Old nature against new nature

Imagine the new man; for a moment just picture a heart, picture the centre of your being, being renewed in the inner man, and arrows going out in all directions, wanting to take over the whole man. Striving for perfection, as Paul put it. But then there are arrows coming back in. The old nature trying to regain lost ground, coming in from all sides. There is this big circle that you see there in your heart. It is a frontline battle; the arrows coming in and the arrows going out. There is a frontline battle: Hand-to-hand warfare; old fashioned warfare. That is what is going on: this dilemma; this struggle; this battle. Amidst of this battle, when the enemy comes in, we try to say only, Be gone, sin! I have got no business sinning. I am a Christian. I am to reckon myself dead unto sin (Romans 6:10), and alive unto God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Sin and me, do not mix any more than oil in water mix. Be gone, sin. Be gone from the home of my heart.

But what happens? Well, John Bunyan says in his book, The Holy War, that sin enters man’s soul through different gates. He said, The most popular gates, the widest gates for sin to enter, is the eye‑gate and ear-gate. And that is what happens, you see. You hear something, and your conscience is desensitized, and you indulge all of a sudden. And you realize it, but you had already thought it; you have already said it. You sinned. Or when you see something, and it stirs up the lust of the flesh and lust of the eye, the pride of life; it is a struggle. A struggle against this evil law. And this evil law knows no boundaries. The old nature is inclined to commit any evil. There is not a single sin that happens, even on the front pages of the newspaper that if God were to remove his grace from you, you would not be capable of committing. Because of that old nature. So, this evil law will never be satisfied until it has made us its prisoner again. It wants all of us; and all of us at any price. Satan wants you, boys and girls. Satan wants you, young people. Satan wants you, senior friends. Satan wants every one of us. Satan hates children of God. Because they have been taken from his domain.¹

Joel Beeke