1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NKJV) 24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
As we have looked at the rest God says is available to his people, we have seen that the key to this rest is to walk in the spirit (Galatians 5:16-18.) In order to do this we must build up our spirit through fellowship with The Lord, with prayer, praise and worship and developing an awareness by faith that we are as much a spirit being as a natural being. God created us to be his representatives in the natural world.
In God’s command concerning the two trees in the Garden of Eden, he told Adam that in the day he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. In Hebrew it comes out a little differently. If Adam were to eat from the second tree God said, “In dying you shall surely die.” The first death was not physical, it was spiritual. The first death was the separation of man in the spirit from his creator. The new birth described by Jesus in John 3 and Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 was the reversal of this condition.
When a person comes to the understanding that he or she needs God and forgiveness for sin, and receives Jesus as the Lord and Savior of their life, their spirit is put back into relationship with God. The death Adam and Eve died in the Garden of Eden is reversed. Anyone who is in Christ is a “new creation.” They have not been renovated in spirit. The use of the word “creation” implies something new. Something that did not exist before. Although the King James Version uses “creature instead of creation, the Greek word carries the idea of both the act of creation and the product of that action. The Amplified Bible gives a more complete rendering.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP) Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
Anyone who is born again is a “new creature altogether.” As I have already stated in this space, the work of redemption in Christ is complete. There is nothing more we need to do in spirit except grow, mature and be strengthened in the ways we have already discussed. However, the born again human spirit has an intellect, emotions and will, which have grown under the influence of an ungodly world system. This part of us, called the soul, has been influenced by family, culture, education, and experience. At the time of the new birth it knows nothing of the spirit outside of whatever religious experience that individuals may have.
Born again people also live in a physical body. The body has been influenced since birth by the soul and by what it has been trained to do. The body is purely physical. It has needs and appetites that are primarily instinctual by nature. Most of the needs and appetites of the body were put there as a part of the physical side of human creation. The body is a marvelous machine capable of functioning for many, many years with no intervention whatsoever unless affected by injury, disease and, since the fall, the eventual effects of aging.
It was designed to process food into energy and the building blocks of the body itself. It expels waste, breathes air, is highly mobile, and is capable of amazing things with its hands. The most important and beautiful thing of all is that it can produce more human beings like itself. This capability was intended to produce children for God. Before the fall, they would have been living spirit beings in physical bodies just as God had created Adam and, by extension, Eve. After the fall Adam and Eve still created beings who were just like them, but now fallen and separated from God. Even in this state, they could be returned to relationship with God through salvation in Christ. Today we produce “potential children of God” when we bring a child into the earth.
The body is really neither good nor evil. It is what it was designed to be by God and trained to be by what it experiences from birth to death. The problem is not with the body but with the corruption that influences it. It is important to understand that we will try to deal with the body in ways that will have no impact on it. How can I deal with my body when it does not seem to want to do the things that my born-again spirit needs it to do. In the Middle Ages, some thought they could beat it into submission with something called self-flagellation, a process where they would whip themselves. This did not produce the desired result.
We are too civilized for that. We often try to use “willpower” to make it obey. This usually fails and we end up feeling guilty and a failure. We may try to deal with the body through law. This does not usually come in the form of all the statutes of the Law of Moses. Instead, we substitute religious traditions and denominational rules and rituals. This will not free us from the unruly nature of a body trained by the world system and our own experiences. How, then, can I deal with my body.
The body will only change in the same way that it came to be in its current condition. The body’s appetites and habits came about through training. I trained my body to want certain things. Before salvation, the training was not based on the Word of God but on what my soul wanted and needed. Some things, such as food and drink were needs that are part of the creation of the body. The soul needs many things like recreation. Our bodies were trained in ways to do that. Our bodies were trained in ways that we could work to accomplish tasks and earn a living. When we come to full adulthood, the body has been trained in many things. It tends to follow its training and is not easily moved away from what has become instinct.
One other thing we must be aware of about the body is that although it is neither good nor evil, it can take control under certain circumstances. The body tends to like certain things. Often in the areas that it needs to survive. Unfortunately, it can develop an unhealthy, physical need we call addiction. This can occur with anything the body develops an extreme taste for. Food is a prime example. We tend to downplay food addictions, but they can severely damage the body’s ability to fill the role God intended.
We can also become addicted to things that produce pleasure. Things like, sex, recreation, and relationships can become addictions. Once an addiction develops, the body is in control. It can override the soul and, if it is not born again or if it has not been sufficiently developed the spirit. This may be because we are babies in Christ and have not had time to develop our spirit. It may also be that we have never grown in Christ. Our spirit is born again but it remains a baby in its abilities (Hebrews 5:12-14.)
The Bible calls addiction lust. Although the English definitions usually apply this to sexuality, the third entry in Webster’s dictionary is a passionate or overmastering desire or craving. The Greek is defined as a longing, especially for what is forbidden. The body does not care that it is forbidden. It only cares that it wants whatever it may be. One of the most important teachings in the New Testament is that we must learn to overcome the lusts of the flesh. The flesh can be seen as the agreement between the body and the soul. Usually, it means the body has taken control.
Once we are born again we must learn to walk with the spirit in control. How can we deal with our bodies to bring them into submission to the spirit? Paul tells us in today’s scripture. If the flesh has trained them to behave the way they do now, we must retrain them to respond to the spirit. Next time we will look at how that can be accomplished.
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