“Our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin” (Romans 6:6). Many a Christian thinks that to be thoroughly orthodox he must believe that not only every sinner but also every Christian has a sinful nature.
Therefore, regardless of his spiritual progress, he must carry this sinful nature with him as long as he lives. It logically follows that he believes release from this inward enemy comes at death; and so in this way he identifies his sinful nature with his physical body. Perhaps this is not exactly what he believes, but since he is holding the wrong premise from the beginning, it is the only logical conclusion he can reach.
The general idea in the minds of many believers, then, is something like this: a sinner already has a sinful nature; when that sinner is saved, he receives a new nature (this makes two natures plus his humanity); he is also a partaker of the divine nature which is Christ (this makes four); and in addition, such a one is sometimes influenced by the devil. Therefore, in or about the believer are five natures! Can this be possible? No! It is altogether too complicated and utterly ridiculous.
He has arrived at the wrong conclusion by thinking of man as having a sinful nature. Herein is one of the main errors in Christendom. If in his thinking he begins wrong, then all his conclusions will be also wrong. The wrong idea about man’s sinfulness and man’s nature limits a Christian’s experience and fruitfulness.
A sinner, then, does not have a sinful nature; he is sinful. We all see the difference, I trust, between having something bad and being something bad. If it were just a matter of having an evil nature, then it would be almost the same as saying, “I’m all right: but this thing I inherited from my father Adam, and that I carry about with me, is sinful.” To such reasoners, the only hope seems to be either to have this sinful nature extracted, or finally at the end of the earthly life to lay this evil intruder aside in death. The whole trouble with this attempt at a solution to the question is that on the one hand it is impossible to have one’s nature (the real you) extracted; and, on the other hand, not many of us are willing to die just yet. On the contrary, we want to live, and we want to live in Christian victory and fruitfulness.
Many have the idea that belief in two natures is synonymous with orthodoxy. But a careful search of the Scriptures will give no support to the idea of man’s nature as a separate entity. Man is a unitary being. If not, he is a schizophrenic! Neither of the two main passages which deal with inner conflicts (Romans 7 and Galatians 5:16-26) mentions the word nature. The reason for this is that Paul is not describing a person with two natures (one good and one bad) which must co-exist until the grave. He is speaking of a person who must make a definite choice to walk either “in the Spirit” or else “after the flesh.”
From “The Cross and Sanctification” (or “Three Aspects of the Cross”) by T.A. Hegre.
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