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FREE FROM THE FLESH

Emma Dumbleton

The Greek word for "flesh" is sarx, which means "the physical aspect of a person as apart from God, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God.”

This is the reality we face: apart from Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the world is godless, driven by the flesh, where everything is all not of God.

However, the good news is that when we commit our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and empowers us to live in accordance with the things of the Spirit.

Here are some key differences between living according to the flesh and living by the Spirit:

• The flesh leads to death and chaos, while the Holy Spirit leads to life.
• The flesh chooses selfishness, but the Holy Spirit leads us to selflessness.
• The flesh brings fear, guilt, and shame, whereas the Holy Spirit fills us with peace and renews our minds.

Romans 8:4 reminds us that God sent Jesus "in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

In this life, we are always moving in one direction: either becoming more like Christ or more like the world. We are either fighting against the desires of the flesh with the power of the Holy Spirit or giving in to the desires of our flesh. We are either focused on the things of this world or setting our minds on God.

The Bible tells us that "the wages of sin is death," and because we have all sinned by living according to our fleshly desires, we deserve the penalty of death. But through faith in Jesus, we are freed from the condemnation our sins deserve. We are not defined by our past or future mistakes, but by the transformation the Holy Spirit works in us, enabling us to live apart from the flesh.

Thanks to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we can live in the freedom we've been given in Christ. We no longer have to live in shame for our past sins—not because we take pride in them, but because the Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome them.