How to win the battle between the spirit and the flesh
Sometimes we have no idea what is going on in our lives, we don’t know why we’re having a bad day or why we feel depressed, or why we have so many negative thoughts going through our heads.
As I wrote last time, we are made up of three parts — body, soul and spirit. How many of us realise that we are in a spiritual battle? A battle for our very souls.
But there is good news! If we are in a living union with Jesus then ultimately we win!! However, the battle rages while we are still on earth in our human flesh! How do we defeat our flesh and begin to live from our spirit? I’m glad you asked! Let’s look at what the Bible says shall we? It’s a good place to start:
Romans 8:3–6
Yet God sent us his Son in human form to identify with human weakness. Clothed with humanity, God’s Son gave his body to be the sin-offering so that God could once and for all condemn the guilt and power of sin. 4 So now every righteous requirement of the law can be fulfilled through the Anointed One living his life in us. And we are free to live, not according to our flesh, but by the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit!
5 Those who are motivated by the flesh only pursue what benefits themselves. But those who live by the impulses of the Holy Spirit are motivated to pursue spiritual realities. 6 For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set controlled by the Spirit finds life and peace.
If we look at the previous verses in Romans 7 we hear Paul bemoaning his life in this human flesh and how the good things that he wants to do, he doesn’t do and the sinful things he doesn’t want to do, he does. Let’s just have a quick look at it in the Passion translation because it sets the scene and is a continuation of what Paul is trying to say in Romans 8:
Romans 7:20:
20 So if my behaviour contradicts my desires to do good, I must conclude that it’s not my true identity doing it, but the unwelcome intruder of sin hindering me from being who I really am.
I think this is a really good way to understand the last part of Romans 7, I like the phrases that it uses, it helps me to understand the struggle that Paul is going through and how he sees it, and it rings true for us today. He calls sin an ‘unwelcome intruder in my humanity’. Then he goes on to say very dramatically in chapter 8:1 (obviously Romans wasn’t written in chapters) ‘So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One. 2 For the “law” of the Spirit of life flowing through the anointing of Jesus has liberated us from the “law” of sin and death.
Or as the NIV version puts it:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Now both of these ‘laws’ are spiritual laws so can’t see them, like the law of gravity, it’s a fact, even though you only see the effects of it. Try falling out of a tree! You can only see the effects of the law of the spirit of life and the law of sin and death. But be assured that for those of us who are in Christ there is no longer any condemnation.
There is also the Mosaic law, the laws that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai back in Genesis. Paul’s audience had been used to obeying the Mosaic law.
Now the law could do many things, it could guide them, teach them, show them God’s character but it couldn’t empower them. It’s the same with us, it can give us the standard but it can’t give us the power to please God. Sometimes we can fall into legalism and forget that it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can live the Christian life. V 15 says:
And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God.
What great news!
How many of us have ever felt that we are ‘never good enough’? The reality of the situation is that in the sight of God we are righteousness, and there is now NO CONDEMNATION! This is the truth: everyone, no matter who we are or what we have done, is good enough, if we will only come to God and confess our sins. YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH!
I John 1:9 says:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
So with Jesus continuing to live within us, He has atoned for our sin, past, present and future, once and for all and the righteous requirements of the law are met only in Him as He lives in us.
Jesus dealt with the problem of sin so now we are free to live by the power of the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says:
For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.
Let’s put that in some context. Let’s bring to mind for a minute the worse sin that we have ever committed, how did it make us feel? Ashamed, guilty, condemned? Oh yes! Jesus took the punishment for that sin in His body, on the cross so that we could now live according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. As verse 1 says ‘ the case is closed, there remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One’
We have been acquitted! Imagine we are on trial for our sin, then Jesus comes along and takes our deserved punishment and we walk out of the court a free person. Wouldn’t you want to live differently in gratitude for what He has done?
So, next I want to look at the flesh versus the spirit…what does it mean to walk in the flesh and what does it mean to walk in the spirit?
FLESH
Depending on ourselves to fill the God-shaped hole
To seek after the things of the world to make us happy
To try harder to be righteous
To seek after our own happiness and desires
To be self-centred
It is an expression of the ego, it’s all about me and my wants and needs.
Flesh feels an emptiness but loathes the idea of satisfying it by faith
It is unsubmissive, it wants to be in control
SPIRIT
To allow the Holy Spirit to do good things through us
To be led by the Holy Spirit, only doing the things He shows us to do
To desire the things of God rather than the things of the world
To be outward looking, to look for ways to love others and put them first
To rest in the promises of God
To trust in God and have faith in Him
To walk in His instruction and His ways
To meditate on the Word of God
There are, of course, many other things that can be added to both lists but you get the idea.
Now, no doubt we can all identify with things on both lists, but remember we do not have to do these things by ourselves, it is simply making the choice of whether to let the Holy Spirit have His way within us or to keep walking after the things of the flesh. Galatians 5:16–18 says:
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
There is always a battle going inside us as Christians, or there should be! The Spirit will help us in our battle with the flesh, so take heart if your soul feels like a battlefield at times!! The sign of whether we have the Holy Spirit living in us is not that we have no selfish or impure thoughts but that we recognise them and want to do something about them, so we lean on the Spirit within to help us overcome!
Verse 16 shows us how to have victory over our sinful nature — let the Holy Spirit guide our lives. The fight of faith is fought with the promises of God — there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!
When we feel like giving up and the battle is too hard, then never forget in the darkness what God told you in the light!
I was reminded this week by a friend who sent me an encouragement. There may always be a spiritual battle going on over our lives if we are a true follower of Jesus, but the truth is that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are constantly interceding on our behalf . Later on in chapter 8 of Romans
V26–27 it says:
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.
v34 it says
Who then is left to condemn us? Certainly not Jesus, the Anointed One! For he gave his life for us, and even more than that, he has conquered death and is now risen, exalted, and enthroned by God at his right hand. So how could he possibly condemn us since he is continually praying for our triumph?
We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on (Heb 12:1), we are hidden in Christ (Col 3:3), He pours out His grace and mercy upon us and He never leaves us!
And Just as the locomotive is the front part of the train that pulls the train carriages along, that is how the Holy Spirit is in us! We do not follow in our own strength but we are led by His power. So to walk according to the spirit means to stay hooked up to the divine source of power which is the Holy Spirit and go wherever He leads. If the Christian life looks hard then we must ask ourselves if we are trying to live it according to the flesh or by the power of the Holy Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
It is possible to live a dynamic Christian life!
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