been defiled, but it wasn’t because of the sinful things we would be able to point out without the discernment the Word of Righteousness brings to us. What taints the garments of the Child of God is trusting in ANYTHING other than that which gave us the fine and untainted garments in the beginning. Oh the beauty of Christ and His work of Righteousness seen on Calvary’s Cross.
Therefore, The Sin Nature remains dormant, rendered powerless and can no longer dominate the Child of God as long as his Faith remains in what crucified him and put him away (Romans 6:14). Only under Law or resorting back to the doing of the Law revives that old nature, but under Grace there is freedom from the power of sin.
The Flesh
The Residue of The Old Man
Romans 10:10
The Sin Nature is the Old Man who ruled like a king and dominated us as long as we were under Law, which we were all born under.
Romans 2:14-15
The Sin Nature is the Old Man who deceives and slays us while we never know it is happening.
The Cross of The Lord Jesus Christ and one's Faith therein is the only avenue of the removal of the deception and death of the Sin Nature.
No one under the Law, of whom all are being deceived and slain, realizes what is happening to them. Deception means that I do not know that I do not know, but I think I do.
The difference between the Old Man and the flesh of man is that the Old Man was slain on Calvary’s Cross and made dormant through our Faith, while the flesh is that which constantly strives within us against our new spirit and the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:17
The Flesh is the residue of that old crucified man that rages within us to have his old dominating way.
Our Lord has told us through the Apostle Paul that there is nothing good within our flesh, and although he might want to do the right thing before God, the power to do it it cannot be found in his flesh (Romans 7:18).
Let us come to the conclusion today that Paul DID NOT write Romans chapter 7 about his life prior to his Born-Again experience, but rather after. He tells us that he was alive once without the Law (Romans 7:9), and in this he is telling us that he was Born-Again once without the Law, for it was the first time in his entire life that he had been without the Law. He was a Jew and had been under Law his entire life.
He writes in Romans 7:9 that when the Commandment came, referring to his turning back to the Law thinking that he could obey it and carry it out now since he was Born-Again, the Sin Nature revived and he died. This he learned the hard way, and this was his experience through which he was able to later help the Apostle Peter when he ran into the same issue in Antioch (Galatians 2:11).
Sin as the NOUN or the VERB
The word “Sin” was used sixteen (16) times in the sixth chapter of Romans, and out of all those instances, only one time in verse 15 was the word “Sin” used as a verb, which is referring to a carried out action of sin.
This means the other 15 occurrences of the word Sin was used as the NOUN, which is referring to the Sin Nature. Man was not created with a Sin Nature, but when we, in the Garden of Eden, disobeyed God in rebellion, our nature became corrupted with Sin. This is what is referred to as the Fall of Man, and believe me it was such a fall that it would require God becoming a man to deliver us out of its unrecoverable state. When we became the darkness of this world (Ephesians 5:8), we were not just in a dark world, but we as corrupt and evil sinners with an evil Sin Nature were the very darkness that made the world dark.
Returning to our focus point in Romans chapter 7 we will see that the main focus is the Lord attempting to get through to the Apostle Paul and his desperation to live for God, the Revelation of the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in its way of DAILY victory. Paul knew he was wretched, and hated every minute of it, especially when he attempted so hard to live for God, but only found himself being deceived and slain by that deceitful and deceptive Sin Nature.
Romans 7:9-13
Sin as the VERB, meaning acts of sin, hinders the expression of God’s glory in the Christian’s life, and can only be experienced on occasion, while Sin as the NOUN, meaning the Sin Nature, prevents the expression of God’s glory in the Christian’s life altogether.
Remember, the only way to glorify God is to have one’s Faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ, and this does not mean some blanket statement where the Christian says, “Well of course I have always Believed in the Cross of Christ”, but rather that which they are actually trusting and depending upon in each situation that comes along every day.
God glorified his name in Christ at the Cross.
John 12:28
Romans 3:22-23