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Chapter
X
THE CROSS AND THE TWO NATURES
A WILD MAN, if imprisoned
in a cage," says D. M. Panton, "so long as he is alone, is gentle, tractable,
quiet, and appears quite civilized and reasonable; alone in the cage, he
follows his own will, and has his own way, and is at peace. But unlock
the door and push a civilized man into the cage; and watch. The wild
man's countenance changes; an angry scowl darkens his face; and in another
moment he hurls himself on the intruder, and the two are locked in deadly
conflict." A close fellow worker once said: "I didn't know I had a temper
until after I was saved." Until then her house had not been divided against
itself. Self was in complete control. She chose her own path;
she went her own way; she followed her own will. When, however, she
became "a new creature" in Christ, she began to discover the poisonous
principle of selfishness which was lodged in us at the Fall. The
Saviour said plainly to religious Nicodemus: "That which is born of the
flesh is flesh"--it can never enter the realm of spirit. It is unconvertible,
incurable, incorrigible. Only "that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit." There is, therefore, in each believer the old man and the new.
When Scripture speaks of the "first man," the "natural man,"
and "the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," it
refers to what we are "in Adam," and from him by nature. On the other
hand, those who have been born again have become new creatures "in Christ";
they have put on the new man."
As a believer I am shocked
when I first discover that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good
thing." The mind of the flesh is death. "It is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). It is unmitigated
antagonism against the things of the Spirit. It is not merely an
enemy, in which case it might be reconciled. But it is "enmity
against God." Paul says: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other"
(Gal. 5:17). But the most startling and distressing shock
to me personally is to find that I am both: "I am carnal,
sold under sin," and "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."
Most every sincere Christian will therefore at some time or another cry
out, consciously or unconsciously, "O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?"
This war, according to Scripture
and experience, is of all wars the very worst--a civil war. It is
a war, not with an external foe, but with an internal "fifth column" within
the very citadel of Mansoul. And it is wrong to suppose that this
relentless and undying antagonism can settle down to a deadlock, a kind
of stalemate where neither side wins. We also fear that many Christians,
having adopted what might be termed a defeatist position, attempt
to make "the old man" responsible for their daily misdeeds. They
have doubtless been encouraged in this extreme on account of certain teachers
who give the impression that "the regenerate man is made up of two persons,
two individuals, the old man and the new man, constituting two separate
and independent beings, an angel and a devil linked together,--the old
man unchangeably evil, the new perfect and impeccable" (H. Bonar).
On the contrary, I am a single individual. As such I am responsible
to "put off the old" and to "put on the new." The old man and the new man
are not separate and distinct persons, but simply two aspects of one single
responsible individual. Bishop Moule says: "And the body is no separate
and, as it were, minor personality. If the man's body 'machinates'
it is the man who is the sinner."
In an earlier chapter we
dwelt upon the fact that Emperor William once refused request for an audience
prepared by a German-American. The ground on which the audience was
refused was this: Germans born in Germany but naturalized in America became
Americans-"I know Americans, I know Germans, but German-Americans I do
not know." As an individual I was once "in Adam." That same individual
is now "in Christ." Make no mistake about it, I can-not at the same time
be "in Adam" and "in Christ." When I was in Adam, I was "in the flesh,"
lost and cursed and in no sense a Christian. But I was cut off from
Adam and joined to Christ in vital life-union at the Cross. "I
have been crucified together with Christ" crucified because otherwise incurable.
Through my union with Christ, I am "not in the flesh, but in the Spirit."
We emphasize it again, therefore, that those who have been born again are
not Adam-Christ believers. Such an approach will permit me no audience
with my King. The Old Testament criminal who, in order to escape
the law, "fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold on the
horns of the altar," had meted out to him his just deserts:--"thou shalt
take him from mine altar, that he may die" (Exod. 21:14). Even so,
all flesh is under the curse. |
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