Articles
What Kind of Nature Do Christians Have?

By Dr. Bill Gillham (Apr 1st, 1983) located on Friday, April 30, 2010 by this link: http://www.gmint.org/go/articles/read/18

God is Spirit, angels are spirit, the devil is spirit, demons are spirit and man is spirit temporarily housed in “throwaway containers” we call bodies or earthsuits. We are known as “humans.” Jesus was a human without a sin nature in that He was never descended from Adam. The Holy Spirit furnished the 23 male chromosomes which united with Mary’s 23 to enable Jesus Christ to leave heaven and take on the form of human male. It is not evil to be a human or our Lord would have been evil, but it is evil to possess a sin nature. It is the sin nature that condemns a man to hell, not his sinful performance. A man could perform perfectly but still go to hell because of his sin nature. A lost man’s performance will apparently determine the degree of his punishment in hell because Jesus taught that it would be better for a man to be drowned now than to lead a little child into sin, implying a greater punishment.

The body is designed by God as a temporary dwelling place for a human while on Planet Earth. When the earthsuit is cast off at physical death, every man will eject from it and then the nature of his spirit will be revealed. The whole ballgame for all of eternity is spiritual, not physical… the bottom line is spirit! Friend, what is the “nature” of your spirit? Is it godly and good or satanic and evil? Who is your spirit-father? Whose offspring are you?

The Bible speaks of only two types of spirit-natures referring to them as “men.” They are the “old man” and the “new man.” The old man has no part with God. He cannot commune or fellowship with God. Indeed he has no desire to do so. The new man can commune with God and has a very special desire to do so. He loves God (Rom. 8:7-9).

The scriptures teach that old men and new men are classified as spirit-sons of one or the other of two spirit fathers, God or Satan. Jesus states in Jn. 8:44 that the most religious, law-conscious men in His culture were “sons of their father, the devil.” Every person born is a slave of his father, the devil, as a descendant of the first man, Adam (Rom. 5:12). They have the same spirit-nature as their father, Satan, and their behavior is correlated with his (Jn. 8:44).

However, the Bible speaks of the old man being able, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, to be born in a new way in order to change his identity (Jn. 3). Through turning from his self-centered rebellion, submitting himself to Christ’s authority as the God He is, appropriating His provision for getting shed of his dead spirit and beginning all over again with a new, good, alive, godly spirit, man can become something he has never been…alive to God through Christ (Rom.6:13). This new man is now a son of God via faith in Christ (Jn. 1:12).

Now, allow me to pose a question. Is this new man still a son of the devil? You say, “No, that can’t be.” OK, let me ask you another. If this new man is no longer a son of the devil, how did he cease to be such a son? Did God add something to his original identity? If you say “yes”, then you are saying that the new man is a combination spirit-person…part son of Satan and part son of God. He would have two spirit-fathers. He would be of the spirit-lineage of both! But, man can’t be spiritually half and half! He either has to be in one category or another, remember? In God’s ecology, in order for a man to cease to be the son of Satan and become a son of God, the man must first die (spiritually) and then be reborn (spiritually), this time to a NEW FATHER! This is portrayed clearly in Romans 7:1-4.

A great problem exists today in that many well-meaning Christians teach that the death of the old man is simply a “positional truth”; it’s the “position in which God sees us.” They speak of it as if it were something we have to “reckon on” (count it as true) to keep it true. Admittedly, we do not have to reckon on it to derive any benefit from it, but it is true whether we reckon on it or not. God says it is true! (Rom. 6:6, etc.) If it’s “the way God sees us,” then how are we? What is reality? Are we to believe the deceiver’s definition or God’s definition of reality?

The only kind of sons either God or Satan have are spirit-sons, because both God and His enemy are spirit, not physical. Therefore, man can either be human spirit-son of Satan through Adam or a human spirit-son of God through the Second Adam, Christ. At the death of the earthsuit, we will be revealed to have been all along spirit-sons of Satan or to have been since salvation spirit-sons of God. 1 John 4:17b says, “…as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 3:2b says, “…when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.” How will “seeing Him as He is” relate to our “being like Him?” Because then we shall see ourselves just as “we are in this world.” We are cut from the same spirit-genetic cloth as our Lovely Lord Jesus! God reveals no provision in His word for adding His Spirit to a spirit-son of the devil You cannot mix Light with darkness. How could God welcome a man as a son into His eternal forever family by adding His Holy Spirit to spirit-person of His enemy? Such a blemished spiritual mutation would have a basic nature of dual allegiance. Romans 7:15, instead of reading “…for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate,” would read, “ I find myself doing both good and evil which is only normal since I am part good and part evil. There is no conflict here. I enjoy both roles very much. It’s my nature to enjoy them.” Romans 7:21, instead of reading “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good,” would read “I find then, the principle that I am half evil and half good.” Note that the verse says that I am good, but that there is some sort of evil power indwelling a part of me and that this power is contrary to my true nature, which is good. Dear friend, read verses 22-23, “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.” Now, there is your nature! You really love God’s ways! It’s your nature to do so because you are spiritually of His Nature! Verse 23, “but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind” (I have the mind of Christ… a sound mind, 1 Cor. 2:16). You see, my battle is not against my old man, but against the power of sin working through the flesh (body, brain, memory traces in the brain). This power is not your nature! It is an agent of the devil which seeks to deceive your mind by using first person singular pronouns and traveling your old memory traces (flesh) in your brain hoping to lead you into sinning to get your human needs met.

God made Provision for the old man to be executed (Gal. 2:20, Rom. 6:6, etc.) before He could cause the new man to be born into His family (2 Cor. 5:16-17). His Provision is Christ. God spells relief J-E-S-U-S!

The word “nature” in the dictionary means “to be born,” “the essence.” A baby pig has the nature of a hog because of its birth. Farmers don’t wait to see if it “oinks” (performs) before they call it a pig. It isn’t performance that determines nature, it’s the parents! It is by nature a pig by its birth. Now, once a pig, always a pig. Pigs can’t apply for trans-nature surgery! But lost people can, by faith, appropriate the death of their evil nature as sons of Satan via their co-crucifixion with Christ and, through claiming their co-resurrection with Him, the birth of a totally new identity in Him as sons of God. “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). They can’t have two natures after the process because the nature is the product of the parent! The reason ducklings aren’t alligators is because their parents are ducks! The reason a Christian doesn’t have a sin nature is because he has the spirit-genes of God, his (New) Father! Hallelujah! Shout for joy! Whoooooeeeee! It’s not my old self that I am fighting against inside! It’s the power of sin working on my (new) mind (Rom. 7:23) through the flesh (the old memory traces) that I battle, and we are dead to having to submit, brother! (Rom. 6:11) So, let’s act like it, by faith, and act like Christ is expressing His life through our personalities and bodies to do His will.

Make no mistake, a man will “life out” what he believes to be his true identity (to avoid feeling like a hypocrite). Swallow the devil’s lie that you are a half and half and you’ll act like you are! You will accept sin’s rationale which he will serve up through your brain to your mind, and convert his suggestions into behavior. This will lead to the further deception of accepting the “two natures” teaching as being valid because your experience will bear it out.

But, accept God’s Word at face value that you are NOW a holy (Eph. 1:4), righteous (2 Cor. 5:21), saint of God (Rom. 1:7), blameless (Eph. 1:4), with Christ as your very Life (Col. 3:4), a son of God (Jn. 1:12), housed in an earthsuit (2 Cor. 5:1-8), a citizen of heaven (Eph. 2:19), on foreign assignment as an ambassador representing the “Fatherland” (2 Cor. 5:20), a righteous son of the King (2 Cor. 5:21), a spirit-son of the Second Adam (1 Cor. 11:45), spawned from His Spirit gene pool (Rom. 8:9), filled up with Christ Himself (Eph. 3:19), with all your needs (not greeds) supplied (Phil. 4:19), blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven (Eph. 1:3), impervious to the obstacles of this planet (Phil.4:13), taking all things in stride as a part of the Loving Father’s “obstacle course” designed to prepare us for eternal rulership (Rom. 8:28-29)! Accept this by faith as your true identity! Set your mind on it! Dwell on it! Meditate on the truth of it! Then, moment by moment act like it is true! Praise Him in and for all things, whatever circumstances you may encounter, acting as if Christ is expressing His victorious Life through you and He will be! You will be walking in His victory!

Oh, the liberty and the victory that is ours through our precious Jesus. Test the words of this article, dear relative in Christ. Seek truth from His word via His Spirit’s teaching. Can a man possibly possess dual spiritual sonship? No? Then act like the Christ-indwelt son of God that you are regardless of how you feel. Act according to your faith. Stop acting like who you are not! That’s hypocritical! Act like the new man you are by faith! That’s obedience!

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