(Galatians 5:16-26)
The Real Holy War
In military battles, victory is won when the enemy is killed, captured, or gives up and retreats. But in the spiritual life, the enemy is invisible and the heart, soul, and mind are the battlefields. Victory is won when the sinful nature is put to death.
The armor of God protects the believer from Satan's every attack. However, as we study the Bible it becomes clear that we have more than one enemy. John speaks of three adversaries that plaque Christians: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Satan brings individual attacks, but the flesh attacks us through our internal desires and the world through external influences. Each area needs a unique strategy. In order to gain victory over the devil, we have to put on the armor, fight the war, and resist him. To gain victory over the flesh, we have to learn what it means to walk in the Spirit. To gain victory over the world, we must have faith in Jesus Christ who has already overcome the world. To put it another way, to be victorious over Satan, we have to fight; to be victorious over the flesh, we have to flee; to be victorious over the world, we have to forsake its influence.
The Inner War
There is an inner war that goes on inside every one of us, a war between the flesh and the Spirit. Galatians 5:17 says it this way, "The sinful nature (the flesh) desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is contrary to the sinful nature (the flesh); and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." ...When the old and the new nature both want to use the body for their own advantage, there is conflict. Because of the old nature there is an avenue whereby Satan can approach us with temptation. The flesh, the old nature, provides Satan with opportunities for attack. We are in the flesh, all of us, until we become Christians. Then we receive the Spirit of God and are transformed by His power.
The Flesh is Weak
Roman 6:9 warns us that the flesh is weak. It doesn't have any strength to merit God's favor. So when God gave the Law to man, he could not maintain it. Men could not attain holiness by perfectly obeying rules. Why? Because the flesh is weak. That's the reason Christ had to come to bring grace, because there wasn't even one person who could live up to the high standards of the Law. The flesh is too weak and we all sin.
Someone has written:
Run and do the Law demands,
Yet it gives me neither feet not hands.
But better news the gospel brings.
It bids me fly and gives me wings.
The Flesh is Worthless
Paul says in Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me, (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells." He acknowledged that there is nothing good in his flesh apart from God, an idea that flies in the face of all humanistic thinking in our culture today. We are told that we can improve the flesh, make it better until ultimately it will be perfect. Yet John 6:63 tells us, "the flesh profits nothing." It is worthless.
The Flesh is Warring
Romans 8:7 reads, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." The flesh is weak and cannot hold the law. It is worthless and cannot help us. And it is at war with God and His Holy Spirit. There is a war going on inside of each of us, a war that is between the old man and the new man. The old man is without hope and dead to God, the new man hast eternal hope and been made alive in Christ Jesus. "The flesh is contrary against the Spirit," Paul wrote in Galatians 5:17. All of us struggle with this inner battle.
The Flesh is Without Righteousness
Try as we may, the flesh doesn't have the ability to produce righteousness in a Christian's life. A person who lives in the flesh cannot please God and it is futile to try. "Are you so foolish?" Paul asks in Galatians 3:3. "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect in the flesh?" He was writing to a church who thought once Jesus had saved them, they could add to His work by fulfilling the old Jewish Law. Paul told them in essence, "You can't do anything by your works to make yourself perfect, since the flesh is without ability to produce righteousness.
The Flesh is Wounded Mortally
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin" (Romans 6:6). The flesh, which is the old man, was crucified with Christ. His death makes it possible for us to be at peace with God and to experience true righteousness. But the old nature wasn't eradicated, just mortally wounded. It is still alive and at work within you. Your flesh still produces sin in your life. Galatians 5 calls them the "works of the flesh," and lists several areas, like sexual sin, spiritual sin, self-centered sin, and societal sins. As you look through the list you'll see what the flesh produces: adultery, fornication, idolatry, hatred, discord, envy, rage. Those are the expressions of the old man.
When you became a Christian, you didn't lose that old nature. You still have it. Christ comes into your life and gives you a new nature, and the two enter into a holy war. Paul put it this way in Galatians 5:17: "For the flesh is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit is contrary to the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. A Christian has a much harder time with inner struggles than a non-Christian because we have these two natures at war within ourselves.
This war between old and new natures is the subject of Paul's letter to the Romans. He knows he has been changed---his heart's desire is to follow God---but he finds himself struggling against the flesh. In Romans 7:22 he writes, "I delight in the law of God according to the inward man." That is the normal desire of Christians. There should be a desire in you to love God. There should be a sadness over sin and a wish to please Him. But Paul says, "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:23. Even though his heart's desire is to please God, it doesn't automatically happen. There is another force inside---the flesh--that prevents him from pleasing God. He has the desire to do good things, but his performance doesn't measure up. That's why he says, "For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice" (Romans 7:19).
There is a holy war going on inside every believer. You will face that fight every day, but it doesn't have to be one sad experience after another. There is hope for victory. God has given us a battle plan.
Winning the Inner War
In Galatians 5 we are given two keys to gaining victory over the flesh. One of them is negative and one positive. Notice the 24th verse: "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." There is a truth often misunderstood. It is not a positional truth, like the fact that we have been crucified with Christ and had the penalty for our sins paid. It is a description of an action---we have taken the flesh and done something with it.
Crucify the Flesh
While it is a fact that our old nature was positionally crucified when Christ died, it is only true for us when we reckon that truth and apply it in our daily lives. You can believe in your head that Christ crucified the flesh, but if you don't reckon it true and apply it on a daily basis it will never be effective in your life. This is not merely head knowledge; it is the cooperation of your spirit with what happened when Christ died.
The story is told of two men looking at a turtle, still moving though its head was cut off. One of he men examined it and said, "It's dead, but it don't believe it." That's the problem with most Christians. Our old nature died with Christ, but we don't believe it. We keep moving to take it off the cross and use it. We don't recognize that the flesh has been crucified.
Walk In the Spirit
The Holy Spirit is mentioned three times in Galatians 5. Verse 16 says, "Walk in the Spirit." Verse 18 reads, "If you are led by the Spirit." and verse 25 says, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." So you see, we live in the realm of the Spirit. As Christians we understand that He is actively involved in our lives. We are led by the Spirit, who guides and directs us in how we should live. Having nailed the flesh to the cross, you yield to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. You find out wear He is leading and you follow Him.
Do you see how you can gain victory over the flesh? You look at those influences in your life that clearly come from the old nature, the ones that are corrupting you and keeping you from having joy in your life. Deal with them ruthlessly, count yourself dead to them, and begin following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Soon you'll find the fruits of the Spirit in verses 22-23 replacing those character traits of the old man. that's what happens to a Christian: God replaces the old character with a new one. Life change for a Christian is not a matter of stopping things, of pulling out the weeds that have grown in the garden of your life. It is a matter of letting God start some new things by planting seeds to grow a harvest of righteousness. God doesn't tell you to give up something without telling what He is going to replace it with. Romans 13:14 says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."
Don't allow yourself to enter a situation where the flesh is going to take control. Submit to Christ, and ask God to deal with those areas of your life in opposition to Him. James tells us to "Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). If you spend all your time trying to resist the devil, he's not going to flee. But if, while resisting him, you submit to God, Satan will be defeated. If you spend all your time crucifying the flesh and never yield to the Holy Spirit, you're going to lose the war. But if in the process of crucifying the flesh you are also yielding to the Spirit, you are going to find victory in the war, that holy war going on in your life.
Taken from David Jeremiah's study guide, Spiritual Warfare, 2002
This concludes the David Jeremiah's, Spiritual Warfare. There is much more in the study guide with lots of Scripture references if you would like to obtain a copy. Just go to
turningpointonline.org
~Annie~
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