SELF-INCRIMINATION
Miles J. Stanford
In this Polemic Paper we seek to set forth
some of the "eradication" theories that hamper the growth of so many believers.
WESLEYANISM
-- John and Charles Wesley formulated an eradication theory that has continued to the
present, primarily in Holiness/Charismatic circles.
Wesleyanism does not teach that there is
an old and a new nature. There is but one Adamic nature, from which sin is to be
eradicated. It is to be burned out by the Pentecostal flame, via the Baptism of the
Spirit--a second work of grace. What remains is to be totally sanctified, usually
instantaneously, i.e., Entire Sanctification.
"INSTANT
SANCTIFICATION" -- In his Plain Account of Christian Perfection,
John Wesley wrote:
God usually gives considerable time for
one to receive light, to grow in grace, to do and suffer the will of God, before he is
either justified or sanctified; but He does not invariably adhere to this. Sometimes
He "cuts short His work"; He does the work of many years in a few weeks; perhaps
a week, a day, an hour. He justifies or sanctifies those who have not had time for a
gradual growth in light or grace (p. 248).
In his letter to Bell and Owen (Journal,
Oct. 1762), John stated:
You have over and over denied
instantaneous sanctification to me; but I have known it (as has my brother) above these
twenty years (p. 249).
THE
NAZARENES -- While liberal Methodism is no longer Wesleyan--nor even
Christian, for that matter--the Nazarene denomination continues to hold to its Wesleyan
heritage. We quote from the official Nazarene publication, Exploring Our
Christian Faith, edited by Dr. W.T. Purkiser (Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City,
Missouri, revised 1987, 551 pages):
"SECOND BLESSING"
-- The core of our Wesleyan concept of entire sanctification is the conviction that the
"second blessing" or baptism of the Spirit results in the cleansing of the heart
from all remaining inherited sin, making the believer "holy in all manner of
living" (p. 348).
When we summarize all these verbs, we gain
an almost irresistible impression of climax, epoch, or crisis: "to make holy,"
"to baptize with the Spirit," "to crucify," "to put to
death," "to cleanse," "to purify"' "to destroy the body of
sin," "to be made perfect in love."
All of these terms describe action which
must naturally take place at a definite time and place, and which does not admit of
degrees. They all testify to the fact that entire sanctification is a crisis
experience, and not a long-drawn-out and never completed process of growth (p. 337).
It is "that habitual disposition of
soul which is termed holiness"; and which directly implies the being cleansed from
sin, "from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit"; and by consequence, the
being endued with those virtues which were also in Christ Jesus; all being so
"renewed in the spirit of our minds" as to be "perfect as our Father in
heaven is perfect" (P. 90).
THE
CHRISTIAN & MISSIONARY ALLIANCE -- The Alliance denomination is
mission-oriented, similar to, but more moderate than, the Nazarene. Dr. Albert B.
Simpson founded the movement in 1887. Some of his teachings were:
THE CLEAN HEART -- The Holy
Spirit may convert a hundred souls but only become the indwelling Guest in the ones
who give Him the right of way. And do not delude yourself with any theory that
Christ is in you because you are a Christian. Christ is in you just so far as
you have surrendered yourself to Him, and give Him the right of way, and no further.
Justification brings forgiveness of
sin and deliverance from condemnation. Sanctification brings us purity of
heart and likeness to God. You surrender yourself unto Christ to be crucified with
Him, and to have all your old life pass out, and henceforth live as one from heaven and
animated by Him alone.
A clean heart is one phase of
sanctification. There are three stages in this full experience. They are very
clearly expressed by the three meanings of the word sanctify: to separate from, to
dedicate to, and to fill with. The first of these is included in a clean heart.
J. SIDLOW
BAXTER -- Dr. Baxter, as a speaker and writer, has been very popular for
many years. Two of his books in particular reveal his Wesleyan-type orientation.
They are A New Call to Holiness, and His Deeper Word in Us.
They were published in 1967 by Zondervan, and are practically identical in content.
We will touch upon the first.
ADAM REFINED
-- Dr. Baxter's "Entire Sanctification" theory is that the Adamic nature is
neither totally bad, nor totally good, but that it can be refined and restored:
We should not gain a full scriptural idea
of our intended sanctification unless we recognize both of these two hereditary
aspects--"original sin" and original good. Because there is
original sin, holiness must be divinely inwrought. Because there is original good,
our nature may be divinely refined (A New Call to Holiness, p. 35).
Entire sanctification is a penetrative
renewing of the moral nature which decisively breaks the tyranny of inherent depravity,
and lifts the mind into an experience of dominant holiness in all its spontaneous
impulses, desires, motives, and inclinations.
There is indeed an inward transformation
and refining. All the highest and best is greatly strengthened; the base, the mean,
the sin-tending is greatly weakened. The nature which has been chronically sinward
becomes fundamentally Godward (p. 148).
RESTORATION:
If holiness may indeed be inwrought by the
Holy Spirit, as the NT undeniably teaches, then let us gratefully recognize that it is restoration--a
restoration of our human nature itself to its truest humanhood.
The ghoulish figment of an "old
man" supposedly inside our humanhood yet permanently beyond regeneration should be
flung away forever, along with its companion deceit that our human nature is essentially
and wholly evil (p. 121).
We must believe that human nature is still
basically good; for it is that, and only that, which makes man redeemable, renewable, and
recoverable (p. 122).
REFINING
FIRE -- We quote Dr. R. A. Torrey from an address given by him at a
well-known Conference a few years before his death:
There is nothing that cleanses like fire.
The fire of the Holy Spirit consumes those things within us which are displeasing
to God-vanity, pride, temper, personal ambition, uncleanness of all kinds.
I too believe in that refining fire of the
Holy Spirit. With every fibre of conviction, I believe that the NT opens to us a
purifying and refining of our whole moral nature, so that with glad spontaneity it loves
and keeps the divine law (p. 199).
D. MARTYN
LLOYD-JONES -- The late Dr. Lloyd-Jones typifies Covenant theology--there
are two natures, the old being eradicated, and the new ameliorated, and that by means of
the Law. Most present-day one-nature eradicationists are Lloyd-Jonesites. Dr.
Charles R. Swindoll strongly recommends Dr. Lloyd-Jones' teaching in his book, The
Grace Awakening:
As a staunch Calvinist of the Puritan
school of thought, Dr. Lloyd-Jones was a biblicist of the first order. For all
fellow ministers I must add my voice to that of Martyn Lloyd-Jones (p. 38).
In his Romans 6 commentary Dr.
Lloyd-Jones states that "the old man" of Romans 6: 6 is the manner of life
he lived before he was saved. And since the old man has been crucified, it is
gone--eradicated (emphasis ours):
The "old man" is the man I used
to be in Adam. The old man that I was in Adam is the one that was crucified with
Christ. It is my old humanity. The old man is gone, he was crucified (p. 63).
CONDITION
INSTEAD OF POSITION -- The cause of this eradication error is in making
Romans 6:1-10 to be condition, instead of judicial position.
When Paul says "put off the old
man" (Col. 3:9), he means that we must put off the characteristics of the life
of the old man. It cannot mean anything else. I cannot be told to "put
off" something that has been crucified (Rom. 6:6) (emphasis ours) (p. 64).
On the contrary, Paul says to "put
off the old [Adamic] man," the source, rather than its characteristics, which
are but symptoms. One cannot be exhorted to put off that which is not there!
The old man is the man I was in Adam; that
is the man that has died once and forever. He is non-existent; he is no longer
there. Your self--your old self--has gone (p. 65).
LAW VERSUS
LIFE -- In his Romans 7 commentary, Dr. Lloyd-Jones insists upon the law
as the believer's "rule of life":
The Apostle is justified in saying that
the law, and each individual commandment, is thoroughly good. Nothing can be better
for us than the keeping of the law. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul," as Psalm 19 tells us.
"Yield your members as slaves of
righteousness." Yes, righteousness, to conformity to God's standard, conformity
to God's holy law, and to what man was originally [back to Adam!] (p. 164).
Having eradicated the old man, Dr.
Lloyd-Jones relies upon the law for the development of the new man, for growth:
What the Apostle says is that as you yield
your members as slaves of righteousness, and as you go on living this righteous life, and
practicing it with all your might and energy, and all of your time, and everything else,
you will find that you will become cleaner and cleaner, purer and purer, and holier and
holier.
You are just a slacker and a cad, just
lazy and indolent, indeed a liar, if you are not living this life. This is the NT
way of practicing holiness and sanctification (p. 269).
REVIVALISM
-- "Revival," and "the baptism of the Spirit," are the resort of the
unestablished. In his later years Dr. Lloyd-Jones advocated both for the successful
Christian life. Dr. Russell T. Hitt shared the following data in the March 1986
issue of Dr. Barnhouse's Eternity magazine:
There is another factor in Lloyd-Jones'
ministry besides the almost stern Puritanism of his preaching and writing. In the
latter years of his life particularly, he began to emphasize the need for a heaven-sent
revival. No doubt he was conditioned by being raised in the atmosphere of the Welsh
Revival of 1904-5.
Christians, he began to teach, should
experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. His teaching on "the baptism"
was similar to that of Dr. R.A. Torrey and Dr. A.J. Gordon, who also departed from the
mainstream of evangelical [and biblical] teaching on the subject.
Lloyd-Jones also opposed that standard-brand Reformed
teaching that the gifts of the Spirit have in a large measure ceased after the apostolic
age. He was quite blunt about it, saying, "The Scriptures never anywhere say
that these things were only temporary--never! All the gifts are under the
sovereignty of the Spirit. He decides when and where.
Yes, and He decided--long ago.
JOHN F.
MacARTHUR JR., emulator of Dr. Lloyd-Jones, is the present-day leading
light amongst the eradicationists. He is now far from the dispensational realm, and
in tight with the Covenant camp. Hence Covenant Lordship Salvation and One-naturism
are two of his numerous aberrations.
HERETICAL
ERROR -- Having eradicated the old Adamic man, Dr. MacArthur must place
the blame of indwelling sin in the believer on something; but his basic error spawns an
erroneous brood.
It is important to note that when he
speaks of sin in the Christian's life, Paul is always careful to identify sin with the
outer corrupt body, not with the inner nature (NT Commentary--Romans 1-8, p.
418).
Paul does not warn about sin reigning in
our souls or our spirits, but only about its reigning in our bodies, because that is the
only place in a Christian where sin can operate (p. 337).
The as-yet-unredeemed body of the believer
is neutral; it is heresy to maintain that the body is sinful, or morally corrupt.
Paul's exhortation is:
"I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1).
DEATH MEANS
SEPARATION -- It is astounding to note how blind these highly-educated
eradicationist theologians are. Like a school of fish, they all move as one--no
thought necessary. These one-naturists consider death to mean cessation of
life--extinction. When Romans 6:6 says that the old man is crucified, they consider
it to be eradicated, long gone.
But they themselves have died via
crucifixion in Christ on Calvary, Is He, or are they, extinct? The unsaved are dead
in sin and to God, while they yet live. And even in the second death, they will be
very much alive, and that in eternal hell.
The believer has died to sin, Adam, the
law, the world, and the devil--while being alive in Christ. Sin, the Adamic life and
nature, the law, the world, and the devil are dead to the believer, while continuing to be
very much alive. The Adamic life is dead to the beleiver, separated at Calvary via
death--yet alive and all too often kicking, within the believer.
But alas, despite the simple truth and
obvious doctrine of it all, Dr. MacArthur and company remain monophysitic. These
same Covenantists, having been death-separated from the law on the Cross, remain blindly
in the grip of nomism.
SELF-ERADICATION
-- Dr. MacArthur blindly follows Dr. Lloyd-Jones on into Covenant error:
In his Romans 6 commentary the
late Martyn Lloyd-Jones rendered Ephesians 4:24: "Do not go on living as if you were
still the old man, because that old man has died. Do not go on living as if he were
still alive (NT Commentary--Romans 1-8, p. 325).
As Christians our old life has been
condemned, crucified, and done away with. The old life is gone. In fact,
Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body
of sin (which is synonymous with the old man] might be destroyed."
In other words the old man is dead,
destroyed, removed... it isn't around. You don't have an old man anymore. The moment
you believe in Christ, by a miracle the old man dies (Tape GC 2147).
The old self has been made a corpse; and a
corpse, by definition, has in it no remaining vestige of life (NT Commentary--Romans
1-8, p. 318).
I am not convinced that there are two
natures. I think you have one nature that has the possibility of sinning (Marks of a
Believer, p. 51).
SELF-SUBSTITUTION
-- With the old man, the Adamic source of indwelling sin eradicated, note how Dr.
MacArthur accounts for sin in the believer:
As both Scripture and experience clearly
teach, our remaining humanness somehow retains certain weaknesses and propensities to sin
(NT Commentary--Romans 1-8, p. 316).
The believer becomes fully alive
spiritually when he trusts Christ as Savior and Lord, but he is still bound, as it were,
in some of the graveclothes of his sinful old life (p. 326).
In Romans 7, using himself as an example,
Paul deals more fully with the believer's battle with the old sinful habits and
inclinations (emphases ours) (p. 332) .
PHANTOM-FOLLY
-- How does Dr. MacArthur deal with the residual indwelling sin, the old humanness, those
old graveclothes and habits of inclination?:
The way to kill sin in your life is to
feed it with Scripture. It is a foolproof poison against the weed of sin (Kingdom
Living Here and Now, p. 139).
When we mourn over our sin, we wash our
hearts pure with the tears of penitence, and we will be pure in heart (p. 105).
An ancient Catholic mystic could not have
put it better than that!
Dr. MacArthur quotes Dr. Lloyd-Jones'
advice concerning sin: "Expose the thing and say, This is evil, this is vileness.
Pull it out, look at it, denounce it, hate it for what it is, then you have really
dealt with it" [really?]. To this Dr. MacArthur responds:
This is sound advice. We should deal with
our sin courageously, striking at its head. Subduing it a little bit is not enough.
We need to exterminate it, hack it to pieces (p. 160).
FIVE-POINT
PLAN -- The author submits five more points for "killing" sin:
First, it is imperative to
recognize the presence of sin in the flesh. A second way for believers to
kill sin in their lives is to have a heart fixed on God. "O that my ways may be
established to keep Thy statutes! Then shall I not be ashamed, when I look upon all
Thy commandments" (Ps.119:5,6). A third way for believers to kill sin in
their lives is to meditate on God's Word [which portion?].
A fourth way to destroy sin in our lives is to
commune regularly with God in prayer. A fifth way to put to death sin in our
lives is to practice obedience to God. Doing His will and His will alone in all the
small issues of life can be training in habits that will hold up in severe times of
temptation (emphasis ours) (NT Commentary--Romans 1-8, p. 426).
CHANGE
VERSUS EXCHANGE -- One of the means the author offers for spiritual growth
is to have the one nature "changed":
Through grace provided by His Son, God
changes man's very nature when they trust Him (p. 346).
Salvation brings about a radical change in
the nature of a believer (Marks of a Believer, p. 33).
PAULINE
PUT-DOWN -- Contrary to all that Paul taught, Covenantism applies the law
to the new life--the very life that has died to the law (Gal. 2:19).
God hands the believer the code of life
and says, "Now you have in you My Spirit, whose power will enable you to fulfill My
law's otherwise impossible demands (NT Commentary--Romans 1-8, p. 412).
"My kingdom is inside."
Jesus here is cracking open the door of the New Covenant [Israel's] , of which
Jeremiah has said that God would write His law on their inward parts (Jer. 31:33) (Kingdom
Living Here and Now, p. 32).
If you want to be happy, if you want to be
filled with the Spirit... just master the Sermon on the Mount and put it into practice (p.
34).
"God's perfect law," David says,
affects people by "restoring the soul." The Hebrew word translated
"restored" can mean "converting," "reviving," or
"refreshing," but my favorite synonym is "transforming" (Our
Sufficiency in Christ, p. 80).
GIVE ME
LIBERTY! -- While Dr. MacArthur points to David and Law, the Apostle Paul
presents the Lord Jesus Christ and liberty:
"For the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
"Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty."
"But we all, with unveiled face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed [transformed] into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit [not the law] of the Lord" (Rom.
8:2; 2 Cor. 3:17,18).
But no, the Covenantists are not coming
from that heavenly position, nor are they leading the Church into her place There.
They prefer Israel's law, whereby they are bound and gagged. More shackles
added, here:
Joshua 1:8 [where is Paul?] sums up the
absolute sufficiency of God's Word [which portion?] as our Guide to successful living:
"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it
day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it;
for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success" (pp. 100,
101).
Paul, however, rather than David,
Joshua, or anyone else, says to the Christian concerning the law:
"But now we are delivered from the
law, having died [been separated from] to that in which we were held, that we should serve
in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter [law]." "For
the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (Rom. 7:4; 2 Cor. 3:6).
DAVID C.
NEEDHAM graduated from Westmont Bible College, and Dallas Theological
Seminary. He is professor of Bible and Theology at Multnomah School of the Bible. We
briefly consider here his Birthright: Christian, Do You Know Who You Are?
(Multnomah Press, Portland, 1979, 293 pages).
Dr. Needham's teaching on one-naturism is
somewhat bizarre. He holds to the Adamic nature as redeemed. And then he
divides that self into two selves-the "shallow self," and the "deeper
self"--neither of which is evil. However, when this shallow self exceeds its
bounds and predominates over his deeper self, then there is sin. Sinless self
manufacturing sin!
TYPICAL
ERADICATION -- There
is not a single word anywhere implying that at death the believer is finally separated
from his "old man" or "old self." Not a single word. Why?
Because that happened when you were saved (P. 79).
We were once "in Adam. We are
no longer. That person has ceased to exist. The self that Paul was, "the
old self" of Romans 6, no longer has any existence (p. 113).
THE PURE IS
SINFUL -- There is an operating "principle" at work in every
believer--not evil in itself--which is the incessant demand for meaning. The moment
that demand for meaning becomes dominant in my shallow self, my flesh, rather than in my
deepest personhood--at that moment the principle produces evil in me. When flesh
determines its own meaning, it always produces sin.
THE SINFUL IS PURE -- Yet
when that determinative search for meaning flows out of the deepest self, empowered and
directed by the Holy Spirit, there is at that point nothing inside of me that is
essentially evil. My flesh at that moment is a slave to righteousness. My
members are yielded to God and the result is purity--holiness in both the inward and
outward man (p. 81).
I am not two people, but there are most
certainly two levels of my personhood. There is a deeper self (inner man), and my
more shallow self (the flesh). Shallow self is so quickly affected by circumstances.
And if shallow self is not made a "slave to righteousness (Rom. 6:19), there
is no telling what strange warts and bumps and creases you may see (p. 164) .
To the degree that the Christian fails to
fulfill his truest self as one who is "for God" and totally dependent upon God
for authentic life, to that extent, the "nature" he manifests by his thought and
behavior is sinful (p. 114).
The self which is not evil, produces evil! One would
think that Dr. Needham would have thought about such lack of thinking.
NEIL T. ANDERSON
is founder and president of Freedom in Christ Ministries, which actually consists of
spoken and written Charismatic demon deliverance. His method is to show believers
that they are in Christ, their exercising "authority" over Satan and his demons,
and getting "free."
The positional and deeper life aspects of his ministry
have nothing to do with freedom from the power of the actual source of sin in the
believer, i.e., the indwelling Adamic life, in which there is no good thing. Being a
one-nature eradicationist, with him the self-life is not an issue; thus the hapless
recipient of such teaching remains under the dominion of indwelling Adamic sin.
You had a sinful nature before your
conversion (The Bondage Breaker, p. 45) .
Your old self and your old nature are gone
forever (Victory Over the Darkness, p. 77).
As a child of God, a saint, you are no
longer under the authority of your Old Man. He is dead, buried, gone forever (p.
79).
SATAN FOR
SELF -- The all-important factor for Christian freedom and growth, and the
scriptural answer to sin in the life of the believer, is totally missing in Dr. Anderson's
ministry. He has substituted Satan and his demons for the scriptural source of
all sins--the indwelling fleshly Adamic old man; self himself!
The deeper life element is no more than a
front for Charismatic demon deliverance. Dr. Anderson's book titles tell the story: The
Bondage Breaker, Release From Bondage, Victory Over the Darkness, Setting Your Church
Free, A Way of Escape, Walking Through Darkness, etc.
No believer who knows anything at all
about the Cross and positional truth would ever think of going to Dr. Anderson--or any of
the "warfare" and "deliverance" people--to learn of his freedom from
the bondage of indwelling Adam, and his Cross-liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ as his
Life.
CHARLES R.
SOLOMON -- Dr. Solomon, retired president of Grace Fellowship, derived his
one-naturism from the writings of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
Satan, the enemy of souls, has made
another critical deception in blinding the minds of believers to the truth that the old
man or sin nature no longer exists in the Christian (Rejection Syndrome, p. 106).
Although the agent distributing the power
of sin--the old man--has been put out of business through death, the energy force
(residual power of indwelling sin) yet remains (p. 31).
When the sinner is redeemed from slavery
to Satan, his basic nature is changed (Counseling With the Mind of Christ, p.
108).
CHARLES STANLEY,
long-time pastor of the 12,000 member First Baptist Church in Atlanta, was recently
relieved of his pastorate due to marital conflicts. His present ministry consists of
the "In Touch" radio and TV programs, and authoring books--one of which we will
look at, titled Winning the War Within.
Being a one-naturist, via Dr. Solomon, Dr.
Stanley resorts to an impersonal kingdom concept in dealing with temptation and sin:
All our struggles are spiritual in nature.
Each one is a part of an ongoing struggle between the kingdom of God and the
kingdom of Satan. Every temptation is a small part of a universal struggle between
the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of the living God (p. 32).
Having eradicated the old Adamic man, Dr.
Stanley ignores the sinful element within and proceeds to verbally battle Satan:
Get the habit [!] of quoting verses audibly
when you are tempted. I do not believe Satan and his host can read our minds.
When you speak the truth out loud, you are reminded that you are not your enemy.
And He that is within you is not your enemy. Your enemy is the devil (p.
142).
When we fall we then should pray,
"Lord, humble my spirit before You. Purify my sinful heart." David
wanted God to completely cleanse his heart and restore him (p. 186).
WRONG
RELIANCE -- If Dr. Stanley really knew his position and privileges in
Christ, he would not direct man to man in a time of temptation:
Having someone to whom we can spill our
guts provides us with a temporary substitute for the frustration we feel as well as the
sin we are tempted to commit. Everyone needs someone to run to, someone who will
listen, pray, and offer wise counsel when appropriate. Individuals who have
something like that will find it much easier to deal with temptation, for they have an
alternative (p. 156).
The Word of God directs the tempted one to
The Man,
"Seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them." "For we have not an high priest who cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we
may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 7:25; 4:15,16).
BILL GILLHAM
is another victim of Dr. Solomon's one-nature teaching, as exemplified in his book Lifetime
Guarantee--Making Your Christian Life Work and What to Do About It When It
Doesn't (Wolgemuth & Hyatt Publishers, Inc. [failed] , Tennesee, 1981, 227
pages).
I have taken the basic idea of Dr.
Solomon's Handbook To Happiness, and modified it (p. 58).
DIVERSION
-- Similar to Dr. Anderson, he replaces the Adamic nature with Satan and demons:
Satan accomplishes his goal through your
thought life, masquerading as the now defunct "old man" (p. 4).
It will seem as if the old man were alive
and well. But if he is, God's Word is not true. The Evil One's strategy is to disguise
himself in your thought life as your old man (p. 92).
I claim by faith [how about doctrine?]
that the old man is extinct. It is not our old sin nature that we struggle with.
It's the power of sin working through our old worldly ways (p. 165).
Listen to me: There is no such thing as
"positional truth." The Bible speaks only of truth and deception.
The term positional truth is simply Satan's deception (p. 81).
BOB GEORGE
is founder and president of Discipleship Counseling Services. Two of his books are Classic
Christianity (1989), and Growing in Grace (1991), both published by Harvest
House, Oregon. The author deals with the old man via eradication, and the new man
via law and habits. All of these one-naturists are Jay Adams-type habituationists,
i.e., "Develop new good habits to push out old bad habits."
FROM
ERADICATION TO LAW -- Who was I before? Bob George in Adam without
God's Spirit'. spiritually dead, a guilty sinner. That old man is dead and gone; he
will never exist again (Classic Christianity, p. 90).
That old Jean is dead and gone. She
died on the Cross with Jesus (p.105) .
God said in the New Covenant [Israel's],
"I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts" (Heb. 8:10)
(P. 66).
Even though the sin which indwells my
flesh still pulls me, and though my mind is still subject to error, deception, and
discouragement, I can say with Paul, "In my inner being I delight in God's law"
(Rom. 7:7) (Growth In Grace, p. 112).
The way to break a habit or preoccupation
is by developing a new habit or preoccupation. The new will push out the old (Classic
Christianity, P. 203) .
If these people had only listened to, or
would yet hear, Norman F. Douty!
The Pauline Epistles teach that the flesh,
the old man, is judicially dead in virtue of the Cross, but they nowhere say it will
become actually dead by standing on that fact. What they do say is, that when
standing (reckoning) on that fact the flesh, by the Spirit, will lose its governing power
over me.
In Romans 6 we find that through Christ's
death unto sin, sin shall not have dominion over you--the thought is of bondage,
reigning, governing. There is no such view presented in the Word as the annihilation
of the old Adamic man, or exclusion of its presence, but rather the loss of its governing
ability.
TRANSFORMATION
The Lord Jesus is not now on earth.
He has ascended into heaven. What a very peculiar position then is mine here!
Sensible of the worthlessness of the first man, and of the absence of the Second.
My own life--that of the first man--I have; the One I love---the Man who has
glorified God upon the earth--I find no longer here. How can I get on? Only as
united to that One in the glory. He is my Christian life. Once with Him I can
walk here, not to cultivate my old life, but to manifest His, which is mine in Him.
Thus the Lord Jesus says, "For
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John
17: 19). His sanctification as expressed in these words is positional. He has
ascended into glory, and is wholly apart from this scene, that we might by the Holy Spirit
be associated with Him there, and this is our moral sanctification.
But how am I led into this association?
See Stephen in Acts 7:55, "being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his
eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of
God." Now there was a new and distinct action of the Spirit, enabling
Stephen's soul to penetrate through everything, and to find the Lord Jesus where He is,
even in the glory of God. I t was a new thing brought out at that moment. It was, in
a sense, contrary to Stephen's own preaching, for he had been preaching that Christ was to
come down--to return.
In chapter one of Acts the disciples were
distinctly told not to gaze up into heaven, but now Christ's rejection was
completed, and there was no longer any possibilty of His return to earth to take His
rights, and the Holy Spirit takes an altogether new line of action. He reveals the
Lord Jesus in the glory to the saint, and links the soul of the believer with Him there,
all hope for the earth being cut off.
Now every new revelation determines the
character of the action of the Holy Spirit during any given period or dispensation. When
everything has failed on earth, He directs me to where there is no failure, He turns my
eye and heart to heaven. He accomplishes in me the very same action that He did in
Stephen.
"Set your mind on things that are
above, not on things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with
Christ in God" (Col. 3:2,3, ASV). It is the strangest of all anomalies
that we should be left here to live, where our life is not. Tell me where your eye
is, and I'll tell you what your conduct is. "We all, with unveiled face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from
glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18, ASV).
There we get the moral consequences of
personal fellowship--one spirit with the Lord Jesus, the glory claims me as its own.
I can behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, and be transformed thereby
into the same image. I have no shrinking from the glory, my heart rests in it.
I can look upon that glory as one with the blessed One who is there, and who has
made for me a free entrance into it by the ministration of righteousness and of the Holy
Spirit.
If I am not in conscious union with the
One who is There, I cannot "hate" the life that is here. He has condemned
the first man on the Cross, and now I am free in the life of the blessed One in the
presence of my Father. -- J.B.S.