God Without Religion_ Can It Really Be This Simple_ - Andrew Farley [39]
Now that the old self is out of office, dead and gone, we shouldn’t pretend he’s still around. We shouldn’t engage in the presidential blame game by saying, “I couldn’t help it. It was my old self!” No, we’re in a new era, a time in which there’s been an exchange of leadership. Sure, there are leftover effects, strategies, and ways of thinking—the flesh—but we are the new self:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor. 5:17)
Sinful Nature?
In the New International Version (NIV), the term “sinful nature” is sometimes used to describe the source of our ongoing struggle. The trouble with that translation of the Greek word sarx is that it’s easy for us Christians to assume that our nature is sinful. We equate “my sinful nature” with the idea that “my old self or my old nature is still around.”
The literal translation of the word sarx is “flesh,” not “sinful nature.” Paul never intended us to think that the flesh is the old self come back to life. A study of the term “flesh” reveals that it’s a way to think (Rom. 8:6) and a way to walk (Rom. 8:4 NASB)—it’s the leftover programming we have from before salvation. This is why we need our minds renewed. We have fleshly thinking that needs reprogramming over time.
Before salvation, we had an intricate web of strategies for coping with life, dealing with pain, and getting what we wanted. But now we have a new way to think and a new source to draw from—the Spirit of God. If we fall back on the old way of thinking, it doesn’t mean our old spirit has risen from the grave. No, it just means we’re still getting our minds renewed.
Although our spirit (innermost being) houses our righteous nature in Christ, our soul (mind, will, emotions) doesn’t contain any spiritual nature in itself. The soul (Greek: psuche) is just our psychology. The soul is like a mirror that reflects the flesh or God’s Spirit in any given moment. It’s our “soul mirror” that enables us to walk by the flesh or walk by the Spirit from one moment to the next.
So how do we “grow”? We learn more about who we already are as new creations in our spirit. Then we begin to allow our thoughts and actions to reflect this spiritual reality more each day. Only then are we really being ourselves!
So don’t let the term “sinful nature” fool you. The publishers of the NIV note that “flesh” is the more literal translation. God’s message about who we are as his children is consistent. We’ve died. We’ve been raised to newness of life. But we still struggle with old attitudes, old ways of coping, old programming. That’s the flesh.
If we walk according to the flesh, it doesn’t change the fact that our nature is new. It doesn’t change our new source for life. It just means we’re acting like someone we’re not. We’re choosing an old way when we as people are already made new.
Flavors of Flesh
There are many flavors of fleshly thinking. As one example, the flesh may strategize to make us look good, sweet, and religious. Here we see Paul’s flesh fabricating a religious résumé, based on his law keeping:
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. (Phil. 3:4–6 NASB)
That’s one flavor of flesh—religious flesh. As we assemble an impressive résumé of religious performance (and subtly let people know about it!), we walk according to the flesh. This may include seeking to get value and identity from our denomination, our seminary education, our accomplishments at church, our “holy living,” or our Bible smarts.
The flesh also pushes us toward self-improvement and goal setting so that we can see how far we’ve come and feel good about our “growth.