The Flesh vs.
the Spirit
The battle we face.
To best describe
the battle we face between the flesh and the spirit, I believe the Apostle
Paul’s question found in Gal. 3:2 poses one of the greatest insights. Here I’ll
use several Bible translations to illustrate:
Gal. 3:2-3 (TLB)
“Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by trying to
keep the Jewish laws? Of course not, for the Holy Spirit came upon you only
after you heard about Christ and trusted him to save you. Then have you gone
completely crazy? For if trying to obey
the Jewish laws never gave you spiritual life in the first place, why do
you think that trying to obey them now will make you stronger Christians?”
Gal. 3:2-3 (KJV)
“This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the
law? Or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the
Spirit, are you now made perfect by the
flesh?”
Gal. 3:2-3 (NLT)
“Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying
the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed
the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your
new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”
As you can see,
one translation used the word ‘flesh,’ another inserts for the word flesh, ‘by
your own human effort,’ and still another inserts for the word flesh, ‘trying
to obey the Jewish laws.’ All three are correct and pretty much synonymous with
each other. We received the Holy Spirit the moment we became born-again. Once
again, before we were born-again, we could not clean ourselves up and do enough
to earn salvation. We received it as a free gift after hearing the gospel which
reveals the righteousness of God or our “right-standing with God,” all
accomplished by the work of the cross. So, when a believer is now trying to
become perfect by his own human effort, he
is trying to be made perfect by the flesh. He or she is not resting in the
fact that he received an imputed righteousness the moment he became born-again,
a righteousness which is of God apart from the law, or without the law. (ref.
Rom. 3:20-22 and Rom. 7:5) The Apostle Paul said, in his epistle to the
Philippians, that he counted what he had accomplished as loss-so as to win
Christ. (ref. Phil. 3:7) “and be found in Him, not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” So understanding that the
same way in which we received the Holy Spirit is the same way we walk in the
Spirit, is crucial to our faith walk. (ref. Col. 2:6) Understanding this is the
root. Walking in the Spirit, or
understanding that we remain righteous apart from our works or performance, is
the root that gives us the fruit of the Spirit. Not understanding this is the root that produces the works of the
flesh. A dead work is something we do as a Christian, thinking it will put us
in right-standing with God, other than receiving what has already been done for
us.
[Note: Through
all of this, the born-again Christian still remains the righteousness of God,
but is carnal in his thinking.]
