"Insights" from the New Testament Greek

By Bob Jones, Northside Bible Church, Jacksonville Florida

DON’T ANSWER THAT KNOCK AT THE DOOR! Romans 6:12,
Part 2 of 2

  Translated freely from the Greek text, Paul says in Rom. 6:12 "Stop allowing your "sin nature" to reign in your mortal body, that ye should be "answering it’s knocks at your door" to fulfil it’s desires".

  In Romans 5:12 through 7:23, Paul uses the Greek article "the" with "sin" 23 times to describe the inner struggle within the child of God, and urges us to live by our "new nature" in Christ, and not by our "old sin nature"!

  The first use of "the sin" is in Rom. 5:12, where we find that by one man (Adam), the "sin nature" entered the world, and through the "sin nature", death passed to the whole human race. The last use of "the sin" is in Rom. 7:15-25, where Paul describes the inner struggle between his own two natures. Paul is teaching here that as children of God, we still have the "sin nature", as powerful as it ever was, but as Christians, we have a moment by moment choice, whether to be motivated by our old sin nature, or by our new nature and the Spirit of God. Paul tells us to consider ourselves "dead" to the "sin nature" and alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our "sin nature" no longer has absolute power over us.

  In Gal. 5:16, Paul gives us the key to victory over our old sin nature: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh (sin nature)". How do we walk in the Spirit? We must maintain our moment by moment fellowship with God and have a strong determination not to "answer" when our "sin nature" knocks at our door.

  What do we do to regain fellowship and the control of the Holy Spirit when we realize we have sinned? I only find one way, and that is to honestly confess our sins to our loving Heavenly Father, in accordance with 1 John 1:9, and as John says, "he remains faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". "Confess" in 1 Jn. 1:9 is the Greek present tense – whenever we realize we have sinned! This is what brings God’s power back into our life!

  Someone said that in the struggle between our two natures, the one you feed the most is the one that will be winning. I like that! The problem is, our old nature is surrounded by natural food, but the only food for our new nature is the Word of God and fellowship with God and His people through the Holy Spirit. Thankfully, the stronger we grow in Christ, the more power we have to dominate our old nature.

  Bob Jones