Which Dog?

This week, Michael writes that we band together with like-minded believers so that we can "become dust-covered by others who are chasing after Christ." Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have been empowered to be witnesses of the gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Despite the pain and tribulation of a fallen world to sin, our joy and rejoicing is in fellowship with our Heavenly Father, his Son - our Lord Jesus Christ and with like-minded believers in the body of Christ.

Even though we have been saved by grace, we must still contend with the nature of our sinful flesh. Romans 7:14-17 defines every person's battle: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.” When we came to the Savior Christ and accepted the gospel of salvation, we received a new nature of the spirit of life in Christ. However, the battle rages on between the flesh nature that we inherited from Adam and the spirit of life in Christ that we inherited when we converted and were “born again”, a transformation of the heart and regeneration of the spirit within us.  

An old legend says that there are two dogs in the soul of every man. There is a good dog and a bad dog. These two dogs fight for control. The dog that wins is the dog you feed. The dogs are the two natures within the believer. But you may ask, How do you feed the "good dog" of the new nature of life in Christ?  God didn't displace the sinful nature when we accepted Christ. Romans 7 verse 24 says, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this dead body?"  Who shall set me free from the bad dog inside my soul?  The answer to this question is in the next verse and continues in Romans 7:25-8:1 “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.  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The (symbolic) good dog of the spirit of life in Christ will win when we feed him by walking according to the spirit of life in Christ. By the theme of the book of Philippians is "that your joy may be full." Living in the joy of the Lord and in fellowship with like-minded believers is one way that we feed the good dog of the spirit of life.  

Acts Chapter 16 is the record of Paul's missionary journey to Philippi. When Paul and Silas arrived in Philippi, they encountered women who were praying by the river side. One woman named Lydia was an influential business woman who was a seller of rare purple dyed fabric. She and her household were converted to Christianity through Paul's teaching. Paul and Silas also ministered to a slave girl who was possessed by a demon. Her masters made their living by using her to tell fortunes.  Paul cast the demon out of the young girl. Her masters were infuriated because they had lost their means of making a living. They incited a crowd in the city market place, called the magistrates and Paul and Silas were cast into prison. As a Roman citizen, Paul made an appeal to Cesar. He had been wrongfully imprisoned and had been denied his right to due process as a citizen of Rome.

Paul wrote the epistle to the church at Philippi from a Roman prison three years after this record in Acts 16.  He greeted them in Philippians chapter 1 beginning in verse 2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Michael continues that Paul purposed in his heart to complete the work to which God had called him until the day of Christ's return. He longed for fellowship with the believers in Philippi.  

Let's continue Michael's messages on our old and new nature in the next post.

In Christ, Brian