Christian Living

Benefits of the New Nature—Solving Sin

by J.W. Phillips
06/04/25
Not For Sale

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

Benefits of the New Nature—Solving Sin

The strangest murder case in the files of the famous French detective force, the Surete, had its beginnings one morning in the year 1888. It began with the discovery of a body on the beach. As soon as the discovery was made, a telegram was sent to Robert LeDru, considered the most brilliant detective on the force. LeDru would often work a case twenty-two hours a day, driving himself to near exhaustion as he did it.

Upon arrival at the scene, LeDru roped off the beach area, and then proceeded to comb it for clues, inch by inch. After an extensive investigation, he finally found the clue that broke the case open—footprints of the stocking-footed murderer.

The next morning LeDru presented a plaster of Paris cast of the footprint to police headquarters. The cast, he said, indicated that the large toe on the murderer’s left foot was missing. Then, taking off his own left shoe, LeDru startled headquarters by announcing, “Messieurs, I am the murderer!”

Apparently, those nightmares where he dreamed he was committing murder were more than nightmares. LeDru had set out looking for a murderer, but the trail led to himself.

Likewise, we also have known what it is to do wrong, but, being in a spiritual stupor, didn’t have any conviction about it. Then, as we studied the evidence of God’s Word, the painful conclusion began to dawn on us—we are the ones who are guilty! This is one of the functions of God’s Word, to radically unmask us and thereby expose our guilt.

Many years ago The London Times ran a series of articles addressing the issue, what is wrong with the world? Inviting readers to respond to this question, many erudite explanations were subsequently submitted. Interestingly, the most thoughtful response was also the briefest. “Dear Sirs,” the entry began—and then with telegraphic brevity came the two-word answer— “I am.”¹

That was the totality of the response, after which the author signed his name, G.K. Chesterton, who happened to be one of the most brilliant Christian writers of his day.

Doesn’t this reply get to the heart of the issue? The self that sins, the self that pursues what it wants even if morality is compromised and other people get hurt—that self, more than anything else, is the problem of our world!

Many people, even people in the church, are living with a self they don’t want exposed, and with a guilt they don’t want discovered.

It is said that Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, was a bit of a prankster. One day his inner imp got the better of him when he decided to send telegrams to twelve prominent people. The telegrams briefly stated how all was now known and that they should immediately flee. Upon receipt of these telegrams, all twelve men fled the country—an outcome Mr. Doyle never expected!

Whether our sin is known or unknown to others, who can deny that our sin is a pervasive pollutant whose harm can hardly be overstated? From our first day on earth, evil showed up to inflict its damage. E.M. Bounds said of Satan, “He is at the cradle of every baby.”² Viciously, maliciously he stalks every infant, setting traps that may take years to spring.

Commenting on the impact of sin, the famous Southern Baptist pastor, Dr. R.G. Lee, said:

Sin has ruined men, ruined women, ruined angels. Sin has occasioned every tear of sorrow, every sigh of grief, every pang of remorse. Sin has withered everything that is fair, blasted everything that is good, made bitter everything that is sweet.³

G.D. Watson observed, “Surely it is a blessing to loathe sin, and a still greater blessing to loathe that particular sin that has done us the most damage.”⁴

This is true if such loathing doesn’t turn inward to condemn but instead strategizes a somber, serious response. The gravity of our situation certainly warrants this response, for the words of the Puritan theologian, John Owen, have put us all on notice: “Kill sin or it be killing you.”

As we contemplate our response to this warning, we have to ask ourselves, is there a way, any way, for the forces of sin to be stopped?

The Bible declares in Romans 6:14 that “sin shall not have dominion over you.” Similarly, Galatians 5:16 contends, “... walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

This sounds good, but how do we square such claims with the loose talk heard from the modern pulpit, “We sin every day”? While such talk may appear to be in agreement with John’s assertion, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (I John 1:8), it really isn’t.

John was simply pointing out that nobody, Christian or non-Christian, has lived this life without a sin problem. Even the best of Christians—and even after they had been saved, sanctified, and Spirit-filled—have sinned. That is simply a fact, but it is not a necessity; nor must it be anything close to daily reality.

Ruth Paxson correctly argued, “God nowhere says that we are not able to sin, but he clearly says that we are able not to sin.”⁵ At no time when a believer sins is this sin inevitable, owing to the fact that the forces of temptation have overmatched the resources of grace.

The extent of God’s provision for defeating sin seems not to be clear to J.I. Packer, however. In his book, Keep in Step with the Spirit, Packer speaks approvingly of Benjamin Warfield’s description of believers as “miserable-sinner Christianity,” and Robert Murray McCheyne’s petition, “Lord, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be.”⁶

Talk like this is not realism, as Packer supposes, but a theological deficit discrediting the believer’s true identity and current resources.

According to Thomas Watson, “Tertullian thought he was born for no other end but to repent.” However, the Spirit-filled believer, as is evidenced in the life of Paul, can live a sustained period of time without succumbing to sin. Theoretically, he could do it forever, but what is entirely possible isn’t always actual. Nevertheless, the successes others have achieved, and the teachings of Scripture itself, are enough to refute this “I-sin-every-day” talk.

Because the Lord has made the provision he did to overcome sin, E.M. Bounds offered, with some indignation surfacing, the following assessment:

There is no denying that the unrenewed man cannot obey God. But to declare that—after one is renewed by the Holy Spirit, has received a new nature, and become a child of the King—he cannot obey God is to assume a ridiculous attitude. It is to show a lamentable ignorance of the work and implications of the Atonement.⁷

To get to the victory side of this struggle, it is important to recognize the right way and the wrong way to encounter sin. The Galatian Christians are an example of the wrong way, as they sought to operate on the formula: The Scripture plus a dedicated will can secure the victory.

Horrified at this updated Pharisee-like belief, Paul contended that these Galatians were really reverting to the way of the law and thus back to the defeats incurred whenever the might and mind of the individual were relied on to produce a worthy life.

In his book, In Search of Spiritual Excellence, Andrew Murray said:

A believer can encounter and strive against sin in two ways. One is to endeavor to ward it off with all his might, seeking his strength in the Word and in prayer. In this form of conflict, we use the power of the will. The other is to turn at the very moment of temptation to the Lord Jesus in the silent exercise of faith and say to him: “Lord, I have no strength. You are my keeper.”

This is the method of faith.⁸

Moreover, this is the method the Apostle Paul discovered and disclosed. His struggle against sin had been an arduous, agonizing process! For Paul, it was just as the Latin poet Ovid said of himself, “I see the better course and approve it; but the worst is the one I follow.”

One might think that once the mind is enlightened, the heart is delighted, and the will is consecrated to do God’s will that evil would recede into the background and that good could be accessed through widely opened gates. But, no, evil runs ahead and hides where we would least suspect to find it.

In a sermon entitled “The Dangers of Virtue,” Edward Cleal said:

We expect evil to be present when we would do wrong, when we deliberately set out along the black path of sin, but it lurks along the upward way. It crouches in the holiest places. It drags its slimy tail through the very sanctuaries of our lives.⁹

Many temptations are not to do wrong, exactly, but to take shortcuts to righteousness. This is what Jesus encountered in the wilderness temptations. The counsel given seemed sympathetic and well-intended. But its subtlety, which many never would have detected, came right out of the pit.

The man personified in Romans 7 also aspired to do good, but admitted, finally, that despite his enlightened mind, he was eventually deceived; and that despite his delighted heart, he was cast into utter anguish; and that despite his consecrated will, he was repeatedly defeated.

The good news, though, is that this man escaped this Romans 7 dilemma. Indeed, in Romans 8:2 he declared this to be the case when he made the triumphant declaration, “... the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free ....”

By definition, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the new nature. And according to Paul only the new nature is sufficient. Adding commentary to this point, A.B. Simpson wrote:

No higher school of ethics was ever known than the teaching of Moses and the Jewish law. But Paul had found the utter worthlessness of the righteousness of the law and the powerlessness of the highest ideals to lift man above his fallen nature. And so he came to his fellow men to tell them that our fallen race must have, not an evolution but a revolution. Humanity is too far gone for self-improvement or any principle of recuperation. There must be a new creation.¹⁰

Once man gives up his soulish attempts to be good and allows instead for his new nature to flow, that elusive but desired victory finally becomes his.¹¹ Judson Cornwall reasoned, “If holiness is the essential nature of God—and the angels proclaim that it is—then living in holiness is living in the nature of God ….”¹² This is one of the best benefits of the new nature.

Notes:
1. Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr., Faith Has its Reasons, (Downers Grove, Ill, Intervarsity Press, 2005), p.413.
2. E.M. Bounds, Winning the Invisible War, (Springdale, Ill., Whitaker House, 1984), p.10.
3. From an unpublished sermon by Bruce Wideman (Pensacola, FL.), entitled “The Cross.”
4. G.D. Watson, Soul Food, (Hampton, TN., Harvey Christian Publishers, 2000), p.47.
5. Ruth Paxson, Life on the Highest Plane, (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Book House, 1928), p.233.
6. J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books, 2005), pp.103, 99.
7. E.M. Bounds, E.M. Bounds on Prayer, (New Kensington, PA, Whitaker House, 1997), p.158.
8. Andrew Murray, In Search of Spiritual Excellence, (Springdale, Ill., Whitaker House, 1984), p.88.
9. The Christian World Pulpit, Volume 82, (London, James Clarke and Co., 1912), p.221.
10. A.B. Simpson, Apostolic Testimony, (Worthy Christian Library, Chapter 6, paragraph 3).
11. To talk so much about forgiveness and so little about the new nature is a huge mistake. Steve McVey observed, “Today’s brand of evangelism has continued to present forgiveness, but generally ignores the aspect of receiving divine life at salvation” (Grace Walk, (Eugene, OR., Harvest House Publishers, 2005), p.158). This omission seriously deprives the believer from knowing God’s best exit plan from sin.
12. Judson Cornwall, The Best of Judson Cornwall, (South Plainfield, N.J., Bridge Publishing, 1992), p.131.