If

If

“For if you live according to the flesh you will die . . . .” Rom. 8:13.

This is how dangerous it is to live according to the flesh. This scripture does not speak about the body which is buried in a cemetery. We read, “Life and good, death and evil.” Deut. 30:15. If your mind comes into contact with the flesh, death—the evil—will seep into your life.

The flesh cannot be obedient to God’s law. Rom. 8:7. It is at enmity with God and causes us to come into all kinds of temptations by the lusts drawing and enticing us. However, only after our mind has consented to it is sin born. Jas. 1:14-15. Instead of consenting, we can, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body. Then we shall live.

All of us wage this hidden battle, with our faithfulness being the deciding factor. “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . . .” Rom. 7:25, 8:1.

Only after a person has with his mind given in to his flesh is he under condemnation. “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.” Rom. 7:22. Such a person is in Christ Jesus; consequently, he is not under condemnation.

We gain our kingdom with Christ by having a flesh in which nothing good dwells and yet living according to the promptings of the Spirit.

“Who, in the days of His flesh, when He offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear . . . .” Heb. 5:7-9.

This is how Jesus had to live in the days of His flesh. He also had a flesh that was at enmity with God—a flesh that made the law powerless (Rom. 8:3), that convicted every man as a sinner. This is the point on which Jesus fought His fight against death, and this is the kind of battle He had to fight in the days of His flesh.

“Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” The usual thing is for sin to gain power when a person comes into difficulties, and so death—evil—seeps into his life. Jesus feared this death (Swedish tr.), and instead of sinning, He learned obedience and “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Tim. 1:10.

This victory over death was a hidden battle Jesus waged from the time He could discern between good and evil. He was about 30 years old when He was revealed and started His public ministry. Then His work was almost finished. He had only three and a half years left. Most people do not see more than these three and a half years of Jesus’ life and a little glimpse of Him when He was twelve years old. This means that almost all of Jesus’ life is hidden to believers in our days. When they think of following Jesus they think, practically speaking, only about the three and a half years that were revealed. They think of the signs and wonders He performed and His martyrdom on Calvary.

However, Jesus consecrated a way on which we shall follow Him. This way is hidden to the believers of our days. This way goes through the veil, which is His flesh. Heb. 10:19-20. On this way sin in the flesh was condemned—death was abolished. Rom. 8:3. He had already gone a considerable distance on this way when He was twelve years old, and He was almost perfected when He was 30 years old. During this entire time He lived a normal life, as far as His external circumstances were concerned, as the son of a carpenter.

It was under these daily circumstances—trials and temptations—during which sin and death seep into peoples’ lives, because the flesh gains power, that Jesus overcame the flesh and death by offering Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit. Heb. 9:14. This is when all of us who have received the Holy Spirit have the opportunity in our circumstances to follow Him by putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Rom. 8:13. We don’t need to do anything remarkable in order to follow Him. Jesus performed His first sign in Cana when He was thirty years old. John 2:11. This is not what is described as His steps. His steps are that He did not live according to the flesh, that He did not commit sin, that there was no guile in His mouth, and that He did not revile again when He was reviled. 1 Pet. 2:21-23.

If we do not watch and pray, and if we ignore the daily, small things, we will never find Jesus’ steps. We need to possess this fear of death and the evil. We have the same opportunities Jesus had and can gain the same victory and glory while we are in the days of our flesh. It all depends on whether we live according to the flesh or according to the Spirit.