15
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making
peace;
There is
rebellion and war between the natural man or woman and God.
Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against
God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
The natural
man or woman is incapable of receiving the things that God offers to mankind
through His Spirit.
1Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The “natural
man” who figures so prominently in popular songs from the 1960’s onward as an
ideal is a complete idiot and totally separated from the God who created him or
her and bound for damnation, the natural man’s natural destiny. In popular
culture what started as rebellion against the humanism and power/control games
of the established, organized churches ended up being a glorification of man’s
rebellion against God. Both the unrepentant sinner bound for Hell who glories
in their “natural man” state and the hypocrites in church pulpits and pews who
deceived them shall give an account of themselves before God, I assure you.
When an
unsaved person comes into your church and he learns from you that he must do
such and such or that he must change such and such to be a Christian you are
teaching him pure humanistic self-help drivel. Only God changes a person’s
heart through His words in His Book, read, heard, and preached. It is not an
act of the good intentions of any man. This is why so many people come forward
who desire to be cleansed of drug and alcohol addictions, sexual obsessions,
and a ruined life who never come back to church. Churches in America are simply
good at taking a “natural man” or woman and covering them with a gloss, a
sheen, a veneer of Christian principles and ideals which they have no hope of
claiming as their own, leaving them frustrated and discouraged.
Only when a
new believer is taught to speak to God in prayer and to let God speak to them
and change them through His words daily and often does he have any hope of
being anything but a natural man who is simply now even more confused and
disappointed. In fact, there are even a lot of natural men preaching from
fundamentalist pulpits these days. Their criminal rap sheets for abusing those
weaker than themselves is proof of that.
So, it is
impossible to depend upon either the will or the mind of the natural man or
woman to receive the things of God. God alone, as Jesus Christ, without our
help or assistance, abolished the enmity between us which was proven by our
inability to follow the standards of righteousness which He set down in the
form of the Law given to Moses. Read Genesis 15 to see how God established a
covenant with Abram (Abraham) without Abram’s works other than simply believing
God.
The Law
given to Moses established our inability to do God’s will on our own.
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and
yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Our
inability to obey God is proof that the Law itself leads us to Christ.
Galatians 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to
bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no
longer under a schoolmaster.
Bible
commentator, Matthew Henry, in this eighteenth century commentary on the whole
Bible, said that for verse 14 and 15 that the middle wall of partition was
between the Jew and the Gentile and that this twain, made one new man, was the
Jew, God’s chosen people, the remnant in particular who obeyed the Law and
followed Christ, and the Gentiles who believed, both together being made the
Church, Christ’s body on earth. He also made note of the enmity between God and
the sinner and how Christ reconciled that enmity. Commentator John Gill also
viewed the two or twain as being a reference to the Jew and the Gentile who
believed becoming the Church.
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