Two Natures

John 3:6,  "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit."

Apparently Sarah thought that God was either unwilling or unable to keep His promise that she and Abraham would have a child, so she decided to help God out.  She gave her handmaid Hagar to Abraham so they could have a child by her, and Ishmael was born.  But Ishmael was Sarah's plan, not God's plan, and it caused much heartache.  After Ishmael was born, Hagar began to despise her mistress, and this greatly distressed Sarah.  After Isaac, the son that God had promised, was born, Ishmael must have been jealous because of the great excitement over the baby.  On the day that Isaac was weaned, Abraham held a great feast to celebrate the occasion.  That day Sarah saw Ishmael mocking Isaac, and she insisted that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away.  This caused Abraham much unhappiness, but when God told him to send them away Abraham obeyed God.

    We can find a spiritual analogy in this story.  Christians have two natures--a fleshly, sinful nature with which all people are born, and a new nature, God's nature, which He gives all people who accept Jesus by faith.  When God gives Christians this new nature, He doesn't remove the old nature, so the two natures reside together and are in constant opposition with each other.  Each person decides which nature will be in control at any time.

    Ishmael, the result of Sarah's plan, represents the old sinful nature, the flesh.  Isaac is representative of the new nature,the spiritual nature, that only God can give, as only God could have given a baby to a couple as old as Sarah and Abraham.  The new nature urges us to put to death the desires of the old nature and be controlled by the Holy Spirit instead.  It was painful for both Abraham and Ishmael to separate, and it is often difficult and painful to give up our old habits and desires.  But, as John Phillips writes,  "That which was born of the flesh must be cast out.  There was to be no compromise, no middle ground.  There must be a complete break with the old nature if the new nature is to develop and occupy all the believer's heart."

Father, help me to give up all the sinful habits of my old, fleshly nature and allow Your Spirit to control my every thought, word, and deed.  Amen.