Putting to Death the Deeds of the Body
After conversion, as we left the world, we put our hand to the plow (Lk 9:62) and strived never to look back. Yet the struggle has been intense. With each year of study, the “sins of our youth” (Ps 25:7) and “youthful lusts” (2Tim 2:22) become ever clearer. Things that seemed wholesome and normal have changed to sinister and evil desires capable of destroying our soul.
Paul’s description of his own struggles mirrors our own. The sins of his youth left him struggling with intense cravings of his fleshly body and the powerful demands of his spiritual nature: “I am of the flesh, sold under sin,” “what I hate, I do” “in my flesh nothing good dwells,” “I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin,” “wretched man that I am!” (Rom. 7:14-24).
If Paul, the best the Law could produce (Gal. 1:13; Phil 3:4-6), so struggled what of the rest of us? Many converted today “were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers” (1Pet. 1:18). Many of us are more like the Corinthians than those trained under the Law. In Corinth some were “fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, or extortioners” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). From their youth they had practiced such things and they were second nature to them. Many of us face similar problems. Many struggle with intense cravings for years and a few for the rest of their lives. They feel the terrible conflict described by Paul whenever a song, smell, or acquaintance kindles a memory of long dead lusts seeking life again.
Those of us in such circumstances carry a terrible burden of guilt. Why can’t we simply conquer them once and for all? Why can’t we cut off our hand and foot and be done with the lust forever? Our attempts to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5), works for awhile, but fails in a moment of weakness. What should we tell ourselves? Are we beyond hope? Should we give up?
The sad truth: No matter how long we have been “in Christ,” “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Gal 5:17). This is why David said: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin” (Rom 4:7-8). He was another of the best the Law could produce. He was a man after God’s own heart who failed in his struggle not to covet his neighbor’s wife and paid the wages of the sins of adultery and murder.
This is why Paul reminded each of us that God loved us at our very worst, even before we obeyed the gospel and received his grace (Rom 5:6-10). It was “while we were yet weak,” and “while we were yet sinners” that “Christ died for the ungodly.” It was when “we were enemies” that “we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.”
If Jesus could love us and die for us before we ever started this battle, how could he stop loving us in the midst of our struggles to destroy them? If God was “rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5), how could he become disgusted with us while we fight and even temporarily lose the bitter struggles of the fleshly cravings of our fleshly body?
It would be wonderful if we could forever leave these conflicts behind after a decisive battle that left us sinless. But while some get closer than others, no one attains it: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I Jn. 1:8-9)
So what do we do in the midst of these great and continued battles? We remember that “if we are confessing our sins” then God is “forgiving our sins,” and that “if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you shall live” (Rom 8:13-14). It is not those who struggle and even lose against the demands of the flesh who are lost. We will all do that! It is those who stop “putting to death the deeds of the body.”
It is not the number of times we must begin again after a terrible failure. It may actually be seven times in a day (Lk 17:4), but if we repent seven times in the same day, we are forgiven. Some may have to put them to death seven times a day for the rest of their lives. But as long as they are truly struggling and sincerely seeking to destroy them, they we are “putting them to death!” Every time we put them to death “we will live.” So as long as we are confessing our sins, “he is faithful and just to forgive them.”
Paul’s description of his own struggles mirrors our own. The sins of his youth left him struggling with intense cravings of his fleshly body and the powerful demands of his spiritual nature: “I am of the flesh, sold under sin,” “what I hate, I do” “in my flesh nothing good dwells,” “I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin,” “wretched man that I am!” (Rom. 7:14-24).
If Paul, the best the Law could produce (Gal. 1:13; Phil 3:4-6), so struggled what of the rest of us? Many converted today “were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers” (1Pet. 1:18). Many of us are more like the Corinthians than those trained under the Law. In Corinth some were “fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, or extortioners” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). From their youth they had practiced such things and they were second nature to them. Many of us face similar problems. Many struggle with intense cravings for years and a few for the rest of their lives. They feel the terrible conflict described by Paul whenever a song, smell, or acquaintance kindles a memory of long dead lusts seeking life again.
Those of us in such circumstances carry a terrible burden of guilt. Why can’t we simply conquer them once and for all? Why can’t we cut off our hand and foot and be done with the lust forever? Our attempts to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5), works for awhile, but fails in a moment of weakness. What should we tell ourselves? Are we beyond hope? Should we give up?
The sad truth: No matter how long we have been “in Christ,” “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Gal 5:17). This is why David said: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin” (Rom 4:7-8). He was another of the best the Law could produce. He was a man after God’s own heart who failed in his struggle not to covet his neighbor’s wife and paid the wages of the sins of adultery and murder.
This is why Paul reminded each of us that God loved us at our very worst, even before we obeyed the gospel and received his grace (Rom 5:6-10). It was “while we were yet weak,” and “while we were yet sinners” that “Christ died for the ungodly.” It was when “we were enemies” that “we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.”
If Jesus could love us and die for us before we ever started this battle, how could he stop loving us in the midst of our struggles to destroy them? If God was “rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5), how could he become disgusted with us while we fight and even temporarily lose the bitter struggles of the fleshly cravings of our fleshly body?
It would be wonderful if we could forever leave these conflicts behind after a decisive battle that left us sinless. But while some get closer than others, no one attains it: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I Jn. 1:8-9)
So what do we do in the midst of these great and continued battles? We remember that “if we are confessing our sins” then God is “forgiving our sins,” and that “if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you shall live” (Rom 8:13-14). It is not those who struggle and even lose against the demands of the flesh who are lost. We will all do that! It is those who stop “putting to death the deeds of the body.”
It is not the number of times we must begin again after a terrible failure. It may actually be seven times in a day (Lk 17:4), but if we repent seven times in the same day, we are forgiven. Some may have to put them to death seven times a day for the rest of their lives. But as long as they are truly struggling and sincerely seeking to destroy them, they we are “putting them to death!” Every time we put them to death “we will live.” So as long as we are confessing our sins, “he is faithful and just to forgive them.”