Why does God leave believers in this battle, why doesn’t he just remove the flesh away the moment they are saved? It is because this daily conflict forces you to depend on him, if you had no sinful nature left, you would become proud, you would not need to pray, you would not need to rely on his power every hour, the battle keeps you desperate for God. So, what is the solution, how do you win? Galatians 5:18, Paul does not say fight the flesh, this is a crucial distinction, most believers try to fight the flesh with willpower, but this is called white-knuckling it. You grit your teeth and say, I will not look at that image. But what happens, the more you try not to think about a pink elephant, the more you think about the pink elephant.
Focusing on the sin, even to fight it, keeps your mind on the sin, Paul offers a different way, the way to defeat the flesh is to displace it. You focus on the Holy Spirit, if you focus on following the Holy Spirit, listening to his voice, reading the Word and staying close to Jesus, you will automatically stop feeding the desires of the flesh, you starve the flesh by feeding the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 9:15-17, the author of Hebrews is no longer talking about a covenant between two parties, he is talking about a will, a last will and testament and the argument is simple and devastating, God made promises, staggering infinite promises.
Forgiveness of sins, a cleansed conscience, direct access to God’s presence, an eternal inheritance, he promised all of this to those who are called, but here is the legal reality, a will has no power while the person who made it is still alive, you cannot collect an inheritance from a living person’s will. The will is real, the promises are real, but they are locked, they are inactive, they have no legal force until death occurs. So, the cross is not just a sacrifice, it is not just a payment for sin, it is the activation of everything God ever promised. When Jesus Christ died, the will opened, the inheritance became legally available, every promise God had ever made from Abraham forward was suddenly collectible.
Hebrews 9:15, under the first covenant, that means the people who lived and died under the old system, the believers of the Old Testament who brought their animal sacrifices in faith and never lived to see the Messiah, they were covered, too. Their sacrifices were like a credit forward, against a payment that had not yet been made, when Jesus Christ died, the will activated not just for everyone after the cross, but for everyone before it, as well. Jesus Christ’s death reached backward through time and settled every outstanding debt in history.
Focusing on the sin, even to fight it, keeps your mind on the sin, Paul offers a different way, the way to defeat the flesh is to displace it. You focus on the Holy Spirit, if you focus on following the Holy Spirit, listening to his voice, reading the Word and staying close to Jesus, you will automatically stop feeding the desires of the flesh, you starve the flesh by feeding the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 9:15-17, the author of Hebrews is no longer talking about a covenant between two parties, he is talking about a will, a last will and testament and the argument is simple and devastating, God made promises, staggering infinite promises.
Forgiveness of sins, a cleansed conscience, direct access to God’s presence, an eternal inheritance, he promised all of this to those who are called, but here is the legal reality, a will has no power while the person who made it is still alive, you cannot collect an inheritance from a living person’s will. The will is real, the promises are real, but they are locked, they are inactive, they have no legal force until death occurs. So, the cross is not just a sacrifice, it is not just a payment for sin, it is the activation of everything God ever promised. When Jesus Christ died, the will opened, the inheritance became legally available, every promise God had ever made from Abraham forward was suddenly collectible.
Hebrews 9:15, under the first covenant, that means the people who lived and died under the old system, the believers of the Old Testament who brought their animal sacrifices in faith and never lived to see the Messiah, they were covered, too. Their sacrifices were like a credit forward, against a payment that had not yet been made, when Jesus Christ died, the will activated not just for everyone after the cross, but for everyone before it, as well. Jesus Christ’s death reached backward through time and settled every outstanding debt in history.
