Tough But True

My dear brothers and sisters, fellow believers in our Brother Jesus, only faith and trust in the Holy Spirit, will bring us to believe and denounce the temptations we face daily. Only faith will allow us the boldness to accept these living, present facts.  True, for many of us, they are tough, even rough, but they are all true. They are true in thought, word and works. Just look at Brother Jesus.

The flesh is sinful and totally against Father God.

That being the case, the flesh we wear is weak and prone to the devil’s temptations. But thanks be to God, He sent Jesus to be one with us in flesh, weak, sinful flesh that could be tempted of the devil.  In Jesus is our true and present hope, because He never yielded to His temptations.  

The flesh is human and has a will of its own, which wars against Father God’s will.

That being the case, the human will, with its human desires, regardless of how good or bad; noble or ignoble; right or wrong; sensible or foolish; charitable or hostile it may be, is at variance with Father God’s ways and will. Remember! The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Romans 8: 7. But thanks be to God for Jesus, our Brother, who though clothed in flesh, was helped by the ever indwelling Holy Spirit, to deny everything of His human will and desires, to be able to submit fully to the Father.  In Jesus is our true and present hope, because He denied Himself all of His human will and desires, shunning all evil, to live a life of perfect obedience to Father God.   

The flesh is all of the human nature, our natural nature, which is offensive to Father God.

That being the case, no flesh can ever please God in thought, word or works. Why is this the case? It is so because human flesh thrives on human works and ways, which do not give full life to faith, and faith is what pleases God. Sovereign, Father God still continues to speak through the ages, even in this moment of time, these forever, timeless words about Himself. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55: 8 – 9.

May the Spirit keep us ever mindful of this, as Jesus was. Believe you me! Jesus accepted that He took on an inferior nature, one that could plunge Him into separation from the Father, if He yielded to its desires and demands. He knew and accepted fully His flesh nature and that all thoughts and all ways which emanated from His fully human nature, would be at variance with His Father’s. We therefore ought to accept, without question or doubt that nothing of us, in our carnal selves, is of Father God, or can be. But thanks be to God, He has given us Jesus to live among us and teach us, in His human flesh, truth. It is the living, proven example of truth that our human nature does not have to dominate, dictate or direct our lives in these bodies of clay.  In Jesus is our true and present hope, because He lives to give us life, abundant life, right here and now, if we die to self and rise with Him.   

Jesus is genuine and real. He is not a Leader and Teacher who says to do one thing and He does something else. He is not a hypocrite or deceiver, who claims one thing and shows something else. As we hear Jesus speaking to the crowds of people within hearing range of His voice and as He also speaks to us today, does it not bring inner relief and peace?  Listen again to these ever-familiar words of Jesus. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9: 23b. This is what has me held bound to Jesus in a way I have never experienced before. For the first time I am seeing that Jesus only asked the people, His hearers, to do what He did and was still doing. Did not Jesus deny all of Himself, give up all of heaven’s pleasures, to come to this dark world, and be like us, to save us?  Did He not take up His cross daily, to serve His Father and follow His lead at all times?  What is this doing for you? With Him as our daily Help we too, by faith can obey without deviation. 

We have the example of Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, a man who was once Saul, the persecutor of Jesus Christ. O how we revere, hold dear and precious this testimony of his, after he gave his life entirely to Jesus, after he denied himself and took up his cross daily and followed Jesus. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2: 20. O how we love to borrow these words of Paul, making them ours, but do we live the life of Christ in us?

We all must know this for ourselves.