Tag Archives: flesh

Death Sentence

Sheep

I’d thought I was no stranger to death, but as they pinned a struggling, full grown sheep down on the tiles in the courtyard, my stomach turned. I’d barely finished my first week in North Africa when Eld Al Adha, the Holiday of Sacrifice came. Muslims around the country were killing and butchering sheep to commemorate the test of Abraham’s faith when he was commanded to sacrifice his son. I’d grown up on a hobby farm and learned early on that animals were a utility and not pets. We’d slaughtered chickens and turkeys, we sent our sheep to the butcher to meet their demise. But this…

The wooly creature let out a weak cry as the man of the house took small knife, deadly sharp, and uttered a blessing in Arabic. I still cringe as I remember the sound it made, slicing through the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe. The sheep struggled briefly, gave one last gurgling cry, then lay silent. Dead.

Death is ugly. It’s dark. You may have met death second hand as it took a loved one, or as it threatened you with disease or an accident. No matter where we find it, it’s abhorrent, and rightly so. Death came as a result of sin and the Fall. However Paul uses the analogy of death to help us understand what to do with our native, wretched flesh. Two words. Kill. It.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, Romans 8:12

Have you ever been in debt (or are currently)? Remember making all the payments, shackled to the debt until it’s paid in full? Apart from Christ we are under the same slavery to our sin. But my sweet sisters take heart! We are no longer debtors to the flesh. God paid our debts and freed us from the shackles to sin. We are no longer are slaves, but beloved daughters of the King! Praise God!

If we live by the flesh…giving into our sinful thoughts, desires, and actions, we will die. But God doesn’t just give a death sentence. He gives us the means to overcome the flesh.

but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13

What powerful, sweet words! God gives us the exact blueprint to we need to kill our sin.

  • “If” This is conditional. You have a choice, a part to play. It won’t happen by itself. It requires action!
  • “by the Spirit” What weapon does God put in our hands? The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph. 6:17)! We can’t kill our sin on our own. By the Spirit is the only way we can put to death our flesh. Trying harder and doing more won’t cut it.
  • “put to death the deeds of the body” There’s a reason Paul uses such vivid language. Execution is brutal. It’s fatal, and our flesh is fighting tooth and nail to stay alive. Go to radical lengths to kill your sin! Do whatever it takes to walk in the light.
  • “you will live” Ah! Sweet promise! Like a rush of fresh air amid the carnage of battle. You will live. Jesus said he came so that we’d have abundant life (John 10:10). As his Spirit works to put to death our flesh, he gives us abundant life to live right now, with freedom and joy as we run our race (Heb. 12:1).

Sister, are you harboring a secret sin? If you, through the power of the Spirit don’t kill it, it will kill you. Don’t listen to the lies of the tempter, the hiss of rationalization and pride. Don’t hide away your sin in the dark places of your heart. Shine the light of the gospel on it! Confess it, repent and turn from it, then seek out a sister for accountability. Don’t continue to live according to the flesh. Step into the light! Romans 8:1 is a beautiful promise for messed up people like us. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Amen!

There is a delicate tension between the two ideas that we must actively strive to put our sin to death, and only the Holy Spirit has the power to actually kill our flesh. In Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, a beautiful analogy is given.

CHRISTIAN: Here is a poor burdened sinner who comes from the City of Destruction. But more importantly, I am going to Mount Zion [the Celestial City], so that I may be delivered from the wrath to come. Therefore sir, since I have been informed that the way to my destination is through this Gate, I would like to know if you are willing to let me enter.

GOOD-WILL: I am willing with all my heart. (And at that he immediately opened the Gate.)

Now as Christian was stepping through the Gate, he was quite surprised when suddenly, Good-will pulled him through.

Christian, the pilgrim on his journey to the Celestial City, is passing through the narrow gate, the moment of his salvation. He steps through willingly, but he doesn’t come in on his own strength. He is pulled through by the gatekeeper, Good Will, portraying Jesus Christ. What a beautiful picture of the balance between God’s sovereign power and our own feeble work. We must desire and strive to kill our sin to attain holiness at any cost. Yet, it is only the power of God that pulls us through and accomplishes it. Only God gets the glory from such a transaction, which is precisely his aim in creating us!

Mind Wars

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Are you kidding me? I stared down at the overflowing trash that had been full when I’d left the house the day before. One year into marriage and it finally happened…a garbage showdown. I huffed in frustration as I stuffed all the loose garbage inside and tied up the bag, hauling it to the dumpster downstairs. I have to do everything around here. Grumble grumble grumble.

Enter flesh. Writers in the Bible refer to flesh in two ways, firstly as the literal term, the physical substance of bodies, and secondly, in spiritual terms, as sinful impulses. Paul says in Galatians 5:19-21, 

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

You and I, like all mankind, are full of sin, fallen, unclean, and our desires are wicked and selfish. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. Our biggest immediate and eternal problem is a sin problem. Paul laments in Rom. 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Thanks be to God! To him belongs salvation! God sent his Son Jesus to live a perfect life, die the death we deserve, and was raised again, defeating sin and death. By faith in his sacrifice alone our sins can be forgiven and we can be at peace with God. We can be new creations (2 Cor. 5:17). Our hearts of stone can be replaced with a heart of flesh (Ez. 36:26), dead to sin and alive to Christ (Rom. 6:11).

However, even as believers, we’re not completely free of our sin nature. Paul says in Romans 7:18,

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 

I relate so well to this. I don’t want to keep returning to my sinful habits, but I do. Over and over. However God doesn’t want us stuck in our endless cycles of sin! Paul reveals two competing forces…our flesh and the Spirit of God.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:5-8. 

The key action to living, either by the flesh or by the Spirit is “setting your mind”. Our minds are set on the flesh automatically. We don’t have to think about it, it’s where our preset it. Setting your mind on the Spirit, however, is foreign, literally unthinkable to the carnal flesh. It takes effort. It takes discipline.

What is your mind set on? Do a quick inventory of your daily thoughts. Did you start this morning by tapping your facebook or instagram app, or your Bible? Are you meditating on God’s Word, or the latest episode of your favorite TV show? In the hectic moments of the day do you bank on getting a break, or rest in the promises of God that he is enough? In the quiet moments of the day, do you reach for distraction instead of prayer? If you’re anything like me, you’ve allowed your mind to fall back on the flesh half a dozen times in the first half hour of the day! But take heart, sisters!

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:9-11

What good news! If you follow Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit. You are in the Spirit and the Spirit dwells in you. Let that sink in a moment. The Spirit of God lives in you! You can’t live in sin and darkness with the very Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead in you. God gives us life through the Spirit and it is only through the power of the Spirit that our sin is put to death.

A word of caution, sisters. In our walk with the Lord, we mustn’t be disillusioned with aspirations of reaching perfection this side of eternity. Even Paul, an Apostle and author of the majority of the New Testament, admitted that he wasn’t there yet.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

We pursue holiness because Christ has given us his. We seek righteousness because Christ has clothed us in his. We don’t strive for holiness in order to obtain salvation, but because we are saved, we seek to become more like Christ, setting our minds on the Spirit and killing our sin by his power. And one day, on the last day, we will be presented spotless and without blemish as the Bride of Christ to our great God! To him be the glory!

Application:

  • Ask God to reveal sin in your life. Confess, repent, and seek accountability, a sister who will ask hard question and walk by the Spirit with you.
  • Take courage from the truth in Romans 8:1. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Don’t let the guilt and shame of repented sin drag behind you. Walk in the knowledge that you are perfect and blameless in God’s sight if indeed you are his daughter.