by Jacob Ninan
After the Lord Jesus Christ came and completed what He had to do for the salvation of man, He chose the apostle Paul to describe to us what that salvation meant. It is mainly through Paul's writings that we can put together, including from all the other parts of the Bible, a cohesive explanation of why we need salvation, how it works, and how we can receive and experience it. When we study the Bible based on the foundational teachings from Paul, we get to the place where we can see the whole story of God and man in perspective. That helps us to also understand the dynamics of temptation and sin, and learn to become overcomers.
Some people make the mistake of oversimplifying the Gospel and presenting it as a one-time acceptance of a few simple truths, following which they consider themselves as 'saved'. And then they expect God to complete whatever is left to be done. Practical experience should make it clear that this approach lacks many things, and that things do not actually work out as they expect! In this context it is to our advantage to spend some time and effort to understand what salvation involves and how we need to go about in order to experience it.
God's offer of salvation
"The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen.2:8,9). "The LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die'" (Gen.2:16,17). Adam and Eve were given a choice between two fruit, one that would grant them eternal life with God in dependence on Him, and the other that would give them independence from having to depend on God. It was independence that Satan tempted them with (Gen.3:5). They chose independence, after having been deceived into thinking that it would make them like God. That was their first sin. In effect, they also set God aside and came under subjection to Satan whom they obeyed. As a result, they died – they got permanently disconnected from God, lost the source from where they could receive 'life', and everything about them in their body, mind and spirit went into degeneration.God now offers salvation to all people in a way that can restore them to the condition which He had originally intended for man. Forgiveness of sins is a very crucial first step, in that it removes the separation that has come between God and man because of sin. But we must realise that it is just the first step. Salvation, to become complete, has also to deliver man from the rule of the power of sin in his life and bring him to the place where he consistently chooses God above everything and everyone else.
The Bible refers to three phases of salvation as justification, sanctification and glorification. Justification is God extending His unmerited favour towards sinners and offering us forgiveness of our sins. He is able to do this because He has already taken on Himself our punishment when Jesus died in our place on the cross. When we go to God repenting from our sins and placing ourselves by faith into the hands of Jesus as our Saviour, God credits our sins to Jesus' account. That was why He had to die. But God also credits Jesus' righteousness to our account, because of which God can accept us as justified ('just-as-if-I'd' never sinned)! We can receive justification as a free gift from God without having to earn it through anything we have to do, simply by believing in what Jesus has done for us as our Saviour, and turning away from our sins. When we go to God in this way, He does a supernatural work of cleansing our record of sin and giving us a new heart that does not want to sin but wants to walk in God's ways (Ezek.36:26,27). The next phase of our salvation is where we learn to choose right. Here God the Holy Spirit helps us to deny ourselves and follow Jesus daily, whereby we become transformed into His character a little at a time (Lk.9:23). Finally, when we die and move into our life with God, He replaces our earthly, fleshly body with a spiritual body in the process called glorification. Then there will no more be any temptation or sin.
The old man, the flesh and the cross
When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost their innocence with which they had been created. Now their mind was turned towards pleasing themselves instead of pleasing God, and they became, in effect, enemies of God. As their children, this is the nature we have inherited. When we repent from our sins, put our faith in Jesus as our Saviour and become born again, we receive a new man – a new mind – from God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But we still carry with us a fallen nature through which we are tempted. Now we are in the process called sanctification. It is helpful for us to understand what is going on here, what we can expect and what we should be doing from our side. Entering into justification was like entering through a narrow gate and deciding to follow Jesus, and sanctification is our lifelong journey through a narrow path (Matt.7:13,14)The goal of sanctification is to make us like Jesus (Rom.8:29). Jesus was tempted in all points in the way we are being tempted now, but He overcame at all times (Heb.4:15). Now He wants to help us to overcome when we are tempted. Of course, we have all sinned already too many times, and we are not going to become sinless or perfect in this life. But God wants us to set our aim on becoming like Jesus and then press on towards that goal during the rest of the time we have (Heb.6:1). This was what Paul did (Php.3:12).
At the starting point of sanctification we must notice what God has given to us which we did not have before. He has taken away our guilt for our past sins by forgiving us and given us acceptance as His children. He has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us who leads us into all the truth, teaches us His ways, corrects and rebukes us, leads and guides us, and encourages and comforts us along the way.
He has also replaced our old heart with a new one. Paul refers to this as God giving us a new self (or a new man) in the place of our old self (or old man). Before this, we were 'dead in sin' and dead towards God, and now God has made us 'dead towards sin' and alive towards God. "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins" (Eph.2:1). "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom.6:11). What we can understand from here is that our 'old man' refers to our old state of heart which was dead in sin, or, in other words, our mind which went along with sin and in enmity towards God. Our 'new man' is the heart which God has given us which is dead towards sin, or, in other words, because of which we now have a strong desire not to sin. The change from the old man to the new man is essentially a change of attitude towards sin and God, from cooperating with sin in the past to hating sin and wanting to please God now.
There are different pictures used to describe this change. One is to say that when Christ was crucified, we were crucified with Him (Gal.2:29). Another picture says our old man was crucified with Christ (Rom.6:6). Our old way of living, yielding to our desires and sinning, has been crucified, and now we have been given a share in Christ's resurrected life. This is the symbolism behind water baptism.
We may wish that once God has done this in our life, we will no longer face any temptation or failure. If we read the Bible superficially we may sometimes get the impression that the Bible is promising us such complete and immediate transformation. But we must know that many times spiritual matters cannot be expressed clearly using natural words, and that they require spiritual abilities for understanding (1Cor.2:14). For example, some people argue that once someone is born to a father, no matter what he does, he will continue to be his father's son. Following this they say that once we are born again, we cannot be unborn! While this is true regarding physical birth, it is not so with spiritual birth. Our being born again happens when we respond in faith to the gracious offer of salvation from God. But what will happen to our relationship with God if we give up our faith? Certainly we will lose our connection with God. Look at the story of the nation of Israel which God had chosen to be His. When they sinned and turned away from Him, He too turned from them and offered salvation to non-Jews, or Gentiles. In metaphorical language, Israel was a vine nurtured by God, and when they turned away from Him, He cut them off as branches and grafted the Gentiles into the vine as branches. Then He warned the Gentiles that if they gave up their faith, the same thing would happen to them too. "Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either" (Rom.11:20,21).
So, God tells us now, after our old man was crucified with Christ and we have given a new man, that we must make sure to listen to the new man and to put away the old man. "that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit" (Eph.4:22). "Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices" (Col.3:9). "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (Col.3:1). These warnings come because we are always in danger of backsliding. Therefore, we must constantly keep a watch over our heart to see to it that it is not allowed to stray away from God (Prov.4:23).
With a new mind from God that does not want to sin and please ourselves, but which wants to overcome temptations and be pleasing to God, the next thing we have to deal with is the source of our temptations. "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust" (Jas.1:14). 'Lust' here refers to every strong desire that we have that goes beyond the limit God has set for it. God has created us with natural desires which we are permitted to satisfy as long as we do that within the boundaries of God's laws concerning them. When we allow something to tempt us beyond its legitimate level, it becomes a lust, and it tempts us to sin in order for us to satisfy it.
The Bible sometimes describes the source of these desires with the word 'flesh'. "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal.5:24). Sometimes flesh is used to refer to our physical being, as when it is used as 'flesh and blood'. But many times when the apostle Paul uses the word 'flesh', we can see from the context that he is referring to the source of our lusts.
We need to understand that while God has given us a new mind, He has not yet given us a new nature yet. So, even after we have been born again, we still have to deal with our 'flesh' from which come lusts that tempt us to sin. In that sense, we can refer to the flesh also as our old (sinful) nature with sinful tendencies, from which we are tempted. The more we overcome our lusts, the less and less will our flesh have power in its lusts. But since we are not going to become sinlessly perfect in this life, we must remember that as long as we are alive here, we will have to recognise the presence of our sinful flesh (or the fallen nature).
One mistake some people make is to assume whenever the past tense is used in the New Testament, that it is talking about something that has already happened. And then they think that we do not have to deal with certain issues any more, because, according to some verses, God has already dealt with them. But we can see that many times God uses that past tense to indicate what He has provided from His side. But then it is for us to see if it has become true in our life, and to take steps to experience it as a reality. Some people who do not understand this nuance make claims such as that they have been entirely sanctified in their life, even when others can see it is not true! For example, the Bible talks about those who have died to sin. It is a provision that God has made for us as a part of salvation. It does not mean however that everyone has automatically become dead to sin in their life. Here we have to lay aside the old man and put on the new man in order to experience this in reality.
We have read about being crucified with Christ. Another picture used is that of our crucifying our flesh. We are the ones responsible for crucifying our flesh (Gal.5:24). In other words, we must take steps to ensure that the sinful lusts in our flesh are prevented from being fulfilled. We know crucifixion does not cause sudden death, and we can imagine what will happen if we allow our flesh to come down from the cross now and then, or if we secretly feed it even when 'officially' it is on the cross! If we are just making such 'official' statements about our flesh as having been crucified, while in reality its lusts are still active in our life, we deceive ourselves.
This will also explain Romans 7 which is a puzzle for some people. They wonder how Paul could be referring to a struggle with sin in Romans 7 when the matter of sin has been settled in Romans 6, and Romans 8 talks about the Spirit-filled life! So some people take the 'official' position that Paul must be taking a flash-back in Romans 7 into his past life of sin and his struggle under the Law. But an honest Christian can relate very well to Paul's description in Romans 7, even though he is born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Can a Spirit-filled Christian still have struggles with sin? Paul explains this as, "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" (Gal.5:17). This battle will go on as long as we are still living on this earth.
To solve this puzzle, let us look at the progress of a man who is battling with his lusts in his flesh, after he has received a new heart from God with strong desires to overcome sin.
This man is currently aware of many areas in his life where he has been failing, and he now takes up the battle against those sins. As he begins to gain victory over a period of time, he discovers to his dismay that he has now become aware of other areas of his life where he is sinning, which he had not recognised as being sinful earlier. He expands his battlefront now, only to discover after some time that this expansion of his battlefront is an ongoing process that never finishes! What is happening is that as he gets closer to God, the brighter light of God now exposes areas that were hidden to him before (Prov.4:18). Earlier he did not know how he had been doing many sinful things without knowing they were sinful in God's eyes. But now he keeps discovering that even though with his new man he does not want to sin at all but wants to be pleasing to God, he keeps seeing that he is actually imperfect in different ways. This is the explanation of the experience Paul is describing in Romans 7.
Now look at a secret that Paul understood, which gave him a balance between victory and the ongoing battle. "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin" (Rom.7:25). There are two parts to his life. One part is where he enjoys victory because he is choosing consciously to do the right things. He is not sinning knowingly in areas he knows to be sin. The other part of his life is where he is doing sinful, imperfect things from the part of his nature that has not been sanctified yet. He is not condemned for what he is doing there because he has not chosen with his mind to do them. Sometimes he is discovering only after things are done that they were wrong.
His mind does not want to sin, and he is enjoying victory in the sense that he is not doing anything wrong by choice. At the same time he keeps discovering sin in different areas of his life, which is coming from his sinful nature. When he discovers new areas of sin, he goes on to overcome them and gain victory. Now he is able to praise God in the midst of this real-life dichotomy.
Of course, this experience is different from that of a defeated person who keeps dealing with the same sin again and again without making any progress towards victory. This is the real experience of an overcoming Christian! Another possibility we must take into account is that even an overcoming Christian may backslide at times.
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Lk.9:23). If we want to crucify our flesh and overcome our lusts, this is the practical guideline from Jesus. Of course, we need to pray for help from the Holy Spirit. But we are the ones who have to make the choice between our will and the will of God. When we know the will of God and are tempted to give in to our own fleshly desires to please ourselves, the solution is to take up our cross with the intention to dying to ourselves, and to deny ourselves in order to do the will of God. In order to line up with our new man and to put off the old man, we must keep making our choice to die to ourselves.
We take up our cross daily. Every day, our goal is to do the will of God in our life, and therefore, every day we make our determination not to please ourselves but to be pleasing to God. Of course, we cannot do this without the help of the Holy Spirit (Rom.8:13). We pray for that help, but then it is finally our call to deny ourselves and do the will of God. We must not make the mistake of leaving everything to God in prayer, and expecting Him to take away our sinful lusts! That is what is happening to some who keep praying and then wonder why no victory is coming.
Conclusion
God wants us to overcome sin. Our Lord Jesus has sacrificed Himself to provide us with this great salvation. The Holy Spirit is with us to lead and help us. Now we must not take the lazy route of entrusting everything to God and imagining that we have humbled ourselves. Let us seek Him for understanding, and help along the way that Jesus walked, who denied Himself to the point of death. Let us also remember that if we fail at any time, there is forgiveness God has provided for us (1Jn.2:1,2).