THE DEATH OF ONE-NATURISM
Miles J. Stanford
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6:6).
PAULINE TRUTH -- First, we will establish the truth of this key doctrine according to Paul. This will give us the correct Scriptural basis upon which to evaluate the one-nature error.
"KNOWING THIS" -- In that Romans 6:6 is the foundation for the believer's identification with Christ, Paul insists that it should be known by each. Apart from this doctrine, the believer does not progress beyond substitution--the fact that Christ died for his sins.
Tragically, that is where the Church is today. Probably one doctrinally sound pastor in a hundred knows the truth of Romans 6:6. As a result, imagine what the percentage must be among the constituency of these churches!
"THAT OUR OLD MAN WAS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM" --This is the first fact that must be known for our spiritual growth. The "old man" is fallen Adam, and he is still our old man--all that we were as unsaved.
God did not forgive Adamic sin, He condemned it (Rom. 8:3). On the Cross He made Christ to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). That Adamic sin included me, the Adamic sinner (Rom. 5:19). Hence with Paul I can say, "I [Adamic sinner] have been crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20). Why was Christ made to be our sin on the Cross, and condemned in its crucifixion?
"THAT THE BODY OF SIN MIGHT BE DESTROYED" (rendered inoperative). The "body of sin," the totality of Adamic sin, was condemned and crucified so as to break its power and render it inoperative.
"THAT HENCEFORTH WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN" -- The power of sin was broken via crucifixion, so that the believer could be free from its bondage, reign, and dominion.
Moreover, Christ having borne Adam's sin--and me in Adam--in condemnation and crucifixion, He was then free to rise in "newness of life." And that crucifixion liberated me, separated me from Adam and sin, thereby giving the Father the freedom and right to recreate me in His risen Son. "If any man is in Christ [risen], he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17).
"THE CIRCUMCISION NOT MADE WITH HANDS" -- Our being cut off, separated from Adam and his sin in the crucifixion of the Cross, is further described in Colossians 2:11: "In whom [Christ] also ye are circumcised [cut off] with the circumcision-not made with hands [Christ's death unto sin on the Cross] , in putting off the body of the [Adamic] flesh by the circumcision [crucifixion] of Christ."
Now that I am a new creation in Christ, I am positionally, in spirit, where He is. "Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 2:6). Not only so, but there is reciprocal union--Christ, who is my life, indwells my body here.
Although as a new creation I am totally separated from the sinful Adamic life, that life and nature are not separated from my body--I am still indwelt by old man Adam.
As a believer, if I cause, or allow, that Adamic life freedom of expression, I note that it is exactly the same life and nature by which I lived prior to conversion. Identical in every characteristic.
The Father holds me responsible for sins that I commit. As a result He chastens and child-trains me, and I must confess them as my own (1 John 1:8,9). It is true that "there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1), but sinning breaks my fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1: 3; 1 Cor. 1: 9). Consequently there is the necessity of confession and cleansing via the Blood of the Cross, for restoration of that fellowship.
My primary responsibility is to reckon upon my separation, as a new creation in Christ, from the sin of indwelling Adam. I am to reckon myself to have died unto (been separated from) Adamic sin (Rom. 6:11a), its power and reign over me having been broken in the crucifixion of the Cross.
"PUT OFF" TO "PUT ON" The "old man" was positionally "put off" when I was separated from Adam in the crucifixion of the Cross. The "new man" was positionally "put on" when I was recreated in Christ as my Life.
I am to count upon these two finished works--put off, put on. I am to reckon myself to have died unto Adamic sin, and to be alive unto God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11). I turn from the Adamic life within, and abide in Christ my Life above, as Paul instructs in Colossians 3:1-3. Until I know and count upon my Cross-freedom from indwelling Adam's influence and domination, I cannot count upon and rest in my liberated life in Christ risen and ascended.
Paul says in Ephesians 4:22,24: "Put off concerning the former [manner of life] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts...and put on the new man, which is created in righteousness and true holiness."
I turn from the old man within because the Cross has already separated me from him--I am no longer under his power nor indebted to him in any way. I am free to turn unto the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith to put on my new life, my re-created life that is "hidden with Christ in God."
A FEW QUIET QUOTES -- As Pastor Dolman wrote, "Deliverance from our unfruitful condition will be occupation with the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, by the enabling of His Spirit, a refusal to be occupied with the old man."
John Darby graphically said, "When the heart is made full with the rich blessings of the Lord Jesus (Eph. 1: 3), it will not turn back to gnaw upon itself."
On this subject Mr. J.B. Stoney wrote, "We will not become occupied with the Lord Jesus until we learn that He has so perfectly cleared the ground for us that we can turn around and delight ourselves in Him." "It is because I have fellowship with the Lord Jesus up There in His joys that I have fellowship with Him in His death down here."
"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." "For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (Phil. 3:10; 2 Cor. 4:11).
"In spirit we are to stand before the Father's throne, while here on earth we are led down to the place 'where also the Lord was crucified.'" "If we stand on the ground of what the Lord Jesus is we will find that all that is true of Him becomes true of us; but if we come onto the ground of what we were in Adam, we will find that all that is true of the old man is true of us." --Selected
"The great work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross was to bring us to the Father: His death and His Blood, His ascension and sitting at the Father's right hand, all mean one thing--our being brought nigh to dwell in the Father's presence.
"And with what object? That the Father may have us, to develop in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight. Let no one think that the entrance into the Holiest is the end; it is only the beginning of the growing Christian life. It brings us into the right place and position in which the Father can work the likeness of His Beloved Son in us." --Andrew Murray
CONFORMATION -- As I center my heart and attention upon the Lord Jesus, I "grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 3:18). "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).
The Holy Spirit carries out His blessed work of showing and giving us the things of Christ (John 16: 14,15), especially as we gaze upon and fellowship with the glorified Lord Jesus. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18).
THE ONE-NATURE ERROR -- What is the cause of the erroneous teaching that the believer has but one nature? It is centered right here: "That our old [Adamic] man was crucified with Him" (Rom. 6:6).
The reasoning is that if the old man was crucified he is dead and gone--eradicated. (See documentation below.) The one-naturist's explanation of sin in the life of the believer is that it stems not from the long-gone Adamic life and nature, but rather from a residuary of sin, old habits and traits, and dysfunctional family influences left over from pre-conversion life.
This error leads to the individual blaming sin in his life on Satan, past parental influences, etc. He is in denial as to the indwelling self-centered Adamic life and nature, and hence may not take personal responsibility for sins committed.
The summation of it all is that the one-naturist does not understand what death is. He thinks death (crucifixion) means annihilation of the old man--crucified, dead, eradicated.
There are other grave problems resulting from this erroneous belief. The individual cuts himself off from those who know that there are two Adamic lives and natures within--the first, and the Last. As a result he gravitates to Charismatic and Covenant realms, which are sources of the one-nature error. The price is high--too high!
DEATH MEANS SEPARATION -- Here is the source of, the simple reason for, the one-nature error:
Some views of the victorious life are forced to define death as extinction since they teach that the sin nature, being crucified, is eradicated.
Others, more moderate, consider death as cessation since they teach that, although the sin nature is still present in the believer, he can cease from sinning in this life. This death means a cessation of the activities (but not of the presence) of the sin nature.
But death does not mean either extinction or cessation; it always means SEPARATION! Physical death is the separation of the immaterial part of man from the material body. It does not mean that the person has become extinct, or that he has ceased to function.
Every person on earth today is spiritually dead but is at the same time existing and active. However, he is separated from God and this is what makes him spiritually dead. The second death is the eternal state of separation which unbelievers will experience in hell. There could be no such experience if death means extinction or cessation. Death always means separation, and it does in Romans 6 also.
Since death never means extinction, the mortifying, the putting to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13) cannot mean eradicating them. But it does mean separating oneself from them. Death to the old man does not mean extinction, but separation from it on the basis of the finished work of the Cross. Hence, putting to death the deeds of the body does not mean that these deeds will no longer be a part of our existence, but it can mean that they need not be any longer a part of our experience. --Selected
ONE-NATURE DOCUMENTATION -- We share here the names of some of the better-known leaders who teach one-naturism. Each has many followers who propagate the same error, thus this teaching has spread throughout the Church.
DR. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES -- "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." (Romans Six, p. 65)
DR. JOHN F. MacARTHUR, Jr. -- "As Christians, our old life has been condemned, crucified, and done away with. In fact, in Romans 6:6, it says, 'Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. I In other words, the old man is dead, destroyed, removed ... it isn't around." "You don't have an old man anymore. The moment we believe in Christ, by a divine miracle our old man died." (Tape GC 2147)
BOB GEORGE -- "Who was I before? Bob George in Adam. That man is dead and gone; he will never exist again." (Classic Christianity, P. 90)
DR. BILL GILLHAM -- "The now defunct old man" (p. 4). "Eliminated and replaced" (p. 74). "I claim by faith that the old man is extinct" (p. 187). (Lifetime Guarantee)
PRESTON H. GILLHAM (son) -- "To say that the old man died in Christ is to say that the part of you that was by nature and birth independent and rebellious toward God no longer exists" (p. 217).
DR. CHARLES SOLOMON -- "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).
LEE LEFEBRE -- "It has been taught that the old [Adamic] life didn't really die at the Cross. What a hoax to insinuate that we must struggle to overcome that which lies dead in the grave.11 (Glimpses of Grace)
NEUES LEBEN, INT. (Soon to be known as TOTAL LIFE, INT.) -- "So if through faith in the resurrected Christ I am no longer part of that condemned race, then obviously for me, the 'old man' IS NO MORE." (Conference Manual 1990, P, 92)
This "deeper life" counseling organization [12 of the diagrams in their Manual are taken from Dr. Charles Solomon's books] now teaches that confession of sins according to 1 John 1:9 is unnecessary. The erroneous assumption is that since one is not responsible for indwelling sin, it is an "affront to God" to confess that which He has already forgiven! To supplement this teaching, the Bob George books are used extensively.
FELLOWSHIP AND INTEGRITY -- Actually it is an affront to the Father not to confess to Him sins that He has already forgiven!
It is true that we need not ask for forgiveness when we sin; rather, we are free to thank the Father for that forgiveness provided at Calvary and received in Christ. But it is necessary to honestly confess our sins, thus siding with God against our old man, else how can we enjoy true fellowship with the One who is holy and hates sin perfectly?
Yes, frank and immediate confession of sins is vital. Think for a moment of someone who observes a loved one sinning against him. Wounded--but ever loving-- he forgives, but says nothing. Meanwhile the loved one, although knowing there is forgiveness, does not confess his sin. Forgiveness is there, love is waiting. But now where is the fellowship and integrity of this relationship?
DOCTRINAL DEMISE -- Separated from the truth of Pauline Romans Six doctrine. "One-Naturism" is dead!
