God Wishes Christians Knew ...

That We Are Not Fighting an Inner Civil War

(excerpt from Bill Gillham's "What God Wishes Christians Knew about Christianity")

Folks, the old you was crucified in Christ before the new you was reborn. Because of this fact, we can believe that:

• A dead man cannot wage war against the new man in Christ.

• A dead man cannot resurrect himself, as we hear some imply: “You’ve got to keep that old man on the cross.” Hey, since when do you have to keep a man on the cross?

• If the old man didn’t die, then Jesus didn’t die because they were both crucified on the same cross, and the Bible states categorically that they died simultaneously (see Romans 6:2-8).

• Satan does not have the power to bring the old man back to life.

• It would be theologically pointless for God to crucify the old man only to bring him back to life again. Why kill him if you’re going to bring him back?

• It makes perfect theological sense for God to crucify the old man in Christ’s death and then re-create the new man in Christ’s resurrection, which is precisely what the Bible says happened (Romans 7:4).

• The old man is history! Gone!

• I’ll use the dreaded e word which many theologians rail against—the sin nature is extinct!It’s a dinosaur for Christians! Write it in the sky in smoke! Shout it from the housetops! Hold a street dance! The “wicked old witch” is dead! Christians do not have a sinful nature!

• Christians have only one nature—a holy, righteous new nature. “He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). That’s us! That describes our nature!

Although, based upon our experience, our thought-life, and our feelings, it certainly seemsillogical to believe that the old man was literally crucified, God’s Word teaches that a new creature in Christ has no sin nature, due to our having been crucified in Christ (Romans 6:6, et al.). Please don’t write to me and quote the New International Version to “prove” me wrong. The well-meaning theologians who translated the NIV Bible took unbiblical liberty by translating the Greek word sarx as “sinful nature” (see Romans 7:18, et al., NIV). Folks, that’s not translation—that’s religious tradition; that’s human opinion. They made an honest mistake. One of them is a good friend of mine. I hasten to credit them for all of the good things about this translation. But I don’t recommend that you use it to exegete Romans 6–8 because you’ll see the old man portrayed as having the miraculous ability to survive the crucifixion. It’s absurd to believe that we must “keep him on the cross.” He’s deader than a hammer! That old man took one trip to the cross. Then God buried him! We regularly celebrate the reality of this truth via believer’s baptism—a one-act depiction of our death as the old man, our burial, and as we burst up out of the water, our new birth in Christ’s resurrection.

“But, Bill! I still sin, and you wouldn’t believe some of the thoughts that I have! I have a constant war going on inside me. How can you claim that I do not have a sinful nature?” Just because a Christian doesn’t have a sinful nature doesn’t mean that we don’t struggle in our war against sin. I agree that we all have a war going on inside us. The Bible documents this: “I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members “(Romans 7:23). But just as you can pick apples without having an apple-picking nature and eat pork without having a hog-eating nature, you can sin without having a sinful nature.Nature is defined as “a fundamental characteristic.” Sinners love sin. Saints hate it. Sinners plan ahead for more innovative ways to sin. Saints attend seminars to learn how to overcome it. Our fundamental characteristic is to avoid sinning. The Bible does not document that our battle is between the old man and the new man; the Bible describes our battle as the new man fighting against the power of sin (Romans 7:23). Gang, you and I are not warring against ourselves; we are not engaged in a civil war. Although it may seem like a civil war, we must believe the Bible. We’re engaged in a good-guys-against-the-bad- guys war, and we are the good guys—saints.

Point Number 2. Although Romans 7:15 is commonly cited to prove that saints have two natures—one good, the other evil—it actually proves the opposite—that we are good. Is Paul thrilled to be practicing evil things? Does he love to sin? Is even a tiny part of himdelighted that he has some mythical excuse for failing to carry out his good intentions (i.e., the old man came back to life)? Does part of him lie awake nights trying to figure out how he can sin and get away with it? Is his attitude, Oh well, God will forgive me if I sin, so what’s the big deal? No! No! No! A thousand times no to all of these absurdities! This man is miserable because he can’t get victory over his sins! This man longs to do good; he absolutely hates it after he has sinned, and he can’t figure out why he can’t quit it. If, on the other hand, this man had the mythical two natures that the Bible does not document, Romans 7:15 would read like this:

For I understand very well what I am doing; for I am practicing what I love to do. When I feel like sinning, I sin and love every moment of it; when I feel like obeying God, I do that, too. I do the very thing that I feel like at the moment and I am quite happy about it. Isn’t it fun to know that we’re on our way to heaven?

Paul would be similar to a southern California man in March who loves snow skiing and waterskiing equally well. His problem is choosing which he would rather do today. Folks, Paul has a flat spot on his forehead from hitting himself with the palm of his hand crying, “Aye, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi! Why can’t I get my act together?” He’s miserable because he finds it impossible to carry out his good intentions! This man is holy, through and through. Enough of the devil’s nonsense that this verse depicts the mythical “evil you” fighting against the good you—the only you! It depicts the power of sin fighting against the good you! Verses 17 and 20 prove this. If you’re a new creature in Christ, you have been given a new godly nature. “By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

Satan deceives us and influences us to do evil or fail to follow through on our good intentions through the power of sin. Sin uses the pronouns I, I’m, me, my, myself, etc., when interacting with your mind. I believe sin triggers such thoughts through the old patterns for living which are still in your brain. I believe these are old memory traces. This way you’ll be vulnerable to accepting sin’s thoughts as if they were your own, especially if you’ve been taught that you’re mostly sinner and a teeny bit saint. Those sinful thoughts will seem as natural as the sunrise! As the power called “sin” bombards your mind with first-person-singular- pronoun thoughts, your resolve may weaken till you end up committing the sinful act. Even if you don’t actually commit the sinful act, those thoughts or images will continually assault your mind like a worrisome gnat as the Deceiver seeks to keep you from experiencing the peace of God.

W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words explains that the Greek wordhamartia (which translates to the English sin) is a noun, while hamartano (also translated to the English sin) is a verb. In Romans 6:14, where Paul writes, “Sin shall not be master over you,” sin is a noun; while in the very next verse (15), “Shall we sin . . . ?” it is a verb, an action word. In Romans chapters 5–8 the word sin appears 41 times, only once as a verb,40 times as a noun! Look at that! Only one time in these critically important chapters dealing with the key to victory over the power called “sin” does the word sin mean the actof committing a sin! But if you interpret the word sin in Romans 5–8 as a verb, you will never understand these chapters that are so critical for walking in victory. We have been conditioned to perceive the word sin as an action word. Thus, when we read it in the Bible, we think, Yep, that’s when I cheated on my taxes.

In Romans 5:21; 6:12,14,17; 7:11,14,17,20,23,25; 8:2; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Hebrews 3:13; 11:25; 12:4; James 1:15b, hamartia (sin as a noun) appears and, as Vine points out, “This governing principle is personified.” Sin controls (governs), and it is a persona. As such, sin presents thoughts to your mind for your consideration and deceives you by making them seem like they’re your own thoughts! Folks, the power of sin is Satan’s secret weapon!

- Bill Gillham