THE recent war was made inescapable when Germany, in her towering strength, rejected the treaty of 1839 and marched her army across the neutral zone of Belgium. France and England rushed their forces to the defense, and from that hour onward the once peaceful land of the Belgians became the world's battlefield. Back and forth across her blood-drenched land surged the mightiest military machines the world has ever beheld. Belgium herself, shorn of her protected neutrality, must choose between servitude to Germany and the apparently flickering hope of victory and freedom through affiliation with the allies.

The soul of the believer is involved in an experience not unsimilar to that of noble Belgium's. Through subtleties, the enemy gamed an entrance unto the soul's territory, violating its neutrality and demanding subjection. With the incoming of the New Nature at regeneration, the soul has truly become, as has been said, "the field of battle where the armies are ever ready to encounter." It is this inner conflict, so familiar to all yet so generally misunderstood, that we are to consider in this study.

THE first thing that we observe in the study of the Scriptures on this conflict is that it is a conflict with an evil nature, not simply with evil deeds or with the soul itself. To say that the soul is engaged in a warfare with evil deeds is a thoroughly inadequate explanation. Deeds, whether good or bad, cannot exist apart from a doer of deeds. There must be back of every act that is righteous a righteous nature, and back of every act that is evil an evil nature. The evil tendencies which are so apparent in us all point to a root of evil which is vitally connected with the soul of man. The deeds are the fruits of which the nature is the seed. Speaking of this nature and of its method of functioning, the Lord Jesus said:

"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man" (Matt. 15: 19-20).

Here the word "heart" is used, as it is many times in the Scriptures, to refer to that nature in man which is the source of all his evil deeds. The thing which is capable of being defiled is the man himself, i. e., the soul. The Pharisees, in their superficial thinking, maintained that it was the filthiness of the body which polluted the soul, but Jesus pointed out that it was a corrupt and corrupting  nature within which defiled the soul. Four things are  designated in this passage and distinguished one from another: The evil nature (called "the heart"); the fruits of the evil nature (called "evil thoughts"); the soul (called "man"); and the body (referred to by "unwashen hands"). It is not with the evil thoughts or with the defiled body that the soul is in conflict. the soul is in conflict with the evil heart. Here is where the cleansing must take place.

It is also an unsatisfactory analysis to say that th« soul is in conflict with itself. This is manifestly impossible. It is true that in the lost man the soul is inseparably linked to the "old nature," nevertheless, it is not the soul itself. The soul was created by God; the nature was infused by Satan into the soul of Adam and has been transmitted to every son of Adam to the present time. David is bold to declare, "In sin did my mother conceive me." He was not deceived by the philosophy of that dav into the belief that man by nature is the recipient of a divine nature — a philosophy which is being readily accepted by men of our day— but he realized that he (the soul) was begotten with a wicked and corrupt nature. Furthermore, the passage which we have quoted above from the Gospel of Matthew reveals that the "man" which is defiled and the "heart" from which proceeds the corrupt thoughts are two separate and distinct entities. It is with this evil "heart" not with itself — that the soul is in constant conflict.

That man is in conflict with an evil nature which is wedded to him, yet existing in a way distinguishable from the soul, becomes radiantly clear when we consider the soul's experience after regeneration. In Ephesians 4:22 the Apostle Paul brings this exhortation to believers:

"That ye (souls) put off... the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts."

Here the soul, in its experience, becomes separated from the nature which works "deceitful lusts." We have, then, the ego, the nature, and the lusts. Another passage which is even clearer on this point is Colossians 3:9:

"Lie not one to another, seeing that ye (souls) have put off the old man with his deeds."

Again we have the same three things set forth: The soul, the "old man," and the "deeds."

It is with this nature that man is essentially in combat according to the Scriptures. And it is on this point that the Modernist is so determinedly in opposition to the Word of God. Man has a "better nature," he urges, and repudiates with scorn the idea that man has a nature which is of itself incurably corrupt. The so-called evil deeds of man. are but the outgrowth of an animal ancestry and of his unfortunate environment. Man, so says this philosophy, has been struggling against the two factors of heredity and environment for untold millenniums and is gradually making his "ascent through Christ." But Bible light thrown on the subject reveals that instead of the natural man having a "better nature," all he possesses is an "evil nature" which he received, not in creation, but in transgression; and instead of man soaring upward, he is rapidly drifting downward.

THE soul's conflict with the old nature is greatly intensified with the incoming of the new nature at regeneration. Up to the time that the soul has been born again through faith in the Lord Jesus, the old nature has things very much his own way. He is the "ruling tyrant" to which the soul is in complete subjection. Except where the lost man. is under the testimony of the Word of God, and is being deeply convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, there is little conflict within. Under such circumstances, the soul may boast of a certain calmness and satisfaction even when he is committing the vilest sins. It is for this reason that many a hell-doomed sinner, whose conscience has been dulled by the old nature, is utterly unawakened to the need of peace with God. As the false prophets of Israel were prophets of peace where God had said there would be no peace, so the old nature comes to the soul saying, "Peace, peace" (Ezek. 13:10,16). But when the new nature enters the soul's domain, the situation is entirely changed. The soul becomes the battle ground of a real conflict. This is accurately described by the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:17:

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

Two things in this passage reveal the strenuousness of the conflict in the soul of the believer.

The first is that the "flesh" and the "spirit" are battle royal. As will be readily observed by the context, the "flesh" is the old nature in man; and by the use of the same principle in Bible study, the "spirit" will be seen to be the new nature in man (Gal. 5:19-25; Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10). Between these two there is going on a continuous struggle. The old nature fighting the new nature, and the new nature is fighting the old nature. Weymouth renders a portion of this passage: "These are antagonistic to each other." And when it is remembered that the old nature is the personal representative of Satan, and the new nature is the personal representative of Christ, we can clearly see how intense is the contest, and how unrelenting are the natures which are engaged in it. Satan has always been opposed to Christ, and since the fall of man and the giving of the promise of the "Seed" which should come, the severity of the encounter has been augmented. The most outstanding story of the Bible, traceable in every page, is the story of the conflict between Satan and the "Seed of the Woman." Though Satan's doom was sealed at the Cross, he is still waging his warfare, — a warfare which will find its culmination in the blasphemous reign of Antichrist upon the earth during the Great Tribulation. The soul of the believer is the seat of one of the most important phases of this battle. Day after day the battle continues; the "flesh" is in opposition to the "spirit" and the "spirit" to the "flesh."

The second thing in this passage which throws light on the intensity of the combat is the fact that the soul is the territory for which both the "flesh" and the "spirit" are struggling. The three entities mentioned are: the "flesh" (old nature); the "spirit" (new nature); and "ye" (the soul). Because of these contending forces, the "ye" (the soul) cannot do the things which it would. A soul with the absolute power of choice has never existed since the fall of Adam. Adam, before his transgression, did have the power of choice without any inner influence to lead him one way or the other. But since that time there has not been among men what could be called, in the strictest sense, a "free moral agent." Every man is under an unfluence. The lost man has but one inner power influencing him — the old nature. The redeemed soul has two forces operating upon him — the old nature and the new nature. The believing soul never makes a choice apart from the operation of these two natures. He either listens to the old man and yields to his power, or hearkens to the wooing of the new man and abandons himself to his will. The very fact that the soul is the territory for which both the "flesh" and the "spirit" are struggling is a revelation of how intense the battle appears to the soul itself. It is, therefore, not uncommon for a saved man who does not understand the conflict which is going on in his soul, nor the pathway of victory, to become so discouraged in the battle as to almost wish that he had never accepted the Saviour. The conflict is real. No armies of earth ever met together with more determined antagonism than exists in this battle between the old nature and the new nature, between the "strong man" and the "stronger man."

IN OUR search for an understanding of the conflict of the believer with the old nature it is important for us to note carefully that the conflict is with a master strategist whose goal is rebellion and whose chief weapon is deceit. The believer is not wrestling against human intelligence ("flesh and blood") but against spirit beings of much superior wisdom and power ("against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the' host of wicked spirits in the heavenlies" Eph. 6:11 R. V.). The old nature is one of the invisible and superhuman powers which Satan has set in array against the child of God. So fully identical in power and wisdom with Satan is this nature that the Lord Jesus calls him the offspring of Satan (John 8:44). All that the devil is, in malignant power and wisdom, the old nature is. Whatever, therefore, we find in the Word of God concerning Satan is equally true concerning the old nature. The one is a replica of the other.

The goal of the old nature is rebellion. Those who have not been born again and are therefore unchangeably under the control of the old nature are called "the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2; Col. 3:6). That spirit in man which calls out for "independence" has nothing of good in it — it is the spirit of the old nature. Satan, so we are told in the Word of God, was the leader in a great rebellion against God. The old nature likewise is settled in his determination to produce rebellion. And when the soul has been born again he does not resign his post, but seemingly his purpose to produce unwillingness becomes more unalterable.

The rebellion which the old nature seeks to produce in the soul of the believer is against the Word of God which, of course, is the divine expression of the will of God. Whatever God wants, this enemy is determined that the soul shall not do. And the more definitely the soul sets itself to do the will of God, the more definitely the old nature's activity becomes in seeking to bring rebellion. A young maw, who was for many years a nominal Christian, finally became sufficiently open before the Lord to be dealt with for full-time Christian service. But instead of responding to this blessed call, he listened to his rebellious nature and turned to his own plans. For several years he continued under the control of this rebellion, but at last the Lord Jesus won the battle and he entered definite training for service. Again and again during his school life, as the Word of God in its revealing power began, to cut deep in the soul, a temporary unwillingness gained the ascendancy. But each time the victory was won and unwillingness was turned into willingness. Finally, as the period of training drew to a close, the Lord began to deal definitely with the soul concerning the place where He would have him spend his life, in sacrificial service. The young man again resisted the will of God, and sad to say, continued in that state.

The outstanding thing in this case is that each time God's will became specific the old nature endeavored to work unwillingness in the soul. The illustration could be duplicated many times, and no doubt in the reader's own experience, as he reflects upon the subject, he will find it has been when God sought some specific decision in the life that the rebellion manifested itself. The old nature is the enemy of the will of God; he is the leader in a rebellion against the divine plan for our lives.

We observed, also, that this master strategist had deceit as his chief weapon. The Apostle Paul wrote concerning the devil. "We are not ignorant of his devices." From the standpoint of God's complete revelation of the devil's thinking, we are not ignorant; but from the standpoint of what most Christians know of the Bible's teaching on this subject, ignorance is a most prevalent thing. It is because of this ignorance that the old nature is able so easily to lead astray God's people into disobedience to the Word and will of God. Since this nature is superior to man in intelligence, the only way we can ever hope to understand his devices is through revelation. God has given us this sufficient revelation in His Word so that none need ever be deceived.

The old nature's deceptions can be classified into two groups: Deceptions concerning God and His purposes; and deceptions concerning the old nature itself. The first deception wrought by Satan in man's heart, and the deception which brought our souls into bondage to the old adamic nature, was in the Garden of Eden. There Satan propounded a lie concerning God. In the question, "Yea, hath God said. Ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden.?" he threw out an innuendo that God was trying to withhold something good from man. Had Satan uttered in plain language, the thought which was in his heart, he would have said, "God is such a hard Master that He will withhold something good from you." In the serpent's further statements there was implied the thought that Satan himself was good and his purposes desirable. The old nature follows these two lines of deception in all his dealings with man. He always plays on the same two strings. The lie which deceived Job was concerning the goodness of God. Job listened to the lie that God was unjust and unmerciful in permitting him to suffer. The lie which at one time deceived David was that God had forsaken him (Psa. 38). The lie which led Solomon to drift from God and declare, "Vanity of vanities... all is vanity," was that God was so unjust that He would put a hedge about man in the realm of knowledge. The lie which led the Apostle Paul to become carnal for a, time was that God had given a law with the purpose that man should keep it in his own strength (Rom. 7:14-24). The old nature is always on the job of maligning God. He is also seeking at all times to delude the soul concerning himself. One of his favorite lies is the lie that he is capable of improvement. Christians everywhere are laboring under the delusion that there is something in them naturally which is righteous and all they need is self-development. The "flesh" wants to remove the word "total" from the Bible teaching of "total depravity." He wants man to believe that there is something good in him. But God makes plain that "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). The old nature perverts this and argues for evolution. He will gladly go so far as to put on a cloak of religiousness if he can only keep from the soul the spotless robe of righteousness which is provided in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the super-delusionist; he is, as the Prophet Jeremiah declared, "deceitful above all things, and desperately! wicked." But though he is the quintessence of subtlety, the believer need not fear him for God has fully uncovered every lie which he is capable of uttering. All that the believer need do is to study his Bible and he will be able to say with the Apostle Paul, "We are not ignorant of his devices."

THIS leads us to our concluding point — the conflict of the believer with the old nature can be won through our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God, there is victory, complete victory, glorious victory in the One Who died on Calvary.

Full victory over every deception of the old nature is provided for every believer in the death and resurrection of the Saviour. This provision is seen in the standing which God gives to him the moment he places faith in the Saviour. One of the blessed things in that standing in heaven is the fact that God accounts the believer to be fully identified with Christ in His death and resurrection that the old nature is said to be destroyed. This is set forth in the sixth of Romans:

"Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

"For if we have been planted together in the Ikeiiess of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:

"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve s^n" (Rom. 6:4-6).

By the law of the context, the baptism here spoken of in the Holy Spirit baptism. It occurs in this age simultaneously with the acceptance of the Saviour (I Cor. 12:13). When we are thus buried with Christ and raised with Him our "old man is crucified" and "destroyed." According to this passage, the death of the old nature was complete. And since death in the Scriptures means a separation, the death of the old nature was its separation from the soul.

It is well for us to mark again that the Scripture teaches that the death of the old nature occurred in the standing of the believer before God, not in his state (We mean by the word "standing," the position of the believer before God — what God sees him to be in Christ; and by the word "state" we mean the character of the believer before men — what God sees him to be in his day by day experience on earth. See, on the "standing" of the believer, Rom. 5:1; I Cor. 15;1 II Cor. 1:24; Col. 2:10; Eph. 2:4-6: and on the "state" of the believer, Phil. 2:19-20; Col, 4:7; I Thess. 2:12; Eph. 4:1). The last clause of the sixth verse precludes the idea of the death of the old nature in the state, or walk of the believer here on earth — "that henceforth we should not serve sin" (the word "sin" s used many times to designate the old nature). Unless the old nature exists in our state on earth, the exhortation is a mere waste of words. The meaning simply is that the old nature was destroyed in our standing in order that in our state we might not be in bondage to him. The appeal which is made in the 13th verse increases the clarity of this truth:

"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

"Sin," the old nature, is still so much alive that the Apostle Paul urges us to take a definite attitude toward him. He bids us assume the attitude of unyieldedness to him, and, on the other hand, of yieldedness unto God (the new nature). Not once in this passage, nor in any other passage in the Scriptures, does God give us a hint or suggestion that the old nature will cease to exist in his relation to the soul during the life of the believer on earth. The death of the old nature in the standing is simply God's glorious provision for victory over him in the day by day experience of the child of God. When the Second Coming of Christ occurs the believer is delivered from the afflictions of the body and the temptations of the adamic nature into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, but it is not until the moment of the realization of this "blessed hope" that this liberation takes place.

How may the believing soul who has come to desire a life of victory over the deceitfulness of the old nature, experience the continuous victory which God has provided for him? How may the many defeats, the constant yieldings to the evil nature, the horrid times of rebellion against God, be turned into blessed triumph? The (answer is found in the eleventh verse of the same chapter:

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

I am to reckon myself "dead indeed unto sin." I am to realize that the old nature is still alive in my state (and any believing soul who is honest with himself will be compelled to admit this), but I am to take an attitude of "deadness" to him. I am to be dead to his lies about God; dead to the aspersions which he would cast at the goodness and justice of God; dead to the claims of righteousness in the carnal mind; I am to be "dead indeed unto sin." But this will be utterly impossible unless I learn the rest of this verse, — "but alive unto. God through Jesus Christ our Lord." I am to turn from the habit which I have had of openness to the old nature and learn a new habit of openness to the new man, "which is Christ in you the hope of glory." It is as though I lived in a house into which, from the back door, has been coming the wrangling and strife of a neighborhood quarrel. My own soul has responded to every lust of the flesh as these things have come to my ears. But now I close that door and open the front door through which comes the sunlight, the song of birds, and the perfume of flowers. The strife in my soul turns to peace and quietness. I know full well that my quarreling neighbors are still in the back yard, but I am dead unto them and I am alive to the blessings of God's creation. It is such an attitude as this that the Lord wants me to have as my moment by moment experience. He wants me to close the door to the Satanic nature and open the door to the divine nature which God has implanted in my soul.

Few men of the Christian Church have been so conscious of the intensity of the conflict with the forces of evil and so fully adept in this warfare as was Martin Luther. He gives this helpful illustration of the pathway of victory: "The devil is a proud spirit. He cannot endure contempt. There is no better way to be quit of his temptations than by despising them (as Geroon says), just as when a traveller is attacked by a dog who would bite him; if the traveller goes quietly by, lets the dog howl and bark, and takes no heed of him, the dog does not bite him, and soon ceases to bark." Luther's thought is right. All that is necessary to win in this conflict is constantly to ignore the old nature and be occupied with the Saviour: or, as the Holy Spirit gives it, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."

Try the scriptural plan today and experience the victory which has been provided through Calvary.