Why do even saved people sometimes do wrong things? Why are church people at times just as divided and ornery as worldly groups? Why do you personally still have to fight against sinful desires, though you may have been saved for years?

- The Truth About Us -

When we (the saved) were born into the world we were born with a flesh. It may help to think of the flesh as a nature, or a capacity. The flesh had its own set of desires and expressed those desires to our minds. Our minds acted accordingly. The problem in this state of being was that our flesh was not subject to God, nor could it please Him.

"So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." -Rom. 8:8

We were utterly spiritually dead in our flesh. We were also hopeless to save ourselves. But when we believed in the finished work of Christ to pay our death penalty, God looked on us with grace and saved us.

- Good News -

When God saved us, He did not rejuvenate our flesh. He did not knock the dents out, put a coat of paint on, and give our flesh a tune-up. Rather, God gave us a sparkling, clean, brand new spirit. The flesh still had the capacity to sin, but there was given to us a new capacity to obey God. The spirit was birthed in us.

- Me, A Battleground? -

Do the saved then have both the spirit and the flesh? Yes. It is very important that we begin to understand that there is a war going on for the territory of our mind.

"For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things the ye would." -Gal. 5:17

There are those who disagree with the idea of dual natures, but what do we do with the scripture? Though men may reason that God would only have the spirit nature in His children, God has spoken clearly in His Word. The two natures are contrary to one another.

- What To Do? -

What is a person to do then who has two natures? He will act according to which nature is strongest at any given moment. Our hope is that every believer will do according to the spirit, but the humbling truth is that many times we fail, don’t we? No one is above stumbling into sin and it is the flesh that propels us to it.

Now, since the flesh still remains, is sin to be taken lightly?

Never! Sin is always a bad choice with bad results. God, like any good Father, wants His children to be obedient. The saved should then view the flesh as a troublemaker – not an old friend. Believers are commanded to walk according to the spirit. This is given to the saved as a command because obedience is not automatic.

"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart…" -Ephesians 4:17-18

Paul understood that the unsaved had no choice but to be an alien from God by their ignorance of spiritual truth. He also understood that though the saved have been taught spiritual truth, they still needed to be commanded to think spiritually.

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." -Ephesians 4:22-24

We need to emphasize that the flesh cannot please God and the spirit cannot sin. All our attempts to modify and rejuvenate the flesh are wasted effort. What believers need so much to do is to concentrate on building up the spirit, since this nature will never fail to lead us in God-pleasing choices. The spirit cannot sin because this new nature is the seed of God in us. The new nature of the saved is created by God in righteousness and true holiness. The spirit is unchangeable, and flawless!

On the other hand, the old man of the flesh will not change either. He was the boss for a long time. He still wants to be. We will be ruled by him as long as we give in to fleshly desires. Some well meaning people believe that those who are really saved cannot be trapped in a sinful lifestyle. Such error promotes all sorts of insecurities and short-sighted understanding of the Bible and the Christian life.

- Take Heed! -

The fight between the old man and the new man will not cease until we have been delivered from this life on earth. Until the ultimate deliverance from the pull of the flesh, let all of us humbly acknowledge that in our weakness, the flesh can win. We may have entered positionally into spiritual life, but the temporary state in any moment may be weakend by the flesh. Let every man who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall. Better, higher, more trained and more gifted ones than we have fallen into the lusts of the flesh.

"This I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." -Galatians 5:16

The church at Corinth ran into a string of blistering rebukes from Paul’s letters for its carnality. Yes, there are carnal saved people. Those who are saved and are overtaken in a fault are to be restored by spiritual ones. The role of spiritual people then is to restore the weak, not to condemn them. The restoration is to be carried out in a spirit of meekness, lest even the strong should be tempted in the same way.

"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." -Galatians 6:1