How often do we confuse the human/sin nature of a person with the person him/herself? I do far too often. When I do, I can easily feel betrayed or in contrast, judge someone too harshly. There is a very clear and important difference between a person and their sin nature. One can be redeemed while the other can only face death. However, I don’t always remember this and have paid the consequences of each extreme. Perhaps you can learn from what I’ve learned the hard way.
John’s words about Jesus’ inner thoughts as He worked with people left a powerful impact when I first wrestled with this matter. John recorded Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. [NLT2 he knew human nature]. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. (John 2:24-25, NIV). To be candid, I kind of gasped at what this verse said about Jesus. How could He be a servant to men, not trust them enough to give Himself to them and yet not make them feel rejected? After all, He later was crucified on their behalf. This verse said to me man didn’t kill Him until he lowered this wall of defense between Himself and humanity. They killed Him only when He finally removed that wall. Until that time, He was in total control of how much He would allow man to get into His mind, emotions or body. That is profound!
We later read of Paul who wrote he had “no confidence in the flesh [sin nature]” (Philippians 3:3). I will be healthier, as will others, when I learn to pattern my relationships with people as Jesus and Paul did. But how? How can I distrust people’s sin nature without rejecting people? How can I love someone whose nature I cannot trust?
God cannot save the sin nature, but He can save a person from it. “God so loved the world”—the world of people, not their sin nature. Paul described this difference working within himself when he wrote, I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t (Romans 7:18, NLT2). It helps us to manage our expectations of others when we are careful to remind ourselves of this critical difference. Parents manage their expectations all the time with their children in how they deeply love yet deal with naughtiness and sometimes hurtful words by seeing them as childish irresponsibility. Imagine how disastrous it might be if a parent expected their child to act like an adult. Paul touched on this matter when he wrote the man without the Spirit [with only the sin nature] does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14, NIV).
We all too often judge a politician (or anyone) as a bad person by the choices their sin nature leads them to make, instead of realizing the person is only doing what a normal person does when driven by their sin nature! To do otherwise would be like blaming a blind person for being blind. Jesus didn’t judge sinful people for their blindness but instead showed his love for [people] in that while [they] were still sinners, [He] died for [them] (Romans 5:8, ESV). How might we show God’s love to blind sinners—even family members or politicians. People can be redeemed!
Paul saw himself with a sin nature and wrote who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin (Romans 7:24-25, (NIV). Seeing himself in that light enabled him to see others in that light and thereby saved from an enormous amount of anger and frustration. Can you imagine how seeing through a lens like this can liberate you from self-condemnation as well as enable you have a better relationship with those ruled by their sin nature?