CHAPTER FOUR

Please recall now that in chapter two, we kept emphasizing the word MEMBERS. The Scripture teaches us to deal with our members. Observe that Colossians 3:5 states: "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication (unmarried sex sin), uncleanness (unnatural acts of impurity carried out by oneself), inordinate affection (love for forbidden things), evil concupiscence (yearning for evil things), and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." (My amplification).

The reason that the Scripture calls those things our 'members' is because they stem from attributes (members) that God gave us when He created man. He did NOT give us sin, or sinfulness. He gave us right, good, acceptable appetites, desires and dispositions. But when Adam sinned, all those things fell into ruin, and sin moved in and captured them all. By them, sin enslaves us and manipulates our passions and affections in sinful ways. See Romans 7:21-23.

We never knew any other existence before we became born again. But after we have become born again through faith in Jesus Christ, we can recognize distinction, and the Word of God and the Holy Spirit moves us with conviction against the activity of sin in our members. We recognize the effort of sin in them. Sin seeks to force us back into captivity to itself, through attacking our God given appetites, passions, desires and dispositions. Note Romans chapter 7.

The word "mortify" in Colossians 3:5 means to deaden, to make of no effect. We are to deaden our members to the sins that seek to manipulate them. We can do that by refusing to 'feed' those sinful lusts, and by constantly replying to their enticements: "I reckon my self dead to sin, but alive unto God" (Romans 6:11). There is irresistable power in such a statement, when it is made in faith. It works!

Remember 2 Corinthians 5:17. Since we ARE New Creatures in Christ as believers, and there is NO sin in Him, consequently there is NONE in our new nature either. Then how does evil become such a threat to us, and a nearly constant battle sometimes? How does it 'feel' like sin still has dominion over us? Why do we seem so susceptible to it? How does it attack our mind in the least expected times, in such a way that we think it has to be us thinking it or feeling it? Why does our mind so readily 'track' to those forbidden areas of unrighteousness?

Simply because there is another of our 'members' that is not mentioned in Colossians 3:5, but which is named in Romans 8:6-8. "For to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are NOT in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." The Spirit of Christ, as it is used here, means the Spirit of promise (Galatians 3:14) by which we are regenerated in Christ, according to Titus 3:5, as previously noted.

The carnal mind then, which is enmity towards God, is a member of the natural, un-born again man, i.e., the 'old man'. Born again believers CAN resist and overcome it by renewing their minds according to Romans 12:2: "...and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." We can renew our mind by training it to think and respond according to what God's Word says about any subject of our concern; by refusing to think carnal, evil things, to which the presence of sin in the world entices us.

Going a little deeper into the subject of the carnal mind, there is something called 'carnal knowledge', that readily operates in and through the carnal mind. Carnal knowledge includes, but is not limited to, what we know or imagine of human anatomy. The carnal mind learns early to imagine what a human body looks like when it is undressed. The carnal mind imagines what certain pleasant associations with such bodies would be like. Jesus called that activity adultery, saying: Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart. It would be the same act for a woman to look on a man to lust after him.

Thus, the God given appetite for sex can be enticed to illicit gratification, in thought or deed. Similarly, the God given desire to possess things can be tempted to covet, which is another form of sin. Both forms of enticement will become a strong, compelling drive to gratify, if we do not restrain their progress by self denial. That is what Paul wrote in Romans 6:13 "...but yield yourselves unto God, ...and your MEMBERS as instruments of righteousness unto God."

Upon being enticed to sinful gratification, the sword of the Spirit becomes a powerful weapon against temptation. Hebrews 4:12: "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The Lord Jesus used God's Word to defeat satan's temptations in Matthew 4:3-11.

The conflict is between our soul and our regenerated human spirit. Our body and soul were formerly enslaved to our sins. Our new nature was never enslaved by sin. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is able to divide between soul and spirit, giving advantage to our new nature, so that by faith, we can obey God's Word. Such obedience is always a choice of faith.

Thus, the just live by faith. In times when we feel lust trying to agitate our soul, out of our new nature, through faith, we can reject, deny, disown, and make ineffective the agitations of lust. In that way we are justified by that faith.

If we take the Word of God in our heart and mouth, and speak it in faith against temptation to illicit gratification of any kind, we can defeat sin, and keep our members from being affected by it. The Lord Jesus did that. By consistent practice of such responses to temptation, we can become bold enough to say to former sinful weaknesses, "I refuse to BE tempted with that. I will NOT be defiled by that. I am dead to sin, but I am alive to God through Christ." Romans 6:11.

We can be assured by the Scripture that the suggestions, temptations, imaginations, passions and lusts that war against our soul are NOT PART OF OUR NEW NATURE! When we say NO! to them, they are made useless and ineffective as far as our responses are concerned. We are to REFUSE to LET them defile our soul and mind. They are NOT ours! Thus, there is the constant overcoming and cleansing process whereby we live in freedom and victory over the 'old things that ARE passed away'. This process will keep them from returning.

Notice what Jesus said in Matthew 12:43-44: "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then saith he, I will return to my house from whence I came out; ..." . This simply illustrates that the old things that are passed away, seek to return to their former place in our life. Since unclean spirits do this, how much more does the old nature that was once ours, seek to re-enter into us?

In God's sight we are NOT condemned simply because a temptation was presented to us. Per James 1:14-16, sin does not occur in us, UNTIL we assent to, and give in to the temptation. "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren." Therefore, when we say "NO!" to temptation, we render it useless. We are VICTORS over it by faith. Praise the Lord! (My emphasis.)

God has also graciously given us 1 Corinthians 7:2 to rightly gratify the appetites which He gave and intended for us to have, without sin. "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." Again, Hebrews 13:4: "Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."

As to our God given disposition and desire to possess things, God has commanded, "Thou shalt not covet." Covetousness is an indication of a soul that is diseased and dominated by sin. Don't covet. But Jesus told us to ask for things. Mark 11:24: "Therefore, I say unto you, Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive, them and ye shall have them." Don't covet, just ask! Again, Matthew 6:33: " But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." God is NOT opposed to us having THINGS, but He IS opposed to covetousness, because it is idolatry, and it makes desolate; it is a sin against God and against our own well being.

The carnal mind is not limited only to sexual vices and covetousness. It is also an involuntary element in man's mental faculties which opposes God and His Words. It is independent of the devil, and thus, man is accountable to God for his rebellion and unrighteousness. But satan easily dominates fallen man, by working through his sinful lusts. He can at will take him captive, and in some cases he does possess a human, and inhabit their physical body in order to carry out his own lusts.

The carnal mind came into man when Adam yielded to satan through sin. See Genesis 3:1-6. The carnally minded man is dominated by the works of the flesh, which Paul listed in Galatians 5:19-21. Notice that those works are the works of the flesh of fallen humanity, not the direct works of the devil, though he is the original source of them all. In Hebrews 9:14 they are called 'dead works'. In Romans 13:12 they are called the works of darkness.

The carnal mind is disposed to the works of the flesh by its own inclination. We never have to train it to be that way, it is just inclined that way from our natural birth, by virtue of the fallen nature of man. It is one more reason WHY a man MUST BE born again, or he CANNOT enter into the Kingdom of God. Satan was cast out of heaven because of his sin, and his nature CANNOT re-enter heaven, neither can a human being who is dominated by that satanic nature. John 3:3-5. Man has to somehow be ridded of that enmity towards God. The problem from the fall of humanity in Adam has not been the enmity of God towards man, but of man's enmity towards God. God's response was John 3:16.

Our text in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is yet true! Jesus did not save us and leave us under the dominion of our carnal mind. No, we have the mind of Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 2:16.

Therefore, Paul bids us to: "...let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Philippians 2:5. To be spiritually minded, according to Romans 8:6, is life and peace. The Scripture says that believers have the mind of Christ! The conflict then appears because the carnal mind is always ready to oppose God in us, and we must, by faith, refuse to let it do so.

Paul puts it like this in Romans 6:13: "Neither yield ye your MEMBERS as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your MEMBERS as instruments of righteousness unto God." That includes not yielding our renewed mind in Christ to the dominion of the old carnal mind. The carnal mind, and the things that we trained it in, and gratified it with, before we came to Christ, is one of the strongholds mentioned in 2 Corinthians 10:4: "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;".

Most of our temptations work through the carnal mind. It is ever ready to re-assert dominion over us who have been delivered from our sins through faith in Christ Jesus. Isaiah 38:17: "...but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." Only, in the New Testament, it is better than that: "...unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His Own Blood." Revelation 1:5b.

Recall now that we said earlier that Jesus has saved us and delivered us from our sins, but He has not yet delivered us from the presence of sin in the world. Therefore, through the attributes which God gave mankind when He created Adam, we are susceptible to the depredations of sins that work in the world around us. But remember that 1 John 5:4 states that faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

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Old Things... 2 Corinthians 5:17 by Leon O. Poole - Public Domain [Copy Freely]