Natural and Supernatural Not at War

E. Stanley Jones was a missionary, a theologian, and a prolific writer. In his devotional book titled In Christ he shows how the false nature of sin is dealt with by the real nature of Christ:

"'In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by the putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ.' (Col. 2:11.) Paul had been saying that 'neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.' The dependence upon circumcision and the rights and privileges it brought in a Jewish society should die. In its dying, however, something good comes out of it; it pointed to the circumcision in Christ in the cutting away of the body of the flesh. What does that mean? Certainly not the body (soma); it was looked on as good in Christianity. It must mean the flesh (sarx), the false nature built up by sin, the dissolution of 'sentiments' organized around wrong centers.

"When that false nature is dissolved and replaced by the new nature in Christ, we are truly natural--supernaturally natural. We have put out the Trojan horse filled with enemies and are now no longer allergic to ourselves. We are at home with ourselves because we are at home with God.

"The bodily urges are still there and must be kept in control by the new life, for the leftover drives from the presence of the flesh still linger as a hang-over. The natural urges soon learn their Master's voice and soon learn that the good is good for us and the bad is bad for us, that the natural and the supernatural are not at war--they are both at war with the unnatural sin. They are allies and not aliens.

"If this physical circumcision was of no avail, then the physical baptism mentioned ('buried with him in baptism') would be of no avail. Only a spiritual circumcision and a spiritual baptism would be of avail. 'By one Spirit we are baptized into the body of Christ.' It is the baptism of the Spirit that brings life and renewal. The baptism of the Spirit may occur during physical baptism, or it may not.

"O Jesus, Thou didst come to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. May the alien flesh be cut away in Thy circumcision and may the baptism of the Spirit bring me into union with Thee alone. In Thy name. Amen.

". . . The false nature dies; the real nature lives--in Him."