Learning To Cut It Straight
A Study In Pauline Theology
Lesson Eight
Paul’s Distinctive Doctrine of the Believer’s Victory
The preponderance of our consideration of Paul’s distinctive doctrines for the believer so far, has been concerning the believer’s standing before God – all that He is by virtue of His being “in Christ.” It has been mostly what God has done for Him. We wish now to consider what God wants, and can do in and with Him.
It is good, then, to hear what Paul, our own apostle, has to say on this subject. He, alone, outlines the complete work of the Holy Spirit within the believer, from illumination, strengthening with might the inner man, filling, engifting, and fructifying. Without Paul’s epistles we would know nothing of the great work of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s Body. There can be no real understanding of his teachings along those lines without these two fundamental truths. An ignoring or ignorance of them has padlocked his other teachings.
- Paul’s threefold division of people groups
The ______, The ______, and the ______.
In relation to people groups, Paul divides mankind into three categories .
1Co 10:32 Give no offense, either to the Jews, or to the Greeks or to the church of God;
- Paul’s twofold classification of man in regards to salvation
S______and L______
In relation to salvation, Paul divides man twofold, dead or alive, saved or lost, children of wrath or children of God.
Eph 2:1 And He has made you alive, who were once dead in trespasses and sins,
Eph 2:5 (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you
are saved)
Eph 2:12 and that at that time you were without Christ, ….having no hope, and without God in the world.
- Paul’s threefold classification of Spiritual Receptivity ______, ______, and ______.
In relation to the understanding of spiritual things, he divides all mankind into natural, carnal, and spiritual. All three are found in I Corinthians 2:9-3:3.
- ______(“psuchikos”): The Greek word for natural man is “psuchikos,” literally “of the senses” or “soulish man.” Many versions translate it “animal man.” It is the natural unregenerated man, who has only the Adam life and nature.
Characteristics of the Natural Man:
- He has no spiritual ______
1Co 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- See three things said of the natural man:
(1) he receives not the things of the Spirit of God;
(2) they are foolishness unto him;
(3) neither can he know them.
- He is only of the ______
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Jam 3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and strife in your hearts, do not glory and lie against the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom coming down from above, but is earthly, sensual (psuchikos), devilish.Note how James uses it as only natural earthly human wisdom.
- He is ______like.
Since man fell from his spiritual life in God, which was connected to God in vital connection of life, he sank to the same level as the beast. Divorce man from God, sever him from the life of God, and he is no better than the animal, for all his civilization and culture. He but carries on the same functions as the animal kingdom.
Jud 1:19 These are those setting themselves apart, animal-like ones (psuchikos), not having the Spirit.
Jud 1:10 But what things they do not know, they speak evil of. And what things they understand naturally, like the animals without reason, they are corrupted by these (see also II pet. 2:10-12)
- He lives for ______and ______alone
Phi 3:19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, those who mind earthly things.) (Philippians 3:19
He is “engrossed with earthly things” ). He lives for the satisfaction of his appetites, alone (even though they be religious, or aesthetic), possessing only natural life with its functions; this life is the all.
The natural man is entirely oblivious to the things of God or spiritual things. This is only natural, since he cannot know them, nor receive them, and they are foolishness to him. The unsaved preacher not only cannot understand the spiritual things of the Bible, and give them to others, but he laughs at them (foolishness to him). He interprets everything in the Bible soulishly, after his wishes, opinions, and viewpoint: “I think so and so, or this is the way I look at it, or I feel this way about it.” No wonder he fails to reach out to God’s revealed will.
1Co 2:11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man within him? So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
The natural man will stay that way forever and can never reach up and become spiritual by his own efforts: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” The Spirit must reach down and make that natural man a new creation in Christ Jesus, with new faculties to “see God” and “receive the things of God.”
- ______(“sarkikos” = fleshly a derivative of the word “Sarx” = “flesh” ) Again read I Corinthians 3:1-3. The Greek word “sarkikos” means a fleshly, carnal Christian. Here in this text is must be a Christian, a babe in Christ. Paul uses the word ten times.
Compare I Cor. 3:1-3 to I Cor. 6:9-11
1Co 3:1 And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual ones, but as to fleshly (sarkikos), as to babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk and not with solid food, for you were not yet able to bear it; nor are you able even now. 3 For you are yet carnal (sakikos). For in that there is among you envyings and strife and divisions, are you not carnal, and do you not walk according to men?
1Co 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God
Paul defines his meaning of the “sarkikos” by two definitions: “babes in Christ” (in Christ all right, but still spiritual babes); and in verse 3: “walk as men” (lit., “after the manner of men”); all spiritual things are brought down to the level of the human senses, and the “sarkikos” walks in the “sarx” instead of the Spirit
Notice – The Corinthians were immature and fleshly (state), but had been justified/sanctified (Standing).
Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin.
Eph 4:22 For you ought to put off the old man (according to your way of living before) who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,… 24 And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness.
The carnal (“sarkikos”) Christian is born-again of the Spirit of God having received the new life of God, he is made a partaker of the divine nature, but instead of walking after the new man (the “pneuma”), they walk after the old man, the “sarx.”
Characteristics of the carnal man:
- They walk and respond more like ______people
- Their spiritual digestive organs ______.
He can’t digest meat. He must be milk-fed on the “first principles of Christ” (Hebrews 6:1, 2; I Corinthians 3:2). He will enjoy a simple gospel message, but if presented any of the “deep things of God,” any message on entire consecration, and “wholly sanctified” and “the infilling of the Holy Spirit,” he resists it, he gets spiritual indigestion, and doesn’t think much of, or enjoys not, your preaching. He considers you fanatical.
- They cause ______, ______and make tantrums
As being spiritual babes, they have tantrums – envyings, strife, as in Corinth. They cling to nursing mothers, saying, I am of this leader or that one, etc. As babes, they cannot stand alone (I Corinthians 1:3,4).
- They are hard of ______.
They are dull and insensible of hearing in spiritual things (Hebrews 5:12
- They are ______in doctrine
,Heb. 5:14: “Unskillful in the word of righteousness”). They have no command of the Bible, nor understanding of its riches
- They are ______and conscience
“weak brethren” (Romans 14:1); “weak in conscience” (I Corinthians 8:10); “weak in faith” (Romans 4:19)
- They are bound in ignorance, ______, and service
“weak in liberty, as still bound in law” (Romans 14:21); and “weak in service” (Acts 20:35; Romans 15:1).
- ______(“pneumatikos”): “One who is filled with and governed by the Spirit of God.” It means “a non-carnal or non-fleshly one.” Paul uses it 24 times.
It is the Spirit-filled, sanctified saint, who has “gone on to maturity or full age” (Hebrews 6:1,2). It stands in antithesis to the babes in Christ (I Cor. 3:1). Hence, it is full age (Heb. 5:14). It is a believer who has so crucified the flesh and been so filled with the Spirit, until the “Pneuma” now controls his whole life, instead of the “sarx” (flesh). This is God’s whole and perfect will for you; nothing short of it will suffice. Note I Cor. 2:15: “He that is spiritual “pneumatikos”) judeth (examineth, “anakrinei,” to search by looking through a series of objects to distinguish) all things, yet himself is judged (condemned) of no man.” Note I Cor. 2:13: “Which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing (unfolding to explain) spiritual things (neuter gender) to spiritual men” (“pneumatois” spiritual men; it is the dataive masculine plural). So verse 14, “Spiritually discerned.)
All saints start as spiritual babes in Christ, with infant spiritual life, needing the Word of God to grow thereby (I Pet. 2:2). Some stay babes all through their lives. Others “grow up into Christ in all things” in a deeper, richer life of full surrender, where the Holy Spirit can “strengthen them with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16), “fill them with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19), and “fill them with the Spirit: (Eph. 5:18). Now they do not “walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” minding “the things of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4-14). Note Gal. 6:1: “He is to restore the weak brother overtaken in a fault.”
Characteristics of the spiritual ones (“pneumatikos”) :
- They have ______. They have understanding of the word of God and are capable of teaching. This contradistinctive to the “weak brother” (Heb. 5:11-14; I Cor. 3:1). They have their spiritual faculties exercised by reason of usage and can stand strong meat. Best of all they stop acting like babies (a blessing in any church);
- They are not weak in ______. Rom. 15:1
- They ______all things
- They understand the “______” I Cor. 2:10-13
- They respond properly to ______(Gal. 6:1)
- They are ______with the Holy Spirit, therefore walk in the spirit (Eph. 5:18, Gal. 5:16)
- They have the ______of Christ (Phil 2:5)
D. Paul’s teaching on the two dueling natures in the believer: The carnal (fleshly) and spiritual
This is one of the most important Pauline revelations, and you will never understand Paul’s gospel for the saved, his doctrine of Christian victory, until you grasp this teaching. Neither will you understand the psychology of your own Christian experience. It explains so much that is inexplicable without it. It shows so graphically why we, as saints, act the way we do. It also forms the very basis for Paul’s teachings of the believer as crucified with Christ, now needing to put to death the old man and walk in newness of life. It was left to Paul, alone, to teach the fact of the believer as being indwelt by two natures.
“The old man and the flesh” is all that we are by natural birth, the inheritance of Adam, his fallen nature, the old pre-conversion life still in the believer, co-existing with the new man. This we shall attempt to prove from Paul. The believer has two natures within him: he is both “born of the flesh and is flesh, and born of the Spirit and is spirit.” These are contrary the one to the other.
Paul teaches that every believer is indwelt by two complete contrasting natures:
One is wholly bad, incapable of improvement, “the flesh”
The other wholly good and righteous and incorruptible, “the new man”.
These two natures, the new nature and the flesh nature are diametrically and antagonistically opposed to each other, warring against each other, lusting against each other, hindering us from doing the things we would do (gal. 5:17).
Now, it is this inner conflict which perplexes the average believer, uninstructed in this great doctrine of Paul’s. Satan even uses it most of the time to discourage the “weak brother” into thinking he must not even be saved, saying, “See there, call yourself a Christian? If you were really saved, you never would have thought that thought, said that word, or acated like that."” He has tripped up his millions with this lie. The conflict, rather than being an evidence you are not saved, is an evidence you are saved.
Next to the Spirit’s witness, it is the very best evidence, naturally speaking, of your salvation. There can be no conflict in the sinner until the Holy Spirit enters and births a brand new creation of God, imparting a new nature. Then the warfare starts between the old nature and the new. Before that, the peace of universal death reigned within the soul; it was the peace of the cemetery. Here is why the weakest saint cannot sin anymore with the same old enjoyment, and why the sinner can sin with complacency. The sinner has no inner rebuke of the new nature; but the belier has this holy new nature, made in the Image of God and “delighting in the law of God,” which condemns the old nature, which is “at enmity with God and not subject to the law of God.” Thus, the believer finds himself with a true split-personality, with two egos
A. Paul’s teaching on what Jesus first called “Flesh”.
- The flesh doesn’t ______at salvation
According to Christ, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and cannot be ought else without a birth from above. It is the natural life and all of its faculties received by natural generation. When the Holy Spirit comes within and breeds the new life of God, He doesn’t reform or utilize this old life, but creates a brand new one: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation…all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:15). God sets aside the old life and all its faculties for death, and creates a wholly new nature within. Paul teaches that this old man is still within, for he tells the Ephesians to “put off the old man.” Paul’s favorite name for him is “flesh.” There are a number of other names which identify him and mark his nature, such as: “flesh,” “old man,” “outward man” (II Cor. 4:16); “carnal man,” “carnal mind,” “by nature the children of wrath,” “sin” (Rom. 7:20; I Jn. 1:8); “law of sin” (Rom. 7:23), “body of death” (Rom. 7:23); “body of sin” (Rom. 6:6); and “I,” the very ego of Paul (all through Ro. 7).
- The flesh has no intrinsic ______.
Its characteristics are: a will opposed to God, a mind at enmity with God,” “a mind attentive to earthly things,” “not subject to the law of God,” its tendency is “death,” its “works” are the lusts of the flesh, and bad, its principle or law is to bring the saint “into captivity to sin and death.” The totality is summed up by Paul in the decree of God of condemnation against it: “In my flesh there dwells no good thing.” It carries the condemnation of Christ: “The flesh profits nothing and leads Paul to the conclusion” to put no confidence in the flesh.”
- The flesh can’t be ______.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t reform the old man, straighten out a few kinks, but creates a new nature within me. Like the old man, this new nature has many names, leading to an understanding of its character. It is variously called “the new man,” “the inner man,” “the inward man,” “the divine nature,” “Spirit,” “the Mind of Christ,” and “Christ, Himself” (Rom. 13:14); “the mind of the Spirit” (Rom. 7:6); and, according to Christ: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit; hence it is called spirit after the One Who created it.
Its characteristics are: It “serves God,” “it delights in the law of God,” it continually “minds the things of the Spirit,” it “cannot sin” (I Jn. 3:9), it is “created in the image of God in righteousness and true holiness.” Its fruits are righteousness and eternal life (Galations 6:7), and it bears the nine fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:21, 22).
B. Pauline proofs of the presence of the two natures in the believer.
- Paul’s usage of the word, “flesh” (“sarx” and “sarkikos”).
They are used in places for meat or the body. Paul uses them by metonymy for the whole natural life of the man as distinguished from the spiritual. By a simple check of its usage, 1Co 3:4 For while one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are you not carnal?