Some have taught that Christians have two natures in them. Usually, their teaching is based on the last part of Romans 7:
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? … So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:14-25)
If we think Paul is writing about his Christian life here, this passage will be very difficult to understand. It seems there are two natures in him — one good and one bad. These natures are always struggling against each other, and he is unable to overcome the bad nature. He ends up doing the very thing he hates.
If we do have two natures it will be impossible to walk in victory! We will continually be defeated.
However, immediately after this passage, Paul writes these words:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)
Paul gives us a path of victory! We do not have to walk in the old lifestyle, dominated by sin, unable to overcome the flesh, but, in Christ we are now able to walk in newness of life. We are able to live “according to the Spirit.” We are free from sin and death. We are alive to God and empowered to actually walk in righteousness.
The last half of Romans 7 does not refer to Paul’s Christian life but to his previous life as a Pharisee. He was a religious man who was deep in the Word of God, agreeing with the Word, loving the Word, trying to obey the Word (Philippians 3:5). Through his own strength, he was able to produce an external legalistic righteousness:
… as to zeal, a persecutor of the Church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:6)
But in his heart, even though he loved and agreed with the Word, he was unable to find a place of true righteousness and obedience:
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate … For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing … I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members … So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:15, 18-19, 22-23, 25)
This frustrated him greatly:
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24)
But then he found salvation in Christ, and in this great salvation he found victory!
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! … There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 7:25-8:2)
He then goes on to tell us that we too have new life in Christ, and we must walk according to that life:
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:8-13)
Thus, the Christian has only one nature. Before we came to Christ, our nature was bound by sin.
… we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind … we were dead in our trespasses … (Ephesians 2:5)
But now, in Christ, we have a new heart:
And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit … (Titus 3:5)
… since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God; (1 Peter 1:23)
We are changed:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life … We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:3-4, 6-7)
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you … (Romans 8:9)
Moreover, as we live in union with Christ by His indwelling Spirit, we have the power to overcome sin in our daily lives:
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24)
During this lifetime we will not do this perfectly.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. (Philippians 3:12)
If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. (1 John 1:10)
It is only in eternity that we will be perfect.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, (Hebrews 12:22-23)
Every day we need to battle against temptation and against the old ways and habits, but we do so from a place of victory. While we cannot overcome a nature, we certainly can overcome temptation!
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14)
But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:27)
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 2:11)
Thus, day-by-day as we look at God, we will grow in holiness, and more and more reflect His image:
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
This is the path of Christian maturity. It is a path of victory!
I was glad to read this article. A few months ago we had a discussion on this text from Romans 7 with some church elders about the immediate context of the text. One church elder in his preaching had cut out part of the text to argue that Paul had both natures in him. Your article gives a clear explanation of this. Thank you for this article which gives more explanation on this subject.