Ephesians 4:17-5:2
Nobody likes conflict and warfare. When we hear news reports about the suffering of those who are caught in the middle of conflict in various parts of the world, or when we see images of the death and destruction brought about by war, we cringe. We desire peace – for ourselves, and for everyone else too.
But sometimes, conflict is better than the alternative – the lesser of two evils. Sometimes in human history, wars of annihilation have been launched against a certain group – not just to achieve some kind of territorial advantage or political control, but with the genocidal goal of the total destruction of a whole tribe or nation.
At such times, for the people under attack, warfare and conflict, and fighting back for one’s very survival, was the only choice to be made. In such a context, ceasing to struggle and fight would mean ceasing to exist.
Are you involved in a struggle like that? You may not realize it, or think of it in this way, but you are. In this life, such a war is being waged inside every baptized and believing Christian.
I’m not talking now about the struggle that takes place between the church and the forces of evil that surround the church in this world. I’m talking about something that is going on, on the inside of every Christian.
The “old man” or the “old sinful nature,” which has been with you since your natural conception and birth, is relentlessly attacking the “new man” or the “new righteous nature,” which God has placed within you through the new birth of water and the Spirit.
And this is a war of annihilation. There can be no truce, no negotiated cessation of hostilities. In the end, only one nature can survive.
In the next world, your identity will be either as a righteous and holy saint, who loves God and the things of God, and who enjoys fellowship with God forever; or as an unrighteous and rebellious servant of darkness, hating God, and destined for eternal destruction.
Which will it be? Which of the two natures will prevail in the struggle that is being waged within you, even now?
Will it be that aspect of your inner being than comes from our common ancestor Adam, through his fall into sin, by means of your natural generation? Or will it be that aspect of your inner being that comes from our common Savior Jesus Christ, the new Adam, through his work of redemption, by means of your supernatural regeneration?
In today’s lesson from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, we see descriptions of these two natures or “inner selfs,” as they compete with each other for dominance in your life.
First, Paul describes the life of the Gentiles – the unbelievers in this world. With them there is no inner struggle between the old nature and the new nature, because they have no new nature.
They are as they have always been: without faith, without hope, without the life of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Paul writes that they walk
“in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
The fallen spiritual state of the Gentiles, and their corrupted moral condition, lead them to live in ways that are in harmony with their flawed inner character, but which are out of harmony with God’s loving will for humanity.
Lust and debauchery. Greed and envy. Laziness and exploitation of others.
These are all attitudes and actions that have the effect of isolating an individual from the human family, and from the larger human society; and that definitely do isolate an individual from God, and from his fellowship.
That’s what sin does. It turns us in on ourselves, and away from others: away from our obligations toward others, and away from the fulfillment and satisfaction that come through loving relationships with others.
Sin is powerful. But it is a consuming and degrading power, not an uplifting and enriching power.
There’s nothing good or desirable about what Paul says here, concerning the old sinful nature that indwells all people in their original fallen state. We are repulsed by this description.
People usually don’t admit that on the inside, they are as bad as they actually are. They often try to cover up and “plaster over” their shameful thoughts and desires with outward works of civil righteousness.
But these sinful impulses and thoughts cannot be defeated through external human works. The roots of our sin run too deeply.
And I say “our sin” deliberately, because the extent to which the old fallen nature still resides within each of us, is the extent to which there is, as it were, a Gentile also within each of us – always looking for opportunities to contend with God and to thwart his will.
But God, and the things that God has put into place and set in motion, do have the power to suppress these harmful thoughts and inclinations. The Spirit of God is able to push back and counteract the destructive influence of the sinful nature with which we are all born.
And if you are a Christian – if you, in repentance and faith, cling to the promises of Christ and embrace his Word – then you can be certain that the God who has this power, is indeed residing in you. His Spirit is working in you, specifically within the “new man” inside of you that he brought into existence when he called you to faith.
In this new nature, your will has been set free from its original bondage to rebellion and destruction, by the liberating power of the gospel. According to the “new man” – the new spiritual self that is now in you – you desire and want only what is good and pure and right.
These two natures – these two inner selfs – are locked in a constant struggle with each other. They are competing for your soul.
They are fighting to see which one will exercise the predominant influence on how you think and act, and to see which one will carry you into eternity.
In words of admonition and encouragement, St. Paul impresses upon us how important this struggle is, for the sake of our life of faith, and for the sake of our identity as the children of God. After his description of the self-centered and self-consuming impulses and actions of the old nature, St. Paul makes the following contrast:
“But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
By the power of Christ, through your faith in the truth of Jesus, the old sinful self is to be “put off” and suppressed. And by the power of Christ, through your faith in the truth of Jesus, the new self which God has created is to be “put on” and exalted.
The spirit of your mind is to be renewed by the grace of the Spirit of Christ. The truth of Christ, and the godly desires that his truth engenders, are to “push back” against the deceitful and wicked desires of the old nature, which formerly governed your life, and which are still trying to make a comeback in influencing you.
And as we heard in today’s Epistle reading, there are some practical effects of the influence of the new nature in the life of a Christian, when the new nature is having its proper influence.
When you think and live according to the impulses of the “new man,” you will show respect to others by speaking truthfully to them. You will not try to deceive and manipulate others for your own selfish advantage.
When you think and live according to the impulses of the “new man,” you will control your anger, remembering that you are not God, who alone has the ultimate right to judge and to punish. You are, instead, under his mercy, and therefore will show mercy.
The new nature in the Christian instills a new sense of responsibility in us. We know that we have the duty to work to support ourselves, and not to be a burden on others, or to impose on others unnecessarily.
The mutual help that Christian brothers and sisters do render to each other in times of genuine need, is not to be coerced, but is to be offered freely and in love, and to be received with thanksgiving.
Our general way of speaking, as it flows out of the thoughts and values of the new man, is a grace-filled way of speaking. When we don’t know exactly what to say, we should search for truthful words that build others up, and that express kindness and compassion toward them.
The new nature – created within us by the Spirit of Christ – is a Christ-like nature. According to this nature, we love those whom Christ loves. We are patient with those with whom Christ is patient. We forgive those whom Christ forgives.
It cannot be any other way – at least not when the new nature is alive and well, and is prevailing over the old nature.
But how often does the new nature actually have the upper hand in your life? My guess is: not as often as it should.
How consistent are any of us in thinking, speaking, and acting in accordance with the nature that the Holy Spirit has birthed within us, rather than in accordance with the rebellious and selfish nature that we inherited from Adam? If we are honest, we will all have to admit that we have been very inconsistent in this respect.
What people see in us, and hear from us, is not a pure and undiluted manifestation of the life of Christ in our inner being. Instead, what they get from us is a disappointing cocktail of mixed motives and half-hearted efforts.
Sometimes people do see some evidence of the love of Christ showing forth from us. Sometimes they do not.
Sometimes we are at peace in our conscience, resting in God’s grace and committed to his ways. Sometimes we are worn down and discouraged by guilt, and by feelings of inadequacy because we know that we have not done as the children of light are to do, but have done instead what a child of darkness would naturally do.
Remember that the old nature within you is engaged, without rest, in a mortal struggle against the new nature. And it is a war of annihilation.
The old nature wants to destroy the new nature. And once God and his influence would be out of the way, the old nature would want to lead you back, in the chains of a re-enslaved will, into a hopeless captivity to the devil.
The old nature knows that this is the only way it can survive. And so the old nature stops at nothing in trying to reassert itself and to scheme and lie itself back into a position of dominance in your life.
Its attacks against God, against the work and influence of God within you, and against your faith in God, are relentless.
It should not surprise you, therefore, that – in spite of the fact that you know better – you often stumble and fall back into the ways of that old nature. It should not surprise you. But it should alarm you.
Every time you sin – in thought, word, or deed – you are taking a step away from God, and away from the protection of his grace. Every time you sin – by the evil that you do, or by the good that you fail to do – you are threatening the continuation of your own spiritual life.
You are creating an environment within yourself that is just that much more inhospitable to God. You are, in effect, inviting him to leave and to give up on you.
There’s a lot at stake in this struggle – this struggle between the old self and the new self. But as you experience that struggle, and endure that conflict, remember the words with which St. Paul concludes the section of his epistle from which we read today:
“And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
Christ’s love for us does indeed set an example for how we should love others. But that’s not all his love for us accomplished.
Christ’s love for fallen humanity – for weak and struggling humanity – carried him to the cross of Calvary. And there, on the cross, he gave himself up for us and sacrificed himself in our place to the justice of God.
The many times you have stumbled and fallen, and the many times you have allowed the old nature to have its way in your life, are all covered and paid for by the blood of the Lamb of God: who takes away the sin of the world, and who takes away your sin.
Because God’s Son did die, and because his death was accepted by his heavenly Father as a fragrant offering, God will never, ever stop forgiving the weaknesses and failures of those for whom Christ suffered. And that includes you.
In Christ, God will never, ever stop giving you a second chance. When you come to him in sorrow for your failures, and ask him for his help in the ongoing battle, he will always give it.
He will renew the spirit of your mind. He will advance and restore the “new man” that is still alive in you – that he created and preserves – to its proper place of prominence and influence.
He will be your Lord. On your behalf, and for your eternal good, he will prevail over the machinations and temptations of the devil, and over the machinations and temptations of your own sinful flesh.
The Lord Jehovah is the only true God, not Satan. He is in charge of your life, not the devil, because with the purchase price of his Son’s blood, he has redeemed you, and has taken you back as his own precious possession. And so he will be God: for you, and in you.
The struggle between old and new, between the power of sin and the power of righteousness, will continue. Yet the old sinful nature will not prevail, but will ultimately perish: as you live every day in humility and dependence on Christ; and as you live every day with a joyful and confident faith in him as the victor over all the powers of darkness – in the universe, and in you.
The work that God has begun in you will be sustained and will be brought to completion in the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who you are in Christ is the real you. That is what will survive, and live forever, by the grace of almighty God. Amen.