ONE NATURE - not two

I am still reading The Rest of the Gospel by Dan Stone. It's good REALLY challenging. The most recent chapter I am reading is all about our identity. Do we view ourselves as sinners or saints? Am I new creature or do I still operate from the old?

Ahhhh. I KNOW the answer. I know who I am DECLARED in Christ. I KNOW I am made new. BUT - BUT .... I also know that I sin - A LOT. And that no matter what I do or try - I still sin. I know I am not living in the fullness of the gospel. That I am not walking IN the Spirit. So how do I reconcile the 2 things... well I always believed that I have 2 natures. The new one - placed in me by God, Jesus living in me, the Spirit sealing me - directing me to live out the fruit of the Spirit; AND the old me - sinful and dead - always wanting to sin - the walking dead craving to be heard, seen and felt... my sin nature.

BUT Dan Stone disagrees!! He says there is only ONE nature and that the old man is truly dead - killed off by Christ's death on the cross. OK... what? Can this really be true? But then all I have to do is think about the most basic verse from when I was first saved to know that it is... 2 Cor 5:17

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

and back to Romans 6: 5-11

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to 

God through Christ Jesus.

Ok .... so what does this mean? Dan Stone says that we can only have ONE nature, ONE master, a creature/house can not be divided against itself. SO if the above verses are true - as I know them to be - then I now ONLY have ONE nature ... not two. I am a NEW creature ... the old is passed away - dead - I AM NEW. 

I struggled against this. Because I see so much sin still within me - if my old man has been killed off - why is there still sin? I always considered the new man to be what I was BECOMING. I was becoming more like Christ as I shed off more of my sin/flesh and revealed the new man inside - the REAL ME. BUT I had to shed off the sinful flesh to reveal what was true on the inside. I GET that I was made new, but I only thought it was a HEAVENLY declaration.... NOT - NOT that it is the ONLY true reality .... hear me - THE ONLY TRUE REALITY.

So where does the sin come from? Sin does still reside in the members of my body. This body is left in the old state. It's members are not yet redeemed ... God has not given me my heavenly body ... so hence this body still has sin in it. BUT IT IS NOT - NOT - MY NATURE! Listen to Romans 7: 21-23

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. 

I always thought that my flesh - was equal to my sin nature. BUT it is NOT. Flesh is equal to my BODY where sin still dwells, because my BODY is still unredeemed. It is wrecked with sin just like the rest of creation groans and waits to be made new. BUT my spirit HAS already been made NEW - I have a NEW nature and it is clean and pure, and united and one with CHRIST.

WOW.

Ok Father, what do I need to start confessing first because all this unbelief has been rolling around for awhile! What do I still have wrong? because I want to replace all this junk with faith in the truth - the truth of what YOU have done! The truth of who You are - the truth of who I am!!! I need your revelation so that I don't just get the idea - but so I GET the idea - wholly!!! So my soul feels it - breathes it ... lives it.