The Lust of The Flesh

 Gal 5:16
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

As a student of the word, I endeavor to find the meaning and application of scripture. Much has been written about the life of a Christian and what that looks like in this present world. We live in a different time and culture when we compare our present world to the days of the early church, but humanity has not changed. The lust of the flesh (to satisfy our human desires) is still present in each one of us. The fulfillment of this lust may manifest itself differently in each person. Self and gratifying its wants is at the core of fulfilling the lust of the flesh. The question boils down to this entity called “self”. As long as we live, we will never escape the humanity of our fallen nature. But we have been given the means to take ourselves off the throne of our hearts and put the Holy Spirit in its place. The work of entire sanctification, where our hearts are made holy by the power of the Holy Spirit, not our humanity, but our heart.  He provides the power in which we can allow the Holy Spirit to live and leads us into a walk that fulfills God’s plan for our life. The fulfillment of God’s plan is to love as Christ loved. This is made possible when we allow and choose the Holy Spirit to take control of daily actions and reactions. I believe it is possible to live a sinless life where the lust of the flesh is not fulfilled. As long as we walk in the Spirit, scripture says selfish lust will NOT be fulfilled. We still live in a vessel of clay, subject to shortcomings and imperfection. Mistakes will happen, and we still face temptations, but if we choose to let God have His way in our lives each day, His Spirit will give us the power to be what He desires us to be.

Sins Not

 1 John 3:6

Whosoever abides in him sins not: whosoever sins hath not seen him, neither known him.

This is a Bible standard that many people have problems with. How is it possible for us humans to live everyday without committing sin. We were born sinners and it appears to be a part of our nature. John must have been living in a different culture where it was more conducive to live a holy life. There is no doubt that our nature is deprived and humanity has been scarred by the fall of Adam and Eve. ( Genesis 3). It is not possible for us to live a life without sinning. All have sinned, and come short of God’s expectations. But God, through Christ the spotless lamb of God, the sinless God-Man came to us to give His life so that this sin nature could be removed. It does not make us impermeable to sin, because we still have a free will, but it provides us access to God. We were alienated from God and now abide in Christ, the sinless one. As long as we remain in Him, He provides the grace and power to overcome sin. We no longer are transgressors of the law, but we are made a new vessel of honor. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit, through sanctification that we live each day without committing willful transgression. We are still human and prone to error in the human, but our hearts can be made perfect through the blood of Christ, purifying our hearts by faith.

Abide in Love

John 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Love flows from the Father through the Son and to them that follow in His footsteps. Love continues to flow one to another as we allow the love of Christ to work in our lives. One of the commandments of Jesus is to abide in His love. As the vine abides in the branch, so are we to abide in Christ. A sign of His love abiding in us is that we keep and walk in His truth. Failure to abide in His truth is evidence of our lack of abiding in His love. For a person who is in love, will do all they can to bring pleasure to the one they adore. This is the foundation of holy living, or living a sinless life. Is it possible to live a life without sinning? It is possible to always decide that love will win over what is wrong? Can we who are earthen vessels, made from the clay of the earth choose to love Him in every decision we make? Such is possible if we are filled with the  Holy Spirit, who will guide and lead us into truth. The promise of the Father given to us, the Comforter will come and He will abide with those who surrender all to follow Christ. 

His Grace Makes us Perfect

1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

His grace will make you perfect. Christian Perfection is too often confused with being flawless and without error. This body has lived under the curse of sin since the fall of Adam. The body grows fatigue, the mind is subject to misunderstanding and proper judgement. On this earth, we can never obtain this type of perfection. The grace that God provides will be the strength to do what is right, when right is known. We can be perfectly submitted to the will of God and His plan for our life. The notion that Christians cannot live a perfect life in Christ is base on a false premise. Must Christians sin in thought, word, and deed? Is this a state of being that God’s grace is not able to help? As Paul would say, “God forbid”. The limitation of human perfection are real, but God’s grace can establish and settle the heart within each believer to always do what is right with a motive to please God. That is the grace of God at work.

The Sinless Life

1 John3:6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

The teaching of John Wesley concerning the life of holiness is that Christians do not sin if they are living and abiding in Christ. The doctrine taught by Wesley is founded on Biblical teaching given to us by the Apostle John. Sin, a known transgression against the known will of God, a refusal to do what is right and a total disregard to the commandments of God. The desire or temptation to sin is not  a transgression. Humanity with all of its short comings will fail in judgement and may not always rise to occasion or expectations of others. The flesh is subject to illness, which weakens the body and mind to not always act and think correctly. The sinless life is made possible when one totaling yields themselves in full surrender, allowing the Holy Spirit to take full control of their heart and life. John Wesley called this Christian perfection, or the work of sanctification. The sinless life is for us all today, if we trust and truly pray for the fullness of His blessing to fill our hearts.

Go, and Sin No More

John 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Christ came to fulfill the law to perfection that through His life and death, He enables us by His grace to sin no more. The concept of living a life without sinning is foreign to many who see themselves struggling with life’s temptations and fleshly desires to please self. The carnal nature of man is enmity against God and is not subject to His holiness. Without grace, man is helpless to live a life that is sinless. The heart of man is desperately wicked, even a person trained to be good will stand before God naked and see the uncleanness of his heart. What is man to do? All have sinned and come short of pleasing God, we have only one remedy, flee to the cross, confess our sins, ask Him to forgive us of our transgression, and to clean our hearts of all that is unlike Him. His love and grace without fail will speak,”Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin more” He promise to them that would believe in Him that He would send a Comforter, the Holy Spirit will come as we seek more of Him. The Holy Spirit, as in the day of Pentecost will come to them that seek Him and He will give us power to live a life that can love God with all our hearts, mind, body and soul. Without Him, it is impossible to fulfill this commandment. But with God, all things are possible.

Sinless Life

1 John 1:8, 2:1 “ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not…”-

Believers in Christ are to walk in the light of God to keep them from a life of sin. A person who lives in sin is a sinner and is in need of God’s grace of forgiveness. If we sin, and deny that we have sinned, we are declaring that God’s word is not true. It is only through the blood of Christ that we are able to live a life without sin. There is nothing in ourselves that is able to keep us pure. We need the light of God, the presences of the Holy Spirit to empower us to resist temptation and to continue to live in the light of God. But it is possible to let our guard down and allow temptation to defeat us. In times like this, we need to confess to God our failure. He desires to stay in fellowship with us, but sin in the life of a Christian keeps us from fellowship. He is our advocate, He loves us too much to just let us live in our sin. He has provided a way, the way of forgiveness. The blood of Jesus has the power to keep us, but it also has the power to forgive us.