Volunteering at an area drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, my friend Scott occasionally reminds its residents, “Give up all hope of a better past.” He’s right, we cannot change the mistakes and failures that lie behind us—not to mention the pains suffered at the hands of others—nor must we let them deprive us of a victorious today. Then in a similar vein, let us consider this corollary: “Give up all hope of a better sin nature.” Think of our sin nature—or “flesh,” as the apostle Paul calls it—as the human inclination toward sin. In last week’s post, we beheld this flesh for what it is: hostile to God and non-submissive to Him,1 opposed to the Spirit,2 and bearing rotten fruit.3 This is the nature of our flesh and, like our past, we cannot change it. We can modify our outward behaviors to a certain extent, but we cannot, in our own power, change our heart’s natural proclivity toward sin.
And to this we say, “Good!” For God has a better way: He gives us a new heart, His heart; He gives us new life, His Spirit in us. We should not be surprised, for God preannounced His plan several hundred years before its fulfillment in Jesus’ redemptive work and the sending of His Spirit. Through the prophet Ezekiel God foretold: “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.”4 The Holy Spirit in us would incline our heart toward God’s heart, conform our desires toward His desires, and align our ways with His ways. This was God’s plan, and He has done it. Paul writes to early believers, “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”5 Ah, the proactive love of our initiating God!
Then as God continually transforms us into the image of His Son, what must we do? We recalibrate our hearts and minds. Paul writes the Colossians, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”6 To the Galatians he urged, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh”7 And to believers in Rome, “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that . . . you may discern what is the will of God.”8
“To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace,”9 assures the apostle. Isn’t this what we want?
Father, “teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!”10 In Christ I pray. Amen.
1 Romans 8:7
2 Galatians 5:17
3 Galatians 5:19-21
4 Ezekiel 36:26-27 NLT
5 Philippians 2:13 NLT
6 Colossians 3:1-2 NIV
7 Galatians 5:16 ESV
8 Romans 12:2 ESV
9 Romans 8:6 ESV
10 Psalm 143:10 ESV
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Paul Nordman—Author 