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According to the Flesh

             Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)

Yesterday’s point was that we and the Law are too weak to save us. That’s because we have a fleshly nature. How could we not? To complicate things further, it’s broken. The flesh wants what it wants. It can only perceive reality with itself as the source.

All that the Law can do is say, “That’s wicked!” That doesn’t change what the flesh wants. This is precisely the role of religion. It’s also precisely what society wants to do. It wants to pass laws that will, supposedly, change human nature so that people don’t even think of doing wicked things. Trying to impose changes in our nature from outside doesn’t work well.  After all, the mind governed by the flesh is hostile toward not only toward God, but toward any “god” that dictates a reality the flesh doesn’t like. What makes it even worse is that the “reality” involved is imposed by others like us, who are no more capable of correctly discerning reality than we are. They rule from their flesh. The only changes the flesh wants to make are the ones that glorify it.

                The only alternative to being ruled by the flesh and therefore being ruled by lies is to reject the authority of the flesh, and to submit to a source of knowledge that is not limited to the flesh. From the flesh’s point of view, that means dying but it’s the only means to live within reality. This is why those governed by the flesh cannot please God, because they insist on doing themselves harm by living in a lie.

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