LETTER for NOVEMBER 1993

Dear Friends,

I would like to share with you some thoughts on the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 8:12-14 where he says, "Therefore, brethren, we have an obligation - but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if we live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God". The Apostle tells that the way of holiness is if we, through the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body. The word used is 'deeds' or 'practices' of the body, not just misdeeds as the NIV translates.

Paul first tells us we owe the flesh, our sinful nature residing in our bodies, nothing. We have no obligation towards the flesh to follow its claims upon us. However we do know how powerful the flesh is in making claims upon us. It is a tragic truth that we are governed by our emotions, not by our will. With our mind and renewed spiritual understanding we know what is right or what may not be best, even though it may not be morally wrong; but if our flesh clamours for the opposite, we find ourselves powerless to say, no!

Notice how true and realistic Paul's words are. He does not say the flesh is not a problem. He acknowledges that it exists and that it clamours for attention and satisfaction. He does not say the flesh is dead. What he does say is that we have no obligation towards the flesh. The flesh has no rightful claim upon us. Paul has dealt with this fact in Romans 6, where he says we have died with Christ and belong to this world no more.

Paul lays wide open the deceit of the flesh. It promises so much. It promises instant gratification. It holds before us swift happiness and stimulation. It is like alcohol, but also like alcohol it lets us down. If we seek our happiness by satisfying the demands of the flesh we shall die. Paul is speaking to Christians, so although the way of the flesh leads along the broad way that leads to destruction, i.e. death and hell, yet he has not got this in mind. The Christian is freed from this death for ever. When Paul speaks of dying if we live after the flesh, he is speaking of the unfailing consequences of all sensual satisfaction - it always leaves a craving for more, because it never gives lasting satisfaction. Like the drug, the satisfaction it gives soon wears off. Then a greater dose, or more powerful expression of it, must be taken if we are to get the same satisfaction. This cycle goes on until there is no more satisfaction in life, only raging thirst of unsatisfied cravings of the flesh.

It is important to notice exactly what Paul says. He does not say we can get rid of the flesh. We are stuck with our sinful flesh until we are delivered from this bondage of corruption, either at physical death, or when Christ returns. We can only mortify or put to death the deeds of the body - that is the ways and actions which come clamouring upon us from the desires of the flesh.

Again it is not simply the sinful desires of the flesh which the Apostle is speaking of, but also the desires which are not necessarily morally wrong. John Newton expressed things so well in one of his hymns - "fading is the world's vain pleasure, all its boasted pomp and show". If we set our affections on the things of this world, even if they are not wrong, still we find only death and emptiness. This is not to say we do not enjoy ordinary pleasures in life, but rather that we do not set our affections upon them.

Paul calls us to action. We must put to death the deeds of the body. How must we understand this? Most often we think of turning and fighting. "Through the Spirit" is then conceived as the Holy Spirit giving us strength and power to resist and overcome the desires of the flesh. But what is our experience in such action. Turning and fighting causes us to look at and concentrate on the desire we are combating. This immediately makes the problem greater, because we become paralysed by the desire we are seeking to defeat. The Spirit does not seem to help at all. The desire of the flesh grows to such an intensity that we can't stand against the pain of it, and so we give in. How defeated we feel! What failure we are burdened with!

There is another means of mortification. The way we have just considered is the way of confrontation and attack. Another way is starvation and neglect. This brings about the mortification more surely. I believe it is what Paul is referring to.

It is by the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the body, but in what way? Paul tells us immediately. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.

Paul expresses two facts. If we are Christians, then we are sons of God, and this means we receive the Holy Spirit. It is by the Holy Spirit we have been made sons of God and led to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. The second fact is that we are led by the Spirit.

This is important. The Holy Spirit leads, he does not coerce or drive. He goes before us, as Jesus the Good Shepherd goes before his sheep. The Spirit leads us into the joys and pastures of the heavenly realm. He points us in the right direction where true joys are to be found. Here is the way of mortification, not turning towards the desires of the flesh and doing battle, but rather turning away from the desires of the flesh to follow where the Spirit leads.

By this means three things happen. Firstly, by turning away from the desires of the flesh we neglect them and their power over us diminishes. Secondly, we are pointed and led to new desires which replace the desires of the flesh. We can't win if we leave a vacuum. The place the desires of the flesh occupied must be replaced by a new affection. Thirdly, we are led to new heavenly and spiritual joys which we find are better, more lasting and more satisfying than the desires of the flesh. They may not have the powerful immediate pleasure, but they have a deeper pleasure and one which grows.

This joy which replaces the desires of the flesh is the joy of belonging to God - being beloved by him. We are led by the Spirit into the experience of being sons and daughters of God. This is the heavenly joy which is so much better and worth so much more than all the deeds of the body put together, and the Apostle elaborates upon it.

Such a great change we have experienced. Before we became Christians we were in bondage to fear of God. We feared God who we knew required from us what we had failed to perform. Our bondage was the debt of good works we felt God required before he would not punish us. We may not have felt it in such a bald and explicit way, but this is the substance of everyone's attitude to, and feeling, concerning God before we know God's forgiving love in Jesus. But now we know God's grace in Jesus, in that God has paid the debt for our sins completely in the punishment of our sin upon Jesus when he died on the cross.

The Apostle says the joy into which the Spirit leads us, and which supplants the deeds of the body and starves them to death, is the realisation of this release from fear of God, and the experience of God's fatherly love. The Spirit gives us the joy of that love, so we feel and know God loves us as his children, and we find ourselves crying to God in happiness from our hearts "Abba Father - dear, dear Father". This is not simply a expression in words of the truth, but an expression of the love we feel in our hearts.

Together with this the Spirit opens our minds and experience to what it means to be children of God, and that we are heirs of God. We have all the treasure of God as our inheritance. We enjoy the same place and relationship with God in heaven as Jesus.

The Apostle is always real. We will suffer from the demands of the flesh and Satan's exciting and stimulation of them, but he explains that it is suffering with Christ, which leads to glory with Christ - we will be glorified one day with him.

So the way of holiness, the way to mortify, or put to death, the deeds of the body, is not to turn and fight. The Spirit does not give us power for this. It is to follow where the Spirit leads. To follow after the Spirits teaching, and turn away and neglect the way the flesh would lead us. By this the desires of the flesh, being neglected and starved, will shrivel and die. But we need to never cease following where the Spirit leads, because the flesh does not go away or its demands diminish. Mortification is in us by the leading of the Spirit into heavenly things, and thus the attractions of the flesh die of neglect.

Your servant for Christ's sake,