God designed your flesh for Holy Spirit, identity, and purity, but sin takes advantage of the flesh.
Jesus says to the woman caught in adultery in John 8, “Go and sin no more.” This isn’t an impractical challenge, it’s a loving and reasonable, yet entirely optional mandate.
Jesus believes that we can live free from sin from this day forward.
Here’s my latest conviction: sin is actually rather easy. By “rather easy”, I really mean “kind of manageable”. I battle, resist, and often succumb to sin every day. But here’s the reality of the situation: you’re so free, and Jesus is so patient with you while you figure it out. Your flesh will continue to excuse you from freedom because it is just that: flesh. It’s willing to operate outside of the resurrection because it’s more convenient to sin and receive forgiveness than it is to use self control to step into freedom. And it can be easier to remind yourself of your humanity than it is your holiness.
Again, God designed your flesh for the Spirit, identity, and purity.
What if — in those times we were tempted to “process” sin before putting it to death — we actually just reminded ourselves that we don’t need to wait for breakthrough to walk out freedom?
You’re so much more free than you think you are, and God thinks you’re doing better than you think that you’re doing.
When Jesus encounters the woman caught in adultery, He hadn’t even paid the price of her purity yet, but He was so sure of the power of the cross, not only to set her free from sin, but to empower her to live 100% free from sin for the rest of her life. He didn’t say “go and sin no more” with a doubtful smirk and under-his-breath chuckle. He’s too kind to welcome her into something He knew was unattainable. He believed that she could literally live the rest of her life in freedom from bondage to sin.
Practicality: when you’re not experiencing peace, evaluate the source from which you are drawing your resources. You have the mind of Christ, but if you’re not experiencing freedom, maybe it’s because you’re using your own mind and your own spirit. The reality is that everything that Jesus is, you are too. You’re actually really compassionate and loving because He declared His mind over yours. But because He gives you freedom to choose to love Him, your mind still has access to operate outside of what He says about you.
You can choose to be victim to your flesh, or you can step immediately into what God designed for your flesh. That is, abundant purity, holiness, righteousness, compassion, and love. Here, we find self control because Holy Spirit calls us by our names, empowering our flesh to be sustained by the Source of freedom itself.
Practicality for today: when you receive a lie or temptation, you can put it to death by voicing the reality of the situation (i.e. the truth). For example, when the enemy reminds you of your past or present sexual sin, thank God that Jesus literally assigned His purity to you. The lie is that your sin is too disgusting for God to forgive. The reality is that you’re so beyond forgiven because your sin was dealt with thousands of years ago, and that every ounce of shame, guilt, and anxiety over the situation is His for the rest of eternity. All you get is peace, joy, purity, and freedom.
You’re so much more free than you think you are.
