by Kurt Lang
One need not look far through Scripture to discover perhaps the greatest truth regarding humanity: A war rages within our souls. The spirit within battles the flesh without, and a truce is not in the cards. “Wretched man that I am!” Paul writes. “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Victory can be achieved, yet not in the way we would ever imagine.
Enter Jesus. He is about to go to the cross for a crime He did not commit. The choice before Him will seal the victory over our raging internal war. It all comes down to this: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38).
Though Jesus was fully God, He was also fully human, experiencing all the emotion and physical aspects every human succumbs to. Jesus was tempted just as we all are, yet He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). Sin, as described here, is giving in to the temptation produced by our physical bodies to serve and prioritize self over God.
Sin is also about protecting ourselves from physical pain, rejection, fear, and failure. We run from pain and promote pleasure. This is the desire of the flesh: self-preservation.
Our example
Christ’s journey leading up to the cross encapsulates this harsh reality, even for the perfect One. Was the Christ supposed to give us an example of how to be led by the Spirit, completely obedient to the Father? Certainly. Yet to do so, He also had to give us a picture of the battle we face in our greatest temptation: the leading of the flesh.
“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Self-preservation and protecting the flesh from pain and death were certainly on His mind. He even understood the possibility of calling upon legions of angels who would have gladly come to rescue Him (v. 53).
And all the while this battle was working itself out in our Messiah. He had to bear utter pain and disappointment as His follower and close friend, Peter, failed miserably in the same struggle. Three times. In Jesus’ presence (Mark 14:66-72).
Both Peter and Jesus faced physical pain, fear, and rejection. Peter had a willing spirit, even proclaiming he would die for Jesus (v. 31). But the weakness of his temporary flesh was stronger than his desire to rise above it. Jesus, on the other hand, realized the need to “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (v. 38).
Life in the Spirit
Jesus won the spirit vs. flesh battle, finding life over death. Ironic, isn’t it, that the desire to live in the flesh is opposite of the death it actually brings? Life is in the Spirit — literally. Jesus promised to send to us the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, who can easily do the same thing in you and me (Romans 8:9-11). So lest we think it unfair that Jesus was not merely human but God in the flesh, let us remind ourselves that the power of God lives in us as well through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The cross tells the story. Christ died in the flesh, yet was raised to life eternal in the Spirit. Because of the cross, this is the reality for us as well. Is the Spirit stronger than the weakness of our flesh? He can be, but we must choose Him.
Paul spoke of disciplining his body and keeping it under control because if he failed to do so, he would be disqualified to receive the grace he so eloquently preached to others (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). His flesh was weak, but the willingness of his spirit was stronger.
Missionary Jim Elliott made famous this quote: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” We cannot keep our flesh, but in Christ, we cannot lose our spirit. The fool is the one who seeks to preserve the flesh at the cost of giving up the spirit.
Conquering the flesh
How might you rank on the foolishness scale? Is your ability to overcome the flesh weak? What vices and bad habits currently characterize your life? Why does it seem you continue to fail at separating them from your life? Would you be like Peter, who kept going back to the denial to preserve the flesh, only to find out he wasn’t preserving anything at all? Or would you be like Jesus, as described by the writer of Hebrews:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (12:1-3).
There is joy in conquering the flesh by the power of the Spirit! But this joy can happen only as you kneel at the cross.
Thank You, Jesus, for enduring the cross and all its shame. Your reward is the kingdom. You don’t need to remind me that in this world and in the flesh, I will have trouble. But please give me the strength of the cross, and empower me every day to walk in it — the power that is mine because You have overcome the world (John 16:33).
Jesus set the example for us. Now we can go and do likewise.
