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Every now and then I like posting something incisive that was written in the past because it speaks so well into the present. The sweet thing about this is that these guys, who are often waved away today, have dealt with a lot of the same issues while remaining simultaneously (by the modern mind) ignored. This one comes from the Warfield.<\/p>\n
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If we wish to observe to what lengths the notion may be carried, that the \u201cold man\u201d in us is unaffected by the intruding Spirit, we have only to turn to Mark Robert C. McQuilkin\u2019s somewhat incoherent tract on \u201cGod\u2019s Way of Victory over Sin.\u201d<\/p>\n
This tract has for its professed object the inculcation of what it expresses in its subordinate title in the words: \u201cIf it isn\u2019t easy, it isn\u2019t good.\u201d That is to say, its primary purpose is to show that it is easy, not hard, to be \u201cgood,\u201d and that it is therefore wrong to say that \u201cit\u2019s awful hard to be good.\u201d It is easy to be good because it is not we who have to be good but the Holy Spirit is ready to be good for us, and all we have to do is just to let Him.<\/p>\n
We have called the tract incoherent because, with this as its primary concern, it yet tells us, as it draws near its close, that \u201cthe Spirit-led life is not an easy life,\u201d that, on the contrary, \u201cit is the hardest life in all this sin-cursed world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are we not to apply to the Spirit-led life, then, the maxim, \u201cIf it isn\u2019t easy, it isn\u2019t good\u201d? The specialty of this tract, however \u2014 and the reason we advert to it here \u2014 is the crudity with which, after a fashion more familiar to us among \u201cthe Brethren,\u201d it divides the Christian man into two ineradicably antagonistic \u201cnatures,\u201d the \u201cfallen nature\u201d and the \u201cnew nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is not only hard for a fallen man to be good, we are told, but impossible. This is not altered by his \u201cnew birth.\u201d The \u201cnew birth\u201d does not change his \u201cfallen nature.\u201d It only puts into him, by its side, a \u201cnew nature.\u201d Henceforth he has two natures in him, one of which can only sin, and the other of which cannot sin. The man himself \u2014 whatever the man himself, apart from his two natures, may be; he is apparently conceived as bare will \u2014 sits up between these two natures and turns over the lever as he lists, to give the one nature or the other momentary control.<\/p>\n
The two natures, we are told, have absolutely no effect on one another. \u201cThe carnal nature in the Christian is utterly evil, and is never mixed with any good.\u201d \u201cThe new nature has no effect whatever upon the carnal nature. It is utterly distinct from it and cannot mingle with it, any more than God can have sin in His nature.\u201d It does not \u201cchange the character of the evil that the carnal nature is capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently the carnal nature of man is never in any way changed or modified; from all that appears it remains in him forever and forever just badness and unalloyed badness. At least nothing is said to relieve that situation. Salvation does not consist in its eradication. It consists in the dominance in the life of \u201cthe new nature\u201d existing by its side.<\/p>\n
This \u201cnew nature\u201d is identified, now, with the indwelling Spirit. It is sometimes spoken of, no doubt, as \u201cthe God-begotten nature\u201d; but it is more frequently and properly treated as just the indwelling Spirit Himself, and it is because it is the indwelling Spirit Himself that it cannot sin. \u201cIt is impossible for the Spirit of God to be anything but good and well-pleasing to God.\u201d \u201cThe sinless and invincible Spirit of God has taken up His dwelling in us,\u201d we read further, \u201cand has made it possible for us to permit Him to win the victories over the temptations that assail.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is disappointing to learn from this statement that when \u201cthe invincible Spirit of God\u201d takes up His dwelling in us, all that He does is \u201cto make it possible for us to permit Him\u201d (an odd clause that!) to win victories for us. He is not \u201cin full control\u201d of us, it seems. It would indeed be truer to say, that He is only at our disposal. Everything is after all in our own control. \u201cA Christian possessed of the indwelling Spirit of God,\u201d we read with sad eyes, \u201cmay choose to walk after the flesh.\u201d That is no doubt because he is possessed of rather than by the Spirit of God.<\/p>\n
At any rate it belongs ineradicably to \u201cthe Christian\u201d to turn on the old carnal nature, or the new Spiritual nature, as he may choose, and let it act for him. Who this \u201cChristian\u201d is who possesses this power it is a little puzzling to make out. He cannot be the old carnal nature, for that old carnal nature cannot do anything good- and presumably, therefore, would never turn on the Spirit in control. He cannot be the new Spiritual nature, for this new Spiritual nature cannot do anything evil \u2014 and this \u201cChristian\u201d \u201cmay choose to walk after the flesh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is he possibly some third nature? We hope not, because two absolutely antagonistic and noncommunicating natures seem enough to be in one man.<\/p>\n
Benjamin B. Warfield. PERFECTIONISM VOLUME 2 (Volume VIII).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every now and then I like posting something incisive that was written in the past because it speaks so well into the present. The sweet thing about this is that these guys, who are often waved away today, have dealt with a lot of the same issues while remaining simultaneously (by the modern mind) ignored. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[533],"tags":[800,544],"class_list":["post-3283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotables","tag-carnal-nature","tag-warfield"],"yoast_head":"\n