Believers function by two natures: I the old man and I the new, but “live” and “walk” only after one (Gal 5:25), because nobody can have two masters (Mat 6:24). It’s not merely in the desire to sin, but also in the willingness to sin that confirms the “dominion” of sin (Ro 6:14) in the “natural man”! Believers, in the presence of desiring sin via the old nature, will not to sin via the new; and believers are what they are after the new nature, not the old, because though it is in us—we are not in it, “but in the Spirit” (Ro 8:9).
This answers to Paul’s “I’s” in the Seventh of Romans: “it is no longer I (after the new man) who do it, but sin (I in the old man) that dwells in me”; “if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (vs 17, 20). It’s the new man—the “I myself” (Ro 7:25)—that we are after, and by which God always considers us, it being the “nature” by which we are “partakers of the divine nature” of Christ (2Pe 1:4).
“Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for His seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1Jn 3:9). The “seed” within the believer is the “new man” or new nature from Christ, which is where we do not sin, and is the “no longer I who do it” (Ro 7:17, 20). Where we sin is in the old nature, which is the “sin that dwells in me”; of which we are free concerning its guilt and dominion, and from which God completely separates our souls. Regardless of discouraging and disappointing times, and from where they came (which are only faith-strengthening exercises), I am never in that which I “serve after the flesh,” but always in that which “with the mind I myself serve” (Ro 7:25).
This answers to Paul’s “I’s” in the Seventh of Romans: “it is no longer I (after the new man) who do it, but sin (I in the old man) that dwells in me”; “if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (vs 17, 20). It’s the new man—the “I myself” (Ro 7:25)—that we are after, and by which God always considers us, it being the “nature” by which we are “partakers of the divine nature” of Christ (2Pe 1:4).
“Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for His seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1Jn 3:9). The “seed” within the believer is the “new man” or new nature from Christ, which is where we do not sin, and is the “no longer I who do it” (Ro 7:17, 20). Where we sin is in the old nature, which is the “sin that dwells in me”; of which we are free concerning its guilt and dominion, and from which God completely separates our souls. Regardless of discouraging and disappointing times, and from where they came (which are only faith-strengthening exercises), I am never in that which I “serve after the flesh,” but always in that which “with the mind I myself serve” (Ro 7:25).
