APPLICATION:  Spirituality is an absolute.  The filling of the Holy Spirit or control of the Holy Spirit over our lives is an absolute.  The carnal Christian walks in darkness but the spiritual Christian walks in the light [God’s absolute perfection (1:5-7)]. 

The flesh can do nothing but sin.  It cannot profit the Christian in any way.  The flesh is a dynamic entity.  It will not lay dormant. 

Ro 13: ¹⁴ “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

The new nature loves, forgives, is full of compassion and mercy and is kind.  The old nature may be refined and cultured but nevertheless it is full of self.  It cannot be converted, cured or saved.  All of us have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in us. 

If we can label the differences between the sin capacity and the divine capacity, we are on our way to conquest in the Christian life.  Our desire to stick up for ourselves or to have our own way is the operation of the flesh.  It is not easy to lead these things to the cross because we want to be the center of things. 

A spiritual Christian labels these things as sin.  He keeps his spiritual sensibilities tender toward the Lord.  He can detect right and wrong, black and white.  When we step out of fellowship with the Lord and allow our sin capacity to dominate us, our spiritual sensibilities become calloused. 

Both a pig and a sheep can fall into a mud hole.  The pig remains perfectly content in the mud because it is his nature to roll in the mud.  The sheep is not content to roll in the mud because it is contrary to her nature.  She wants out as quickly as possible because living in mud is contrary to her nature.  If a believer truly possesses a divine nature, she will be uncomfortable in sin because it is contrary to her nature. 

Sin can enslave a genuine Christian but he will never be comfortable under the domination of sin.  In principle, Jesus defeated the reign of sin.  That is the believer’s privilege and power.  He has a new ruling principle that motivates and inspires him.  The needle in the compass may turn from its magnetic pole for a moment but it always comes back to the pole.   

Ge 39: ⁹ “There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?””

No Christian is sinlessly perfect.  He does have a perfect nature given to him at his spiritual birth but he cannot sin with that nature.  While he abides in Christ through his divine nature he cannot sin.  The moment he sins, it is from his old nature. 

A fish has the nature of a fish and a bird the nature of a bird.  The fish does not fly in the air and the bird does not swim in the water.  The problem with the believer is that he has two natures, a fish/bird nature.  All the time he sins he lives according to his fallen nature, he is out of fellowship with the Lord. 

Whenever he allows the Holy Spirit to control his life, his divine nature is in the ascendancy.  He cannot commit sin while controlled by the Spirit.  Each Christian possesses a nature that can sin and a nature that cannot sin.  It all revolves around his choice.  In principle, the believer cannot sin with his divine nature.  In practice, he can sin with his sin capacity.  There is no such thing as “partial” spirituality.  Either we are spiritual or we are not.  Spirituality is an either/or issue. 

APPLICATION:  A child shares the nature of his parent.  When a child begins to demonstrate certain characteristics of his parents, then it becomes manifest what his parents are like.  We get our spiritual nature from God in its entirety. 

At the point of salvation we get a spiritual nature or divine nature.  This nature is perfect.  We cannot alter or lose it.  We cannot lose the old nature or the new nature for that matter.  We have the “seed” of God in us – eternal life.  Once God gives us eternal life it is unalterable – unforfeitable and inextinguishable. 

The old nature can do nothing but sin; the new nature cannot sin.  This makes for a titanic tug of war between these two natures.  There is no peaceful coexistence between them.  They cannot get along together because they are polar opposites. 

Ro 7: ¹⁸ “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”

Ga 5: ¹⁷ “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

APPLICATION:  The child will inevitably be like his parent.  Believers will be like God and unbelievers will be like Satan. 

Vital relationship with Christ provides a new nature that counteracts sin in our lives.  The divine nature in the believer inspires him to please the Lord.  New birth generates a new orientation to life.  This inner renewed entity cannot sin.  It is contrary to its very nature. 

Our new life in Christ does not come from religion or morality.  The devil attempts to get his followers to be righteous without God.  It springs from new life.  Therefore, the new nature cannot commit an act of sin.  Inhibition to sin comes from a new capacity implanted by God.  This seminal principle orients to an entirely different domain than our sin capacity.  Our old nature can commit sin and that is why we must confess sin as Christians (1 Jn 1:9). 

APPLICATION: God did not create the Devil; He created Lucifer, the Day Star (or, light bearer).  The Devil did not always exist.  Lucifer became the Devil when he sinned.  Before he fell he had authority over all angels in the universe.  He was their commander-in-chief.  He was the first angel or chief angel (the archangel).  Michael became the archangel when Lucifer fell (Ju 9). 

We find the story of how Lucifer turned Devil in Isaiah 14.  The Devil declares five “I wills” in this chapter.  This is his declaration of independence from God, of spiritual anarchy.  By becoming autonomous from God, he set in motion a system of revolution against God.  His aim was to displace God as a center of worship.  He became a law unto himself.  Whoever commits sin goes independent from God just like Satan.  Sin is autonomy and independence from God, “I don’t need God.  I’ll run my own life. I do not need God for a crutch.” 

Ro 8: ⁷ “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

The Devil murders, lies and steals (Jn 10:10).  That is the sum of his modus operandi.  These are the systems by which the Devil undermines people.  He lies to people to get them to believe that they can go independent from God – “I did it my way.”  He brings confusion and darkness into the thinking of mankind.  That is why young people buy into his lies about drugs and free sex.  His goal is always the same – get people to ignore God and put Christianity out on the periphery of things.  Get them to lie and cheat or do anything that they can get away with.  This always ends in destruction.

Jn 8: ³⁴ “Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.’”

Satan introduced Adam and Eve to sin (Ge 3:1f).  He beguiled Adam and Eve (Re 12:9).  Their first child became a murderer.  There is an army of murderers roaming the streets of the major cities of the world.  Murder is latent in the hearts of all men.  This is the manifestation of the “children of wrath” (Ep 2:1-3). 

Non-Christians tell lies as easily as the truth.  They tell white lies and pink lies.  That is because their father was a liar and the father of it (Jn 8:44).  They do his will.  It is just natural for them; it is part and parcel of their family heritage. 

Jn 13: ² “And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him… ²⁷ Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What you do, do quickly.’”

Ac 5: ³ “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?’”

2 Co 11: ³ “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

Satan is in the business of slandering the saints (Re 12:9,10).  He did this to Job (Job 1).  Slander sows suspicion.  It puts a question mark in our minds about someone.  There are always those who welcome gossip.  Both those who gossip and those who listen to it do Satan’s work. 

Ja 4:⁷ “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

APPLICATION:  Satan is ever on the look-out for gullible believers.  Untaught Christians are particularly susceptible to deception from Satan when it comes to righteousness. 

Every believer possesses two kinds of righteousness.  Jesus declares the believer to be as righteous as He is righteous at the moment of personal trust in the cross to forgive sin.  That is a judicial righteousness.  The second righteousness is a righteousness that flows out of our fellowship with the Lord (Ph 1:9-11).  The Holy Spirit produces the latter righteousness.  There is no way that a person can fellowship with God and not produce experiential righteousness.

Ga 5: ²⁵ “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

He that lives righteously demonstrates that he is righteous.  He resembles the One with whom he fellowships.  There is a self-righteousness that does not come from Jesus Christ.  It is simply a pious front to deceive others into thinking that it is real.  John says in effect, “Don’t let them fool you; it isn’t real.  They are phony having no relationship with Jesus Christ.”

For someone to say, “I am a Christian,” and live like the Devil, he is just kidding himself.  This is self-deception.  No one would believe them.  People believe what they see, “What you are speaks so loud I can’t hear what you say.” 

A holy God cannot tolerate sin in the slightest degree.  That is why we need God’s righteousness to go to heaven (Ro 3:22; 4:5; 5:17; 10:3; 1 Co 1:30; 2 Co 5:21; Ph 3:7,9; He 11:7).  This is not a human righteousness but the righteousness of God. 

No righteousness found in us is adequate enough; all our righteousness is as filthy rags (Is. 64:6).  Righteousness by operation bootstraps is not the righteousness of God.  Anything but God’s righteousness is just religious veneer.  When we come to the end of life’s short day, only God’s righteousness will be acceptable to Him, not our man-made righteousness.  My righteousness is irrelevant and incidental.