Matthew 15:17 English Standard Version (ESV) Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?

It is easy to overlook this passage in context with Jesus’s words about defilement. A rather harsh list of human natures is list in verse 19. We might note that there is more to human nature than just those things that are listed. Many of those human natures do not lead to defilement but are troublesome in their own right.

We have been speaking about our change, leaving the world behind and entering into the kingdom of God. That is a thing to be well considered but our bodies still live in the world and human nature, being what it is, still has to be considered.

John 3:4 English Standard Version (ESV) Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

To answer Nicodemus we must admit we do not get a new body when we are born again. Becoming a new creation in Christ is a matter of adding the Holy Spirit to the body we already have. Having the Holy Spirit abiding in us changes us in ways we will discover as we begin to live out this newness of life.

We begin our spiritual life as babes in Christ and our human nature resents being called a baby.

1 Corinthians 3:1 King James Version (KJV) And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

Hebrews 5:13 King James Version (KJV) For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

1 Peter 2:2 King James Version (KJV) As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

It is our human nature that resists the truth at first.

Isaiah 48:1-6 English Standard Version

Israel Refined for God’s Glory

¹ Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. ² For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name. ³ “The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. ⁴ Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, ⁵ I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’ ⁶ “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.

What is important here is that we are changed because of our God and His plans for each of us. Our change is not because of any self-effort. Jacob became Israel, not because he wanted to change his name but because God gave him a new identity. With that new identity, he acquired a new life, separated from his past and lead to a history that glorified God.

What lessons are to be learned about this past relationship that pertains to us today since God had done a new thing, one never seen before?

Human nature doesn’t change even after we are known by a new name.