Jesus said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12)
This verse has always intrigued me because it is telling us that there is far more to our faith than we can see or can accept. That forces me to seek out things that deepen faith, that go beyond the mainstream teaching. I just know there is more and I want it!
Here is one truth that most Christians have difficulty accepting: The notion of having two natures is a myth!
Now I can see eyebrows raised in skepticism. Let’s face it, most people struggle with the angel and devil caricatures standing on our shoulders. The angel is whispering in one ear to do good, resist temptation, while the devil yells in the other, “What for? Wutt’l it hurt?”
Let’s put that image aside and deal with scripture and the facts. That is all we have to rely on. Here is what James says:
Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. (James 3:11-12)
Regardless of how you “feel”, James says it is impossible for two natures to coexist in us. It’s one or the other. An orange tree cannot produce apples and vice versa. We can only be one thing. So, what nature do we have? Peter says:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, . .” (2 Pet 1:4)
There you have it – we are partakers of the “divine” nature. You would think problem solved, but the obvious question everyone is going to ask is if that is true, why do we still struggle with sin? If this one nature is so Good, why do we get stuck in Romans crying:
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24)
Remember, Jesus was God, but he was also a man and he was tempted just like us:
“. . . but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:15)
So how did He do it? Many use the WWJD (what would Jesus do?) mantra in some form or another and therein lies the problem. Let me explain. Jesus said in Mark:
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2:21-22)
The meaning is simple. It means that self-improvement is another myth! To try to emulate another (WWJD) is a formula for failure. Before our redemption we had no power to fulfill the law, to be good, and here is the revelation – you still don’t! You haven’t changed. The only thing that has changed is who indwells your spirit and you take on the nature of who owns you. You have no nature of your own.
That fact doesn’t stop us as babes in Christ from constantly looking to improve ourselves, to be better and stepping out in false righteousness. But what is the result? You know what the result is. We all do because all of us have tried over and over seemingly ad infinitum and failed. We end up like the Israelites in their endless cycle of sin and repentance!
So what is the answer? Well, it sounds like a contradiction, but this is how you emulate Christ – by NOT TRYING! This is how Jesus did it:
“So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.’” (John 5:19)
You see, Jesus rested in the fact that He was ONE with the Father: “I and the Father are one.” (John 17:22). So much so that He could say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
That means that when He acted, it was God acting. When He spoke, it was God speaking.
Until you stop TRYING to be what you already are, until you realize that you and Christ are ONE and that the only righteousness you have is Him, you will always “feel” like you have two natures and be tricked into responding to temptation. Until the meaning of this becomes completely clear, . . .
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
. . . you will continue to struggle and be tricked into believing Romans 7:24 begging for a deliverance you already have. And we know who the trickster is and he is not some cute cartoon sitting on our shoulder. He is real and goes around seeking whom he may devour.
Believe this instead:
1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
We are ONE with Christ! We are totally NEW! Leave that phony notion of your own righteousness behind. We are not patching you up, making you better. This is new wine in new skins! You are a new creation!
Abide in Him. Believe that He is able. Because that is the only way it works!
