Once a person has accepted Christ as his Savior, the next step is to realize he has a spiritual nature. The apostle Paul describes the new convert as consuming milk or being a baby in Christ. There is so much to learn about the Christian life or begin consuming the meat of the Word. It is wise for that person to assure himself that he is grounded in the Lord. That begins with a better understanding of Scripture. He needs to study the Bible because it is vitally important as food for the soul. It demonstrates the promises of God whereby we have encouragement. Once a person allows God to be the master of his life, he realizes a new purpose and direction with a higher motivation. It is not a simple matter of reading a Bible verse and saying a quick prayer. It is a matter more of sincerity and intention for how a person will live from day-to-day. The Bible explains that a believer’s body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. He provides within an individual comfort, guidance, reassurance, and a more complete revelation of Scripture.
All people have a natural or sensual nature that is characteristic of animal life. That is that their life centers around the natural body in contrast to the spiritual well-being of the person. An individual living only in the natural life is concerned about that which matters of the flesh. The term natural is often used to express a term for the unsaved, the unregenerate in contrast to the redeemed person. Paul said, “The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit.” This means that the individual is subject to his own appetites and passions without grasping divine truth. He goes further to say that living in the natural condition is a consequence of being “children of wrath” that are subject to the judgment of God by living in sin and serving what is inferior from natural birth.
Describing the nature of an individual in Scripture begins as carnal. Unfortunately, so many people restrict themselves to only living by the basics of the flesh as an animal for the desires of the flesh. This is a reflection of the fallen human nature from Adam. It is used in Scripture as a child referring to the old nature or the old man. The new believer in Christ must understand that even though he is redeemed, he is still burdened with the carnal mind nature which often refers to behaving as if they still were unregenerate. Attempting to live for God to the utmost is a struggle against what we once were in favor of our new nature. The biblical term of flesh is synonymous with being carnal. Paul admonished his readers to graduate from the weak creature side of themselves while striving to be a more complete individual because of redemption. Our carnal nature is that which disposes us to be prone to sin. No Christian ever completely conquers the old nature and its cost because the old nature is at war against the Spirit of God. It is our duty to distinguish between the works of the flesh from the works of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. The unredeemed and the babe in Christ allows himself to be overly influenced by that which has more concern for the body, the senses, and the routine of sin.
Romans 6-8 explains the conflict between those that live in the flesh and those that mind the things of the Holy Spirit. To be absorbed by the matters of flesh disallows the influence of God’s Spirit. We are called to be dead to sin. To do so, we are called to daily crucify the flesh. No one is above the influence of the old nature. Therefore, herein is the explanation why it is so easy for a Christian to sin even though he is living for Christ. We are challenged to throw off the spirit of bondage and receive the spirit of adoption from Christ. As we live closer to the Lord, the Holy Spirit is a witness to our own spirit that we are the children of God. The humanity of the soul cries out for us to be delivered from the bondage of corruption to liberty as children of God. That is the reason the Bible describes our salvation as adoption because we are taken away from the pursuits of carnality to redemption. This also explains why it is so necessary for Jesus to have a supernatural birth because even though he was in the flesh he was not of the flesh or carnal. Only Christ was not living under the condemnation of sin. Only Christ was our perfect substitute on the cross.
No one has completely conquered the dictates of the carnal life. It must be our determined effort to put aside what it once was to live under the dictates of sin. We must avoid the dictates of the old life. When a person is baptized, put under the water, he is showing his intention to be raised from the old life that is dead to us and hence its dominion over us. We are witnessing to others our intent to live for God through Jesus Christ. We are saying to God and man that we entered the struggle in which we intend to reign over our mortal bodies as its loss. To live a spiritual life is to deny our bodies to be instruments of unrighteousness and sin. The life of a believer is to live under the grace of God. We do not deserve to enjoy the righteousness of Christ with the promise of an eternity of everlasting life, yet God gave it to as part of our redemption. Our goal is to be servants of righteousness and avoid the infirmities of our flesh.
Christian Writer 