RENALD SHOWERS
THE NEW NATURE
Miles
J. Stanford
Dr. Renald E. Showers is
associated with The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. He received his bachelor's degree
in history at Wheaton College, his master's degree in history at Dallas Theological
Seminary, and his doctorate in theology at Grace Theological Seminary. His book here
evaluated is titled THE NEW NATURE, Loizeaux Bros., Inc., 1986,
182 pages.
It is both incomprehensible and reprehensible that the
Plymouth Brethren Loizeaux Brothers should publish a law-oriented book such as this,
especially since it has to do with the centrality of the Christian life.
This enervating enigma is compounded by the fact that Dr.
Showers is a well-known dispensational leader and teacher. But it is evident that he has
been adversely affected by Covenant theology. This book moves in a dangerous circle,
coming from, and returning to, Israel's New Covenant. It is therefore a low blow to
dispensationalism, and of high benefit to Covenantism.
We are thankfully in agreement with the author's theme
that the believer has two natures, a fact that needs to be firmly established in this day
of the spread of the Covenant one-nature error. But it is necessary in this review to set
forth the inaccuracy by which his two-nature statement is arrived at, plus the nature of
the natures he promulgates.
Dear Christian friend, in looking over this book together,
there is just one innocent, legitimate question for you: Is Dr. Showers writing about a New
Covenant millennial Jew? Or, is he writing about you, a heavenly member of the
Body of Christ, who is your Life, hidden with Him in God? Or, is he seeking to make both
one and the same?
From several sources, the following are some examples for
consideration, before getting into the book:
In the terms earthly and heavenly there is an
immense distinction involved. The real difficulty lies in convincing Christians of the
scriptural truth that they are heavenly in the true sense of the term.
The millennial, new covenant saint will have the happy
consciousness of the King's rule over everything. The Lord Jesus is now absent, but the heavenly
saint is united to Him in heaven. He is my Life; and "the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).
"I have been crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20); I
have died to all here, and my "life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).
The millennial saint will live here on earth; he will not be united to the
Bridegroom; he will not be dead to the flesh and the world; he will have the law of the
theocratic kingdom written on his heart, living in all the commandments and ordinances of
the law, blameless.
The heavenly saint has a position of complete
deliverance from the man in the flesh; while the millennial saint is through grace
empowered by the Spirit of God to do what God required of a man in the flesh. "For
this is the [new] covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these
days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts;
and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people" (Heb. 8:10).
The way into the Holiest of all is now made manifest.
The heavenly saint has "boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil,
that is to say, His flesh" (Heb. 10:20).
The earthly, millennial saint, though his sins will be
forgiven by the Blood, cannot speak of being inside the veil, because his dispensation
will be connected with the earth. The heavenly saint is seated "together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus", whereas the hope and position of the millennial
saint are simply earthly.
The millennial saint will not only delight in the law
of God, but it will be his nature to do so; the resistance within [heart of stone) will
have been removed, and there will be no opposition from without, and he will be maintained
in his walk and service by the indwelling Spirit of God. He will love God with all his
heart of flesh, and his neighbor as himself; while touching all the commandments and
ordinances of the kingdom law, he will be blameless. He will be free of any fear of death
and judgment, assured by the presence of Him who has the keys of death and hell.
The millennial saint will trace all his blessing to
the grace of God; he will worship Him; and he will rejoice in every good thing which the
Lord shall give him. In all the memorial sacrifices he will call to mind the death of his
Messiah as the only ground for all his blessing; he will be "like a tree planted by
the rivers of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not
wither; and whatsoever he will do shall prosper" (Ps. 1:3).
In sharp contrast to the earthly, the heavenly saint
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, a totally new creation. He has Christ as his Life, and is
re-created after God in righteousness and true holiness, and is renewed in knowledge after
the image of Him who created him.
The heavenly saint is in union of life in the Beloved,
whom the Father has set on high, far above all principalities and powers. He has his
eternal position in the eternal Son at the Father's right hand, and when Christ, who is
his Life, shall appear, then shall he also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).
The heavenly saint is of the new creation, a man of
different order altogether, totally distinct from all else. He is not after the flesh, he
is not earthly, he is heavenly and spiritual. "As is the heavenly, such are they also
that are heavenly." He has "put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of Him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all,
and in all" (Col. 3:10,11).
The heavenly saint, led by the Spirit, even now
surpasses the millennial man. All the duties devolved on the man in the flesh, and
all of the ordinances of God, are better fulfilled in the heavenly saint than by
the millennial saint. The heavenly saint is one altogether suited to the
Father; as the Son who is in the bosom of the Father is the Man of God's good, pleasure,
so we, through the infinite grace of God, are of Him--we are of the New Man, and as we
walk in the Spirit even now, the Father is glorified in our as-yet-unredeemed bodies,
which are His.
"[God] hath raised us up together, and made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might show
the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus" (Eph. 2:6,7). --Selected
In light of the above, let us consider just what and whom
Dr. Showers is presenting. His statements are in italics.
The new nature is a favorable
disposition toward God. It consists of the law of God written in the human heart. The Holy
Spirit places it inside the believer at the moment of regeneration (Introduction, p. 9).
The author erroneously states that the new
nature is a favorable disposition toward God. No, the new nature has a
favorable disposition toward God. Further, the new nature is a combination of attributes
of His divine life, not simply a disposition. "Disposition" is a Covenant
concept. See Dr. Jay Adams' The War Within, pp. 26,27).
The book is based upon, and is replete with the error that
the law of God is written upon the heart of the Christian:
He [the Christian] receives the new nature (a new,
favorable disposition toward God consisting of the law of God in his heart) (p. 10)
This new disposition will consist of the law of God
written in the Israelite's heart. It is what theologians [Covenant] have come to call
"the new nature" (P. 46).
Since the new disposition is the law of God written in
the heart... (p. 50).
The reason for the drastic change is this: through
regeneration he has received the new disposition, the law of God in the heart (p. 59).
Now that it has been demonstrated that all Christians
have the law of God written in their hearts... (p. 61).
Since the new disposition consists of the law of God
written in the heart... (p. 97) .
As noted earlier, that which was written in the heart
was the law of God... (p 107).
The Holy Spirit is the agent who writes the law of God
in the heart of the believer at the time of regeneration (p. 119).
The new man is the regenerate man, but the new
disposition is the law of God written in the heart of the regenerate man (p. 124).
Dr. Showers is in dispensational disarray and derailment!
In the present dispensation the Holy Spirit brings the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ into the heart of the heavenly Christian. In the coming kingdom
dispensation, He will write the law of God on the heart of the millennial saint.
The following should leave no doubt in your mind as to
just what the author means by "the law of God":
The new nature is the internal, and therefore
superior, way of God administering His eternal moral absolutes with human beings in
contrast with the old covenant or Mosaic law, which was the external way of God
administering those absolutes (p. 9).
The new nature, because it is a favorable disposition
toward God (the law of God in the heart), prompts the believer to concur with and will to
obey God's rule (p. 10) .
It is highly significant that Dr. Showers uses references
favorably from many Covenant, law-oriented, anti-dispensational writers, such as: Berghof,
C. Bridges, Calvin, Curtis, Ellison, Haldane, Hamilton, Hendrickson, Hodge, Machen, J.
Murray, Pink, Steele, Van Til, and E.J. Young.
The new disposition or nature which is favorably
oriented toward God is described in several key prophetic passages in the OT. The most
outstanding prophetic passage which relates to the new disposition is Jeremiah 31:31-34
(p. 31).
On the basis of all that has been seen in this great
prophecy of Jeremiah, the following conclusion can be drawn: The new nature is the
confirmed new disposition, consisting of the law of God in the heart, which God places
inside a human being through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (p. 41).
Ezekiel gives two key passages which concern the new
nature or disposition. Since the Ezekiel 36 passage contains the same basic material as
the Ezekiel passage plus more, attention will be focused upon the former (p. 41).
There can be no question as to the author's source for his
theme. This book exemplifies what can happen when dispensational distinctions are broken
down, and when anything of Israel's is touched by the Church. Thus we have the opening of
Pandora's doctrinal box.
The ultimate intention and goal of regeneration is
that the individual be transformed into the image of Christ. This is another way of saying
that the image of God in man is to be restored to what it was before it became perverted
through the fall.
Regeneration itself does not produce that restoration,
but it makes the restoration possible by giving a person the new disposition. This means
that the new disposition has a job to do: it must play a key role in conforming the
regenerate person more and more to the image of God as it originally existed in man.
This is Restoration, Reformation, Covenant teaching, à
la Lloyd-Jones, and Jay Adams, for instance. Wrong Adam! Wrong dispensation! Wrong
direction! The Last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the "express
image" of God, is our Life. It is to His image we are being
conformed--"when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He
is" (1 John 3:2). Not the earthly Adam, but God the eternal Son!
Do Christians today possess the new disposition?
Thankfully, the answer to this question is yes. In 2 Corinthians 3:3 Paul tells the
Corinthian Christians that they are "a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets
of human hearts."
As noted earlier, the same contrast was drawn in
Jeremiah 31:31-34. There it was the law of God or the new disposition which God promised
to write internally upon the heart.
Since both passages have the same contrast, and since
it is the new disposition which is written upon the heart in the Jeremiah passage, that
which is written upon the heart in the 2 Corinthians passage must also be the new
disposition (pp. 53,54).
By means of anti-dispensational Israel's New
Covenant-centered exegesis, Dr. Showers is going to keep the Church within Israel's realm
and at her earthly level. He has a grip on the law, and cannot let go; and the law won't
let go.
It was because the Pharisees emphasized only external
conformity to the law of God that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: "For I say
to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20).
After saying this, Jesus illustrated what He meant by
contrasting the teaching of the Pharisees with the real demand of the law. The Pharisees
emphasized conformity to the outward act to the law, but the law demanded conformity of
inward disposition. Mere outward conformity without a genuine, holy, inner disposition was
not sufficient to make one a member of God's kingdom. This, then, was Jesus' way of saying
that a person must have a new disposition in the inner man.
Thus, as an unregenerate Pharisee, Paul delighted in
the law of God after the outer man, but now that he has become a Christian he delights in
it in the inner man. The reason for the drastic change is this: through regeneration he
has received the new disposition, the law of God in the heart (p. 59).
Here Dr. Showers resorts to the Sermon on the Mount to
place the law of God in the heart of the believer--including Paul, of all people! The law
that Paul delighted in caused him to find the answer to his bondage: "I thank God
through Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Rom. 7:25).
Earlier it was demonstrated that Paul as a regenerate
man possessed the new disposition. Since Paul was attempting to be sanctified by the old
covenant law, and since the new disposition consists of the law of God written in the
heart, it would seem natural [sic] to expect that the new disposition would cause Paul to
be favorably oriented toward the old covenant law. Paul gives several indications that he
has such an orientation.
Firstly, in Romans 7:16 he declares, "I agree
with the Law, confessing that it is good." Secondly, in verse 25 he states: "I
myself with my mind am serving the law of God." Since the mind is internal, it would
appear [sic] that something inside Paul was prompting this service. The author is
convinced that the internal something was the new disposition, since it is the law
internalized.
Paul is saying that the new disposition inside him
caused his inner self to have this strong, favorable orientation toward the old covenant
law (pp. 97,98).
Where is the indwelling Holy Spirit and the life of the
Lord Jesus Christ in all of this? It was not "something," but Someone who was
prompting and enabling his service. Why should this dispensational teacher
maneuver in an attempt to place Paul, and thus you, under an internal law of God? It is
wrong for the Church to reach into anything that pertains to Israel, and hence nothing but
wrong can be drawn out.
Paul stated concerning himself, and you and me, "For
I, through the law [whether external or internal] am dead to the law, that I might live
unto God." "I have been crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me..." (Gal. 2:19,20).
"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to
the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is
raised from the dead, that ye should bring forth fruit unto God." "But the fruit
of the Spirit is ... against such there is no law" (Rom. 7:4; Gal. 5:22,23).
How are believers going to know the indwelling Lord Jesus
Christ as their Life, under internal law teaching such as that of Dr. Showers? What kind
of dispensationalism could possibly produce such a teaching as this?
Some scholars say that it was through the death of
Christ that God executed judgment upon the sinful disposition in the sense of nullifying
its power in human flesh. Others say that God executed judgment upon sin through the holy
life which Christ lived.
Since both views seem [sic] to have scriptural
support, the author is led to believe that God executed judgment upon the sinful
disposition through both the life and death of Christ (pp. 114,115).
The Lord Jesus Christ had no relationship to sin, or the
sinner, until He was on the Cross--not before.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." "Knowing this,
that our old man was crucified with Him" (John 12:24; Rom. 6:6).
The author is convinced that the new disposition was
given to OT saints in spite of the fact that those saints were not under the new covenant
(p. 137).
The acts of faith performed by such OT saints as Noah,
Abraham, David, Moses, and others indicate that these men were spiritually alive. But
spiritual life comes only as a result of regeneration. The fact that these men were
spiritually alive indicates that as OT saints they were regenerated. From this it is
evident that OT saints thereby possessed the new disposition (p. 138).
Dr. Showers, in his step-by-step reasoning, is equating
the regenerated life of the OT saint with that of the member of the Body of Christ. It is
doubtful that even a Messianic Jew would go that far!
The new Covenant guarantees that everyone living under
it has the law of God in the heart, for one of the main things it provides is the new
disposition. No one can come into new covenant relationship with God except through
regeneration. Thus, everyone in the new covenant relationship with God is regenerated and
has the new disposition (p. 140) .
The author has the Christian regenerated, with a new
disposition, i.e., the law of God written on the heart. Hence he has the Church under
Israel's New Covenant. Give contemporary dispensational leaders an inch ("the Church
is partaker of the 'spiritual blessings' of Israel's New Covenant"), and they will
soon (as here) have the Body of Christ in relationship to Israel's earthly kingdom New
Covenant!
In the future, when the nation of Israel is under the
[her] new covenant, each Israelite under the new covenant will have the new disposition because
of his being under that covenant (p. 140).
When one does not know the infinite difference
between the Christ-life of the Bride and the kingdom-life of the nation Israel, this type
of amalgamation is inevitable. Or, it could be the other way around. When one comes from
the OT with Israel's kingdom New Covenant, and applies it to the Bride now and Israel in
the future--same sad result.
"They have taken away the Lord..." (John 20:2).
In coming from Israel's New Covenant, Dr. Showers continually and erroneously relates the
Christian to the law of God. If this dispensational teacher were to rightly divide the
Word of truth, and center in the Pauline Church Epistles in reference to His Body, the
Lord Jesus Christ would replace his every statement concerning the "indwelling law of
God."
In the one case, that of the earthly or millennial
family, the law will be written in their hearts (Jer. 31:33); the inclination to do evil
will be superseded. In the other family, the heavenly, the Lord Jesus Christ is
written on the Christian's heart by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. This is a great and
important distinction, indicating that the Christian blessings are in association with the
Lord Jesus Christ who has gone within the veil. --J.B. Stoney
As to the believer's rule of life, Paul does not say,
"To me to live is law"; but, "To me to live is Christ." The Lord Jesus
Christ is our sole rule of life, our Source, our All.
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