Putting the Flesh to the
Test
The following article
is taken from the book - Living in the
Heavenly Realms - under the chapter - Examining
Self-Produced Righteousness.
All Christians naturally start out in
their spiritual journey with considerable confidence in the flesh. There is a
tendency to divide it into the good and the bad. We distrust some things
because they cause us trouble. Other things we acknowledge as weak points, but
not necessarily bad. And there is even a large portion of this self-produced
life that we rate rather high, and in which we place much of our trust. It may
be our refined and cultured tastes, or the opinions and judgments which are the
product of our educated minds, or our great zeal and noble feelings for doing
good, or our high standards of morality, or even our religious heritage. So,
like Paul living as a Pharisee, when we look at this cross-section of our
self-produced form of life, taking the good and the bad together, it seems in our
sight to measure up fairly well. At least we cannot see any reason for a
wholesale condemnation of it as God does.
This was King Saul’s problem. He did
not believe that it was necessary to destroy all of Amalek.
He thought there were some good things worth saving. But God, knowing there was
“no good thing” in it, insisted that Saul do away with everything. But we find
him attempting to save Agag and some of his better
resources in order to use these corrupt things to serve God. This is what most
Christians are doing today. They want to be followers of Christ without
following Him through the cross. Because they have permitted their flesh-life
to live on, its carnality can still be heard bleating in the background of
their lives. These works of the flesh keep rising out of their hearts. (Gal.
5:19-21) This is why God can never be pleased until Agag,
who represents “King Self,” is put to death. Those who will agree to have his
head cut off, which will entail dying to the wisdom of this
world, will then be prepared to enter into the heavenly realms.
Those who have permitted Agag to live are in as much trouble as King Saul. He lost
everything because he refused to “fully” obey what God had instructed. Yes, he
thought he was serving God in the works that he chose to do. But living out
from self in the flesh always results in a form of spiritual life that dies,
even when the works are done for the Lord. Do you find your spiritual life
continuing to die when things do not go your way? You will need to count “as loss”
everything that is self-originated before you can truly walk by the Spirit and
share with God in His everlasting life.
While the flesh may perform relatively
well in producing some apparent goodness in comparison to what others are
doing, it will continue to fall short of the glory of God. It simply does not
have the capacity to go on day after day revealing Christ’s Kingdom-life of
“righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Consider some of the trials you have
recently experienced when something other than Christ’s nature of holy love
came out of your heart. Where was the Spirit’s fruit of love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
Remember, “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.”
(Eph. 5:9)
We are not saying that spiritual men
will never get out of the Spirit. But it is not necessary. We have written
testimonies in the Scriptures to show how men like Paul and Silas revealed
Christ’s “light of life” through the most severe forms of suffering. (Acts
16:16-34) It was because this supernatural life did not “die” or “drain out” of
their soul in these miserable conditions that it was so effective in drawing
others to Christ.
The early growth of the persecuted
church can probably be attributed to how well Christians handled difficult
times, including severe physical suffering. Their spiritual life continued to
hold up even when the world fell apart around them. Everyone who sees this
never-dying form of spiritual life will be attracted to it. Although there will
still be “the many” who are unwilling to pay the full price for this heavenly
Pearl {they will respond as the rich young ruler did even after seeing the life
in Jesus}, the church would be more effective if we were displaying Christ’s
Kingdom-life before the eyes of the world.
With these thoughts in mind, let us put
the very best product of the flesh to the test. We will need to take it from
the home in which it has made a comfortable place for itself. It will need to
be removed from its sweet companionships, its various means of entertainment,
the books it has used to stimulate its thoughts, the modern kitchen and the
white linen covered table, and from all the conveniences of an affluent
society. That is, take away all those things it has used to satisfy its
intellectual, social, aesthetic and spiritual desires. Let us then transplant
this flesh-life to an interior village on the mission field where it must live
in a strange culture, with nothing to rest the eyes upon but mud walls and
dirty narrow streets surrounded by foreign voices and unpleasant odors, and a
furlough many years away. And then begin to examine this self-originated form
of righteousness to see if it is able to consistently manifest Christ’s “light
of life” and remain “more than a conqueror.” More than one missionary has left
the field early because they set out to serve the Lord in the strength of the
“flesh.” The self-life inevitably breaks down under severe trial.
Or let us put the “flesh” to the test
without even taking it away from its pleasant environment. Perhaps it thinks it
has become like Jesus in love and is manifesting His “light of life” to lost
souls. We therefore need to test it with the love described in chapter thirteen
of First Corinthians. Is the love that is being revealed one that does not seek
its own, does not become upset when treated poorly, keeps no record of being
wronged, and is free from all envy and boasting? Is it able to believe all
things, hope all things and endure all things with patient confidence in God?
Would not the form of love that has its source in the flesh need to blush with
shame at its periodic outbreaks of envy, worry, distress, selfishness,
impatience, resentments and irritability? Can we begin to see how this
self-originated form of life will inevitably fail this divine test and fall
short of God’s glory?
Someone may find themselves rising up
in defense of “the flesh” and insisting they have some rights to act as they
do. We suggest that you study more closely the responses of Jesus during His
final hours as the sacrificial Lamb on the way to the cross. This is the nature
of love that God wants to manifest through each of His children in this world.
And it is impossible to display this nature of holy love while living according
to the desires of the flesh. The flesh-life will refuse to put up with being
treated so poorly. Its spiritual state is dependent upon being treated well and
having pleasant conditions in the natural realm. It is a form of life that
deteriorates when things go wrong. It naturally tries to protect its
self-centered form of life. And so it cannot reveal the Son’s nature of love.
This helps us to better understand why
many Christians eventually burn out in their service to God. While they may
have earnestly served the Lord for many years through their love for Him, the
service still had its source in self. And while the flesh can actually feed on
its own work for a while, if these individuals do not receive sufficient
appreciation for their efforts, they will eventually run out of energy. Their
human zeal eventually burns out.
It is also the reason why preachers
need to be appreciated to keep motivated. They become more concerned about
pleasing the congregation than preaching truth to please God. It is nothing
more than the flesh looking for its support from the temporal realm.
The real objective of the Christian
faith is to be honored by God. (John 12:26) He gives His honor by filling the
soul with His everlasting life. But the seed must be planted in the ground and
die before the spirit can be lifted into this eternal life. (John 12:24)
It is our choice to suffer for Christ’s
sake that actually magnifies His power through our lives. Christ’s power was
magnified through the ministry He put Paul in because Paul was willing to
suffer for the
Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in the
God who raises the dead. (2 Cor. 1:9)
…For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(2 Cor. 12:10)
…God has chosen to make known…the
glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We
proclaim him…so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I
labor, struggling with all His energy,
which so powerfully works in me. (Col. 1:27-29 NIV)
…It is no longer I
who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God… I do not set aside the grace of God; for if
righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. (Gal. 2:20-21)
In the end, we will all learn that true
righteousness comes directly from God by faith. The quicker we can learn this
lesson, the greater our opportunity to know Christ in the power of His
resurrection. The flesh simply cannot produce the life that has it source in
Christ by keeping laws. May we all learn this lesson today!
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves
to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter
but of the Spirit; for the letter {living by the written laws} kills, but the
Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3:5-6)
Is the law then against the promises of
God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which
could have given life {life from God}, truly righteousness would have been by
the law. (Gal. 3:21)