A Life Of GlorySample

  

The Flesh is Weak!

We are to manifest the glory of God by conforming to His character. Sin made us failures at holiness and placed us under God’s righteous judgment. God’s grace, through Christ, brought us back into a holy position with God and made possible a life pursuing His holy call; in other words, a life graced by God is a life lived in triumph. However, when we allow sin to control us it defeats our triumphant life. Christ freed us from sin and enabled us to break sin’s attempt to control us by knowing who we are in Christ, considering ourselves dead to sin and alive to God and presenting ourselves to Him as His righteousness. Knowing all of this, why do we still sin? Great question. Let’s see what Paul says further in His letter to the Romans.

Paul calls this the flesh and defines the flesh as the spiritual force in us that, when empowered by sin, moves me to rely on myself for my personal identity and security apart from God and in opposition to God. In another words, the flesh means I rely on my own resources to get what I want when I want it. In fact, it has been said that the flesh can be defined by these three words – ME, MYSELF, MINE. Why do I struggle with sin? The flesh is the answer because in the flesh I am the answer.

This is seen in Paul’s own life when he uses the word “I” 21 times in 8 verses. Simply stated he has defined the flesh very well – with the emphasis I want what I want when I want it apart from and in opposition to God. And he even states that this is not what he wants to do! You see, when I live in the “I” (the flesh), with me as the focal point, then sin reigns and I do what I do not want to do. It seems hopeless until God, one more time, steps in. 

Paul now describes God’s answer – the Holy Spirit – God Himself in the Third Person of The Trinity – and this time Paul’s description uses the Holy Spirit in place of “I”. I am to live not in the “I” but in the Holy Spirit. In the flesh is weakness and death and in the Spirit is power and life over sin and the flesh. When I am led by the Spirit I will not live in the flesh.

Two Questions: Do I live life in the “I” or in the Spirit? Do I see myself attuned to the working of the Holy Spirit in my life?