Get Outta the Flesh!

Today’s lesson is simple (not so easy?): Get outta the flesh!

The flesh, or sark,[1] is that part of our human makeup that is only able to live independent and contrary to God. The unregenerate person can only live in the flesh, while the born-again child of God[2] is now able to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”[3]

As I prayerfully meditate my way through Romans 7, I am overwhelmed with Paul’s descriptions of what we are like in our flesh, or sark. It is very clear that, in the sark, it is impossible to do the right thing. He is clear that the law is good, and that it is never the law that is the reason we sin. It is this grand conspiracy of the world, the flesh, and the devil, who use the law, and all our efforts to be good, to keep us in bondage to the flesh, and, therefore, in bondage to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

What strikes me so strongly is how necessary it is to know what life is like in the flesh, or in the sark. On one side, even though the law is good, we are to understand that the natural person in the flesh cannot keep the law. The law can only prove us guilty of sin, and sin constantly uses the propensities of the flesh to lure us to disobey God, even when we end up doing the very things we really do not want to do.

Here is a compilation of things Paul says about life in the flesh, along with the results of our living in the flesh. I share this in the hope that God’s children will see that our only option is to turn from the flesh, and seek God in the Spirit.

Description of Our Condition	Effects of our Condition
“while we were living in the flesh” (7:5)	“our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.” (7:5)
“the law… that which held us captive” (7:6)	“sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.” (7:8)
“when the commandment came” (7:9)	“sin came alive and I died.” (7:9)
“when the commandment came” (7:9)	“sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” (7:11)
“through the commandment” (7:13)	“sin… might become sinful beyond measure.” (7:13)
“I am of the flesh, sold under sin.” (7:14)	“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (7:15)
“sin that dwells within me.” (7:17)	“I do what I do not want” (7:16)
“nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” (7:18)	“I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (7:18)
“sin that dwells within me.” (7:20)	“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (7:19)
“I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind” (7:23)	“making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” (7:23)

I am absolutely convinced that Christians who give any room to the flesh will be the most unhappy people in the world. They will have the strongest desire to do what is right in God’s sight, and the greatest consciousness that they are failing to do so (since the flesh can only fail to do God’s will).

I should also note that, it is not deep and unresolved trauma that makes God’s children unhappy. It is our determination to handle those things in the flesh. And, if you are not sure if you are handling your inner hurts and heartaches in the flesh, just ask, “Am I doing this myself, or is it what God is doing in me?”

Practically, what do we do from whatever the state of our Soul-Condition to start doing things in the Spirit instead of the flesh?

PRAY! (Emphasis, not shouting!)

As soon as we start praying, we are handing things over to God. We might feel as sarky as ever, but the fact we are praying, instead of ruminating, puts things in God’s hands, and gives his Spirit room to work. It is not that things immediately feel better, but that they are now hopeful simply because the Spirit can do things our flesh cannot imagine.

I will be getting more into the Romans 8 picture of life in the Spirit, but I think there first needs to be the Beatitudinal Journey of accepting the poverty of our flesh, mourning all that we do in our flesh, meekly accepting our flesh cannot fix what is broken in us, and hungering and thirsting for life in the Spirit no matter how unfamiliar or unimaginable that life in the Spirit may be.[4]

As I said earlier, the true children of God are the only people who can “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”[5]Let us deny our sarky selves, take up the cross of Jesus Christ as our only hope of righteousness, and follow Jesus wherever his Spirit leads.[6]

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

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[1] The Greek word is “sarx”, translated “flesh”. We often refer to the flesh as the “sark”, and fleshly attitudes as “sarky”.

[2] John 1:11-13; John 3:1-8

[3] Romans 13:14 (I should also note that this is not automatic, hence all the exhortations to deal with the flesh and walk in the Spirit!)

[4] The Beatitudinal Journey refers to the experience of God’s blessings in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12).

[5] Romans 13:14

[6] Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23