"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:6
There is no promise made that we shall be set free in this life from the indwelling and the inworking of sin.
John 8:31-36
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Romans 6:1-2
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Romans 6:6-7
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
Many think that they are to become progressively holier and holier, that sin after sin is to be removed gradually out of the heart, until at last they are almost made perfect in the flesh. But this is an idle dream, and one which, sooner or later in the case of God's people, will be rudely and roughly broken to pieces.
All sin is symptomatic of an underlying condition: the Old Self in control. Only when the Old Self is, by faith, reckoned to be "crucified with Christ" will the Christian begin to come into an ever-increasing experience of godly holiness (as opposed to a fleshly counterfeit of the same).
Romans 6:11-13
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Here, then, is the apostle Paul's "way of escape" (
1 Cor. 10:13):
1. By faith, reckon (count/consider/believe) it so that I have been made "dead to sin and alive unto God in/through Jesus Christ (
vs. 11).
2. Submit myself all throughout each day to the will and way of the Holy Spirit (
vs. 13).
As the born-again believer lives in these things, they discover that the Spirit progressively conforms them to the "image of Christ" (
Ro. 8:29) and as he does, sin necessarily decreases, in time becoming the exception rather than the rule - a condition vital to the child of God truly enjoying fellowship with their heavenly Father (
2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Jn. 1:3; Rev 3:20; Ps. 36:7-9, etc.). "Without holiness no man shall see God" (
He. 12:14b). The man perennially mired in sin doesn't "see" God and so cannot enjoy daily communion with Him. So, then, the Holy Spirit works in the believer to "bring God into focus," which he does by sanctifying their life practically to an ever-increasing degree.
Our Adamic nature is corrupt to the very core. It cannot be mended, it cannot be sanctified, it is at the last what it was at the first, inherently evil, and as such will never cease to be corrupt until we put off mortality, and with it the body of sin and death.
Yes, the Adamic nature is incorrigibly rebellious and sinful (
Ro. 7:18; 8:5-8; Ga. 5:17, Phil. 3:18-19, etc.) which is why God crucified it on the cross of Christ, separating the born-again child of God from their "Old Self," from the controlling power of their old Adamic nature, so that they can live according to their new, Christ-nature and enjoy the wonderful fellowship with God that results from doing so.
Romans 6:3-7
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
Colossians 2:9-13
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
Colossians 3:3-5
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
Galatians 5:24
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 6:14
14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
In light of these things, I am astonished at how grossly mistaken Philpott is.
All we can hope for, long after, expect and pray for, is, that this evil nature may be subdued, kept down, mortified, crucified, and held in subjection under the power of grace;
We are to do more than hope; we are, by faith, to "count it so," to "consider it actually to be the case that," we are "dead unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (
Ro. 6:11)
but as to any such change passing upon it or taking place in it as to make it holy, it is but a pharisaic delusion, which, promising a holiness in the flesh, leaves us still under the power of sin, while it opposes with deadly enmity that true sanctification of the new man of grace, which is wrought by a divine power, and is utterly distinct from any fancied holiness in the flesh, or any vain dream of its progressive sanctification.
No biblically well-informed Christian believes that their "Old Self" can be remediated. See above. Neither does God. And so, He has dealt with the Old Self by crucifying it with Christ and thereby liberating the born-again child of God from its sin-producing power. Again, see above. It isn't really our flesh - that is, our physical forms - that is the problem. Make a person unconscious and their body does
nothing. But animate that body with a consciousness not under God's control, that is separated from Him because of sin and spiritually-unregenerate, and the body enacts all manner of wickedness. It does so, though, in expression of the nature of the consciousness that inhabits it and orders its actions, not in expression of itself. It's important, then, to clarify this, lest one take up a subtle sort of body-hating gnosticism, as Philpott comes dangerously close to doing in his quotation above.
