- Jan 26, 2017
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Jesus did not come to tame the flesh. He came to crucify it.
The offensive part of the gospel of grace is this: We contribute nothing. If fact, where we continue to strive in the flesh and what obedience we can squeeze out of the flesh, adds absolutely nothing, but instead is in total opposition of Christ. Relying on the flesh and what the flesh can do is in constant opposition of the freedom found only in Christ.
(Matthew 11: 28-30) “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take on my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Easy enough. Stop laboring. Stop striving in the flesh.
Luke 14:26 says, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethern, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
Do you hate your sin? Do you see the sin in the world, in loved ones around you, and in yourself? Are you to the point where sin is so repulsive that you can no longer see how life could ever hold any real peace or joy? Has your zeal for life gone because you no longer care to participate in the very things you once thrived on: Having a decent job that paid well. Having a nice home. Saving for your retirement. Saving for health insurance. Even the occasional sharing who Jesus is and what He has done with family, a family that now looks at you as if you have been stricken by some mental illness. Has doing the dance like the rest of the world lost its appeal, leaving you to wonder:
Where is peace, love, and joy?
Christ said, “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Life can lose its appeal but God can and will give us peace, love, and joy. Notice the fruits of the spirit come from the spirit and not the flesh. The flesh brings no joy. With the flesh only comes condemnation and suffering. The very things that drains life.
But Jesus said His yoke is light.
I have struggled for the longest time with Hebrews 12 and the sin that besets us. Beset is defined as: to attack on all sides; harass: to be beset by enemies; to surround; hem in. In Hebrews, we are told, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
Peaceable fruit of righteousness? Can our flesh be righteous? Can it produce righteousness? So is God chastening us to produce something out of the flesh, or to drive us to our knees in repentance and admittance that His son is the ONLY WAY? Do we continue to hold back an area of our life, still striving to overcome in that area on our own, rather than submitting that sin and agreeing with God it is too big for the flesh to do, until every sin is subjected to Christ saving power.
Until Christ has all.
A sin that besets is a sin that drags us away from the God’s grace and forgiveness back into shame and blame. It is that sin that keeps telling us we are unworthy of forgiveness. It is that sin that drags us outside of grace time and time again because the flesh is determined to beat it. It is also that sin that God uses to force us to our knees in submission, admitting Jesus is the only way. The sin that besets is not what keeps us laying aside the weight and moving forward under grace, but our constant rejection of mercy, grace and forgiveness. We return to our own flesh time and time again, and begin anew, a work-in-progress to overcome the sin ourselves.
The Lord is jealous ( a righteous jealousy) and will not share His glory with what “our flesh” can accomplish. As long as we strive with the flesh, God will again and again force us upon our knees in submission until every sin is put under the saving work of His son. The only way we can be righteous is in Jesus. The flesh will not suffice. How can you remove a log from your eye before you can remove the speck from your brothers? How can a man be righteous so that his fervent prayer availeth much? How can a sinner be righteous? There is only one way. You put on Christ. It is not by your obedience in the flesh but by submission to the work of the Spirit in and through us.
(Ephesians 4: 24) “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Once we surrender to the Lord. We become unprofitable servants. The flesh can no longer boast or glory. What is done by the Spirit; all glory will be given to the Lord, because, it is the Lord's work and His work alone.
(Luke 17: 5-10) “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”
I never could understand this passage of scripture until I considered what it meant to be an unprofitable servant. The flesh profits nothing. Everything done through the Spirit is the work of the Lord and no longer profits my flesh in any way. The flesh can no longer glory or boast. The glory is Christ’s and Christ’s alone. We contribute nothing.
Bring every sin under the subjection of the Lord until He has every area.
Until the Lord has all. Every rebellious against-God part of the flesh!
They will come, those that are determined to see you pick back up that weight you laid at Christ feet and convince you to squeeze a little more effort out of the flesh. When you surrender that sin to the redemptive power of Christ, the flesh no longer has anything to do with freeing you from it. It is all on the Lord. And that is the beautiful freedom found in the Lord. He does the work. The beauty is, when it is all over you will be able to say:
The flesh profited nothing.
It was all you, Jesus. ALL YOU!
Glory be to Christ!
(Galatians 5:1) “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
The offensive part of the gospel of grace is this: We contribute nothing. If fact, where we continue to strive in the flesh and what obedience we can squeeze out of the flesh, adds absolutely nothing, but instead is in total opposition of Christ. Relying on the flesh and what the flesh can do is in constant opposition of the freedom found only in Christ.
(Matthew 11: 28-30) “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take on my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Easy enough. Stop laboring. Stop striving in the flesh.
Luke 14:26 says, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethern, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
Do you hate your sin? Do you see the sin in the world, in loved ones around you, and in yourself? Are you to the point where sin is so repulsive that you can no longer see how life could ever hold any real peace or joy? Has your zeal for life gone because you no longer care to participate in the very things you once thrived on: Having a decent job that paid well. Having a nice home. Saving for your retirement. Saving for health insurance. Even the occasional sharing who Jesus is and what He has done with family, a family that now looks at you as if you have been stricken by some mental illness. Has doing the dance like the rest of the world lost its appeal, leaving you to wonder:
Where is peace, love, and joy?
Christ said, “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Life can lose its appeal but God can and will give us peace, love, and joy. Notice the fruits of the spirit come from the spirit and not the flesh. The flesh brings no joy. With the flesh only comes condemnation and suffering. The very things that drains life.
But Jesus said His yoke is light.
I have struggled for the longest time with Hebrews 12 and the sin that besets us. Beset is defined as: to attack on all sides; harass: to be beset by enemies; to surround; hem in. In Hebrews, we are told, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
Peaceable fruit of righteousness? Can our flesh be righteous? Can it produce righteousness? So is God chastening us to produce something out of the flesh, or to drive us to our knees in repentance and admittance that His son is the ONLY WAY? Do we continue to hold back an area of our life, still striving to overcome in that area on our own, rather than submitting that sin and agreeing with God it is too big for the flesh to do, until every sin is subjected to Christ saving power.
Until Christ has all.
A sin that besets is a sin that drags us away from the God’s grace and forgiveness back into shame and blame. It is that sin that keeps telling us we are unworthy of forgiveness. It is that sin that drags us outside of grace time and time again because the flesh is determined to beat it. It is also that sin that God uses to force us to our knees in submission, admitting Jesus is the only way. The sin that besets is not what keeps us laying aside the weight and moving forward under grace, but our constant rejection of mercy, grace and forgiveness. We return to our own flesh time and time again, and begin anew, a work-in-progress to overcome the sin ourselves.
The Lord is jealous ( a righteous jealousy) and will not share His glory with what “our flesh” can accomplish. As long as we strive with the flesh, God will again and again force us upon our knees in submission until every sin is put under the saving work of His son. The only way we can be righteous is in Jesus. The flesh will not suffice. How can you remove a log from your eye before you can remove the speck from your brothers? How can a man be righteous so that his fervent prayer availeth much? How can a sinner be righteous? There is only one way. You put on Christ. It is not by your obedience in the flesh but by submission to the work of the Spirit in and through us.
(Ephesians 4: 24) “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Once we surrender to the Lord. We become unprofitable servants. The flesh can no longer boast or glory. What is done by the Spirit; all glory will be given to the Lord, because, it is the Lord's work and His work alone.
(Luke 17: 5-10) “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”
I never could understand this passage of scripture until I considered what it meant to be an unprofitable servant. The flesh profits nothing. Everything done through the Spirit is the work of the Lord and no longer profits my flesh in any way. The flesh can no longer glory or boast. The glory is Christ’s and Christ’s alone. We contribute nothing.
Bring every sin under the subjection of the Lord until He has every area.
Until the Lord has all. Every rebellious against-God part of the flesh!
They will come, those that are determined to see you pick back up that weight you laid at Christ feet and convince you to squeeze a little more effort out of the flesh. When you surrender that sin to the redemptive power of Christ, the flesh no longer has anything to do with freeing you from it. It is all on the Lord. And that is the beautiful freedom found in the Lord. He does the work. The beauty is, when it is all over you will be able to say:
The flesh profited nothing.
It was all you, Jesus. ALL YOU!
Glory be to Christ!
(Galatians 5:1) “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
