0712. The Conflict Between the Flesh and the Spirit
The Conflict Between the Flesh and the Spirit
"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other" (Gal_5:17).
We have before us, the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit–not the flesh and our spirit, but the flesh and the Holy Spirit. ‘It is the Spirit of God dwelling in us, who is warring against the flesh.
It is well to note that when we become Christians, and the Spirit of God takes His abode in us, that this does not mean that the flesh, the old "ego," is annihilated. Nor, can the "new man," begotten within us, when we believed, alone, successfully combat the "old man" begotten when we were physically born.
This "new man" has one at its side, the Holy Spirit, to fight its battles.
Illustration: A man, provoked with his wife’s little dog, is said to have taken him to the Zoo, when he threw him into the lion’s cage. Somehow the lion instead, of destroying the dog, became its protector. In a few days, the man repented his rashness, and thought to recover his wife’s dog. "Help yourself," said the caretaker at the Zoo–but how could he–the lion stood between him and the dog?
We cannot fight through to victory, against the world, the flesh and the devil, but we can look up to Him, the Holy Spirit, and He will fight for us.
Let us remember that the Holy Spirit is continually fighting our battles.
1. He is warring against those things, within us, that grieve Him–the bitterness, and the wrath and the evil-speaking; the pride, the love of the world, and the love for gold–all of these are contrary to His desire for us. See Eph_4:31.
2. He is warring against the things that are without and entice us. The calls that come to return to Egypt and its sins.
These are battles we cannot win alone. The flesh cannot keep the Law. The flesh cannot conquer sin. There is but one cry for the regenerate, who seek a victorious life in the energy of the flesh–that cry is: "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
The despair of Romans 7, is turned into the paeans of victory in Romans 8, when we pass out of the "flesh" and into the "Spirit."
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR