Crucifying the Flesh

Question: what takes place when someone or something dies?  They cease to exist as they did before and they can’t function anymore.  There is no heartbeat, no pulse and no sign of life; they are powerless to do anything.  You might say they are free from all bodily functions.  

Sometimes as believers, we still struggle with sin and the repetition of doing the same sins over and over again.  Maybe it is because we haven’t heard this or understood what it means, to crucify the flesh, to nail it to the cross.  When Jesus was crucified, He ended up dying, He wasn’t in a deep sleep or a coma, He was dead and His lifeless body was placed in a tomb where dead bodies were placed in the days when Jesus walked the earth.  Before you became a believer, you were spiritually dead and a slave to sin because of your sin nature, like everyone else that ever walked the face of the earth outside of Jesus who never sinned.  We were all born with a sin nature and all of us have sinned many times, but when we met the Savior and were born-again we were baptized into His death.  

Read Romans 6:4-19, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.”

We should consider our old nature dead if we have been born-again.  If we really look at it that way it may help us to resist sin, for we have been set free from the bondage of sin; we are enslaved to it no more.  Plus when the temptations come, God has provided a way of escape from it so that we can overcome any temptation in our lives.  Read 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”  We can resist any temptation because God will always help us if we seek His help.  The problem is we don’t seek His help when we need it at times, then we end up falling into temptation.  

We can learn a lesson from Joseph when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him.  What did he do?  He ran from the temptation; sometimes that is the best response.  Read Genesis 39:6-12, “Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her.

But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.”

Throughout the day there are many thoughts that come to our minds, but the thought isn’t the sin, it is what we do with the thought that is important.  We can take them captive unto the Lord and rebuke them, or we can meditate on them, helping us to lust and act on them in a way that we shouldn’t.  A pastor friend told me this, years ago, “You can’t keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep him from building a nest in your hair.”  The tempting thoughts will come, deal with them properly and you won’t allow them to cause you to sin.  Sometimes we have to flee temptation without discussing anything; just plain run.  Something to think about!  I hope it has helped you in this area.  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!