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Home > Grace Message
Not all change comes easily or quickly, and sometimes our problems seem to be so sticky and insurmountable. Where do we go? Where do we turn? Who can we talk to safely? Who has the Bible guidance I am seeking?
The Grace Message can help you find answers to some of those tough questions. Jesus came to deliver, heal and set us free from stuff bigger than us!
There are real answers and true encouragement; we have been there as well and bring what we have learned, sometimes through tears and heart break, but with hope and victory. Read on, and see if some of what is available here sheds light on your answers. |
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Believers have only one nature, and it is as new as the resurrected Christ Himself. We don't have a second nature, the bad us. We do have a flesh that is not us! The Scriptures do speak of an old man (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22, Col. 3:9), a flesh (Rom. 7:18; 8:1), that is an unwanted, resident evil that Paul taught is no longer us, so why make the mistake of calling it a second nature, seeing it is no longer you? I look like Christ on the inside, and that was enough for Paul, and it is enough for me. That the new me is surrounded by the old me is a non-issue, unless I choose to make it otherwise.
Christian, you are a new creation in Christ, and you have a flesh that is no longer you (Rom. 7:17-20). Your flesh will yet be transformed in the resurrection in the end and made perfect to be compatible with who you already are in Christ. In the meantime there is no taming it or changing it much or reforming it. It is dead and buried with Christ, and as Paul said, "It is no longer I..., but sin that dwells in me" (Rom. 7:20). Treat it that way. It is not the new you. There is not one scripture in the Holy Bible that tells us to do anything but see it as crucified, count it as dead, ignore it, and don't corrupt it any further (Rom. 6:11-23; Gal. 6:7,8), and know no one after the flesh (2 Cor 5:16). You cannot change your flesh permanently, and God knows this better than you. And by the way, the problem of temptation is common to every Christian's flesh (1 Cor. 10:13). Thank God for the abundant grace and righteousness that empower us to reign in life through Jesus (Rom. 5:17) and feel good all the time about our new selves.
MY NEW CREATION DECLARATION
I do not have a "dark side!" Nowhere does the Holy Bible say that I have an old nature to reform and a new nature to develop. Certainly, I have a new nature and a flesh that is carnal (in other words, it belongs to the old me before I was saved), but (1) it is no longer I, (2) it has been crucified with Christ, (3) I count it as dead, buried and forgotten, and (4) I have no command in the Holy Scriptures to improve it. However, this does not mean I have dual natures. I only have one nature, and it is new and as righteous as Christ Himself. The old is dead, having died with Christ, and I am alive, having risen with Him. I am new, new, new forevermore, thanks to marvelous, intoxicating grace.
Grasp this so that you never misunderstand yourself or others again, and guilt no longer overshadows your judgment for all the wrong reasons. Thank God, our standing is in grace by the Spirit, and not in our fleshly righteousness or unrighteousness.
Christian, you are new in the Spirit (2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 7:6), and the wise choice is to embrace this newness and walk in it by faith (Gal. 5:25). Talk about it and not the old. Beware of embracing the memories of who you were before you were saved, and walking in your flesh that is no longer you. (By the way, this would be living a lie.)
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