Who do you Feed?

John R. Houk

© April 24, 2015

My lovely wife shared a jpg that has an amazing Cherokee parable of wisdom on it. BUT before that parable I want to share the train of thought the parable brought to mind.

So let me start with the first man Adam. Without going into all the relevant data on how Adam sold out his allegiance and devotion to the Creator of all that exists allow me to begin with the fact that Adam rejected the Command of God not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As soon as Adam participated in that consuming fruit from that tree he transferred the authority given to him by the Creator to the Father of Lies – Satan - who had disguised himself as an enticing serpent. Once that authority was transferred to Satan then Adam died just as God told him he would. Death in this sense was eternal separation from God Almighty’s constant Presence and taking the nature of the Satan – Liar, Covetous, Murder, Selfishness, and Wicked Desires and so on. This is known as the Fallen Nature that Adam has bequeathed in spiritual DNA to all his descendants.

Thank God provided a Promise that bondage to a sin nature would not remain forever:

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.¹⁵ And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” (Bold Text Mine - Genesis 3: 14-15 NKJV)

In God’s curse to Satan for instigating Adam’s Fall is a Promise that a child born of a woman will grow up and stomp on Satan’s head. Christians know this Promise is of a Savior to restore humanity to the Presence of God ending the eternal-death separation.

Fast forwarding to the Savior Jesus Christ the son of Mary in the flesh and the Son of God in Divinity. Jesus paid the debt for Adam’s betrayal with his sinless life. God the Father raised His Son to life after three days in a tomb in a new glorified nature which transform all humanity who simply trust in the Resurrection and live the Righteous life taught by Jesus during three years of pre-Resurrection Ministry of telling humanity the kingdom of God is near.

Although finding Jesus oft leads to a release of ecstatic joy realizing the Presence of God is a mere belief away, one finds out soon enough that the only thing Redeemed is one’s human nature. A Believers’ inner man or inner woman becomes a New Creation in Christ Jesus. Christ has not yet Redeemed the earth and physical existence. For humanity that physical nature is the Old Man (or Woman) that the New Man can dominate through faith in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is only one way for the New Man to dominate and essentially eliminate the Old Man. That is to feed the New Man on the Presence of God in Spirit and Truth. Truth is the Word of God which is Jesus Christ the Risen Savior to those who believe.

1 ¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend^[a] it.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 1-5, 14 NKJV)

²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4: 21-24 NKJV)

The point I am working up two Redeemed humanity contends with two inner natures. One is bad and one is good. The Word of God says the Redeemed inner New Man overcomes and does away with the Old Man. BUT that is not an automatic. The automatic is only realized at Christ’s Second Coming. Until then Righteousness triumphs over unrighteousness by practicing Righteousness. The Cherokee Wolf Parable is a good clue for Christians to live Righteousness.

JRH 4/24/15

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¹³ Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰ Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹ I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.²² For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. ²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7: 13-25 NKJV)

Feed Righteousness and you will be Righteous

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? ¹⁷ But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. ¹⁸ And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.²¹ What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6: 15-23 NKJV)