Dear Fellow Believers in Christ, (Jesus Christ and Him Crucified Defeats the Flesh)
We are in a physical body, with both Spirit and mind. How do we function and become spiritually minded? How was the flesh defeated on the cross? Why was not the flesh fully eradicated at the Spirit rebirthing? How does Holy Spirit mind renewal and our decisions affect the flesh that comes forth from us? Why or how do Christians still sin and walk in the flesh after Spirit rebirthing? How does the power of Jesus Christ and Him crucified overcome the flesh in and through us today? Holy Spirit show us Jesus Christ and Him crucified as our 100% source of life, power and strength in us as us, through Your Word and the Holy Scriptures.THE FLESH
"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:5-8).
First, The Flesh was Fully Dealt with by Christ in His Body on the Cross
Our Heavenly Father has prepared an eternal plan from before the foundation of the world that dealt with everything necessary to both save and keep us as his sons. Jesus Christ, His Son came to this world to accomplish that eternal plan for us. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, every tie that we had with and through Adam was severed and put to death. This is why Christ is called "the last Adam" (I Cor. 15:45). Christ will now be the head of the new creation race of Spirit rebirthed sons. These Spirit rebirthed sons will now have their seed, nature, life, and Spirit all from His omnipresent Person living within them (I Cor. 15:45). The flesh was fully dealt with by Christ in His Body on the cross, and everything from Adam was put to death.
Second, The Flesh is Not Eradicated with the Spirit Rebirthing in Us
While everything about the flesh was dealt with Christ on the cross it is not fully appropriated to us in the Spirit rebirthing. Everything in the Spirit was all made new in the Spirit rebirthing (II Cor. 5:17). However, the old things of the soul/mind are at intervals being renewed day-by-day in us. The flesh still operates with our choices using the old mind that is filled with the knowledge of good and evil. We received a tremendous outpouring of God’s grace at the Spirit rebirthing. We received the Person of Christ to live in and through us as us (Gal. 2:20). We received the Spirit of Christ to flow through us in love expression (Rom. 8:9). We received a new nature – the divine nature (II Pet. 1:4). We received all of this with the incorruptible Seed of Christ at the Spirit rebirthing (I Pet. 1:23). There was no change in the mind. Our Father does not rebirth us and make us into puppets. We still have to have our minds renewed and choose and make correct love decisions for Him. The flesh is not eradicated with the Spirit rebirthing in us.
Third, The Flesh is Dealt with by the Holy Spirit with Mind Renewal to Truth
The Holy Spirit has come in with Christ in the Spirit rebirthing for His divine purpose, which is to teach and reveal Christ in us and transform our mind (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13-15; Rom. 12:2). It important that we have revealed to us and truly know that everything of Adam was put to death on the cross (Rom. 6:6). We need to know that this was appropriated to us beginning with the Spirit rebirthing, if we will at intervals believe and walk in it as the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. The Flesh is only dealt with by Holy Spirit through mind renewal to this truth. We must walk in discernment by the mind of Christ within us (I Cor. 2:16).
Fourth, We Have to Make Daily Decisions to Choose Who Will Live In Us
The greatest deception that Satan has perpetrated upon Christians, is to have them believe and think out of a carnal mind that their life is their own aside from Christ. Paul questions this and lets us know that we are not our own but the Spirit, mind and body of the Lord (I Cor. 6:17,19-20; I Cor. 12:27). Now the Holy Spirit is in us to reveal Christ and transform our fleshly or carnal mind to become spiritual minded with the mind of Christ. We have to make daily choices to let the Holy Spirit reveal and transform the mind (Rom. 8:6). We have to make daily decisions to choose who will live in us and fully be expressed through us. Since the Spirit rebirthing, Christ is our life, the only true Spirit life in us. We need to make decisions and let Christ express His love-for-others Spirit and nature in and through us. "He must increase, and I must decrease" (John 3:30).
Fifth, We Have to Let Christ Fully Express Himself with His Mind in Us
Just as the husband and the wife have become one flesh, so do we need to become one flesh with the Lord (Eph. 5:31). We are already one in Spirit with the Lord (I Cor. 6:17). We must let the Holy Spirit fully transform the old mind and its operation out of the knowledge of good and evil to the full mind of Christ operating with full discernment and knowledge in the Spirit (I Cor. 2:10-16). This is why Paul commands us in love, to "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). We have to make a choice. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebr. 13:8). He is going to live today and express Himself in the Body of Christ today, just as He did through the Jesus of Nazareth body before the cross. The same Spirit, nature, life, and expression will be the same. To the degree that our mind is Holy Spirit transformed, it the degree that Christ can fully express Himself in and through us as us. We need to provide Christ with a fully transformed mind, so that our old knowledge and choices will not hinder nor delay Him from fully being expressed in us as us.
Sixth, Christians Can Still Choose the Lust of the Flesh with Sin and Death
As Christians, we can either "walk in the Spirit" or "fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). "The works of the flesh" are clearly disobedient and sinful actions for any Christian (Gal. 5:19-21). The Spiritually rebirthed will not desire to participate in these works of the flesh, and will have strong regrets and repentance, should they fail to make correct decisions in these areas. Those who continually practice and live in these works of the flesh, without conscience or repentance, are most likely not born again according to His word (I John 3:6-9). Sowing to the flesh reaps corruption and destroys our reward in heaven (Gal. 6:8, I Cor. 3:10-15). We must have a transformed mind that serves God (Rom. 7:24-25).
Seventh, Jesus Christ and Him Crucified Expressed in Us Defeats the Flesh
Paul came to the Corinthians declaring "the testimony of God" (I Cor. 2:1). We need to come to a point of focus and the foundation of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2). This is the only way we can stand in the expression and "the demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (I Cor. 2:4). Our faith, belief, and choices must be in the Christ-life, not in our fleshly life. Our trust and choice should be Christ 100% of the time. We need to believe and know that Christ defeated Satan and the flesh 100% at the cross. Then, we need to let Jesus Christ and Him crucified be expressed in us in His power that defeats the flesh!