Dual
Natures
Coming from
denominational influences our tendency is to forget who and where we
are in Christ. We keep returning our focus to the flesh and
our sin. This is a symptom of religious withdrawal.
There is only one cure. Christ. Paul
wrote about the struggle between our old man and our new man in Romans
chapter seven. He concludes with the cry of: O wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? Then he gives us the answer:
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so
be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of
sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again
to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God:
Many of us are recovering from various denominational injuries and
bewitchments. The traps and deceits were dizzying and
exhausting. It takes a while to begin to understand how free
freedom really is. Religion’s indoctrination is cleverly
designed to keep you from knowing who and where you are in
Christ. Theology leads you away from Christ and toward the
wisdom of man.
First we must understand that the revelation of the church and for the
church (that is the body of Christ) was given to
Paul. It had not been given to the disciples during
Jesus’ ministry here on earth and it certainly wasn’t given to the
disciples while they waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit on the
day of Pentecost. It was given to
Paul. He didn’t learn it from the other
disciples or “figure it out” through study of the Hebrew scriptures of
his time. He received the gospel of grace directly from the
risen Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s experience was with the blinding light of the eternal King, not
the suffering Jewish Messiah moving toward the sacrificial
alter. The other disciples received the gospel of the Kingdom
of God to the house of Israel. Jesus taught about the then
present earthly kingdom and the future end time earthly kingdom of
Israel. The gospel of the mystery as Paul calls it is the
good news of the body of Christ which is the church. There is confusion
because we have ascribed a special meaning to the word
“gospel.” Gospel simply means “the good
news.”
If you are a reader of the New Testament I would challenge you to take
a large paper clip and clump the writing of Paul together.
Clip from Acts chapter nine through the letter of Philemon.
It is a small portion of the entire bible. Now,
without using the clipped section, try to find any mention of the basic
church concepts of reconciliation, justification, redemption, or
sanctification. Especially try to find
propitiation. You will not find them
because the revelation of the body of Christ and our union with Christ
is no where else taught.
The body of Christ is not mentioned anywhere but in Paul’s
revelation. The bible tells us that the Gospel of the mystery
was not known before it was given to Paul. No one
knew about it. The other disciples were very slow
to accept the “new” gospel that Paul
preached. In fact, Paul had to go to
Jerusalem to instruct them in the new gospel because he was the only
one that it was given to.
Just as God chose Moses to be the revealer of the Ten Commandments and
the law time period, so He chose Paul as the revelator of the body of
Christ and the gospel of grace by faith. You will not find
the word “cross” in the epistles of James, Peter or John for they were
still walking in the gospel of the kingdom and living under the
law.
You may think that this is an insignificant detail. You may think it
really doesn’t make much difference. But, ignorance of the
difference between the two gospels is the root of confusion and abuse
in the many denominational groups. There are three distinct
branches of churchism that underlies the stream of lies being taught
and the resulting law based performance based religion.
The gospel according to Paul declares in Romans 5:12 that it was by one
man that sin entered into the world and that through Adam sin and death
passed upon ALL of human kind. God chose Adam to be
the head of the fleshly physical human family. In like stead
Jesus Christ is the head of the newly created Spiritual family the body
of Christ or the church. The church’s source is in
heaven. Each and every member of the body of Christ (that is
those with Christ in them) will return to the eternal source and live
in heaven in the glorious presence of God in Christ.
Paul’s gospel is for the church and is a new creation where there is
neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female
but we are all one in Christ. It has no tie to the
law or traditions of religion. Jesus said that he would set
us free indeed. Paul wrote for us to stand fast in that
freedom.
If you have ever read the seventh chapter of Romans you know that we
have dual natures: The old man of the flesh and the opposing
new spiritual man. The two natures are opposed to one
another.
Our adamic life or nature is condemned to death and died with
Christ. It has not been forgiven, but was
condemned to death and crucified with Christ. But the second
Adam, the risen Christ Jesus provides the forgiven, redeemed, and holy
spiritual life or nature for “Christ liveth IN me.”
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me.
Our new spiritual nature is a new creation. It is not the old
man changed or improved but a new creation by God.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Our dual natures are why we can be here in our fleshly bodies and at
the same time our spiritual man is sitting at the right hand of God in
heaven in Christ.
Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
As we come to terms with what God has done for us in Christ and begin
to renew our minds to the rightly divided word it is helpful to
understand the basis of error that we have come out
of. An omission of the gospel of the mystery as
presented by Paul and a misunderstanding of the new nature and the
grace of God leads to very dramatic errors. The abusive
leadership styles and false authority can be directly linked back to
these three misunderstandings. Very briefly; I am going to
list the main branches of church religious philosophy that have
minimized the teaching of Paul and instead majored on the Old Testament
and Synoptic gospels. All three are based upon “one naturism” that is,
the erroneous idea that we only have one nature.
The first is known in the theological world as Wesleyan based
doctrine. Wesleyan’s believe that spiritual life is imparted
from one person to another and only those who have received an
impartation that can be traced back to the original apostles are
saved. I’m sure you have heard of “apostolic
churches.” The clergy claim to have been passed the
original anointing of the original apostles. The old time
Pentecostal movement was built upon this premise. They
believe that when the spirit is passed on to you it regenerates the old
adamic nature and begins the process of making your flesh
holy. The holiness doctrine that teaches you can become
progressively holy and at some point you can get holy enough to earn
the “second blessing.”
Conversely if you misbehave you lose you holiness and consequently your
impartation. About one third of the world denominations can
trace there beliefs and traditions to John Wesley’s doctrinal teaching
that did not respect the Pauline mystery gospel.
The second basic church philosophy is Armenianism. This
theology teaches that the Holy Ghost possesses us and begins to
correct, purify and refine your urges, temper and will. It
takes over and controls you. The catholic and related
churches are of the Armenian persuasion. There are
levels and kinds of possession. The church is in charge of
your salvation and they must intercede for you because God is too holy
to bother with common sinners like us.
The third “one nature” theology is the so called “Covenant” or Kingdom
theology. They do not recognize the difference between the
Body of Christ and the Kingdom of Israel. They believe the
adamic nature dies and is gone the moment the spirit is
received. Getting saved should make everything
perfect. Sin and sickness then is always due to the influence
of Satan and his demons: Hence the need for constant and persistent
deliverance and generational curse ministry.
They believe the fleshly body is the new regenerated spiritual man and
are dedicated to building a physical army to take the kingdom “of God”
by force. There is a strong emphasis on new
revelation that may supersede the bible. This is
the basis of the Prophetic movement and denominations like the
Vineyard. This philosophy is growing and is
overtaking many of charismatic churches.
Many churches today are a mix of the above three
philosophies. All three of these theologies equate the church
with the kingdom of Israel and reject the idea that there are different
time periods in the bible. They believe they are
still under the law. The concepts of grace, being
born of God’s seed and Christ in you the hope of glory are not
understood in the same way that Paul teaches
them. Everything goes back to works and
the fruits of the flesh are on display. Those who have been
influenced by these theologies have no idea who and where they are in
Christ. Their position and power has been hidden from them
and their authority stolen.
When Christ Jesus the head of the heavenly creation (the church)
ascended to the right hand of His Father, He took us with
him. The father, having recreated us in His Son, raised us up
and made us to sit in heavenly places with Him. And there we
sit: In Christ, in heaven. Always! We are always in
the presence of God. Nothing can separate us because we are in
Christ. No one! Yes! No one is holier than us: No one has a
better anointing than us. No one! If you are born
of God’s seed and are a member of the body of Christ, you are here in
heaven with me. No one is holier than you. No! Not
one! We are a new creation.
Meanwhile, back here on earth living in this fleshly body with the
continuing effects of Adam we wait for the return of Christ because at
that glorious moment we will take on a spiritual Body free from adamic
influence just like Jesus. Paul tells us:
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We recon our fleshly selves to be dead to sin, but we are alive in
Christ and we have Christ in us. For those of us who believe,
Paul’s gospel produces a new realm of existence: It’s not that the old
man received embellishments or advantages as in a law based
religion. Christ lives in us. We are a new
creation, sons and daughters of God. Our old man has been
sentenced to death, and was crucified with Christ. The
crucifixion paid the full ransom, the propitiation and we are
free. We are free from theological bondage; free from the
power of sin. As Romans 8:1-2 concludes:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death.
Stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has set you free.
Neil
