Part CXV on Galatians Study

Galatians 5:15b
"...take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."
Literally just eaten up by those to whom we are being an adversary. Though the mainline and non-denominational church systems tolerate eat other they still bite and devour each other in the news paper and other media. Even the church membership just tolerate each other until board elections or stewardship meetings and drives. At which times they drop their guard and at times it seems all hell breaks loose. The air is just charged with the friction, bitterness and rage even when there's not another body in the auditorium. Been to some where we've just did get out of the car when we could feel these things even in the air around the building. Not good!  Now let's move on.


Galatians 5:16
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
In other words, to keep from fulfilling the lust of the flesh we must walk in the power and the control of the Holy Spirit. Now that makes sense doesn't it? When the Holy Spirit is operating within us we're not going to go out and steal, the Holy Spirit will never tell a believer to go and steal or do anything contrary to the Word. So when we walk in the Spirit and He is in complete control then these things of old Adam-Satan nature, which is still lurking there in the background, won't come to the front. Now verse 17.


Galatians 5:17a
"For the flesh (old Adam, that old Adam-Satan nature) lusteth (or declares war on our new nature or) against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;..."
So it's a constant battle. The battle lines are defined from the very moment we're saved until we leave this life by death and sin. This is not the physical death but the reverse a death to the old Adam-Satan nature in our flesh and to the spirit of the world this presence darkness into New Life in Christ Jesus or we trust one day soon, through the Departure. But until one or the other happens we are in a constant warfare. Now reading on in verse 17.


Galatians 5:17b
...and these (two forces within each believer) are contrary (they are at total odds) the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
These two natures can't agree on anything because the New Nature has a whole new set of values that are in compliance with the righteousness, and the Holiness, and the law of God. And the old nature, whose god is Satan, and the god of this world, this nature is bent in rebellion, and unbelief, and so they are two totally opposites, and they war constantly.This we can see and hear by what people post and say here even on Face book. Many don't even know or understand what it that their doing because of a double mindedness.

Now if you will draw three circles one within each other, the three circles have helped so many folks, and clarify our make up. Now the outer circle represents our own individual body. And as we've pointed out from Corinthians the body is just the exercise of the five senses, and it's merely the temporary dwelling place for the next circle the "soul," which we usually refer to as the "personality," the real us. It's our personality, and is made up of the mind, the will, and the emotions in each person. Now that's what really makes us click. It's our mind that does the thinking, its the place of our intellect and formulates every thing. The will is what carries out the thinking, and then we have our make-up of emotions which is our love and anger, joy and what have you. Then we have the third part that Adam was first created with, body, soul, and spirit, whereby he had spiritual fellowship, and communion with the Creator, called the seed. Now we know that as soon as Adam sinned his intellect took over and he know he was naked. Up until then he was covered by the glory of God, as God had said -

Genesis 2:17b
"...for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
And so Adam didn't die physically for 930 years, but his spirit, that part of him with which he had been having fellowship, intimacy with His Creator died, and became dormant (as a seed). His spirit was still there but was dead like a car battery that has been run down, and it will remain dead until some outside power source comes in and regenerates it. Then at the same time with Adam, another thing happened to him. His personality, by which he was created (from the dust), became then a sin nature. We refer to it as our old Adam or Adam-Satan nature. It had only one thing upon which it is bent and that is rebellion against everything that God has spoken and instructed or taught, it would say no. In fact all we have to do is just stop and think for a moment.

When we look at the world around us and it's been this way all the way back through history. Every thing that God says, "This do" for our own good what does Satan say? Well just the opposite. Satan is always telling the human race just the opposite of what God has instructed us to do. On the other hand every thing that God says we shouldn't do, what does the Devil say? Do it. So this has been the conflict then between man and God ever since Adam became that original "sin nature" and his spirit or the place of fellowship was put out of commission, it was made dormant. 

So now when we come into the human experience, yes we're living in that same body of flesh, blood, and bones which operates the five senses and it's in that body that now our old personality, this sin nature, is operating, and that's as much as we've got. We've got no way of communicating with God while in that condition. Now people don't like for us to say that, we know. When that old GI in the fox hole would cry out for God to help him, God didn't hear that unless he cried out for salvation. That's the prayer of an unbeliever that God hears, because you see there's no means of communication for the lost person and God. There is none. Romans 8:7-8 makes it so plain that the lost person and those who by way of personal choice turn from Him and go against Him are an enemy of God. We don't deal with our enemy if we've got one.

So here we are a race of people living in the flesh with an old sin nature, a personality that is an enemy or in enmity against God, and with nothing to keep us in communication with God. But now for the flip side. Here comes the the Lord's Last Supper and then the Cross, and Paul teaches so explicitly for the first time in Scripture about this whole idea of a sin nature, and that is that if this sin nature can be crucified, and literally by faith committed to God to have Him put it to death (because this old sin nature has to be declared dead, at least so far as God is concerned), although it remains a viable force in our flesh, but the minute God reckons old Adam as crucified, God then puts within us a New Nature, His divine nature which is the very mind and nature of Christ Himself. And that's what we mean when we become Christ-like or a true Christian.

But never lose sight of the fact that even though God reckons old Adam as dead, and God sees him no more, that's justification, that righteousness. It's just as if we've never sinned so far as God is concerned. So it's just as if old Adam has been completely put out of God's sight, but in our experience as a believer, he's still there. The only hope we have is that God has intervened with something that will help us control this old Adam and we can keep him defeated. In His Grace we have that victory through the Spirit.