FLESH CLARIFIED

Jesus came in the same flesh as we. He was tempted in His flesh as are we. He was, and is the “Second Adam”. His lineage came from His Father, God, whose blood line is perfect in love, holiness and righteousness. Our lineage came from Adam, the fallen one, so we came into condemnation when we became accountable, for Adam’s blood is defiled and unrighteous, lacking God’s love.

Jesus walked in the flesh in perfect love, holiness and righteousness. In Adam, we walk in the flesh under condemnation, being rebellious. When Christ gifts us with the new birth by His grace, we by the gift of faith become a new creation in Him. So now we walk in the same flesh, but by His grace through faith with a new, holy, loving heart. This heart becomes the dwelling place for the Holy Ghost of God, when invited, who protects our heart and soul against the wiles of the devil who uses our flesh to tempt us as he did our Lord. But, the indwelling Christ, our new life, keeps us in the will of the Father, “not my will but Thine be done”, even as Jesus prayed to the Father in His last temptation. That is why, “Christ in us (is) the hope of glory”.

Some believe that the flesh is the old man and that he is alive and well and we must do battle with this old (flesh) man for the life or death of the soul. If this were true, then Jesus had an old man of sin, His flesh. This is totally false. Therefore, this belief is an evil trick of the Devil, called dualism, a heresy. The Old man is dead, crucified with Christ if we accept this truth by faith and put the old man off by putting on the new man. We reckon the old man dead by faith, and we die to him as we live in the love and power of Christ.

Jesus’ victory over the flesh is effectually transferred to us through our rebirth into His Body, the Church. By faith, we put on the whole spiritual armor of God (Jesus Christ) that we may stand in the days of temptation, for temptation will come. And when it comes, we are tempted to accept sin in our lives, yet rescued from it through Him who keeps us from falling. If we walk in the Spirit of Christ, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Also, those who have asked for and received the Holy Ghost for service are empowered to minister Christ to the world out of a clean, loving heart and His holy Spirit.

There are those who by classifying their faults as sin, believe that they cannot live above sin, so confess to being sinners, yet saved; however, we know that by faith Christ is able to keep us through convicting our heart, bringing us to repentance and forgiveness. The new life we live in Him is not a life of sin but of love and faith, unless we put off Christ and succumb to the temptations of the flesh or blatantly offend God’s law, which He has written in our hearts, and which we now love and obey by His power and faith. It is expected of us not to sin, however, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” (1 John 2:1 AV)

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Jesus’ work is not a weak or partial work of sanctification and holiness; it is powerful and perfect because His sacrifice and life is perfect in the eyes of God, our final judge, because it is a work of obedient love. When lost persons see our walk of faith and love, they try to copy and even surpass our ways to justify themselves which is their downfall because they try to placate God with their “holy” walks and works without love, as did the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.

Many Christians lacking faith, are quick to say that they are not like those Pharisees but readily say that they are sinners. This may take away for them the stigma of being a Pharisee, but it demeans the righteous work of Christ in His new creation, the Body of Christ, which by His faith is without blame before God, and so, not of sin. It is by this grace and faith, not by sight, that we are saved and kept, and we know that without faith it is impossible to please God. This false “sinner” confession gives comfort to the lost. They seem as holy as the Saints, so continue in their sin, repenting over their faults and feeling justified, but they are not saved. So, here we have the wheat and tares. We are freed by love and truth, and by lies we are bound.

If we try to fill Old Covenant bottles with New Covenant wine, the bottles will break and the wine will be lost. New wine must be kept in new bottles. The new bottles are the new creatures in Christ; the new wine is the new infilling of the Holy Ghost provided by our Lord. John the Baptist told us of this wonder: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:| (Matthew 3:11 AV) Too often we hear Old Testament legalism preached to New Testament Saints. This weakens the faith of the Saint through a requirement for legalism and self improvement. This kind of preaching causes Saints to be called hypocrites because they will be judged legalistically by the world for faults that are not sin.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17 AV) It is past time that this practice be stopped and the truth preached that Saints are not sinners according to their new nature in Christ; old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. Notice that old things ARE passed away, meaning in a continuous sense and the same for the new things; they are new continually. We do not put the old man on and off, on and off, like some piece of clothing. Religious people today confuse the old man with the flesh