You Don't have an evil twin living in you
Okay, here's another I came across recently about the old and new nature. It's an article written by an author cited at the end, with a few of my own clarifying notes thrown in. Again, super helpful to me in understanding sin.
YOU DON’T HAVE AN EVIL TWIN LIVING INSIDE YOU
The person you were before you knew Christ died with Him-and you don’t have an evil twin living inside you.
MY OLD MAN
Our old man is the identity we inherited from Adam. All of us were born “in Adam.” Spiritually speaking, we were sinners before we were even born. Romans 5:12: “Just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
If you are now a believer, how did the transformation take place? It was by the cross of Jesus. There, the old man that you were in Adam died with Jesus. When Jesus died, your old nature died with Him. Romans 6:1-3: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
Paul is saying, when you were placed into Jesus Christ, you became a participant in His death. You were baptized into-immersed into, placed into-His death. You were crucified with Him.” Romans 6:6: “Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” The source for sin in our lives was “done away with.”
My notes: (Jon Courson says: Paul says, “Know this: when Jesus was crucified, our old sin nature was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed.” The word translated “destroyed” is katargeo. Katargeo does not mean “annihilated.” It means “rendered inactive or paralyzed.”)
Colossians 3:3. “You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Did you know that you died on the cross too? The old person we were in Adam died. We were placed into Christ on the cross and our old self died with Him. That old sin nature died with Jesus Christ.
When you were born again, you were given a brand-new nature. The old you died. You were crucified with Jesus and no longer have life independent of Him. Now He is your very life. The old you is gone forever. The old you is dead. Before you were saved, how many natures did you have? You had one nature-it was a sin nature. That nature was crucified. It is dead. You were born again with a new nature. How many natures do you have now? You have one nature-the nature of Jesus Christ.
If it was not your old nature that died, then what did die? What is the bible talking about? Something died-what was it? Not your body. Not your soul, your personality. It was your old sin nature. I know our experience seems to contradict this truth. When you still sin, there is some other reason other than that your old sin nature causes it.
Paul states this truth in emphatic and radical terms in Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Paul says: “I died. I no longer live.” Jesus Christ is not “in your life.” You no longer have a life of your own. Jesus Christ IS your life. (Acts 17:28, Col. 3:4; Phil.1:21-22).
Colossians 2:11: “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” This illustration is circumcision shows that when skin is cut away, it never grows back. Circumcision was the covenant sign that God had with His people in the Old Testament.
In the new covenant, God still uses circumcision as a sign of His covenant with us, although it isn’t physical circumcision anymore. Col. 2:11 explains that God has performed a circumcision on us as His covenant sign with us. This circumcision is different from the old covenant circumcision because it is performed without hands.
What God has miraculously done is to reach down inside of you and cut away the source from which your old life was generated. He has circumcised you spiritually. He has removed the old nature, the source of your old life. The Bible says it’s never going to grow back. You are not a sinner saved by grace. The nature that made you a sinner has been cut away. You are a saint. I’m not suggesting you never sin anymore, but that your identity as a sinner has been removed by the cross.
1 Cor. 6:9-11. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of Our God.”
The old unrighteous you died, and now you are righteous. You’re a saint who sometimes sins, but you are not a sinner. It’s not your nature to sin. Who you are and how you act may not always coincide, but that doesn’t change the fact of who you are. As an example, let’s use the word drunkard, which Paul says will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
You can’t be a Christian and an alcoholic. I didn’t say you can’t become addicted to alcohol. You may have a propensity toward abusing alcohol, but that is NOT who you are. Abuse of alcohol may be your flesh pattern, but it is not who you are. You have a new identity if you have received Christ. We don’t wear the disgraceful identity of the past like a shameful badge of dishonor.
When a Christian person says of himself or herself, “I’m an alcoholic”, it is not the truth. It’s more truthful to say: “Hi, I’m ___ and I’m a saint who sometimes has a severe inclination towards drunkenness.”
What if we expected everyone to identify himself by his flesh pattern? Imagine that- “Hello, my name is Sue and I’m a gossip. It’s been 3 days since I’ve told anything juicy about anybody.” Or, “Hello, my name is John and I’m a lust-filled man. It’s been a week since I’ve had an inappropriate fantasy.” It would be ridiculous to identify ourselves by our sinful flesh patterns, because that is not who we are anymore.
Who you are and how you act might be two different things. Can a Christian act like an alcoholic? Yes, Like an adulterer? Swindler? Of course. But remember, your identity is not determined by what you do. Your identity is determined by your birth. If you’ve been born again, the old sinner you were before has died and you have been born as a saint. You’re not who you were. So don’t appropriate the sins of your past as part of your identity now. They aren’t.
The “evil twin” lie held me at a standstill in my spiritual life for a long time. I thought I had a good side and a bad side. There was a part of me that had a hunger to live a godly lifestyle, but I saw another part of me that hungered to live in ungodly ways. I thought I was righteous and unrighteous at the same time.
There’s an illustration about two dogs who fought each other all the time. I used to tell people those two dogs were like your two natures. They’re battling. I’d say: the way you can determine which one wins is that you feed the good dog and you starve the bad dog. And as you starve the bad dog, he’ll get weaker and weaker; as you feed the good dog, he’ll get stronger and stronger, then he’ll defeat the bad dog.” I would often give people a list of things to do to feed the good dog. Then I’d give them a list of things you can’t do or you’ll be feeding the bad dog. Two natures at war-that’s what I believed. The problem with the story is that it communicates a lie. In reality that bad dog has been killed. He was run over by the cross. He is not alive anymore.
Implications of a Dead Old Man
Romans 6:7 says: “He who has died is freed from sin.” The Bible teaches that because of the death of our old nature, sin has no more power over us. When we trusted Christ, for the first time we were free to live a righteous lifestyle, out from under the cruel influence of sin in our lives. You don’t have to sin anymore for one simple reason- you are dead! Dead men don’t sin. Let me give you an example.
Imagine Leo overdosing on cocaine and dying. A few hours before his funeral, one of his drug buddies comes where the corpse is laid out and says, “I’ve got good stuff here. Take a snort” while putting the bag under Leo’s nose. Do you know what Leo is doing while this is going on? Just lying there, dead. Dead men don’t want cocaine, even if they loved it before.
The Bible teaches that a part of our inheritance is that we have DIED to sin. You can sin if you choose, but when you understand your new identity you will discover that you don’t WANT to live in sin anymore. You died to all that. Now you are alive to God. He motivates your desires and interests. You finally have power over sin!
Balancing the books
Consider Romans 6:11: “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The word “consider” is translated “reckon” in the King James Bible and is a financial term.
My notes: (To reckon here means to accept what God says as true and to live in the light of it. John Courson: Reckon means add up the figures and come to an irrefutable conclusion. The figures add up to this: If indeed it’s true that your sin nature was crucified with Christ on the cross, then you no longer are in bondage to it. “Come to a conclusion based upon this fact,” said Paul.
Jesus paid the entire penalty for our sin and paralyzed our sin nature. The question is not whether His provision is sufficient. The question is whether or not we reckon it to be true.)
The word “consider” is the Greek word logizomai. It means “to compute, to count, to calculate” something. To reckon your bank statement is to find out the bottom-line balance in your account after reconciling all the facts about activity in the account. This word refers to facts, not suppositions.
What this means practically for the believer is that the authority sin had over your life in the past is done now. That isn’t a theoretical possibility, it is a fact. Its power over you has been emptied. There’s nothing left in the bank. It’s a dead account. God closed your sin account when you died with Christ at the cross. You have a new account now. Your investments rest in the life of Jesus now. You haven’t diversified-you’ve put all your eggs in one basket-and it is Him.
Paul says it like this: “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted (literally “deposited”) until that day.” (1 Tim. 1:12.) Paul was saying, “I’ve opened a new account now. The only deposits I have anymore are in Christ and I know whom I have believed.
CONCLUSION
Understanding the death of our old man is the key to appropriating and living out of our new identity in Jesus Christ. If you did have two natures living inside you simultaneously, then you would be in trouble, because Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. If you are going to stand strong and experience the grace walk to the fullest, it is necessary to agree with God about what He says concerning the death of your old man.
DO CHRISTIANS HAVE A SINFUL NATURE?
Because of an unfortunate misinterpretation in some translations of the Bible of the Greek word “sarx” (which directly translated means “flesh”), the doctrine of the sinful nature or indwelling sin has been propagated and preached with amazing conviction for centuries. It has caused sincere believers to try and live up to manmade moral standards, but not realizing that in doing this, they only subject themselves to endless frustration, lack of confidence before God and an expectation of punishment to come their way.
In the original Greek language the New Testament was translated from, the word “sarx” was used to describe over a dozen different concepts, such as the sinful nature, human flesh, sexual intercourse, carnality, etc. The W.E. Vines expository dictionary of Bible words lists 14 different meanings for the word “sarx”. The only way to determine the meaning of “sarx” in that particular part of scripture was to look at the context. Some Bible translations attempted to translate “sarx” into what they thought it meant in that particular context, but many got it wrong. Only the literal translations (e.g KJV or NKJV and a few others) did not change “sarx” into what they thought it might mean, but left it in the verses simply as “flesh”, allowing the reader to interpret the context. That’s why Rom 7 and some other passages appear to be so confusing in some translations, because “sarx” which means “flesh” was replaced with “sinful nature” the whole time! Here’s an example:
Col 2:1 I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally (sarx). (NIV)
Col 2:1 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh (sarx), (NKJV)
Now, when the Bible talks about the “inward man”, the “new man” or the “new nature” it speaks about the born-again spirit of a believer. The “sinful nature” or “old man” refers the evil nature every person is born with, being at enmity with God and alive to sin. But “flesh” means something else. “Flesh” in this context refers to the un-renewed mind of the believer. “Flesh” in this context does not refer to something spiritual; it refers to the realm of the mind (soul, will & intellect). Soul = mind.
At salvation, a Christian’s sinful nature is crucified & buried with Christ. Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man (sinful nature) was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. After we are born again, we are NOT “sinners” anymore, even though we sometimes make mistakes. There is not 1 verse in the entire New Covenant that calls a born-again believer a “sinner”. The term “sinner” refers to a person that has not been born-again yet, and yet you’ll find most Christians today think: “I am just an old sinner.” No you are not!!
Under the Old Covenant people had to be circumcised on the 8th day in obedience to the laws of Moses. Under the New Covenant God circumcises the heart of the believer, removing (cutting out) the old evil nature, and giving us a new resurrected spirit that is created in 100% perfect righteousness like Christ. Col 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh (old sinful nature), by the circumcision of Christ. God also writes His laws on our hearts which simply means He gives us the desire to please Him (but of course we know He is actually already pleased with us because of what Jesus did on our behalf). Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. This means that our new reborn spirit desires to please God and delights in Him.
The following comparisons between a literal and conceptual Bible translation clearly illustrate this misconception (please note we’re not bashing or criticizing certain Bible translations, rather we’re addressing the misconception in the church about a born again believer’s inner nature, and the translation of the word “sarx”):
Rom 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature (sarx) (NIV)
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me, that is in my flesh (sarx) nothing good dwells; (NKJV)
Rom 8:4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature (sarx) but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the sinful nature (sarx) have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. (NIV)
Rom 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh (sarx) but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh (sarx) set their minds on the things of the flesh (sarx), but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (NKJV)
Gal 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature (sarx); rather, serve one another in love. (NIV)
Gal 5:13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh (sarx), but through love serve one another. (NKJV)
Gal 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature (sarx). (NIV)
Gal 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (sarx). (NKJV)
There are many more examples to illustrate this point, but I think we get the idea. Now consider this: The above verses, coupled with the fact that most people today believe whatever they read (without thinking about it) in whatever translation of Bible they have, plus the fact that the modern church has taught for centuries that Christians DO have a sinful nature (and that we have to deny this nature, fight it and put it to death!) it is easy to see that we can be conned by texts read out of context. Conned by text, get it..?
Now you may ask: “Why then do Christians still sin? If we don’t have a sinful nature, why do we still keep on making mistakes, feeling like we are disappointing God, and falling short of what we think God expects from us?” Think about whether you may have been deceived by this doctrine, to repent (which simply means to change your thinking) and be open to receive more truth next. Has God left us with a remnant of our old, evil nature (which would mean He did an incomplete job), or did He do a complete work and remove the whole thing?
Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe- New Covenant Grace
YOU DON’T HAVE AN EVIL TWIN LIVING INSIDE YOU
The person you were before you knew Christ died with Him-and you don’t have an evil twin living inside you.
MY OLD MAN
Our old man is the identity we inherited from Adam. All of us were born “in Adam.” Spiritually speaking, we were sinners before we were even born. Romans 5:12: “Just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
If you are now a believer, how did the transformation take place? It was by the cross of Jesus. There, the old man that you were in Adam died with Jesus. When Jesus died, your old nature died with Him. Romans 6:1-3: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
Paul is saying, when you were placed into Jesus Christ, you became a participant in His death. You were baptized into-immersed into, placed into-His death. You were crucified with Him.” Romans 6:6: “Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” The source for sin in our lives was “done away with.”
My notes: (Jon Courson says: Paul says, “Know this: when Jesus was crucified, our old sin nature was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed.” The word translated “destroyed” is katargeo. Katargeo does not mean “annihilated.” It means “rendered inactive or paralyzed.”)
Colossians 3:3. “You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Did you know that you died on the cross too? The old person we were in Adam died. We were placed into Christ on the cross and our old self died with Him. That old sin nature died with Jesus Christ.
When you were born again, you were given a brand-new nature. The old you died. You were crucified with Jesus and no longer have life independent of Him. Now He is your very life. The old you is gone forever. The old you is dead. Before you were saved, how many natures did you have? You had one nature-it was a sin nature. That nature was crucified. It is dead. You were born again with a new nature. How many natures do you have now? You have one nature-the nature of Jesus Christ.
If it was not your old nature that died, then what did die? What is the bible talking about? Something died-what was it? Not your body. Not your soul, your personality. It was your old sin nature. I know our experience seems to contradict this truth. When you still sin, there is some other reason other than that your old sin nature causes it.
Paul states this truth in emphatic and radical terms in Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Paul says: “I died. I no longer live.” Jesus Christ is not “in your life.” You no longer have a life of your own. Jesus Christ IS your life. (Acts 17:28, Col. 3:4; Phil.1:21-22).
Colossians 2:11: “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” This illustration is circumcision shows that when skin is cut away, it never grows back. Circumcision was the covenant sign that God had with His people in the Old Testament.
In the new covenant, God still uses circumcision as a sign of His covenant with us, although it isn’t physical circumcision anymore. Col. 2:11 explains that God has performed a circumcision on us as His covenant sign with us. This circumcision is different from the old covenant circumcision because it is performed without hands.
What God has miraculously done is to reach down inside of you and cut away the source from which your old life was generated. He has circumcised you spiritually. He has removed the old nature, the source of your old life. The Bible says it’s never going to grow back. You are not a sinner saved by grace. The nature that made you a sinner has been cut away. You are a saint. I’m not suggesting you never sin anymore, but that your identity as a sinner has been removed by the cross.
1 Cor. 6:9-11. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of Our God.”
The old unrighteous you died, and now you are righteous. You’re a saint who sometimes sins, but you are not a sinner. It’s not your nature to sin. Who you are and how you act may not always coincide, but that doesn’t change the fact of who you are. As an example, let’s use the word drunkard, which Paul says will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
You can’t be a Christian and an alcoholic. I didn’t say you can’t become addicted to alcohol. You may have a propensity toward abusing alcohol, but that is NOT who you are. Abuse of alcohol may be your flesh pattern, but it is not who you are. You have a new identity if you have received Christ. We don’t wear the disgraceful identity of the past like a shameful badge of dishonor.
When a Christian person says of himself or herself, “I’m an alcoholic”, it is not the truth. It’s more truthful to say: “Hi, I’m ___ and I’m a saint who sometimes has a severe inclination towards drunkenness.”
What if we expected everyone to identify himself by his flesh pattern? Imagine that- “Hello, my name is Sue and I’m a gossip. It’s been 3 days since I’ve told anything juicy about anybody.” Or, “Hello, my name is John and I’m a lust-filled man. It’s been a week since I’ve had an inappropriate fantasy.” It would be ridiculous to identify ourselves by our sinful flesh patterns, because that is not who we are anymore.
Who you are and how you act might be two different things. Can a Christian act like an alcoholic? Yes, Like an adulterer? Swindler? Of course. But remember, your identity is not determined by what you do. Your identity is determined by your birth. If you’ve been born again, the old sinner you were before has died and you have been born as a saint. You’re not who you were. So don’t appropriate the sins of your past as part of your identity now. They aren’t.
The “evil twin” lie held me at a standstill in my spiritual life for a long time. I thought I had a good side and a bad side. There was a part of me that had a hunger to live a godly lifestyle, but I saw another part of me that hungered to live in ungodly ways. I thought I was righteous and unrighteous at the same time.
There’s an illustration about two dogs who fought each other all the time. I used to tell people those two dogs were like your two natures. They’re battling. I’d say: the way you can determine which one wins is that you feed the good dog and you starve the bad dog. And as you starve the bad dog, he’ll get weaker and weaker; as you feed the good dog, he’ll get stronger and stronger, then he’ll defeat the bad dog.” I would often give people a list of things to do to feed the good dog. Then I’d give them a list of things you can’t do or you’ll be feeding the bad dog. Two natures at war-that’s what I believed. The problem with the story is that it communicates a lie. In reality that bad dog has been killed. He was run over by the cross. He is not alive anymore.
Implications of a Dead Old Man
Romans 6:7 says: “He who has died is freed from sin.” The Bible teaches that because of the death of our old nature, sin has no more power over us. When we trusted Christ, for the first time we were free to live a righteous lifestyle, out from under the cruel influence of sin in our lives. You don’t have to sin anymore for one simple reason- you are dead! Dead men don’t sin. Let me give you an example.
Imagine Leo overdosing on cocaine and dying. A few hours before his funeral, one of his drug buddies comes where the corpse is laid out and says, “I’ve got good stuff here. Take a snort” while putting the bag under Leo’s nose. Do you know what Leo is doing while this is going on? Just lying there, dead. Dead men don’t want cocaine, even if they loved it before.
The Bible teaches that a part of our inheritance is that we have DIED to sin. You can sin if you choose, but when you understand your new identity you will discover that you don’t WANT to live in sin anymore. You died to all that. Now you are alive to God. He motivates your desires and interests. You finally have power over sin!
Balancing the books
Consider Romans 6:11: “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The word “consider” is translated “reckon” in the King James Bible and is a financial term.
My notes: (To reckon here means to accept what God says as true and to live in the light of it. John Courson: Reckon means add up the figures and come to an irrefutable conclusion. The figures add up to this: If indeed it’s true that your sin nature was crucified with Christ on the cross, then you no longer are in bondage to it. “Come to a conclusion based upon this fact,” said Paul.
Jesus paid the entire penalty for our sin and paralyzed our sin nature. The question is not whether His provision is sufficient. The question is whether or not we reckon it to be true.)
The word “consider” is the Greek word logizomai. It means “to compute, to count, to calculate” something. To reckon your bank statement is to find out the bottom-line balance in your account after reconciling all the facts about activity in the account. This word refers to facts, not suppositions.
What this means practically for the believer is that the authority sin had over your life in the past is done now. That isn’t a theoretical possibility, it is a fact. Its power over you has been emptied. There’s nothing left in the bank. It’s a dead account. God closed your sin account when you died with Christ at the cross. You have a new account now. Your investments rest in the life of Jesus now. You haven’t diversified-you’ve put all your eggs in one basket-and it is Him.
Paul says it like this: “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted (literally “deposited”) until that day.” (1 Tim. 1:12.) Paul was saying, “I’ve opened a new account now. The only deposits I have anymore are in Christ and I know whom I have believed.
CONCLUSION
Understanding the death of our old man is the key to appropriating and living out of our new identity in Jesus Christ. If you did have two natures living inside you simultaneously, then you would be in trouble, because Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. If you are going to stand strong and experience the grace walk to the fullest, it is necessary to agree with God about what He says concerning the death of your old man.
DO CHRISTIANS HAVE A SINFUL NATURE?
Because of an unfortunate misinterpretation in some translations of the Bible of the Greek word “sarx” (which directly translated means “flesh”), the doctrine of the sinful nature or indwelling sin has been propagated and preached with amazing conviction for centuries. It has caused sincere believers to try and live up to manmade moral standards, but not realizing that in doing this, they only subject themselves to endless frustration, lack of confidence before God and an expectation of punishment to come their way.
In the original Greek language the New Testament was translated from, the word “sarx” was used to describe over a dozen different concepts, such as the sinful nature, human flesh, sexual intercourse, carnality, etc. The W.E. Vines expository dictionary of Bible words lists 14 different meanings for the word “sarx”. The only way to determine the meaning of “sarx” in that particular part of scripture was to look at the context. Some Bible translations attempted to translate “sarx” into what they thought it meant in that particular context, but many got it wrong. Only the literal translations (e.g KJV or NKJV and a few others) did not change “sarx” into what they thought it might mean, but left it in the verses simply as “flesh”, allowing the reader to interpret the context. That’s why Rom 7 and some other passages appear to be so confusing in some translations, because “sarx” which means “flesh” was replaced with “sinful nature” the whole time! Here’s an example:
Col 2:1 I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally (sarx). (NIV)
Col 2:1 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh (sarx), (NKJV)
Now, when the Bible talks about the “inward man”, the “new man” or the “new nature” it speaks about the born-again spirit of a believer. The “sinful nature” or “old man” refers the evil nature every person is born with, being at enmity with God and alive to sin. But “flesh” means something else. “Flesh” in this context refers to the un-renewed mind of the believer. “Flesh” in this context does not refer to something spiritual; it refers to the realm of the mind (soul, will & intellect). Soul = mind.
At salvation, a Christian’s sinful nature is crucified & buried with Christ. Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man (sinful nature) was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. After we are born again, we are NOT “sinners” anymore, even though we sometimes make mistakes. There is not 1 verse in the entire New Covenant that calls a born-again believer a “sinner”. The term “sinner” refers to a person that has not been born-again yet, and yet you’ll find most Christians today think: “I am just an old sinner.” No you are not!!
Under the Old Covenant people had to be circumcised on the 8th day in obedience to the laws of Moses. Under the New Covenant God circumcises the heart of the believer, removing (cutting out) the old evil nature, and giving us a new resurrected spirit that is created in 100% perfect righteousness like Christ. Col 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh (old sinful nature), by the circumcision of Christ. God also writes His laws on our hearts which simply means He gives us the desire to please Him (but of course we know He is actually already pleased with us because of what Jesus did on our behalf). Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. This means that our new reborn spirit desires to please God and delights in Him.
The following comparisons between a literal and conceptual Bible translation clearly illustrate this misconception (please note we’re not bashing or criticizing certain Bible translations, rather we’re addressing the misconception in the church about a born again believer’s inner nature, and the translation of the word “sarx”):
Rom 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature (sarx) (NIV)
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me, that is in my flesh (sarx) nothing good dwells; (NKJV)
Rom 8:4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature (sarx) but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the sinful nature (sarx) have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. (NIV)
Rom 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh (sarx) but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh (sarx) set their minds on the things of the flesh (sarx), but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (NKJV)
Gal 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature (sarx); rather, serve one another in love. (NIV)
Gal 5:13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh (sarx), but through love serve one another. (NKJV)
Gal 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature (sarx). (NIV)
Gal 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (sarx). (NKJV)
There are many more examples to illustrate this point, but I think we get the idea. Now consider this: The above verses, coupled with the fact that most people today believe whatever they read (without thinking about it) in whatever translation of Bible they have, plus the fact that the modern church has taught for centuries that Christians DO have a sinful nature (and that we have to deny this nature, fight it and put it to death!) it is easy to see that we can be conned by texts read out of context. Conned by text, get it..?
Now you may ask: “Why then do Christians still sin? If we don’t have a sinful nature, why do we still keep on making mistakes, feeling like we are disappointing God, and falling short of what we think God expects from us?” Think about whether you may have been deceived by this doctrine, to repent (which simply means to change your thinking) and be open to receive more truth next. Has God left us with a remnant of our old, evil nature (which would mean He did an incomplete job), or did He do a complete work and remove the whole thing?
Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe- New Covenant Grace
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