Punkin is our cat. Wanda still calls her Cinderella. Neither name fits her. She is an assassin. She has killed birds, mice, moles, bunnies, and snakes. She is a predator. Now that doesn’t mean she won’t let you scratch her head and belly until your arm falls off while she purrs like a kitten. But her nature, her character, is a predatory killer.
I have commanded her to stop killing my yard animals, except for the mice and moles. I will look the other way when she brings those corpses to the carport, but the birds, bunnies, and snakes I won’t tolerate.
The other day after she ripped the head off a baby bunny, she told me that she just could not help herself. Something just takes over and she cannot resist. That is what cats do. The only way she can ever change would be to change natures. To become another species of animal. She is right. She is what she is.
Jesus knows Punkin is right. She can’t change her nature. Punkin may act like Cinderella at times, but when a squirrel or bird comes by, she turns back into the wicked step-mother. To act differently, her old nature has to go. Her old sinful nature cannot be tweaked, adjusted, or fixed. The old Punkin has to die. She has to become an entirely different animal if she is to change permanently.
Jesus also knows that we cannot change our old sinful nature either. It has to die as well.
Let me show you what our old sinful nature looks like:
Galatians 5:19-21 NLT-— When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.
That is who we are without Jesus as our life. Religion tries to tame this sinful nature with rules. Be nice. Be good. Don’t drink, cuss, smoke or chew, or go with girls who do. And we can act “nice” like Punkin for a while, until temptation comes… then it’s over. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Galatians 5:17-18 NLT— The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
The old sinful nature has to go if we are to ever be like Jesus. Salvation is an invitation from the Lord to come and die to our old sinful nature and be engrafted and fused into the Life of Christ. Once that happens, everything Christ does, we do with Him. When He died on the Cross, we died with Him. When He rose from the grave, we rose with Him. When He lives, we live with Him. The old us does not exist anymore. We are free from sin that destroys us.
Galatians 2:20 AMP— I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Our old caterpillar existence is gone. Butterflies we are. We have a totally, radically, and completely different nature. Christ’s nature. Our old nature dead, buried, and gone forever.
2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP— Therefore if any person is [engrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
Punkin is a cat. She acts like a cat. It’s her nature to act like a cat. That is who she is.
As a child of God, you act like a child of God. It is your nature to act like a child of God. That is who you are.
Punkin can’t change natures, but you can let Jesus change yours for you. Have you asked Him?
Blessings,
Kenny
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