The question we are dealing with is, Does the Christian have orle, or tslo natwes; has the

old ulnr been emdicated, or not? I believe there are two keys that unlock the saiptr:r'al answer. The cne is the doctri,:ne of the two men,and the sther is the doctrine of poeition. Firet, we shatrl esnsider the trro men--the two Adams who mnstitute the foundation of all God's dealings
r*"ith humanity.

I. TffiE DOSMTINE OF THE TWO MEN.."THE flft,Sf MAN"--When "the first man, Adarn," si:rned, he died positianally--totally dead to God: spirit, soul, and bdy. Thereafter his position was m.an:fested in his c*ndition; he began to die *xpiendatly" ln God's mercli, it was some ?00 F*ars bef*r* Adqnn fully experienced the in*rital-l* sur**ffie of his position of death.

Adam, as head of the human race, took all of humanity int* ihai p*sition of death. " In Ad.am all die" (I Crr. l"S:22). AIl in Adam have his life and rberefcre are "by nature the children of \firrath" {[ph. t:3]. The Ad*rnic life is the Bourca af sin in 1'e:T-sne, whether unsaved or saved (Rom. 5:12).
Bue *o the fall, A.lam beeame "flesh"--nat only in M.3', but in soul and spirit as well. "My Spirit s&eJJ rrot always *triue witlz man, for ttwt lw alao r* fresh' (Gen. 6:3). Hence, the race spawned by Adam and Eve is "flesh.u "Thnt whith i* born of tlz* flesh ia flesh" (.Iohn 3:6). It is not that the nat'ural r:!an has flesh, or is in the condition of f?esh; he is {lesh.

P*ul wrcte, For I krww tlwt. in me {that is, in my thing" (Rom. 7:18). Note *'ell that he said "*y" flesh. As a believer Paul

was mdwelt by his Adamic [ife, the old man, and

he assumed full responsibilitl' for his sinful

actions.

In his position Paul was not "in the flesh," but "in Christ Jesus." Still, in his condition his
Adandc life was present $dth him, and he owned full responsibility for its sinfulness. He said, "Whatsoeuera mon sowet'h, tlwt shallhe olsa rffip. For he thilt soweth ta hia flesh shall af tfu flesh rcap mrruption" (Gal. 6:7,8). He also said that the believer wiil, at the Bema, suffer loss for the fleshly deeds done in the body.

first Adam sinned and became mortal flesh, he was superseded by the spiritual Last
Bacause the

Adam,

the "new il'Ian." This constituted

condemned Adarn the "old man." The fallen Adam is the old man, he is the flesh; he possesses a

sinful nature. One courplete man.

Thc \Yord speaks of the activities of the old man, both in the unsavcd and the saved, as "the rYill of the flesh, the dcsircs of the flesh, the rvorkinge of the flesh, the wisdom of the fiesh, the purnlcsss of the flesh, tbe rvarring of the flesh, the glorying of the flesh," It also refers to those rviro "rvalk eccording to the fle sh, after tha flesh, and make a fair etrorv in the flesh." Her.e we have the personification of the old man--identically manifested before and after one's salvation.

A rnan is e substantive entity, a perrcn- The mits, or characterisfics, of B rtran are nonsubstantive, and comprise his nature. A nature is s compoeition of attributeo, and is not to be considered n substantive entity' Some of the "pooitive" fieshly characteristies of the old man, aspects of the old nature, ffie love, joy, peacen
I

ongsuffe"ing, gentlenes s, goodne ss, faithfulne

s,

meeKness, ano se[-control. HolYever lovely, tnese

are but fleshly facsimiles of the firuit of the Spirit.

On the other hand, some of the negative fleshly characteristics of the old man, aspects of that same old nature indwelling every man, are " adultery,fornieation, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolahry, hatred, strife, jealousy, unzth, factions,

seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,

dnrnkenness, revelings, and the like."

Beautiful and beneficial

as the

positive

cha:acteristics of the flesh may be, all, including L;th the positive and the negative, are rejected of *,:C. \t'h1'? Because their source is the condemned i:iruc iife. For "in me (that is, in my flesh) j;'ill*ih no gccC thing."

TIJE SECO\T }L}i'" (the Last Adam)--Who can ::.'.' ::rt the Lord Jesus has fivo natrrres? And if :r.':, r:i';res. t;'0 lives: He is the Son of God, and -; li:* S.rr c': ]lan. He is perfect God and l* \f-'-'- - -rrrri :-{;-:r-" -rr h3postaric union--the oneness of =

3'
lr'-

-U

! lz -rl$Il.

The, blessed aspeets

of the lord Jesus' divine-

buuan life and nature ara His love, His joy, His p:ace, His longsuffefug, His gentleness, His
g+sdness, ftris faithfulness, His meekness, and His

seif-control. All positive--no negative. He rvas and is, and ever shall be, impeccable.

[I. THE DOCTBINE OF PCSITION..HM

FOSITION FACf0B--Consider the believer's positional history. Before antthing was brought into being--the universe, the world, Adam--I, a chosen, elect, and called person was conceived in
Father's heart and purpose (See Eph" 1:4,5; 2 Tim. L:9; Ps. 139:16.)
m1"

and created Adam to be head of the human race fm that world. I was identified positionally with the sourice of hunanity. When Adau' sinned aud thereby positioually died to God, I died in hirn. When he became flesh, I becane Ilesh in hirn. When he was condemned I was condemned iB

My Father called the world into being,

him.

?he rejected old Adam \ras rreplaced by the accepted new Maa, the Last Adam. When the Father sent His only begotten $on into the world He subjectsd rlim to the death of the Closs in order to rescue me &om rny Adamie death,
because He loved me as His chosen one from all

etenrity.

While the Lamb of God was on the C\,oss, my Father laid all my as-yet-trncomnitted sins upor Him, and His death for those sins fued me foom their penalty. While the [.ord Jesus was on the same Chss the Father id.entifred rtre, in my Adamic life of sin, with His Son who was made to be that sin (2 Cor. 5:21). Ia Him, I died unto sin. [, the sinful one, was aot fmgiven--my sins were forgiven, but not the cld rnap, the source of those sins. "M send,irtg His awn,Son in t?w lihsnfisa of sinful flesh o,nd for sin,eondcrnrr,d sin in tlw flesho (Rou. 8:3). I was uot forgiven in order to start all over as a first-Adam petisoa. No; "I was rucified with Christ.* I died unto sin in Him" In that death I was positioaally separated foom my Adamic life, the souree of sin. The l"ord Jesus' death for me rredeemed me foomthe penalty of my sins; my positional death with Him freed me from the condemned Adamic life and its reign.
As "his (God's) worhanship, (newly) created in Chdst Jesus" (Eph. 2:10), I naay be progressively &eed frrm the rreien of indwellinn Adamic sin in

t.I'tjl t,(rLl,l.&LUrVU, gD I lg\rAlrtl

sh but alive unto ffi in Christ (fiom 6:11).

.llrJ$trlt

tlgtllt.I JJltl,ggrl I

MY ESSH\ITIAL IDBIIITF My Father, in eternity pa*, formed me positbnally as an individual in His mind. He fomed me ectually
(mndition), at a later date, in my mother's womb. Tte fall did not trnmake me as a man, a particular person; my newbirth does not unmake me as that man. What is inhinsic to my personhood I never lose; my identity is never changed.
TYhatever cha4ge I pass thruugh in my new birth as to spirit and soul, whatever change awaits my

body at the Baptrre, I shall rever lose my essential identity with who my Father c,onceived me to h before the foundation of the worl{ IVIy sucifrxion with the Lond Jesus did not afrect my unique identity as newly created in Christ Jesus. Eather, it deshoyed positionally all that I was in
the fleshly Adam. "Behol4 old things are passed away,u positionally.

Somans 6S sets forth doctuinally, and positionally, what happened to me as identified

with the Lord Jesus in His death unto sin on the Closs. Paul wrote, "Krwwing this, thfrt our old, nwn was cnrcifud with Hitn, tlwt tlu of sin mtght b dpstrcyd, thnt lwnrefarth we slwuld, wt

Berae sin."

I, the old Adamic rnnpr was mrcifi,ed with Him, that the body of sin Gin in tota) might be destnoyed, condemned in death-not forgiven. I the sinful one was ondemned in the death of the Chss in ornder that I night be re-crreated in the risen life of the Last Adam.
SliF-NATLIRISIW--Before goiqg on with our pmitional hirto*y, we shall deal briefly with the
*cae-nahre"
errcr. The teaching ofthe eradication

oI the old man" Is

wrong understanding of Romans 6:6, mainly through the inJluence of Arminian and Covenant theology. Here is where the growing number of those who r:eject or misunderstand positional ruth have falter.ed and fallen.

centred

in a

The sriptural contexl of Romans 6:1-10 is

positional, judicial. The "one natur" teaching views verse 6 as experiential and actual. Hence, it is rnaintained that the old man is actually rucifred and gone--eradicated. Yet this view adm.its to indwelling sin in the believer. Some say it is a residual inJtruence from the pre-salvation life, along with accumulated habits. Therefore, some advocate the forming of new habits to counteract and replace the old sinful ones. This is
a fomn of legalisny'behaviorism.

Obher "one-nature" prcponents insist that while the old man is eradicated, and the body of sin actually desfooyed, sin rem,ains in the believer. This "energy force" of sin then ivorks through the soul, with the permission of the will. (It seems to be forgotten that the man in Romans Seven was willing with all his might not to sinl) Sin working thrcugh the soul and body is referred to as the

"condition of flesh."
But the Wonl teaches that "fle sh" is a peraon, not

a confition. "Fathers of our flesh" (Heb.

12:9)

pruduce progeny of flesh. Belief in the eradication of the old man tends to relieve the Christian of much of his responsibility concerning the activity of his fleshly {damic life. He is wont to place the blame on Satan, ffid upon tendencies developed

prior to salvation.
This is the trux of the matten it is not possible for the eource of sin (the old man) to be eradicated,

while retaining sin itself. Effect must have a

ffirr*e: If you have sin, you have its sotrrce, i.e., *e Adamic old man. Paul exhorts the believer to *pr* off..Jhe old man, which is cormpt aeording ts the deeeidul lusts " (Eph. 4:22). He does not tell the believer to put off what is not in residenee!
"He that hath the Son, hath [ife; he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:12). On the

other hand, He that hath the Adamic old man, bath sin; he that hath not the Adamic old man, hath not sin.
Back Bow to our positional history. Positionally fued fram the Adamie life through my death unto sis i:r the Lord Jesus, the Father was at liberty to i**nffi the es*ntial me with His Son, srd in His re*Irl:rectioa I was re-mated, alive unto C'od in f,*s- SflLea He arose, "the beginning of the (new) reaeim. of Crod" (Bev. 3;14), I amse with [Iim in Effis***s sf lif*-a to*ally rrew cneatioa.

1&* tle Ld Jesus, aow Head of the new *wlq reded t* the right hand of His Father,
t{*
:ri*b lli&. The Father, having re*re#se m* ir His Son, raised me up with Him,
tnn& me
and ma& me sit in heavenly places in Him.

I was separated. by death (positionrlly) fuom the Grsfi Adas to be re-mated in union with the t ast Adam in His sucifixion, burial, resurection and ascensioa" ln Him I became a totallyne\r creation. Old Adamie things positionally passed away in the death of Calvary. In my condition, they are passiqg away as I grow spiritually. Acttrally, they will totally and eternally pass away at my death *r atthe Rapturre--whicheven comes frEt. Even so, srae t ord Jesus!
There

I *m in my position, uHd with Christ in

*&d." In the Lord Jesus,

Seloved, complete

I am accepted in the

in IIim, entirely sanctilied in

Him, perfect in Him. All of that, and morr, has been held in spiritual escrrw ever since the One rvho is my Life ascended to the right hand of the father. All hnd ta be mmpletd psitionally beforc
a single Christian er,sted* bemuse Chnationity rs faunded uryn the finixhed work of the IndJesus Clzrist.

fF{S CO}i-SffiON FACI'OR--Born into

this world in the life and image of the first Adam, I grew up a cond.emned sinner, dead in trespasses and sins. In His own time and purpose the Father called me, and by FIis grace tr responded in faitb, responsibly accepting the Lord Jesus as rny Saviour. At that moment the Holy Spirit, by His indwelling, brought the life of the Lord Jesus to be my Christian life. Then and there I entered into my position as a new seation iu the Last Adam, with my old Adamic life stiU abiding in my body of mortal flesh. Remove that life and the Adamic b*dy dies, for both unsaved and saved.

In the Spirit's tirne, I

came

to realize the

pcsitional facts in the lVord concenring me. I sarv that I had died unto sin at the Cross, cntcified with the Lard Jesus. In tirno I learned not to strugglc against the old man within, but to count by faith upon the pooitionel truth of the Cboss: I as a new crcation had been taken out of the flesh, and been re-reat*d in union with the risen Lord Jesus, seated at the Father's right hand in glory. Abide atrcve!

As I reckon my new self positionally dead unto sin, the Holy Spirit progrcssively applies that finished position to my gryowing condition' I experience step by step the freedom fnrm the rcign of indwelling sin that was n'rought at Calvarl'. My condition begins to conforot to its
sourre, nny position.

-*.*'*'ise, reckoning upon my position as "alive ;:1i0 God in Christ Jesus," the Holy Spirit centerc m1' heart and mind upon the One who is my Christian life. As I behold Him by means of the \ford, in personal fellowship and worchip, the

Spirit develops that completed life with evernreasing growfh, slowly conforming me to the
mage of the Son.

At the Rapture, I will receive my renewed body, Iike His glorious body. Then, but not until then, ml' body of mortal flesh \yill be instantly nansformed into my spiritual body. The old man *'ill finally be eradicated, and I will be in eternal r,:ndition what has been my position since my teath and resuntction in Hirn at Calvary--yes, snce My Father formed me in His heart in *lernity past.