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C. ONLY ONE ANSWER
Can you understand how Abigail’s story describes our dilemma as Christians?
Blessed with a lovely anointing, God was using her; but what a burden she bore. She was married to an unclean, uncouth, smelly drunkard who wouldn’t be kind to her or anybody else.
1. Our Old Nature Must Die
Like Abigail, we want to be under a husband like David. But we have a problem: we are married to Nabal, our old Adamic sin-nature – the flesh. Moreover, by the laws of marriage, we are bound to him as long as he lives. There is hope, however, for there is a David in our story. As we stated earlier, he is a type of Christ.
Our true desire is to be married to Him, to be the “bride of Christ” (Rev 19:7-9).
We want our Abigail personality to come to the forefront and be loved and motivated to divine purpose by being married to another – David (type of Christ).
We want to be sweet and gracious, but Nabal – our old sin nature – always shows up and makes it difficult. So much of the “flesh” seems to be seen and found in our marriage to our old nature.
Sometimes we fight against the devil and want to blame him for our fleshly displays. But he is not our problem; we are! It is our old sin nature which we received from our forefather – Adam.
No matter how hard we try to live a life that will be pleasing to God, we fail sooner or later. The harder we try, the greater our failure. We just can’t get free from our old “Nabal-nature,” nor can we change him, Nabal cannot and will be be reformed.
There is only one answer to our problem with Nabal. It is death. God must kill Nabal. Nabal must die!
2. We Cannot Do It Alone
Some Christians try to do away with Nabal themselves. They go about trying to crucify their own flesh. It is, however, an impossible job. There are not enough “free hands” to get the job done.
When you try to crucify yourself, you find that you may nail your feet to the cross. You may even nail one hand to the cross. But how can you nail that last hand? Partially crucified with two feet and one hand already nailed to the cross, you can’t! You do not have another free hand with which to drive in the nail through your left hand. You cannot crucify yourself. It must be done by Another).
Self-crucifixion is a painful effort and always ends up half-done. Our sinful Nabal-nature soon recovers from self-inflicted wounds and we are worse off from before. I know … I tried it many times in my life as a young Christian.
I even tried to starve old Nabal to death by fasting. I felt sure, If I fasted long enough and often enough, I could over come the desires of the flesh.
I soon found that instead of getting rid of my old Nabal nature, he exerted his influence over my life all the more. He got meaner and nastier by the day. Each and every day I fasted, I got harder to live with. I’m sure you know what I am talking about
My next approach was to try to destroy old Nabal by hitting him on the head with the two stone tables of the law. I memorized the ten commandments and tried to live a life of “shall nots”. You shall not do this; you shall not do that.
However, the more I said, “You shall not!” old Nabal replied, “I will too!” His “I wills” were stronger than my “You shall nots.” The law didn’t help me.
The law cannot destroy our old sinful nature. All it can do is expose our sin, amplify our carnal desires and condemn us. The law cannot free us from sin. If we are to be free, God Himself will have to do it. And, praise God, He has!
3. God Provides The Way
Only God could justly kill Nabal. and He did. The same is true when it comes to the old Nabal-nature in our lives. And He has!
The death of our old, Adamic sin-nature is both drastic and dramatic. It is included in God’s gracious plan of redemption – through Christ Jesus – for you and for me.
We were crucified with Him on His cross so our old man (called the body of sin in Romans 6) might be destroyed. This freed us to be married to Another – even Christ!
When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, his whole nature became sinful. The sickness of sin was passed on to all the future generations of mankind. We all have received the same sinful nature from our father, Adam.
We are not sinners only because we sin; we sin because we are born as sinners. Before we believed on Jesus we were part of the devil’s family. We were born into this world outside the family of God. The only way into God’s family is by a new birth. When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are born again – into the family of God. Through teaching like we’re receiving in this chapter, faith comes to appropriate (receive the benefit of ) our freedom from the law, and its motivating force to sin (which results in death).
By accepting the facts told us in the Bible – that we were crucified with Christ, that our old husband (sin-nature) is dead – we are free to be married to Christ.
His righteous, obedient nature can now be expressed in us if we yield our emotions and bodily members to Him.
The Bible explains this truth in these words:
“Sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin. In this way death came to all men. Because we were all in Adam, it brought the results of his sin on us all. And all have sinned” (Rom 5:12 smf).
a. Born In Sin.
Let me ask you a question. Where were you when your forefather Adam sinned? The Bible teaches that you were IN ADAM – that is, you were in his loins (the place where the male sperm cells are kept which produce offspring). Since we are all the offspring (children, descendants) of Adam, we were all IN ADAM.
This means that when Adam sinned, I was made a sinner with him – because I was IN ADAM. His sin made the whole human race sinners – because the whole race was IN ADAM when he sinned.
Our destiny was all bound up in Adam’s obedience and disobedience. When he sinned, you and I were made sinners. When the sentence of death (the penalty for sin) was passed on Adam, you and I (in him) were also sentenced to death.
So, I was born in sin, under the sentence of death. Because of this, I needed someone to save and deliver me from marriage to Adam’s nature – the sinful nature.
Let us now read some verses from the Bible and rejoice at what God has done to save us from our unhappy condition and destiny with death and Hell.
“But God showed his great love for us while we were yet sinners, by sending Christ to die for us….
“Adam’s sin brought punishment [death] to all. But Christ’s act of righteousness [taking our punishment on the cross] makes men right with God, so they can live…
“All who receive him [Jesus] shall be given the right to become the sons and daughters of God… Truly, all who believe on the son have eternal life… they become new creatures in Christ Jesus – with a new nature within. They are not the same any more; everything is fresh and new” (Rom 5:8, 18; John 1:12; 2 Pet 1:4; 2 Cor 5:17 smf).
b. Nailed To The Cross.
Yes, when we receive Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, we receive His life and His nature.
We have a new nature all right, but what about old sinful nature? Can David and Nabal peacefully live in the same house? Can we truly be married to Christ while Nabal is still alive?
This is where the cross of Christ does something for us that not many Christians fully understand. It is a powerful truth which can lay old Nabal to rest forever. It is worthy of our most careful attention. Paul clearly explains it in this way: “Don’t you know that all who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were also baptized into his death… Your old sin-loving nature died with him upon the cross. Its power was broken…
“When God the Father raised him from the dead in glorious power, you were raised to new life too…
“Because, you are one with him, when he dies, you died – when he arose, you arose… You now know, therefore, that your old sinful nature was nailed to the cross with him and died. Your sin-loving body is no longer under the power and control of your old sinful nature – you are free!” (Rom 6:3-7 smf).
c. Union With Christ.
What an amazing truth! God has done it all! By His omniscience (ability to know everything) He looked through the past and future centuries and found all those who would believe Him. He gathered them all up and placed them IN CHRIST as He died on the cross. There IN CHRIST we were crucified with Him! Praise God!
We have worn ourselves out trying to crucify our “old man,” when he is already dead. Just as we were in Adam when Adam died for his sin, we were in Christ Jesus when Christ died for our sin.
With Him we arose from death and Hell to a new life with a new nature – His life and His nature. This is what union in Christ means – we abide in Him and He in us. What He is, we are!
Our union with Christ is a gracious work of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit of Christ, He is the member of the Godhead Who causes the life and nature of Christ to be formed in us. The Holy Spirit brings a new heart and a new relationship!
“He who is united with the Lord is one spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17 smf). “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone [hard and rebellious] and give you a heart of flesh [soft and obedient]. And I will put my Spirit in you, and cause you to follow my laws and keep my commandments… You will be my people, and I will be your God” (Eze 36:26-28 smf).
4. Victory Is Ours
We are dead to our old sinful nature, and it has no power over our life. The only time our old nature can rise from his “death-coffin” is when we are walking in non-belief, unbelief or disobedience. When we are obeying God’s Word, and being motivated by God’s Spirit, we are expressing our new nature.
The devil does not want us to believe this truth, for it has the power to set us free. If we are not aware of the work God finished for us through the work of Christ on the cross we will be walking in non-belief.
The desires of the flesh will seem real, and we will feel powerless to resist. The “ghost” of old Nabal will be quick to exert his influence and appetites in our life. The same is true if we doubt God’s Word in the Bible or disobey what He says to us.
To do so grieves the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us. This will weaken His work within our lives, and His witness through our lives. At such times, the old sin-nature can seem pretty strong.
The answer, as we have seen, is not to try to crucify the flesh through self-effort. The flesh is already dead when we reckon it so. (Reckon means to count it done – to see and confess it as already accomplished.)
Therefore, we should quickly confess our sin whenever the Holy Spirit convicts us. Then we should rise up in faith, and believe and obey God’s Word. His Spirit gives us the power to do so.
a. Know And Believe.
Paul says we must KNOW that our old man is crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6) We are crucified and risen with Christ. If we do not know or are unsure of this truth, we will find the flesh acting as if it is very much alive. We will submit to our old nature even though it is no longer alive. We will submit to our old nature even though it is no longer alive.
Paul tells us repeatedly that we don’t have to submit to our old sin-nature any more. We can daily accept and believe the truth of what Christ did for us on the cross, and live victoriously in the power of the Holy Spirit.
b Live By the Power Of the Holy Spirit.
“If by the power of the Holy Spirit you put to death the evil deeds of the body – the old sin-nature – you will live” (Rom 8:13 smf).
We need the Holy Spirit both to die and to live! (To die to our selfish desires – to live for Christ). The Holy Spirit’s ministry, therefore, is two-fold.
- He will honor the work of the cross concerning the death of our old nature.
- He will lead us into a life of victory through our new nature.
c. Believe And Confess.
The Holy Spirit will apply the truth of our crucifixion on the cross with Christ, by making it so real that we will confess it with our mouth. We will say it is so. This is what Paul meant when he said:
“Reckon and consider yourselves to be truly dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do not let sin rule in your bodies anymore. Do not give in to its sinful desires” (Rom 6:11,12 smf).
The word “reckon” means to simply believe and confess that something is so. In other words, we are to acknowledge and confess (say it out loud) that our old sin-nature is dead to us. We also are to acknowledge and say that we are dead to our old sin-nature.
This is so because God’s Word says we died in Christ on the cross. It is finished, and we are free! “I am crucified with Christ…” (Gal 2:20 kjv).
Not only are we dead to sin, but alive to God. We have a fresh, new inner resource. We can choose to be married to Christ who gives us His new nature. By doing so, we can be led (driven, motivated) by God the Holy Spirit.
When we see who we are and where we are in Christ – that’s real victory. It means we have won in our fight with the flesh. The war is over, the victory is ours. With the words of Christ from the cross we can boldly say. “It is finished!”