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.
Kristi P. Powell 