Before starting, I don’t want to be misleading about the title
of this article; it has nothing to do with the cruel blood sport of two or more
dogs going at it in a pit! Rather, this is about two metaphorical dogs within
the human heart to illustrate how believers can realize victory over the flesh
on a daily basis. I borrowed this analogy from an old Jewish expression that
within the heart of man, there is a black dog and a white one. I had no idea
our sinful heart was thought of as a dog kennel! Maybe it explains why people
can be so dogmatic!?
The point of the Jewish analogy is that the biggest and
strongest dog is the one that is fed the most; that makes sense. Retaining the
simplicity of this comparison, I am interpreting that to mean that if you feed the
white dog more, which represents the good in man, there will be greater good
coming forth from the heart than bad. Should you feed the black dog, which
represents the bad in man, the heart will do more evil than good because the
black dog is bigger and stronger than the white dog.
So, the take away from this canine analogy of the human heart is
that good and bad can come forth from the same source. As colloquial and clever
this analogy appears, in reality, it smacks of religious humanism. If we get
the white dog to do more than the black dog then our good outweighs our bad,
and we will go to a positive afterlife! This is known as work salvation in
soteriology as opposed to salvation by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9).
Interestingly, the world acknowledges an inexplicable dark side of humanity,
but it denies that man possesses a sinful nature that causes the
bad.
Believe it or not; I want to retain the dog metaphors and adapt
this analogy of the human heart to a more biblical point of view concerning the
two natures within every born again believer in Jesus Christ that are so
incompatible that dogfights erupt all the time between the two. The black dog
will represent the sinful or fallen nature of a believer (cf. Jer 17:9); it is
also referred to as the flesh or the old man. The white dog will be symbolic of
the new nature at spiritual regeneration (Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 5:17; Col 3:10), but
unlike the black dog, it is referred to as the new man.
Metaphorically, the dogs will illustrate the importance and
necessity of spiritual growth in progressive sanctification in living a
victorious life in Christ. I don’t want to press the analogy too hard. The Holy
Spirit lives within us, but He is not the new nature, but we cannot become a
new creation apart from the Holy Spirit living within us.
If I seem somewhat cautionary, it is because someone will
invariably take me out of context and accuse me of being sacrilegious. Oh, “the
heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to …” (when you
have a writing ministry)! It is interesting that the Scriptures mostly portray
dogs in a negative manner, literally or figuratively (cf. Deut 23:18; Psalm
22:16; Prov 26:11; Isa 56:11 Mt 7:6; cf. Goliath’s statement, 1 Sam
17:43).
Note a few distinctions between the old nature of an unbeliever
and the new nature of a believer.
1.
A believer in Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit; the unbeliever does not (Rom
8:9; 1 Cor 2:14; Jude 1:19); this is a very important distinction between the
saved and the unsaved.
2.
The believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19); an
unbeliever’s body is not; it is a slave to sin.
3.
The world’s understanding of what is good or bad is believed to come forth from
the same heart (Jer 17:9). The biblical meaning of righteousness and good does
not come from a dark heart (cf. Rom 3:10, 12, 23).
4.
Concerning the believer, any sinful thoughts, words, or deeds come from the
same source as the natural man, the sin nature. Any thoughts, words, or deeds
that are biblically righteous or good does not come from a sinful heart but
from the new nature of a believer. It is analogous to freshwater and saltwater
not sharing the same source (Jas 3:11). This next thought is a metaphysical
theory, but I can see the Holy Spirit living within the new nature of a
believer, wherever that is within our body, but not in a sinful and dark heart
that is unredeemable.
It takes two dogs to make a fight, yes? As stated previously, in
every believer there are two natures. One we call the old man (sin nature) and
the new man (a new creation). The sin or Adamic nature cannot be domesticated,
improved, or obedient. It is as ugly now as the day we were born again.
Spiritual maturity has absolutely nothing to do with the sin nature (the black
dog doesn’t like spiritual food; it feasts upon the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1 Jn 2:16), but it has everything to do
with the new man (the white dog).
We see the struggle between these two hounds in Romans 7. Though
the Holy Spirit living within us is all-powerful and could override our will
and speed up our spiritual growth, He won’t. We are individually responsible to
starve the black dog (the old man) and feed the white dog (the new man) with
the Word and exercise it in our life. Recall, the biggest and strongest one is
the one that is fed the most, yes? Peter’s last recorded words were these,
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen (2
Pet 3:18).
Grace and knowledge are severely lacking among John and Mary Doe
believers. I have said this multiple times throughout the years that the
greatest threat to Christianity today is the willful ignorance of the
Scriptures among believers. I know that sounds awful to say, but it is true.
I have been saying this way before erudite preachers were
heralding it from the pulpits as a threat to Christianity in America. You know
what happens because of this rampant sin? The black dog is getting fed and
growing bigger and stronger than the white dog! And we scratch our heads and
wonder why American Christianity is losing its godly influence? We are either
part of the problem or part of the solution.
In short, the black dog grows bigger and stronger when the Word
of God is not the rule of life. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in
the world, but the Holy Spirit is not going to override our choices of sinning
ignorantly or sinning in knowledge. We simply can’t do what we don’t know! God
provided His Word so we could know. What we don’t know could be detrimental to
our spiritual health! Yahweh can command us to mature in the faith, but He is
not going to do it for us.
Believers today are daring to be brazenly stupid rather than to
be deeply spiritual! The refrains of “Love, love, love - holy, holy, holy” are
not enough to strengthen the white dog in spiritual warfare. So, how do we feed
the white dog? For starters, we need to quit feeding the black dog and ignoring
the need for spiritual growth? Do you think you are Christlike when the black
dog within you is barking and growling everywhere you go? Let’s talk about how
we starve that black dog or the old man who loved you better when you were lost
than saved!
The Bible has nothing good to say about the black dog (flesh,
cf. Gal 5:19-21) other than putting it to death by denying its impulses to
pursue the inclinations and desires of the sin nature as a lifestyle (Rom 6:11;
8:13; Gal 5:24; Titus 2:12; 1 Pet 2:11). There will never be victory over the
flesh by allowing the black dog to run free while keeping the white dog caged
up in the pen through spiritual neglect. Paul said,
For I know that in me (that is, my flesh) nothing good
dwells (Rom 7:18a).
All believers experience an on-going struggle between the fallen
nature and the new nature within us because God did not remove or destroy the
sin nature or the black dog within us at spiritual regeneration! The flesh or
sin nature or the old man is the one aspect of a believer that is untouched by
spiritual regeneration (Rom 7:18; cf. Rom 6:6; 6:12; 7:7, 17-18, 23, 25;
8:23)!
You can make that black dog play but not obey. Our white dog has
nothing to do with our fallen nature (2 Cor 5:17) except getting into a
dogfight with it. Yes, we are the light of the world, but we still have darkness
within us, meaning that we are fully capable of committing any sin
in the Book, even as a born again believer should we ever take that black dog
off the leash by giving in to the impulses of the flesh.
No matter how morally and ethically disciplined we perceive
ourselves to be, we are all subject to inexplicable deviations from our code or
standard of living that is ideally based on the teaching of Scripture. We may
buffet or discipline our bodies to keep it under rigorous subjection, but not
only is it extremely challenging to live under a “survival” regiment in
perpetuity, but capturing every thought and keeping those images inline as our
bodies is another matter altogether; the body is not independent of the mind.
This is why teaming up with the Holy Spirit is quintessential in
putting to death the black dog, if by the Spirit you
put to death the deeds of the body (Rom 8:13,
emphasis mine; cf. Gal 5:16). The verb put is
in the present tense; the action is continual. In other words, we will never make
a decisive blow this side of eternity putting to death the
deeds of the body, which
is the housing for the flesh, the old man, the sin nature, or the black dog
once and for all.
You, the subject, is plural. The sin nature (the
black dog) is fully and permanently removed only at glorification. Until then,
we have to continually and gradually put to death this troubling canine (flesh)
with the Holy Spirit’s help. <><
