The Solution

So, how do we reconcile the apparent contradiction? Let’s go back to the picture of the two women, the robot, and the cancer victim. One picture, two images. One robot, two controllers. One man who is not acting like the man everyone knows he is. The picture represents two views. The robot represents a body that “manifests” the intent of two controllers. The cancer victim is responding to another force acting within him.

We truly are a new creation in Christ. His Spirit has quickened our spirit to be made alive so we can live and have fellowship Him. Do you really believe that? However, there still remains an entity or nature that needs to be dealt with.

The Apostle Paul writes,

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Rom 7:14-25 NASU

Let’s break this down in light of the analogies of the picture, the robot, and the cancer victim. First of all, the word “sold” (vs 14) is the Greek word piprasko. It means to traffic, traverse, which is from beyond, particularly beyond the sea in other lands. To sell, because people usually went to other lands for merchandise. (from The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament © 1992 by AMG International, Inc. Revised Edition, 1993)

When Adam sinned, we were “sold” or “traversed” to another land (this realm of death) as slaves to sin. Where does this sin dwell? It dwells in me, that is IN MY FLESH (vs. 17, 18). Now, before I came to know Christ, I was a slave to sin (that entity or nature). My body (tent, house) was only able to MANIFEST what SIN (Sam in the analogy) dictated.

Now, when I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, He freed me from that slavery and I became a new creation (not my body, but my spirit; the real “who I am”). I, being a new creation, CAN NOT SIN because of Christ in me (my spirit). However, sin (Sam, cancer) was not destroyed (for reasons explained later). Like the cancer victim, sin is still working in the members of my body (now a temple), causing me to do things I now do not want to do.

Ok, so I mess up and it appears that “I” sinned. There are two questions to answer:

1. Did sin really “manifest” itself through my body (tent, house, and now temple)? The answer is emphatically, YES.

2. Where did this sin originate from; which “image” of the picture (my body) are you seeing? If “I” truly identify myself as being a new creation then “I” did not sin but it was sin in my members. It was Sam (sin) who was at that time in control of my tent, house, temple (body) who manifested itself. Others and I could look at my body (whom they assume is me) and see sin being manifested. What they fail to understand is that my body (represented by the picture) can manifest one of two images. It can either manifest the real me, Christ in me a new creation, or the sin that is within the members of my body.

Here is where we make our mistake. We tend to align and identify ourself with our body (the picture) because that is what we see. I see, therefore I am. In reality, the body is just a means to display (manifest) to others what’s going on inside us. But the truth is, my body does NOT define who “I” am. I AM EITHER a new creation or I’m not. One picture but two images. You can only see one image at a time but both images exist. As far as you as an individual are concerned, you can only BE just one. You cannot BE both, otherwise you are saying the Christ in you can sin.

If on the other hand, I truly believe I am a new creation and understand that this sin entity/nature will periodically rear its ugly head, I then know that this nature can be fought and beaten because the same Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, abides IN ME (not in my flesh), the real “I”,  and He will complete His work in me. It’s a matter of perspective. One picture. Two images. Which one will you align yourself with?

So, why if I’m a new creation is this old nature still around?