| Sin an Unfortunate Reality |
| Written by Beau Stanley | |
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VERITAS Journal People make jokes about men and their reluctance to ask for directions. It is true that men have difficulty asking for help of all kinds, is it not? It may take a direct act of God to convince a male driver of a car that he is lost. It is a rare man who sees assembling something with the help of instructions to be as noble as assembling the same thing with no help. It may take a crisis event to convince a man that he needs spiritual counsel. God has hard-wired us as men to be leaders, decision makers, and problem solvers. When these characteristics lead into self-sufficiency, as they often do, we have strayed from God’s purpose for our lives. Spiritually speaking, we need to ask for directions. Self-sufficiency is all that many of us have known for our entire lives. Particularly for those of us who are from difficult family backgrounds, trusting in the Lord’s sufficiency to deal with our concerns seems almost impossible. We see the complexities, the trials, and the evils that surround us, and we naturally grope about for our own chosen means of support, so often ignoring the God Who said He is a refuge and a helper in times of trouble (Ps. 46:1). This self-sufficiency that we exhibit is not morally neutral, though. It is not a virtue to be self-sufficient with respect to God; it is a sin. The Sinfulness of The Flesh One of the Apostle Paul’s important theological terms is the flesh. Paul wasn’t discussing our skin or muscles when he used the word flesh. The “flesh” that Paul spoke of, rather, is our natural tendency to be self-sufficient, to assert our independence from God, and to refuse to accept His provision and plan. We are not to be drunk on wine, but rather to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). This means that we are to be “under the influence,” not of alcohol, but of God Himself. Whenever we refuse to let God control us and instead choose to be under the influence of anyone or anything else, we are living by the flesh. The first manifestation of the flesh was in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in an effort to forge their own path of existence (Gen. 3:6).The flesh shows up in the present day as well, anytime we submit ourselves to our own desires rather than the desires of God. There is no way to live in the flesh, that is, in self-sufficiency, and avoid sin. The flesh is sinful to the core. Paul wrote, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh” (Rom. 7:18). Elsewhere he would say that “The outlook of the flesh is death,” (Rom. 8:6) and that those most immature in Christ were “fleshly” (1 Cor. 3:1). The Holy Spirit is at odds with the flesh (Rom. 8:13), and so is Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14). Those who are in the flesh cannot submit to the law of God, nor can they please God (Rom. 8:7–8). It is hard to imagine a message that is more threatening and repulsive to our society. The culture holds individual self-expression and self-fulfillment to be the highest goals. The Bible holds submission to the Holy Spirit to be the highest goal. The culture says, “What is right for me is right for me, and you cannot change that.” The Bible says, “What is right for God is right for all of us, and you cannot change that.” The culture applauds Frank Sinatra for singing “I did it my way,” and the Bible denounces him for singing “I sinned.”
The Trouble With The Flesh When Jesus said that His yoke was easy (Matt. 11:30), He was comparing life God’s way versus life our way. His statement implies that if we do not take His yoke upon us, we will continue to bear a heavier yoke. Our experience bears this out. The “solutions” we devise sometimes remind us of times when we tried to assemble a toy or a piece of furniture without the help of the instruction manual. Hours go by and we end up with a semi-functioning item with pieces missing and bolts laying all around. If we continue to do things our way, God will generally allow us to experience the results of our own devices. The results of these self-produced devices are always negative, at least relative to the results that God desires us to achieve. Sometimes our plans initially promise deliverance but then produce disorientation and questions. Without directions to our destination, we might spot a sign that looks familiar and actually sends us in the opposite direction we intended. At the very least, this self-sufficiency makes us inefficient, spending time that God never intended us to spend trying to solve problems God never intended us to solve. Worse yet, our self-sufficiency can send us through a part of town where we do not want to go. This causes anxiety and even physical danger.
Lest this sound too abstract, consider the financial decisions that we so often face. We sometimes don’t know which of two courses of action is God’s will for us to take, but other times we are more than aware that God’s will and our will conflict. The flesh is good at yelling out covetous things, like, “You need a new car. This one isn’t fancy enough and it is going to make you look stupid and incompetent around your well-to-do neighbors.” God quietly says, “I will never let you down.” Choosing to buy the new car can put you in financial strain that keeps you up at night. It might even ruin your credit or cause you to make other unnecessary purchases. Make no mistake: following God’s still, small voice will not put the shiny new car in your driveway. However, it will lead to a peace that you can treasure and not to harassing calls from creditors. Men are sometimes ready to bear the consequences of the flesh if they expect to be the sole recipients of its negative consequences. While this is unwise, let me appeal to your honor as men and remind you that you are called to be protectors of your family. Jesus asked a group of men if any of them would give his son a stone in the place of bread (Matt. 7:9). Men, living by the flesh is like giving your son a stone when he asks you for bread. Your family needs you as a spiritual leader. If they see in you a desire to live by the flesh, they will imitate you and experience the consequences of their own actions. Do not let this happen. Establish a good spiritual environment in your home by allowing the Spirit of God to control you. Your family will see your dependence on God and experience the beauty of following a leader who himself is following Christ, the ultimate leader. Using pornography is an issue that many men struggle with, and many are frustrated with the negative effects from pornography that they see in their lives. The piece that Satan wants to hide from the sinner is the effect of that sin on his family. If you struggle with pornography, have you considered that the desire for pleasure and even female affirmation that you seek in pornography will influence greatly the way you view women? Will you communicate to your daughter a low view of women so that she feels compelled to seek love in an inappropriate way? Will you communicate to your son that he must have sexual “experience” with many women in order to measure up as a man?
The Answer To The Flesh While we will address this further in the next issue, the big picture is that we need the Holy Spirit to solve our directional problems. And here is where the analogy breaks down. The Holy Spirit does not give us a map and say, “Here you go. Take a left and go about two miles and you’ll see it on your right, and if you need any help along the way, I’ll be here.” No, the Holy Spirit wants us to get into the passenger seat and let Him drive our car. Yielding to the Spirit means letting Him live our life. And God’s Holy Spirit never gets lost.
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