276. What Powers Are You Led By?

“And If Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin.” Rom. 8:10. It sounds a bit strange that the body is dead, but this is how it is. The Spirit is life because of righteousness, and it controls everything. The body has no control over our life because sin dwells in the body. He who allows himself to be lead by the lusts in his body will stray into every kind of wrong path. This is why the body has to be broken down, die, and go back to the earth. With Jesus it was different: He won a complete victory over all the lusts in the body, and in this way the body became a sacrifice. In the days of His flesh, led by the laws of the Spirit, Christ conquered the law of sin and death, and in doing so crushed Satan’s power. The prince of this world came but had no part in Him, and the kingdom of death itself could not hold Jesus’ body down in the grave because it was a sacrifice surrendered to the Spirit’s leading. Not once did He live for Himself, nor did He satisfy the lusts in the body by living according to them. In this way He saved His body from Satan’s clutches. He had to take His body right into death because sin clung to it so closely, but there, in the death of Christ, the body was separated from sin, so God could raise Him up in the power of the blood of an everlasting covenant.

Now it is our turn to follow the Master. We, too, are to present our bodies as a well-pleasing sacrifice to God. The lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are to be crucified. This all concerns the body because it is within this body that the lusts dwell. Youthful lusts all dwell in the body. But by saying “No” to these lusts through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can have victory, as spoken about in the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor. If it was not possible to overcome sin, Jesus would have been wrong when He repeatedly stated: “He who overcomes . . .” To the extent that I can see sin this is possible, while the sin that is still hidden from me is not reckoned as sin. For it is written: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Psalm 32:2. However, when the light becomes greater and I get to see more of my sin, then greater requirements are placed on me concerning my walk in this greater light. It is this continual faithfulness to the light of the moment that makes me blessed.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Rom. 12:1.

We can clearly see from this that spiritual service requires a body that is presented as a sacrifice. This is why Paul held his body in subjection.

Drinking, carousing, greed, ambition, fornication, and an arrogant lifestyle are all lusts that are bound to the body. Hang all this upon the cross in the power of God’s Spirit, and peace and joy will come automatically. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. A half-hearted Christian life is bondage, but a life where the flesh with its lusts is completely crucified results in happiness and blessedness beyond all comparison.