The Believer's Two Natures

By E. C. Hadley

CONTENTS

• The Believer's Two Natures
• Why Are We So Often Unhappy?
• How Can We Be Sure Of Our Salvation?
• • Case Study #1: Removing doubt
  • Case Study #2: Regaining joy
• Power For Victory Over Sin
• • Understanding our weakness
  • No condemnation
  • Our only source of power

THE BELIEVER'S TWO NATURES

Every child of God has been made a partaker of the divine nature by new birth. This new divine nature implanted in the believer is a sovereign act of God by His Spirit through the Word. So the believer has the same nature in him as is in God. Just as he partook of the fallen nature by natural birth, so in the new birth he partakes of God's nature.

Here's what the Bible says about how the believer acquires this new divine nature:

• "That which is born of the flesh is flesh (the nature we have by natural birth); and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (the nature we have by new birth). Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again'" (Jn. 3:6-7).
• "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures" (Jas. 1:18).
• "Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever" (1 Pet. 1:23).
• "By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4).

This new divine nature that has been implanted in the believer is inseparably bound up with the Person of Christ who is its source. So we read, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 Jn. 5:11-12). And again, "Your life is hidden with Christ in God … Christ who is our life" (Col. 3:3-4).

This new divine nature flows from Christ. He is its fountain head and it has the same qualities and characteristics in the believer as it has in Christ – the same longings and delights. Therefore it can only have freedom when it can act in the believer in the same manner as it did in Christ when He was here on earth.

Some may say that today we are living in different surroundings than those of Christ. When it comes to technology and modern conveniences, this is true. But human nature and human relationships have not changed, and it was in these that the divine nature in Christ manifested itself as He was in constant contact with mankind. It is in these human relationships that the divine nature in the children of God is to find its sphere of activity and service to God and man.

Without being born again – without possessing this divine nature – there is no possibility of any lasting happiness. The worm of conscience gnaws at the roots of all the passing pleasures of the unconverted, and all their pleasures are like the fading beauty of a withering flower (1 Pet. 1:24). "Like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool" (Eccl. 7:6). Even while crackling it is being consumed, to be heard no more. But he who is born of God is brought into eternal relationship with God. He is made a partaker of His divine nature and of His eternal life (Eph. 2:5). Now this divine life in the believer must have activity according to its own nature, according to its own desires and longings to be happy.