The Gospel is really good news. When Jesus said it is Finished, he meant it. Our flesh and all the sinful desires thereof, were nailed to the cross, and we died with him (Galatians 2:20). As marvelous as these truths are, many believers are still caught trying to overcome something they call, “The Flesh.” Many believe there is still an internal war between the Holy Spirit and the Flesh.
Is that really what the Gospel teaches?
Galatians 5:16 – 18 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Many translations use the word for flesh in Galatians 5:16 -18, but ultimately they are talking about the sinful nature. So basically many believers think that the Holy Spirit and sinful nature (The Flesh) are at war in the lives of an individual believers, but these verses are actually say the exact opposite.
The two are in conflict, or in other words contrary to one another. The two are not co-existing within the individual. There are two separate governing entities. You are ruled either by one or the other. They are rightly in conflict but not inside a single believer. They are opposite existences.
Paul is talking about two controlling forces that exist in separate realms for people to exist under. For the person who tries to clean himself up by following the law, he is under the domineering influence of sin. For the person who is born of God, he is now under the governing influence of the Holy Spirit. He in union with Christ, and his flesh is now the Body of Jesus on the earth.
When we continue to read Galatians 5, Paul draws this conclusion concerning out nature as believers.
Galatians 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
For believers, the war is over, we are already in victory and the sinful desires of the flesh no longer have power over us. We have been set free completely by the Finished Work of Christ; in body, soul and spirit.
Paul White talking about how Dead we are!