Spirit vs. Flesh
December 30, 2015
Devotions:
“For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
Galatians 5:17-18 NKJV
The flesh is in opposition to the spirit. So often we make the works of the flesh, as all evil things as listed in Galatians 5: 21. But the desires of the flesh against the spirit are much more than that. The flesh desires to do good things to look right before God. Cain presented his offering before God, the fruit of the ground and it was not accepted. Why? Because it represented the works of his hands, the sweat of his brow and that was unacceptable before God. His brother, Abel, presented an offering, a blood sacrifice and it was accepted. In the sacrifice Abel was saying that he needed a substitute, a savior to take his place and to pay the price for his sins. Abel was confessing his sin and his need for grace while Cain was saying that he was alright and did not have any sin nor a need for a savior. The fruit was good fruit but it represented his work and not the work of God in salvation. We can religiously do good works, visit the widow and the orphan, give sacrificialy, pray, fast, read our Bibles and it can be totally unacceptable to God becasue we do it as works righteousness, to be accepted by God.
To follow the spirit is to walk in the rest of the finished work of Christ. By no work of our own we are enveloped by the love of the Father because of the blood sacrifice that was offered on our behalf. Our acceptance before the Father is not based on any of our works but totally on the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on our behalf. This is the only acceptable sacrifice for our acceptance before the Father and we recognize this through our praise for what He has done. All of our good works flow out of this reconciled relationship secure in God.
Walking in the flesh is walking in good works but anxious that we may have missed something somewhere and so we get on God's bad side. Walking in the spirit is walking in the finished work of Jesus knowing that all is accomplished for our salvation and we cannot add to it nor take away from it. The flesh fights to gain preeminence in good works inorder to take the glory for the work. The spirit says, "It is finished!"