Originally posted by webdog:
I like what A. Clarke has to say in regards to the "natural man". I believe this refers to what we call the sin nature...
Adam Clarke wrote those words in his comments on 1 Cor. 2:14, posted in context below:
12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13. which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual
thoughts with spiritual
words.
14. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
Paul uses the expression “natural man” only once in his writings, so the only internal data that we have to evaluate what he meant by his use of that expression is the context in which it appears. It is very important to notice that Paul is here comparing the “natural man” with the man who is governed by the Holy Spirit. In other places in his epistles, Paul use the term “flesh” to describe the part of man that is in opposition to the Holy Spirit working in his life,
Rom. 8:1. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
3. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God
did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4. so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us,
who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5. For those who are
according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6. For the
mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
7. because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able
to do so,
8. and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9. However, you are
not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
10. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11. But 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.
12. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--
13. for if you are living
according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Gal 5:16. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
17. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
Gal. 6:8. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Therefore, based upon the word of God rather than upon the speculations of men, we can see that the “natural man” is the man who is governed by the flesh, and that the spiritual man is the man who is governed by the Spirit.
Some may ask, “What about the “carnal” Christian? Isn’t he a man who is still dominated by his sinful nature?” In every place in the KJV New Testament where we find the word carnal it is a translation of the cognate adjective of the Greek word σαρκ which is translated “flesh” in the KJV New Testament. Jesus had the part of man that the Bible calls the flesh (σαρχ), but he did not have a sinful nature—and we don’t either. We have the same flesh that Jesus had and by the power of the Holy Spirit he overcame the temptations of the flesh every single time, and he died on the cross that our sins could be forgiven and that we could be justified and receive the same Holy Spirit to overcome the sins of the flesh. No where in the Bible are we promised victory over a sin nature, but we are promised victory over the flesh if we walk in the Spirit,
Gal 5:16. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
Can it be any wonder that Satan would want to confuse people into believing that they have a sin nature since the Bible does not promise victory of a sin nature, but over the flesh? Can it be any wonder that many Christians today are being defeated by Satan by his slight of hand in getting us to use non-biblical expressions for which there are no Bible promises?
And if any of you still believes that the flesh is the old nature, the Bible says,
1 John 4:1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3. and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the
spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
1 Pet. 3:18. For Christ also died for sins once for all,
the just for
the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
Rom. 1:3. concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,
(All Scriptures quoted are from the NASB, 1995)
