20/02/2024
CRUCIFYICRUCIFYING THE FLESH
Crucifying the flesh is not something God does for you. it is something you do for yourself. “I beseech you therefore, brethren,” Paul wrote to the Church, “by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies . . .” (Rom. 12:1).
Who presents your body? You do. Who is you That’s the man on the inside who is born again and has become a new creature. You do something with your body.
If you do not do something with it, nothing will ever be done with it.
1CORINTHIANS 9:27
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Here Paul is talking about the fact that he does something with his body. “I keep under my body. I bring it into subjection.” Who is I? that’s the real man—the real Paul—the man on the inside who has become a new creature in Christ Jesus and is filled with the holy Spirit. “I do something with my body. I keep it under. I bring it into subjection.”
Instead of letting the body dominate the inward man, Paul saw to it that the inward man dominated the outward man. Now notice this. here is this great apostle, this holy man of God, this man who wrote half of the New Testament, a man who is a spiritual giant—yet evidently his body wanted to do things that were wrong. if it hadn’t, he would not have had to keep it under. He would not have had to bring it into subjection.
Just because your body wants to do wrong, doesn’t mean you are not saved, or that you are not filled with the holy Spirit. (If that were the case, Paul was not saved.) You're saved yes but you still have to contend with the body, the flesh, as long as you are in this world! If you stop fighting you will soon give up.
What I want you to see is this—you are the one who must do it. Paul did not say God would do it for you.
It's about self DENIAL.
