Over the past few months my thoughts have been focused on the idea of putting off the natural man. A number of scriptures jump out at me from the church website:
Natural Man
See also Born Again, Born of God; Carnal; Fall of Adam and Eve
A person who chooses to be influenced by the passions, desires, appetites, and senses of the flesh rather than by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Such a person can comprehend physical things but not spiritual things. All people are carnal, or mortal, because of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Each person must be born again through the Atonement of Jesus Christ to cease being a natural man.
I’ve been thinking about this area to try to understand the carnal nature and natural man to see what else I can do to put my life more in alignment with Heavenly Father. It comes to me that man has a nature, but so too does God. The list of scriptures describing His nature is long. So putting off the natural man does not mean not having a nature, but rather exchanging our carnal nature for His eternal nature.
I tend to think simply, and so I try to wrap big ideas up into simple ways to think about them. As a result the following thoughts are my simple way of considering how I need to transition to put off man’s nature in favor of God’s nature.
I think from day to day I find myself living a mix of these three statements, but my task is to try to supplant the first more and more with the second. Then I need to continue toward the third. In the first I put little thought into my decisions. In the second I actively (consciously) work to bend my will to His. In the third, I again need little work since my will and His are the same. In the first my nature is carnal. In the third, it is Christ-like.
Natural Man
See also Born Again, Born of God; Carnal; Fall of Adam and Eve
A person who chooses to be influenced by the passions, desires, appetites, and senses of the flesh rather than by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Such a person can comprehend physical things but not spiritual things. All people are carnal, or mortal, because of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Each person must be born again through the Atonement of Jesus Christ to cease being a natural man.
- The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:14.
- The natural man is an enemy to God and should be put off, Mosiah 3:19.
- He that persists in his own carnal nature remaineth in his fallen state, Mosiah 16:5 (Alma 42:7–24; D&C 20:20).
- What natural man is there that knoweth these things, Alma 26:19–22.
- Natural or carnal men are without God in the world, Alma 41:11.
- Because of his transgression, man became spiritually dead, D&C 29:41.
- Neither can any natural man abide the presence of God, D&C 67:12.
- And man began to be carnal, sensual, and devilish, Moses 5:13 (Moses 6:49).
I’ve been thinking about this area to try to understand the carnal nature and natural man to see what else I can do to put my life more in alignment with Heavenly Father. It comes to me that man has a nature, but so too does God. The list of scriptures describing His nature is long. So putting off the natural man does not mean not having a nature, but rather exchanging our carnal nature for His eternal nature.
I tend to think simply, and so I try to wrap big ideas up into simple ways to think about them. As a result the following thoughts are my simple way of considering how I need to transition to put off man’s nature in favor of God’s nature.
- I do my will because it is my will.
- I do His will because it is His will.
- I do His will because it is my will.
I think from day to day I find myself living a mix of these three statements, but my task is to try to supplant the first more and more with the second. Then I need to continue toward the third. In the first I put little thought into my decisions. In the second I actively (consciously) work to bend my will to His. In the third, I again need little work since my will and His are the same. In the first my nature is carnal. In the third, it is Christ-like.
RSS Feed