The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation
at
Question
"Is
there such a thing as a Carnal Christian?"
Answer
Yes, in
fact, there is no such thing as a Christian who is not at times carnal. Did you get
that? And if you're saying to yourself,
"I have never been carnal," then, "God
have mercy on you."
But let me
tell you what people mean by that. There
was a definition of a Christian as a Carnal Christian, as if that was a
permanent condition. The people in the
Church used to teach that there were three kinds of people, Natural, Carnal,
and Spiritual. And they would define the
Natural person as unregenerate, unsaved, self on the throne, life in chaos, and
sin everywhere.
Then there
is the Carnal person. What's that? That's the Christian who still has self on
the throne. Christ is still in there
somewhere, running around, but He is not in charge, and the life is still in chaos. So the only difference between a natural and
a carnal person is that Christ is in there somewhere, but the life hasn't
changed.
And then
thirdly, there is the Spiritual Christian.
Self is off the throne, Christ is on it, and the life is all in order. And so people came up with the idea that you
could be either a Carnal Christian or a Spiritual Christian. You know, once you are saved you could say,
"Well, I am going to stay a Carnal Christian, I like it better."
And that brings
in this whole idea of Lordship, because those are the people who accepted Jesus
as Savior, but not as Lord. Those are
the people who said, "I don't want to go to Hell, and I want you to save
me from Hell and I want you to forgive my sins, but I just don't want you to
run my life.
And the old
definition of a Carnal Christian was a person who believed in Jesus for
salvation, but didn't let Him be Lord, and didn't let Him run his life. That's not what a Carnal Christian is. That isn't at all what Paul had in mind in
1Corinthians 3, not at all. Let me show
you what it is.
There is only two kinds of people in the world. My grandfather use to say the
"saints" and the "ain’ts," that's
it, Christians and Non-Christians, Believers and Unbelievers. Now listen, the Natural man is the
unregenerate. The Spiritual man is the
regenerate man. Read Romans 8, the
Spiritual man is the regenerate. But the
Spiritual man can act in a fleshly way.
Anytime you disobey the Lord, you are carnal. Anytime you obey the Lord, you are
Spiritual. Anytime you do what you ought
not to do, you are carnal. That means fleshy, you're operating off the
principle of sin. Anytime you do what
the Lord wants you to do, you honor the Word.
So carnality
is not a permanent state of Christians who have not given Christ Lordship. Carnality is simply a momentary experience of
the Believer who is disobedient to God.
So it is not a state, it is simply a kind of behavior. And all Christians at any given moment, right
now, this moment here, are either Carnal or Spiritual, depending on whether you
functioning in the Spirit or in the flesh.
If you are sitting there and the Spirit of God is teaching you, and you
are enjoying what's happening, then the Spirit of God is at work, you're a Spiritual
person.
If you're
sitting there saying, "I don't like what he is saying, I don't buy any
of this stuff. I reject all this
stuff. This stuff isn't true." And you have hostility in your heart, and you may be dealing with sin,
and you don't like what I said, I don't know.
Your flesh is reacting, that's Carnality. Understand?
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's
"MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986