~ Becoming the Spiritual Person God Wants You To Be ~
“What is needed to move us beyond our inconsequential selfish, fleshly
pursuits to deeds of loving service to God and others?... First, it requires a firm understanding of who you are in
Christ. You can’t become like Jesus unless you are His divine offspring.
You have to be grafted into the vine because apart from Christ you can do
nothing (see John 15:5). Second, you must
crucify daily the old sin-trained flesh and walk in accordance with who you are
in Christ and ‘be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (Rom. 12:2). Third,
it requires the grace of God. ‘For
sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace’
(Rom. 6:14). We cannot live righteous lives by human effort based on external
standards. Under the covenant of grace, we live by faith according to what God
says is true in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
(90-91)
Anderson devotes much of this chapter to three kinds of people in
relation to life in the Spirit; the three types of people are drawn from 1
Corinthians 2.14-3.3: natural persons, spiritual persons, and fleshly persons.
The
Natural Person. “Ephesians 2:1-3 contains a concise description of the
natural person Paul identified in 1 Corinthians 2:14… This person is
spiritually dead, separated from God. Living completely independent from God,
the natural person sins as a matter of course. The natural man has a soul, in
that he can think, feel and choose. [However,] his mind, and subsequently his
emotions and his will, are directed by his flesh, which acts completely apart
from the God who created him. The natural man may think he is free to choose
his behavior. Because he lives in the
flesh, however, he invariably walks according
to the flesh and his choices reflect the ‘deeds of the flesh’ listed in
Galatians 5:19-21… The natural person’s actions, reactions, habits, memories
and responses are all governed by the flesh.”
(91-93)
The “flesh” is the learned dependence which
gives sin its opportunity. The natural man, who tries to find purpose and
meaning in life independently of God, is going to struggle with inferiority,
insecurity, inadequacy, guilt, worry and doubts.
The natural man’s mind is consumed by obsessive
thoughts and fantasies. Bitterness, anxiety, depression, and other such
feelings rule his emotions.
The natural man’s spirit is dead to God; thus,
he is unable to fulfill the purposes for which he was created. Lacking life
from God, sin is inevitable.
The natural man walks after the flesh, and such
are the hallmarks of his lifestyle: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, greed, strife, outbursts of anger, jealousy, disputes,
dissensions and factions, envying and drunkenness and carousing.
The Spiritual Person. “The spiritual man [1 Cor 2.15] also has a body,
soul and spirit. [Yet] this individual has been remarkably transformed from the
natural person he was before spiritual birth. At conversion, his spirit became
united with God’s Spirit. The spiritual life that resulted from this union is
characterized by forgiveness of sin, acceptance in God’s family and a positive
sense of worth. The soul of the spiritual man also reflects a change generated
by spiritual birth. He now receives his impetus from the Spirit, not from his
flesh. His mind has been renewed and transformed. His emotions are
characterized by peace and joy instead of turmoil. He is also free to choose not to walk according to the flesh, but
to walk according to the Spirit. As the spiritual man exercises his choice to
live in the Spirit, his life exhibits the fruit of the Spirit (see Gal.
5:22,23)… The flesh, conditioned to live independently from God under the old
self, is still present in the spiritual man, but he responsibly crucifies the
flesh and its desires daily as he considers himself alive in Christ and dead to
sin.” (93-95)
The Fleshly (or Carnal) Person. “[The] spirit of the fleshly person is identical
to that of the spiritual person. The fleshly person is a Christian, spiritually
alive in Christ and declared righteous by God; but that is where the similarity
ends. Instead of being directed by the Spirit, this believing man chooses to
follow the impulses of his flesh. As a result, his mind is occupied by carnal
thoughts and his emotions are plagued by negative feelings. Though he is free
to choose to walk after the Spirit and produce the fruit of the Spirit, he
continues to involve himself in sinful activity by willfully walking after the
flesh.” (95)
The ingrained habit patterns of the flesh still
appeal to the fleshly person’s mind. He is double-minded, and though he will
occasionally manifest the fruit of the Spirit, his life is more often marked by
the ‘deeds of the flesh’ (though he will loathe himself for such activities,
and he will despair over the gulf between what he does and what he wants to
do). His spirit is alive (Rom 8.9) but quenched (1 Thess 5.19).
“The fleshly man’s physical body is a temple of
God, but it is being defiled. He often exhibits the same troubling physical
symptoms experienced by the natural person because he is not operating in the
manner God created him to operate. He is not presenting his body to God as a
living sacrifice, but indulging his physical appetites at the whim of his
sin-trained flesh. Because he is yielding to the flesh instead of crucifying
it, the fleshly man is also subject to feelings of inferiority, insecurity,
inadequacy, guilt, worry, and doubt.”
(97)
“Why is there often such great disparity between these two kinds of
Christians: spiritual and fleshly? Why are so many believers living so far
below their potential in Christ? Why are so few of us enjoying the abundant,
productive life we have already inherited? We should be able to say every year,
‘I am more loving, peaceful, joyful, patient, kind, and gentle than I was last
year.’ If we can’t honestly say that, then we are not growing. ‘His divine
power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through
the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence’ (2 Pet 1:3).
Yet, countless numbers of Christians have been born-again for years—even
decades—and have yet to experience significant measures of victory over sin.
Ignorance, lack of repentance and faith in God, and unresolved conflicts keep
people from growing.” (97)
“When it comes to walking according to the flesh and walking in the
Spirit, our wills are like toggle switches. The wills of new Christians seem to
be spring-loaded toward fleshly behavior. New believers are going to live
according to what they know, and they don’t know very much about the
Spirit-filled life. The walls of mature Christians are spring-loaded toward the
Spirit. They make occasional poor choices, but they are daily learning to
crucify the flesh and walk by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.” (98)
“Paul said that walking according to the Spirit is not license.
License is a disregard for rules and regulations constituting an abuse of
privilege. Some Christians wrongly assert that walking by the Spirit and living
under grace means, ‘I can do whatever I want to do.’ Walking by the Spirit
means, ‘You may not do the things that you please.’ Living by the Spirit
doesn’t mean you are free to do whatever you want to do. That would be license.
It means you are free to live a responsible, moral life—something you were
incapable of doing when you were a bond servant of sin… What some people think
is freedom is nothing more than license that leads to bondage. Freedom doesn’t just
lie in the exercise of choice; it ultimately lies in the consequences of those
choices. The Spirit of Truth will always lead us to freedom, but the desires of
the flesh will lead us to sin and bondage. The commandments of God are not
restrictive; they are protective. Our real freedom is in the ability to choose
to live responsibly within the context of the protective guidelines God has
established for our lives.” (100)
“If the Spirit-filled walk is neither license nor legalism, then what
is it? It is liberty. [2 Cor. 3:17] Our freedom in Christ is one of the most
precious commodities we have received from our spiritual union with God.
Because the Spirit of the Lord is in you, you are free to become the person God
created you to be. You are no longer compelled to walk according to the flesh
as you were before conversion.” (102)
“Walking according to the Spirit implies two things. First, it is not sitting in the Spirit. Walking by the
Spirit is not sitting around in some holy piety expecting God to do it all.
Second, it is not running in the
Spirit. The Spirit-filled life is not an endless round of exhausting activities
in which we are trying to do it all by ourselves. Thinking we will become more
spiritual if we try harder is a typical error of many believers. If Satan can’t
tempt us to be immoral, he will simply try to make us busy.” (102)
“How can you know if you are walking according to the flesh or
according to the Spirit? Take a look at your life. ‘Now the deeds of the flesh
are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery,
enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions,
factions, envying… and things like these’ (Gal. 5:19-21). These deeds are
spiritually dead acts which do not reflect the life of Christ… We must learn to
have enough self-awareness to know when we are living according to the flesh
and to assume responsibility for our own attitudes and actions. We need to walk
in the light and learn to confess our sins, which means to consciously agree
with God. When a deed of the flesh becomes evident, mentally acknowledge that
to God and ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit. The more you practice that
simple little discipline, the more you will live according to the Spirit.” (105-106)
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