2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
In the passage that includes 1 COR 15:45-46, Paul is discussing the resurrection body that we will receive at the time of our glorification. These words point up a truth with a significant impact on our lives. “For the Scripture [GN 2: 7] says, ‘The first man, Adam, was created a living being,’ but the last Adam [meaning Christ] is the life-giving Spirit. It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.” It is appropriate for me to quote this citation, because so many of our interactions with the Lord are connected to the struggle we have between our flesh and the Spirit. We have been looking at passages which reveal God’s attributes and refer to Him with specific names and will return to doing that. However, it is necessary to pause from that to look at this conflict that goes on between flesh and spirit to really appreciate God’s power to transform us in the process of sanctification to prepare us for the day when we will be sufficiently perfected to eventually dwell with Him in His Kingdom eternally. We begin our lives having inherited Adam’s original sin as prisoners to sin’s power over us. We are beings strictly of the flesh. Had Christ not done the work of the cross, we would be trapped in that pathetic, sorry state that has only one possible outcome-spiritual death and the lake of fire.
Our Abba knew this even before the original sin happened. That is why we have been told there was a pre-Creation council in heaven COL 1: 15-20 and 1 PET 1: 20-21 in which God decided that the work of the cross must be done by His Son to provide us a way out from slavery to sin. Once a person has repented from his sin and confessed genuine faith in Christ, the process of sanctification can begin. This is not an easy process, because it brings us into the conflict between the old outer fleshly self, which is dying, and the inner spiritual self, which is gaining dominance. GA 5: 16-17 speaks of this conflict. “What I [Paul] say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature. For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.” RO 7: 14-20 is another passage in which Paul directs his message to this difficult conflict. “We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am a mortal man, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do; for I do not do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate. Since what I do is what I do not want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right. So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me. I know that good does not live in me-that is, in my human nature. For even through the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. I do not do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. If I do that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.” Later, in RO 7: 22- 25, he goes on to say, “My inner being delights in the law of God [note the small ell here]. But I see a different law at work in my body-a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body. What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, Who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
God’s plan is no accident, nor is it something that mankind had to wait until Christ’s time to hear about it. JER 31: 31-34 accurately predicts it. “The Lord says, ‘The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. None of them will have to teach his fellow countrymen to know Me, from the least to the greatest, I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.’” Even before Jeremiah’s ministry, Isaiah knew about this plan and spoke of it in IS 53, his chapter on the Suffering Servant, who we know was Jesus Christ. IS 53: 11-12, “After a life of suffering , He will again have joy; He will know that He did not suffer in vain. My devoted Servant, with Whom I am pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for His sake I will forgive them. And so I will give Him a place of honor, a place among great and powerful men. He willingly gave His life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinner and prayed that they might be forgiven.” Dear Ones, we have been given a gift in Christ’s Atonement and in the Holy Spirit indwelt in us that is so precious that it opens the only way for us to be triumphant in dealing with the conflict of the spirit and our flesh.
PRAYER: O Lord, when we live “in the flesh,” we are slaves of sin and are on a one-way path to spiritual death. Your heart of compassion felt deeply enough for us that even before this awful condition was brought about by Adam’s transgression, You put a plan in place that would give us relief from it. Your plan was the sacrifice of Your only Son on the cross. While that Atonement opens the way, it does not insure that we will walk through that “narrow gate.” We needed to repent and confess faith in Jesus Christ. Before we ever lived on earth, You knew that we would need to endure a conflict within us once those steps were taken. Because of Your great love for us, love which we never deserved, You had Him send the Holy Spirit to indwell with us. By doing that, You made it possible for us to live “in Christ.” You gave us Your word for the Spirit to interpret for us, so we could understand it. You also gave us a way to communicate with You through prayer. When we understand all that You have supplied to equip us to be victorious over the evil that surrounds us, we can take joy in knowing that these are the modern day “manna and water from a rock” that will enable us to emerge from this life’s wilderness perfected and ready to be with You in the next life. How richly You deserve the adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, honor, glory, obedience, praise, and thanks that we humbly offer today! In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue looking at the conflict between flesh and spirit with some citations that are practical examples and which reveal God’s willingness to see us through it. No matter how difficult our lives seem right now, we do not face our problems without the loving hand of our heavenly Father. All we need to do is to ask Him for His guidance and help. He is only to willing to give it. Each and every one of us is the object of His love. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn