Reality Because of Christ: Flesh and Spirit

"Sin has no power over you because you are not under law but under grace." (Romans 6:14)
If you are struggling with sin you are either under the law or come short in your understanding of God's love for you. I still have behaviors that are not good but I don't "struggle" against them. Those actions are better defined as "lapses." A lapse is "a mistake resulting from inattention," inattention to God's love for me & inattention to my identity BECAUSE OF JESUS. Some might prefer the wording "my identity IN JESUS" but the truth is I have no identity apart from Him. My consciousness resides in this temporary tent of flesh but I am not the flesh anymore than a camper is the tent. I don't have an identity in Christ and an identity out of Christ. My sole identity is in Him thus I prefer to say my identity is "because of Him." I'm not sometimes in & sometimes out. I am never "in the flesh". There was a distinct change called rebirth, a permanent change of identity not based on my behavior but based on His love & trustworthiness.

Looking at Ephesians 6:12
The flesh is not something you are to fight. Flesh is not something to kill, crucify, or whatever. I hear "Heresy!" being yelled at me already. Ephesians 6:12 says, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood." So if you struggle with sin or the flesh something is wrong with your way of thinking, you are not operating under an awareness of God's gracious love for you. The flesh is not something to fight but to control, train, & teach. We must allow God to renew our minds & we must grow in the knowledge of God's love and trustworthiness because our minds are the bridge between the spirit and the flesh. Walking by the Spirit means to "set your mind on the things of the spirit." Our minds can either focus on flesh or focus on spirit. Our flesh is a faulty tent that needs to be repaired and secured. Our spirit is perfect forever and in constant oneness with God.

You don't train something by fighting it. If I trained an animal by kicking, punching, & throwing it that will not produce positive results. If there is any compliance it will be out of fear of punishment. Sound familiar? That is because the majority of Christians are taught to operate out of fear of punishment. "Keep the rules or get whipped!" Struggling against the flesh merely makes it harder to focus on the spirit. If I am in a one-on-one fight I am not thinking about how nice my grandmother is. I am captured by the conflict. I cannot focus on my good spirit while attempting to fight my flesh. The flesh isn't something you fight on the playground and leave lying in the dust. The flesh is always with you. "Present your body parts as servants to righteousness which will result in the purification of those parts" (Romans 6:19). Do you want your flesh to be the abused & angry dog that bites you or do you want it to be the channel through which you love others?

"Our struggle is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." The spiritual forces of evil approach us only to "steal, kill, and destroy" through deception. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). Think about this for a second. Mainstream Christianity teaches "death to self" as a good thing that is a daily necessity. If your self is a bad & wicked thing why would Satan want to kill it? Why wouldn't he just let you destroy yourself? You have a good self so if you are trying to "kill yourself" every day Satan doesn't need to join in. Christ gives us abundant life. Satan wants to steal that life from us. He cannot actually do it but he can however convince you to keep yourself from experiencing that life by deceiving you into thinking that you are bad, the blood of Christ had no affect on you, & that being born again does not change your identity or spirit, it only means a ticket to heaven and an obligation to obey scriptures.

James 4:7 says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Resist means to actively fight against. Many people invite the devil to a fight only to get perpetually whooped. You aren't to conjure up Satan's presence for a fight. You resist Him when he comes to you otherwise you are to pay him absolutely no mind. You resist because he is the one putting pressure on you. You aren't to put pressure on him. When he flees it doesn't say pursue him.

What if you are trying to fight the wrong thing? What if you are trying to fight your flesh when you should be training it for righteous deeds? What if you are trying to fight sin after Christ has broken its power over you? What if you aren't required to look for a fight in the faults of your flesh? What if you are only to fight Satan when he comes at you? God does not fight you. He doesn't want you to "surrender" because you are forever on the same side as Him.

Looking at Romans 8:6
"The mind set on the flesh is death." This is talking about a mind "set" on the flesh, a mindset of flesh. A mind of an unsaved person or a mind that is not aware of the righteous identity given to it because of Christ. It is not speaking of a mind that occasionally turns to the flesh to allow its destructive deeds to be done. It is a mind that uses expressions like, "I need to die to self," "I must kill myself for God," "I must crucify myself daily." The mind set on the flesh identifies itself by the flesh rather than the spirit. It thinks self is a bad thing because it sees self only as flesh. It is ignorant on what rebirth means. In practicality (not in doctrine) it thinks that being "born again" equates to "being born again after I die so I can get into heaven."

"But the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." If you lack peace then you are not setting your mind on the spirit, you have not seen or are not thinking of the perfect identity Christ has shared with you. Notice it is also life, not death. It is a mind that is aware of God's resurrection power living within. Instead of wallowing in attempts to "die to self" it rejoices in the life Christ has given it, the unending relationship with God. A Christian's spirit is sinless thus if your mind is set on the spirit you will not focus on "sin," you will not be conscious of it. When a mind is set on something it excludes things which do not pertain to whatever it is set upon. If my mind is set on driving I'm not thinking about swimming. A mind set on the spirit agrees with God, it does not focus on sin nor does it charge sin to itself. It dwells on the goodness of God not the wretchedness of the flesh.

Looking at Other Scriptures
Galatians 5:24 says, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." First note it is past tense. The flesh has already been crucified. In the bible death pictures separation. The flesh and its passions & desires have been separated from who you are, they are not a part of your identity. The flesh being dead means, not that our physical bodies have passed on but that we are dead to it, it is no longer a part of who we are. Verse 25 goes on to say, "If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit." When we belong to Christ we live by the spirit. All Christians live by the spirit, that is their only source of life. Before you are saved your spirit & body are dead because of sin. When you receive salvation Christ is in you & "your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10). So if you are a Christian walk by the spirit, focus on spiritual things. God is spirit. You are spirit. You are one spirit with God.

Colossians 2:9-15 says, Christ removed (circumcised) the body of the flesh. When we are immersed (baptized) in Him the flesh is removed and we become one spirit with Him. It is removed in terms of identity, not in terms of locality. We still have the same physical body we did before we were saved. Our rebirth creates a new man who is separate from the other, that man is a spirit. "Our old self (spirit, identity) was crucified with Christ, because of this our body of sin has been done away with" (Romans 6:6).

"By the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh" (Romans 8:13). There are two parts to this. The obvious one is to control yourself with your mind to where you do not allow the flesh to produce and carry out unloving & harmful deeds (you set your mind on the spirit). The second one, which must happen first for the other one to ever sustain, is to separate in your mind the deeds of the flesh from your identity. If you identify yourself by the deeds of the flesh (what most would think of as sin, disobedience, law breaking, etc) you will not walk by the spirit. If you don't focus on the spirit you cannot stop the flesh from producing and carrying out unloving & harmful deeds. If you still identify yourself as a sinner, even a "sinner saved by grace" you are not walking by the spirit and will not be able to "put to death the deeds of the flesh." If you tie what you do to who you are, sadly you are either clueless about what it means to be born again & blind to so much of the results of the cross or you are lapsing about God's goodness towards you.

What about Paul saying "I beat my body and make it my slave" (1 Corinthians 9:27)? Paul is referring to intensity in self-control, not self-destruction, fighting, death to self. "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things" (1 Corinthians 9:25). He uses athletic language to picture one who trains his body to do his will. This does not picture shame, guilt, condemnation, or anything like that. Self-control is the opposite of death to self because self-control sees self as good. Mainstream Christianity teaches "death to self," the bible teaches "self-control." Paul was saying that he uses his spirit (self) to control his body so that it will serve his spiritual desires. Some creatures may require being struck to control them. Striking for training is a far cry from a fight to the death. Even at that Paul isn't talking about physical striking. He wasn't sitting around punching himself in the face. He was mainly referring to the weariness of travel to spread the gospel. He used his spirit to control his body for the sake of the gospel. There is nothing in this context about resisting sin or the like.

In 1 Timothy 1:18-19, 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7 Paul talks about "fighting the good fight." What is he talking about, resisting sin as many would have you believe? No, as always he is pointing to the living Christ not dead sin. First he says to Timothy, "Fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience." Then he says, "Fight the good fight of faith." Finally in 2 Timothy Paul says of himself, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." It is all about faith. To "fight the good fight" is to "continue to actively trust Jesus in your day-to-day life." It is trusting our Lord in the face of adversity & all other situations. Trusting Christ is walking by & setting your mind on the spirit. Christ is a life giving spirit. He doesn't demand our life, He gives us His life!

Instead of God wanting you to pledge to give up the flesh's bad habits He wants you to receive His goodness to displace those harmful behaviors. This is the paradigm of life. Life does not focus on faults. Life does not seek to fight for survival. Life does not seek to die. Christ's life is not fleeting. "Our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Christ is our life" (Colossians 3:3-4).

What is Sin?

I was asked "What is Sin?" Over the past year I have studied extensively what sin is. I have looked into the Hebrew & Greek meanings, & I have looked at every context where the words sin, sinner, & transgression appear in the New Testament. Here is my partially off the cuff answer.

#1 In the old covenant sin was breaking the laws that God gave.
Romans 5:13 says, "Sin is not charged when there is no law" & Romans 4:15 says, "Where there is no law there is no transgression/sin." Jesus ended the law at the cross (Colossians 2:14, Ephesians 2:15). God no longer charges anyone with sin (2 Corinthians 5:19). This type of charged or imputed sin is gone. Christ took sin away, along with the law, when He died on the cross.

#2 Sin is a condition that causes unloving actions.
The condition of sin exists in the spirit for non-Christians, their spirit is dead (separated from knowing God). For Christians God has made their spirit alive and it no longer has the condition of sin. The born again spirit of a Christian does not have the sin condition (1 John 3:9,5:18). The condition of sin remains for all mankind in the flesh (physical body & mind) therefore Christians can still behave unlovingly (Romans 7:17). Christians know God and have the option to "live by the spirit" by "putting their mind on the spirit." Doing so becomes easier if you allow God to "renew your mind" with His love and His truth.

#3 Sin is an unloving action
This sin is partially dependent upon who is counting. God will never charge Christians with sin because He identifies them by the spirit and not by the flesh. Scripture uses the term sin to refer to something harmful we do to another human being, a Christian can sin against another person (only through the flesh) but cannot sin against God alone. Sinning against (harming) another Christian is considered as acting unlovingly toward Jesus (1 Corinthians 8:12, Acts 9:4).

Non-Christians aren't charged with sin by God in this life but He "stores up wrath" for them based on their actions if they ultimately reject Jesus. He releases this wrath at judgment.

You can count sins against yourself or others (James 4:12,17) but doing so doesn't cause God to count sins, it only affects how we live and treat others. Christians do not need to count their own sins or be conscious of "is this sin or is that sin?" (Hebrews 10:1-2). They also don't need to count sin against other people. God does not do this and they should follow His example for the benefit of everyone.

Summary of What Sin is Today

• For everyone sin is a condition in the body and mind which causes unloving actions.
• For non-Christians sin is a spiritual condition that prevents them from having a relationship with God. It is easily cured by trusting in Jesus.
• For the Christian sin does not exist apart from the body & mind. God never charges them with it & their spirit cannot produce it because it is born in pure holiness in the likeness of God (Ephesians 4:24).
• For everyone sin is an optional label you can put on unloving actions to hold those actions against yourself or others. Sin is an unnecessary label for actions unless:
1. You are recognizing what Jesus took for you on the cross.
2. You are pointing a non-Christian to the fact that they have the spiritual condition of sin so they will come to trust Jesus for the cure.
3. You are trying to make a Christian aware of their harmful behavior towards other people so that they will walk by the spirit and not by the flesh.

Romans 6 - We who died to sin cannot still live in it.

Paul wrote in Romans 6:1-7, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might live a new life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin."

Most people reference only the first verse which says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? May it never be!" This context is not about "trying hard not to sin because we are under grace." It is about how we died to sin and are totally free from it! Paul uses the same language in Romans 7:7, "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be!" That doesn't mean "the law should try hard to not be sin," nor does it mean "the law does not want to be sin," it means the law is not sin, it cannot be. "May it never be" does not mean, as it is so often taught, "Don't do it!" It literally means that it may never be, it is impossible. Here are some even more obvious examples.
    Is the faithfulness of God nullified by the unbelief of men? May it never be! (Romans 3:3-4)   
    Is God unrighteous? May it never be! (Romans 3:5-6)
    Has God rejected His people, has He? May it never be! (Romans 11:1)

The dominant interpretation of Romans 6:1 is "You better not sin just because you are under grace!" But continuing on in the chapter we see that is not the meaning. Paul asks, "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Most take the meaning as "Don't sin!" but in fact it means you cannot live in sin because you died to it. You are now in Christ! "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" We shall not because He cannot! We cannot live in sin & in Christ at the same time. We are forever in Christ! "Our old self was crucified with Him (it died to sin), in order that our body of sin might be done away with." Our body of sin is done away with. How shall we who are full grown men go back to having the bodies of children? It is not possible. Your young body is gone. Likewise your body of sin is done away with.

We can never continue in sin, it can never be because we died to it and are now alive in Christ. God does not see us as sin stained flesh but as His children. Our identity is our spirit. Our spirit has been born of God, our flesh has not. A spirit that has been born of God cannot sin (1 John 3:9; 5:18). You as a child of God cannot sin.

Romans 6:1 is about spiritual identity, not about behavior. When the bible says "in sin" it does not mean what our religion has taught us "in sin" means. It does not mean "continuing to manifest similar sinful actions." It should be obvious to anyone that a Christian's flesh can "continue in sin" in that sense. People have used this scripture & others to measure people's morality claiming it is impossible for a true Christian to "continue in sin" by which they mean sin with the flesh "too much." But how far is far enough to "continue" & how much is "too much" is never definable & it makes people judge others by their own knowledge of good & evil.

The phrase "In sin" in the bible means the locality of your identity being "in sin." Our identity is now "in Christ." We cannot be in both, we cannot be sinner & saint at the same time. We "cannot continue to live in Sin Town" while living in Christ Town at the same time because we have permanently moved into Christ Town. It may never be, it is impossible.

I am not saying we cannot behave unlovingly. That is why Romans 8:13 says, "By the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh." The deeds of the flesh are destructive, harmful, & unloving but we must understand that we are not the flesh. We are identified by God as His perfect and holy children. May we see ourselves as He sees us!

"We are not in the flesh but in the spirit because the Spirit of God lives in us. We belong to God. Christ is in us. Our flesh is dead because of sin, yet our spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:9-10). "Because Christ died for all we no longer identify anyone, including ourselves, according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 5:16).

Romans 6 doesn't concern our behavior under grace but our identity in Christ because of grace. We are the sinless children of God. We cannot continue in sin. Our old sinful self was crucified with Christ and because of that our sin was done away with. We died and are freed from sin. We cannot produce sin. Our spirits are in Christ and in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5). We are in Him! He has exchanged our life for His (Colossians 3:3-4).

Another interpretation of Romans 6:1 by grace teachers is that "grace is not a license to sin" or "it is still not ok to sin just because you are under grace." But that is not what this context is about. They also teach from this scripture that when you are saved your desire to sin decreases so you won't continue in sin. While it is true that grace lessens our desire to do harmful & destructive things that is still not what Romans 6:1 is saying. If you want a scripture that teaches us this refer instead to Titus 2:12 which says, "It is the grace of God that trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. The grace of God makes us eager to do what is good."

Allow your mind to be renewed by the truth of your identity in Christ and the deeds of your flesh will dwindle. Marvel at how much He loves you and you will marvel at how much He can love through you. "Set your minds on the things of the spirit and you will walk in the spirit. The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:5-6).

"Your new spirit has been created in the likeness of God. You truly are right with God. You were made righteous, pure, guiltless, innocent, faultless, and holy" (Ephesians 4:24).

For Related Posts see my Sin? Forgetaboutit! Page
See also my explanation of why the law is not sin

Living by the Spirit

Knowing Our New Self
God is love. Christ fulfilled the law. So love truly is the fulfilling of the law. We love because He first loved us.

"God condemned sin in the body of Jesus in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires" (Romans 8:3-5).

Our spirits are our true identity. Our spirits (our new man/new creation) are created in such a way that they not only have righteousness in the sense that they are "right with God" but they also are credited with the perfect obedience of Jesus. They are righteous in the sense that they've already kept the whole law. Our spirits always "live by the spirit." Jesus obeyed on our behalf so to God it is as if we have always obeyed. Disobedience is sin and God remembers our sins no more, He took them away at the cross, so all we have left for Him to remember is good. Because of Jesus' death the righteous requirement of the law is fully met in our spirits.

Therefore if we live according to the spirit by putting our minds on God, His spiritual blessings, and the favor He has for all His children our outward lives will reflect the loving nature He has born into us. If we live knowing the goodness of the nature we inherited from God & live in relationship with the life giving Spirit of Christ within us we will love others like Jesus did and participate in the love He wants to display to those around us today.

Relating to God in the Spirit
While God does engage with us at times He seems to give us autonomy in our relationship with Him. He does not force Himself upon us. James 4:8 supports this idea, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."

Since we approach God through the spirit we have to think about Him to approach Him. Our relationship with God is very practical. If we don't take time to think about Him we usually don't get the benefits of the relationship.

I've been blessed with the opportunities to dwell on God a lot. I personally think about the amazing things He's done for us through the cross. That draws me near to Him and fills me with joy.

Remember, God is the source of all good so God is loving us in many areas where we just don't realize He is involved. God participates in bringing us all the joys of our life. He truly is in sunsets, smiles, laughter, and breezes. He loves us in far more ways than we know. God participates in all the non-destructive pleasures of life.

"You make known to me the path of life; In Your presence I am filled with joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."
(Psalm 16:11)