Flesh & Spirit: There is a way of speaking about the believer’s warfare that, while sounding scriptural, can lead us to think in terms that go beyond what is actually written. Some, when speaking of this warfare, describe it in a way that makes it sound like a back-and-forth struggle within us, like two equal forces inside the believer – spirit and flesh- locked in an ongoing stalemate, as though two opposing principles are contending for mastery. But that is not how Scripture sets it forth. The Bible never presents the Holy Spirit as contending on equal footing with the flesh, as though the outcome were uncertain or dependent on who wins more rounds on any particular day.
This way of speaking, if left unexamined, tends to move the center of things inward, away from Christ’s finished work and the Spirit’s effectual operation, and onto an internal struggle that begins to define the whole. In doing so, it can make the flesh appear as a kind of co-ruler rather than something already judged, and it reshapes the Christian life into the management of two equal identities, instead of the expression of one life in Christ. Colossians 3:3-4.
Scripture does speak of conflict: “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,” Galatians 5:17, but it does not present this as a struggle between equals, as though the outcome were uncertain or the Spirit’s work hung in the balance. The warfare is felt, not because the flesh is rising to challenge the Spirit, but because the Spirit has given life, and by that life the motions of the flesh are brought into the light and made burdensome. Romans 7:9. As it has been said, the children of God feel this conflict not from the strength of the flesh, but from the sensibility the Spirit imparts. That which is born of the flesh remains flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6. The two do not blend, nor assist one another, nor stand on equal ground, and the conflict itself only makes that distinction more evident.
The warfare is real, but it is not the center – Christ is. Hebrews 12:2. The flesh remains, yet it does not define the life of the believer, nor does it stand as a rival power contending for mastery; and what is experienced as conflict is not a contest of equals, but a matter of manifestation: the Spirit has given life, and by that life everything contrary is brought into the light and shown for what it is. I John 2:8. The flesh is not improved or brought into partnership, but remains what it has always been, and is known as such because He dwells within. Romans 7:18. And so the Christian life is not the management of an inward struggle, but a life given and sustained, in which we are led, taught, and brought to keep calling upon the name of the Lord. Hebrews 13:15. MPJ