Does a Christian Have Two Natures? ( . . . Continued)

"To be a Christian is not only to know or believe something. To be a Christian is a definite experience wherein one renounces his own life and then trusts in Christ and His finished work. For anyone who is willing thus to renounce the devil and all sin and who chooses to be grafted into Christ, the Holy Spirit will perform the necessary grafting, delivering him out of the false vine, Satan, and grafting him into the True Vine, Christ.

". . . At the Fall, divine life went out and satanic life came in; in redemption, satanic life goes out and divine life comes in, for through God's precious and exceeding great promises we become 'partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust' (2 Pet. 1:4).

"Yet, even with Christ indwelling him, the born-again soul still has his own personal human nature with its appetites and desires. But we never have two natures -- that is, two personal natures. All the way through, we have our human nature related either to the devil or to God. Thus, all who are grafted into Christ, whether babes or mature souls, partake of Christ's nature, for 'he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit' (1 Cor. 6:17).

"However, full consciousness of what is ours (by virtue of our having been delivered from the false vine and having been grafted into the True Vine) does not dawn upon us all at once. Then too, just after the transfer from the false to the True Vine, there may be sour sap . . . still in the branch. But as surely as the branch grafted into the vine draws its sap from the new source, so surely will the upsurge of the life of Christ drive out all the sour sap that may have been in the branch.

"A full consciousness of what we have in Christ, a complete reliance on Him, and a receiving of the upsurge of the new life -- all these will bring about the crisis of sanctification. And sanctification is not only a proper relationship to Christ but identification with Him in a full and complete union. The result will be that 'made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification' (Rom. (6:22).

". . . Some will ask, 'Does this mean that we cannot sin anymore? If a Christian does not have a sinful nature, what would there be in him to tempt?' The answer is that our Lord had no sinful nature and He too was tempted (though He did not sin). As we have said previously, of course we can be tempted and of course we can sin. Adam, fresh from the hands of God, had no sinful nature, yet was tempted (and sinned).

"We are tempted through our natural appetites, not through a sinful nature. Our appetites are not sinful in themselves, for they have been given to us by God; but unless they are controlled by the Holy Spirit, they will become sinful. Just as a branch, even while grafted into a true vine needs the constant care of a gardener, so must we be cared for, guarded, guided by the Holy Spirit. We must deny any desire or craving for something not consistent with the Vine in which we abide.

"That the old man is not only crucified but dead and buried is positionally true for every Christian (Rom. 6:6). But if we are to realize this blessing in experience, we must individually appropriate it through faith and through surrender of [our]self to the death of the Cross."