WWUTT 1655 Q&A Spanking Questions, Can Kids Take Communion, Are There Two Natures in Man

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What does the Bible say about spanking? Is there a right and wrong way to spank? Do we let our children take communion if they have not been baptized?

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And do we have two natures as Christians? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ, that His word may dwell in us richly, as we encourage and admonish one another in all wisdom.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .tt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

00:40

Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. In Matthew chapter 24, beginning in verse 32, Jesus said,

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Now learn the parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.

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So you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.

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Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

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But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the

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Father alone. For just as the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.

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For as in those days, before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark.

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And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. So will be the coming of the

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Son of Man. Then there will be two in the field. One will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding grain at the mill.

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One will be taken and one will be left. Therefore stay awake, for you do not know which day your

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Lord is coming. We see the day of the Lord drawing near every day that goes by.

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Definitely. Especially today, it seems to be rather quickly upon us.

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Yes, this is true. So continue to hold fast to Christ. Do not despair with how evil things are getting.

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Christ is still on his throne. He will still return to judge the living and the dead. And all those who are in Christ Jesus will be saved.

02:23

Amen. All right. Well, this is the Friday edition of the broadcast, when we take questions from the listeners and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

02:35

Babe, these first couple of questions, these are parenting questions. Oh. So you ready to talk about some parenting advice today?

02:44

I'll do my best. Is it one of those days where you feel like you could solicit parenting advice?

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You know, each day has its own trials. That's right. Maybe, you know, there's one of those days where it's like I could use some advice rather than giving advice.

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And then there are those days where it's like, I don't know that I could give this advice without being a hypocrite.

03:07

Right. Yep. Definitely. And then there's also those days where you're like,

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I just, I want to relax today, you know, so everybody's going to just chill today.

03:18

That's right. Am I being a bad parent by just parking my kids in front of the TV so I can just breathe a little bit?

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I just want to drink my coffee. Just let me finish my coffee. I'm speaking on behalf of Becky.

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I don't have this problem. Yep. Because you've heard me say it too. That's right. I'm like, my coffee's still warm, let me just finish.

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And I don't drink coffee. So that wouldn't be, that wouldn't be autobiographical anyway. Nope. So this question comes from Angela.

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She says, greetings Pastor Gabe. I'm still behind on the Proverbs series on the podcast, which

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I just finished up last week. Started Ecclesiastes yesterday. Yay. So we're in Ecclesiastes on the

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Old Testament portion of the study. Angela says, I just recently listened to you talk about spanking.

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Sorry, I do not remember the episode number. I have a couple of questions about spanking. Number one, when do your children get too old to spank?

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Number two, you talked about lovingly explaining to your child why they are being punished.

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What does that look like in your household? Number three, who should do the spanking, mom or dad?

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And number four, are there alternatives to spanking? Like what if spanking your child is not effective?

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Okay, I guess that's more than a couple of questions. Thank you for leading with God's word. Thank you for your email,

04:43

Angela. I imagine every household is different and functions differently.

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I mean, it depends on availability and just the personalities of your children and parents even as to what is the most effective in each household.

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Which of those questions are you answering when you say that? I say for all of the questions. Okay, for all of the questions. For all of the questions.

05:09

Okay. So just that as a disclaimer, now how our household functions is usually

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I'm at home with the kids. Because - You're a stay at home mom. Yes. Yep. And they hardly ever act up whenever you're home.

05:25

Well, dad's home. Yep. Because dad's fun. Yeah. So - You know, I wonder how long in the history of parenting that has been the case.

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Yeah. Because I remember hearing the jokes when I was a kid. When daddy comes home - Yeah. Everybody straightens up or gets their punishment or whatever it is.

05:44

So is that like for all of time? It's always been - I don't know. When daddy comes home -

05:49

That's a great question. You just straighten up. You know? Yeah. Anyway. I don't know. Daddy comes in from the field.

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Yeah. We're all on our best behavior. Well, way back in the day, even kids used to go to work.

06:01

That's true. Kids have gotten lazy these days. They really have.

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I can't say I'm all that great at making our kids work either. Yeah. So - Well, let's consider first some of these verses out of Proverbs.

06:14

Okay. And then we'll go through each one of her questions in order. Sure. So Proverbs 13, 24, he who holds back his rod hates his son.

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But he who loves him disciplines him diligently. And these passages about discipline, by the way, also get repeated in Hebrews chapter 12.

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Right. Yeah. Where it says that God disciplines us because he loves us. Right.

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And if he did not discipline us, then we would be illegitimate children and not the sons and daughters of God.

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Now God doesn't discipline us with a rod in the sense that we're not getting spanked.

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Correct. Not in a physical sense. Right. But there are consequences for our behavior and the conviction that we experience in the

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Holy Spirit is a discipline that we would repent of our sin and walk in righteousness.

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And because of what God would inflict upon us, the pain that we might experience for the time of our discipline reminds us there are consequences of this behavior.

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So we won't go in the way of unrighteousness. Instead, we will continue to seek after Christ and walk in his way.

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Right. So even these verses, these are not exclusive to the Old Testament. They get repeated in the

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New as well. So Proverbs 22, 15, folly is bound up in the heart of a child.

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The rod of discipline will remove it far from him. Proverbs 23, verses 13 and 14.

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Your face is hilarious when you're saying these. Why is that?

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I don't know. You're just like. Do not withhold discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

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You shall strike him with the rod and deliver his soul from Sheol. Proverbs 29, 15.

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And now I'm self -conscious. I'm like, what does my face look like as I'm reading this?

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Proverbs 29, 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother, babe.

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I added the babe. So the rod and reproof gives wisdom.

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We do this for the purpose of growing our children in an understanding of what is right and what is wrong.

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As God has established what right is and what wrong is. And though your child experiences pain for a little while, and again, as we are defining the rod, we're talking about spanking on the backside, right?

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Or when I was a kid, it was even a switch across the legs. That counted too, a rod to the back of him, as it says in the book of Proverbs.

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So striking him with a rod is spanking. It's inflicting pain upon your child. It's not child abuse, and it should be done lovingly so that they understand what they've done wrong and why they're being punished for it.

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This is not just the wrath of mom and dad, because if it's just done out of anger, then all your child learns is don't make mom and dad mad.

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They don't really learn that there's something wrong with this behavior, and I need to learn not to do this.

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So there's our Proverbs. There's our verses that we have there, and the reason why we do it, to teach them the way of the

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Lord, that they would walk according to what God has said is righteousness and following after Christ.

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You know, the gospel present in all of this. It's not just teaching our kids morality, but understanding the grace of God that has been given to us through Jesus Christ, and in his righteousness we walk.

09:58

So the order of questions here that Angela has presented, number one, when do your children get too old to spank?

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Well, we went by too tall to spank. Too tall to spank. Because Annie grew quite quickly.

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That's true, Annie's almost six foot. So yeah, she's getting close.

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So that was less a matter of age, and more a matter of she's got a little more padding back there than she used to have.

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Not saying that to be, that's not a weight joke. She's just growing up. Yeah, that's right. She's just growing up.

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She was just stronger than the rest of our kids earlier. So I think you can go by maturity level, rather than age, or height, or anything like that.

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I would do maturity level. Like, when they are reasonable, and you can talk to them about their sin, and ground them, and it's effective, just as effective, then

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I mean, personally, that's what I recommend. I don't know if that's, you know, everybody knows their own.

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I have two answers to that. Number one, your child is never too old to spank, simply because in Proverbs it talks about the rod for the back of the fool.

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So even a foolish servant who is not obeying his master, and we're talking,

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I'm not talking about slavery here, indentured servitude, I'm talking about the person who has been hired to work, who doesn't do his work, the master strikes him with the rod that he might be disciplined and learn.

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So Proverbs talks about that, the rod for the back of the fool. You spare the rod from the fool, and he continues in foolishness, which therefore turns into wickedness, right?

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That's true. So there's never really an age in which your child gets too old to spank. That's my first answer.

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But nonetheless, you still may want to examine when it's not effective anymore, and saying it in this way.

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So when I was a kid, I remember one time on the way out to school, I was antagonizing my brothers and my sisters.

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You? Yeah. Never. I know, shocking. I just can't believe it. Yeah, and I was not the best oldest brother.

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I was the oldest of six. So anyway, my siblings are yelling. I think one or two of them had even broken out into tears because I'm antagonizing them.

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We had the paddle hanging there by the door. I still remember this episode clear as day.

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We had the paddle hanging there by the door. My mom grabs it off the nail and whacks me in the backside to try to get me to stop antagonizing my siblings.

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I looked at her and I went, really? So from that point on, my parents decided spanking

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Gabe probably doesn't work so much anymore. Now, there's still a way you can inflict pain.

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It's not that my mom became a weakling at that point. There are other tools that will be painful, but you may want to decide at that point, okay, spanking is not the effective thing that it was before.

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And if you've been diligent to spank up until that point, then even grounding your teenager will have an intended result.

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And they'll recognize, okay, consequently, my mom and dad have been teaching me right and wrong my whole life.

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I know there's consequences for this behavior. But that also has to do with personality because some kids don't care that they're grounded.

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That's true too. Yeah. The grounding might not even work. So you have to pick something that will actually be a serious consequence for them.

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So like with Annie now, we can ground her from books and that's devastating. Right.

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Yes. That's true. Which sounds weird. Sounds very bizarre. But some of you homeschool moms know what

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I'm talking about. She loves her books. So we ground her from her free reading. She still has her books to read for school, but from free reading, she's not allowed.

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That's right. So and for Zeej, our next child, we ground him from Legos and building blocks and things like that.

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Right. And he's devastating. Video games. Video games is the one that hurts the most. Yeah. That's an effective one.

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Yeah. And so there's just different things. You know your child best. And so when spanking doesn't work or isn't as effective,

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I guess. And it all has to do with your presentation on it too. Like if you're just like, here's your

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SWAT, you know, and then you like just pop them a little. Right. They're going to think it's a joke.

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Right. Exactly. Like this isn't serious. Yeah. Yeah. You do have to have a presentation about it too.

14:58

So anyway. Yes. So then that comes to number two, question number two. You talked about lovingly explaining to your child why they are being punished.

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What does that look like in your household? So I have to be careful not to spank in wrath.

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I do get angry. I've yelled at my kids before. And when I get unreasonable like that,

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I will apologize to my kids. Sorry, dad lost his mind there for a minute. You know. Yeah. So I can't spank in that kind of mindset because, again, my kids are going to think dad's just angry and that's why he struck me.

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Right. Not that I actually did anything wrong. So I have to keep a cool sense about myself.

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In the fruit of the spirit, I have to exercise self -control and say to my child who has done wrong, now

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I warned you once, you got a second warning, and then you still persisted to do what your mom and dad said not to do.

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Or when, you know, I may not have witnessed what went wrong, but I know that my son or daughter has disrespected you.

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So they're getting a spanking because they did not obey mom. You know, that might be the reason why they're getting a spanking. So I explain to them what they did wrong or I'll ask them, like, tell me what you did wrong and why you're getting a spanking.

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So that way they know how to articulate this is the reason why. For a long time, our kids would result like their default answer was,

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I didn't listen. Yes. And it was like, no, you have to actually tell me. Yes.

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Like you didn't listen to what. Right. Yes. Give specifics. What did you not listen to? So that they have to articulate this is what is right.

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It's a confession in that sense. I'm confessing here's what I did wrong and here's why I'm being punished for it.

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And that doesn't come naturally. That you have to teach them. Yes. So when they're younger or if you're just starting, do give them leading questions to help them draw out what they did wrong.

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Right. And then if they're older and it's, you know, and you're trying to draw out what they did wrong, then have them repeat the whole thing at the very end of the thing.

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So that way they understand, OK, this is what you were getting at. This is where I went wrong.

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Because children just see the last thing that they did as the thing that they did wrong.

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And that's not necessarily the case. And so you have to be like, OK, well, we messed up here.

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We messed up here. And then we messed up again here. So it's a pattern now that you're not listening.

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Sinned, disobeyed. Yes. You know, not just messing up, but yeah, they. OK. You did something wrong. Yeah. Right. My wording.

17:43

Now, with the with a toddler, you know, you have a child that you can't really have a conversation with or explain to them what they've done wrong.

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You're going to pop the hand or something like that. They reach for something they shouldn't be grabbing. You know, are every

17:58

I think every single one of our kids have tried to stick something in a wall outlet. Oh, yeah. You know, or they'll reach up and scratch your face or something like that.

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And so you'll you'll pop their hand so that they know that was wrong behavior and I shouldn't do that.

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And you're going to tell them, no, that's still communicating something to them, even though you can't really have a conversation and explain to them why they're getting spanked.

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But they recognize that's wrong. There's a consequence for that. And I received pain because I I did this or tried to do this.

18:30

Right. There is an age difference between youngers and olders on that, because I think like whenever they're still in the literal mindset where they take things literally like, you know,

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I was in the car forever. Were you really in the car forever? No. So, you know, but but they take it like that.

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So when they're in that stage, you have to explain to them what happened.

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But after that, when they start growing out of that, that's when you can start having the conversation. Yes. Right.

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Yeah. Yeah. Like you were saying earlier about training them on leading the question so that they understand.

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Right. Yeah. So that's all kind of at the very beginning. Yeah. That process. So that was question two. OK. You talked about loving lovingly explaining to your child why they're being punished.

19:20

Oh, there was something else I wanted to add to that. So our seven year old, when you tell her she's about to get spanked, she is in hysterics.

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Oh, yes. There is every time there is no having a conversation with her. No. Before she gets spanked.

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So in that circumstance, you're going to spank first. Yes. And then when she calms down, yes, then have the conversation of like,

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OK, you got in trouble. Why? And that's how I was as a kid, too. My mom always had to spank me first and then come in later after I finally quit screaming my head off.

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And yeah, your mom seems to think Aria is a carbon copy of you. Imagine that.

20:00

Yeah. I'm seeing the connections here. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. I remember I remember throwing myself down on my bed, screaming my head off where I couldn't.

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I got that like, yeah, right, right. Trying to talk it out. And yeah. Now, my son, who's 10, my oldest son is he's already taking his spankings like a man.

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Yep. So now he's broken hearted. He knows what's coming. Yes. He knows it's going to hurt.

20:27

But he will he'll stand up straight. He will. It hurts from you. It doesn't hurt from me anymore.

20:33

Well, OK, that might be the case. But he's so broken hearted that I am spanking him.

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Right. That that takes effect. He's disappointed mom and dad. And that was the way it was with Annie.

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Like we were getting that from Annie really early on, too, that for her, it was almost the fact that I know that I've disappointed my parents.

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And that was probably more heartbreaking for her than the fact that definitely this is going to hurt.

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You know, Annie was also a person where she could not stand to be isolated.

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True. So if you told her to sit in your room and think about what you've done, that was devastating to that was

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I have to be alone. Yes. I have to think about my sin. Yeah. You know, actually be convicted over the fact that she did something wrong.

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But anyway, Zeej, you know, stands there. He'll be teary eyed. He'll confess what he's done and he takes his spanking.

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He turns around and gives you a hug. And then that's it. Yeah. And and so he's he's getting really good about understanding consequences for sinful behavior.

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And that's what you want to look for in your child. You want to look for fruit. You're looking for that.

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They understand what repentance is, what what sorrow over sin conviction is, repenting of that and asking for forgiveness, not just saying

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I'm sorry, but saying I've done wrong. Will you please forgive me? Yeah. And then understanding forgiveness from that.

21:58

Sorry. Yeah. Go ahead. Whenever we make them or we make them when they're little, we make them apologize.

22:04

Yeah. But we make sure that they're saying what they're sorry for specifically, again, with the specifics, because you can say

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I'm sorry. But what does that really mean? Yeah. Just I'm sorry. Yeah. You know, you just do your thing.

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And can I go play with my toys again? Right. You know. Right. Yes. Still on question two. So then number three, who should do the spanking?

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Mom or dad? Well, either one. Like you said, you're spanking Wazij probably doesn't hurt anymore.

22:32

No, it doesn't. He also likes. He just looks at me and he's like, was that it? OK, I'm sorry.

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That's what I get out of him. He also wears more clothing than any of our children.

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He'll sweat. He'll be out there in 100 degree weather and he'll still wear his scarves and he'll still wear his hats and he'll still wear his gloves.

22:55

It's so funny. I'm like, dude, you're going to give yourself a heat stroke. He loves living in the heat in East Texas, but he really dresses like we should be further north.

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Yeah, it's crazy. So because he's got more pants on than most of the other kids, he does wear more layers.

23:12

That's right. He wears more layers. You probably have to put a little force into the spanking. But anyway.

23:18

Yeah. So Becky will spank. But I've told her, like if you've just had it with the kids, it's it's been a day.

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Every single one of them aren't listening. Then just tell them, wait till your dad gets home.

23:31

Yeah. Then I'll get home. And who needs the spankings? We'll get. Yeah. We'll get the spankings. Yeah, but with our family right now, how it functions is you get home and everybody's super excited and then they go play with you and it's it loses its effect.

23:50

That's true. Because I want to get home and play. I don't want to get home and be the disciplinarian. Right. So sometimes

23:55

I'll give you a text ahead of time saying, hey, it's been particularly a bad day.

24:02

Yeah. And and so he'll have a heads up. But but that's if I don't give him the text, then it's it's out the window.

24:09

So. Yeah. Right. I have to be in the mind of like, OK, I got to discipline somebody first when

24:14

I get home. Yeah. And then we can play. Right. But Ephesians 6, 4 says, fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the

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Lord. That said first to fathers. So it's really going to be upon the father to be the disciplinarian in the home more so than the mother.

24:35

Oh, definitely. Because I can tell that whenever I discipline them, I have to do it multiple times.

24:41

You come home and do it once. That's right. And they're done. That's right. So there is a big difference.

24:48

And there just seems to be this frequency in Becky's voice that the kids can just tune out.

24:55

Everybody. Like, I'll say hi to neighbors and they don't hear me. But when dad speaks, it is snap to attention.

25:03

Yep. So. Yeah. And I've witnessed, you know, Becky saying over and over again, some of the kids, they're not listen.

25:09

And I'll just go, hey. And then everybody's like, what? What do I need to do?

25:15

What have I not been paying attention to? So as the husband is the head of his wife, he is the head of his household.

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He is the one that is disciplining his children and raising them in the instruction of the

25:28

Lord. So it comes first to dad. But that doesn't mean mom can't spank. Mom can be a disciplinarian, too.

25:36

But generally, the kids are going to see mom as the nurturer and dad is the disciplinarian.

25:42

And if you've ever been in a group of kids at church and you've asked this question, it's almost unanimous.

25:48

Like you ask the kids, when you fall down and scrape your knee, who are you going to run to? Mom.

25:54

When you get in trouble, who are you most afraid of? Mom or dad? Yep. Dad.

26:00

Yeah. So that's that's where that's the perception the kids even have about mom and dad. It's a natural function of the way that God has built the family to be.

26:08

So it is upon the father first to issue that to your children. And remember, dad, as you are kind of the head of your household and you're the one that is going to be doing the punishing where punishing needs to be done.

26:21

You're also bringing the gospel. You also understand and teach your children, we've all sinned.

26:27

Even daddy has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But it is by faith in Jesus Christ, we're forgiven our sins and cleansed of all unrighteousness.

26:36

So your child needs to be sorry first to the Lord and asking for his forgiveness, for it's against him that we sin before we sin against one another.

26:46

Right. So I got one more question here. Number four, are there alternatives to spanking?

26:52

I guess we've talked about that a little bit. Like what if spanking your child is not effective? Well, as Becky said, you know, you'll know you'll notice things about your child's personality and what is most effective.

27:03

But don't use that as an excuse to not spank. Right. Inflicting pain is still effective.

27:13

That is the matter of discipline that the Bible says to use. There is no child who won't be affected by pain.

27:22

If you spank your child, they will get it. Well, I mean, you were weren't you given the option of either being spanked and having it over with or being grounded for a day or something like that?

27:34

It depended on the circumstance. Yeah. That wasn't that wasn't like every time we got punished. Right. It just depended on what it was that we did wrong.

27:41

Gotcha. In this in the one that always sticks out in my mind, whenever like we talk about that, there was something that my sister and I both did.

27:52

We both we like conspired together with one another to disobey mom and dad.

27:57

And so the the punishment then was, OK, you can be grounded. You're in the room.

28:03

You're in your room for the rest of today. You don't go back outside again or you can get a spanking right now.

28:08

And that's it. It's over with. Now you can go back and do what you were doing before. I chose what you were doing before. Yeah.

28:14

Well, yeah. Not the. Not the. You could go on about your day. Not the sinful thing.

28:19

I did. But yeah, playing, just playing like I was doing before. Right. Just teasing. So I chose the spanking.

28:26

And my sister, who hated spanking, was like, oh, I can get out of the spanking by just being in my room the rest of the day.

28:33

OK, fine. Then that's what I'm going to do. So I chose the spanking and then I went back outside to play. Well, Amy's in her room having chosen that instead of the spanking.

28:43

And she said the and this still sticks out in her mind to this day. She said, I was in my room watching you outside play and I'm sitting there going, why didn't

28:51

I pick the spanking? I can't go out and play. So that was just a particular circumstance that wasn't all the time.

29:00

But that's also a personality thing right there. I mean, just to show personality differences.

29:07

Exactly. In that moment, she really did feel the pain of having to sit in her room the rest of the day instead of being able to go out and play.

29:15

So anyway, we've spent, you know, pretty good, pretty good half an hour on that particular question. Thank you, Angela.

29:22

Questions. And I hope that's helpful for you. So let me see if I can get through these next couple quickly here.

29:30

OK. Buddy asked this question. Hi, Pastor Gabe. I just listened to episode 1645, which wasn't that long ago.

29:37

You touched on baptism. We were talking about Annie getting baptized. I don't recall all of the specifics, but your thoughts prompted me to ask your thoughts on a situation

29:46

I'm wrestling with. I have three children ages 16, 12 and eight. None of them have been baptized.

29:53

However, they have always participated in communion. Recently, I have stopped allowing to participate in communion.

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My thinking is that if you are taking communion, there's no reason to be baptized. But when I consider baptism for my children,

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I get into all the reasons why we don't rush to baptize our children. So wouldn't those same cautions apply to communion in order to be consistent?

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I appreciate your thoughts and thank you for your ministry. Good thoughts. Yeah. When it comes to baptism as Baptists, we are very committed to the confession of faith.

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When you're able to make a confession of faith, you're showing fruit in your life. So it's not just our kids are saying,

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I want to get baptized because I saw my friend Johnny get baptized. But they're actually in their hearts showing fruit, like we were talking about being convicted over sin, wanting to do the right thing.

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They confess that they're followers of Jesus. And so they want to show that I'm a disciple of Jesus by being baptized.

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I've been buried with him in baptism, in my sin,

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I'm risen again with Christ to new life. They understand what that means and they're ready to make that kind of confession of faith in church.

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So we talk about that a lot as Baptists, about when it's okay for our kids to get baptized. We don't really talk about the communion thing so much.

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After all, in 1 Corinthians 7, the Apostle Paul says that your children are holy if you are committed to Christ.

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So doesn't that mean it's okay for them to participate in communion? Well, we have to recognize baptism as the entrance to membership in a church.

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And you cannot participate at the Lord's table unless you are a disciple.

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And so you should be waiting until your children are baptized before they can participate in communion.

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This for me really was one of the most persuasive arguments against Presbyterianism.

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So I've been raised a Baptist my whole life, but when it came to actually studying Baptist traditions and asking of myself, why am

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I a Baptist and not a Presbyterian, I saw an inconsistency in Presbyterian churches,

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Reformed churches, and the like that practiced pedo -baptism, the baptism of infants, but their children couldn't participate in communion.

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So it's like, why? That seems radically inconsistent to me. Now if the Presbyterians were practicing pedo -baptism and pedo -communion, that may have been more persuasive to me in the season that I was exploring those kinds of things.

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But because I was seeing that inconsistency in the Presbyterian church, I was going, yeah,

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I don't see the consistency in the way that they're following Scripture. At what point do they get to participate in communion?

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And why? And why, exactly. If they've been members of the body of Christ the entire time, as shown by their baptism, then why could they not participate in communion?

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That's a good question. So if baptism is going to be the sign of our being united with Christ, it's our public confession to being buried with Christ in our sins, risen again to new life, as it says in Romans 6, then from that point on, now you are part of the body, you're with the church, you're a disciple and a follower of Jesus, you can participate in communion.

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So that should be what you, as that's what we expect of new believers, so we should also be teaching that to our children.

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Okay. Helpful? I thought so. Yeah. I don't need to elaborate too much more on that. Okay? There might be some follow -up questions.

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Sure. Send them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. This next one comes from Buboy in Singapore.

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I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly. He says, hi, Pastor Gabe. Thank you so much for your ministry.

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I am blessed from listening to your podcast and I've learned a lot from you. My question is this, what is your stand on the nature of man?

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Is there only the new nature as per 1 Corinthians 5 .17 or are there two natures of man, the old nature and the new nature like in Romans 7 .21

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-25? Another similar question is this, do we still have the sinful nature?

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If we are redeemed by God, why do we still sin? Thank you so much for your time.

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More power to you and to your ministry. Well, in 1 Corinthians 5 .17, there isn't a 17.

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So I was kind of curious about that reference, what he meant by that 1 Corinthians 5 .17.

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There's only 13 verses in 1 Corinthians 5. Is it 2 Corinthians? So let's look at 2

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Corinthians 5 .17. It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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The old things have passed away, behold, the new has come. So that's probably what he's referring to there as the new nature.

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The old is gone, the new has come. And Paul uses that quite a bit. Like in Colossians chapter 3 also, put off the old self and put on the new which is being renewed after the image and knowledge of our creator.

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So you're putting on the new which is being renewed. Now what's implied there is that there's still going to be a struggle with the old.

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Right. Just as you made reference to Romans chapter 7. That's called sanctification.

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Yeah, right. We're growing in sanctification. Right. So let me cheat here a little bit. Instead of just talking off the top of my head,

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I'm going to come to the London Baptist Confession of Faith. Chapter 13 is on sanctification.

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So here's what we read in the confession. They who are united to Christ, effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, are also farther sanctified, really and personally, through the same virtue, by his word and spirit dwelling in them.

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The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, comes to Colossians 3 .5,

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put to death what is earthly in you. Okay? So the lusts of the flesh are more and more weakened and mortified, growing in sanctification, and they are more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of all true holiness, without which no man shall see the

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Lord. That's Hebrews 12 .14. Okay? This is the second part, second paragraph of sanctification.

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This sanctification is throughout the whole man, yet imperfect in this life.

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There abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part, whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

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That's Galatians 5 .17. Those things that are of the flesh are against the spirit, and the things that are of the spirit are against the flesh.

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Paragraph number three. In which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying

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Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome. And so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, pressing after a heavenly life in evangelical obedience to all the commands which

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Christ as head and king in his word has prescribed to them. So there are not two natures.

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There's just the one. We are a new nature in Christ. There's remnants of the old, but that doesn't mean we have two natures.

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Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. So in Christ, we're a new creation. The old is gone.

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The new has come. Though we're still fighting with the remnants of the old, we are a new creation in Christ, and we need to understand and take hold of that truth because that's an assurance of our salvation.

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Yes. Definitely. Otherwise, if there's two natures, you're going to be left with the question of...

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Am I saved or am I not? Yeah, right. Am I the unsaved guy or am I the saved guy? Right. But we understand that we're new in Christ.

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We're still battling against the temptations of the flesh, but we're not overcome by those temptations.

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Right. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us, as it says in Romans 8. So we, by the power of the spirit that is within us, are even able to take those occasions in which we struggle in our flesh, we're tempted in our flesh, we're weak in our flesh.

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We can overcome those things by the spirit and even use those things in the power that is within us to grow in holiness.

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We're growing in sanctification. We're growing in Christ -likeness and that which we do in this flesh until the day of Christ comes.

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Yeah. As Paul said in Philippians 1 .6, I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will be faithfully completed at the day of Christ.

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And this work that is being done in us is the work of God. And in our weakness, we can show his strength.

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That's right. So that, I mean, David had mentioned that, Paul's mentioned that.

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Yeah. 2 Corinthians 12. Yeah. I'll boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses because where I am weak, there he is strong.

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Right. Yeah. And that's not necessarily talking about the sinful man there, as Paul is talking about that in 2

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Corinthians 12. Yeah. But, but, but continuing to rely on Christ and his strength.

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We cannot justify ourselves. No. Christ justifies us. Right. We're justified by faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. But in that same way, we don't sanctify ourselves. Exactly.

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The work of sanctification also belongs to God. As Paul said. That way we cannot boast.

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That's right. Yeah, exactly. That's where I was going. You were reading my mind there. So in 1 Corinthians 1 .28,

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by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus. I'm sorry, that was, that's verse 30.

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I was looking at verse 28. But anyway, 1 Corinthians 1 .30, by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

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So that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Amen.

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There we go. Thank you for your question, Boo -Boy. Yeah. And I hope I'm saying that right. I think it's funny he's from Singapore.

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That's right. Question from Singapore. And you can email your questions wherever you're from.

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Send them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. That's our program for today. That's it.

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Have a great weekend, guys. Yes. And see you in church on Sunday. Yes. Go to church. Amen.

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If the government tells you not to, you say we must obey God rather than men. And we will be praying for you.

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That's right. Let's pray right now. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time that we've had together on the program, exploring your word, finding the answers to the questions that we have.

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We want to pray for Angela, who is thinking about disciplining her children, that you would guide her according to your word and as well, if she is married, that he also would understand that instruction in Ephesians chapter six, verse four, fathers, raise your children in the training and the discipline of the

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Lord. We pray also for Buddy as he's thinking about baptism and communion with his children.

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Give him wisdom according to your word. And also for Booboy as he is thinking about sanctification and growing in holiness.

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Give Booboy perseverance in his faith that he continues to hold fast to the word of Christ for it's by this word that we are grown in this faith,

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Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. And we look to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated now at the right hand of the throne of God, as it says in Hebrews chapter 12.

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Continue to raise us up in an understanding of your word, shaping us in the likeness of Christ until the day of Christ.

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And it's in his precious name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

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There it goes. That thing right there. What do you call that?

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I don't know. Brought it back from California, set it in my desk drawer, forgot it was there and now it's stale. Um. Babe?

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What? Ew. Adequate commentary.

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accept that. All right.