{"id":7000,"date":"2021-04-21T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=7000"},"modified":"2021-04-20T09:00:50","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T23:00:50","slug":"the-bad-news-of-the-flesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2021\/04\/21\/the-bad-news-of-the-flesh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bad News of the Flesh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ephesians 2:3\u00a03<\/sup>among whom we all once lived for a time in the desires of our flesh, doing the things willed by the flesh\u00a0and the mind, and were children of wrath by nature, like the rest of people.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Ephesians and all believers once were dead from following the ruler of this fallen world. The big problem we face is\u00a0the desires of the flesh<\/em>. The flesh in itself is not bad, since it is part of who we are. But often in his letters, Paul points out how the flesh can become distorted because of pride and idolatry. These are the two issues Paul particularly addresses in Romans 1 and 2. In Romans 1, the problem of idolatry compels people to replace the worship of God with the worship of something in the created world. Whenever we take our eyes off of God, inevitably our lives begin to deteriorate into doing what pleases ourselves. Romans 2 deals with pride, especially of the Jews who attempt to be righteous by their own efforts. This, too, can deteriorate to fleshly living, as Paul’s arguments in Galatians show.<\/p>\n

The desires of the flesh show up especially in coveting and lust, wanting something that is not ours. The word “desire” can have both a positive and negative nuance. Most of the usages in the New Testament are negative and used for the desires that lead to sin. Our inward bent to self-sovereignty distorts the natural desires God has given us to enjoy, prolong our lives, and procreate a new generation. The sinful desires of the flesh bring God’s wrath and judgment and result in death.<\/p>\n

The deceived flesh held slave to sin leads people to do things wanted or willed by the flesh. Paul leaves these things unstated but other places in his letters give us many clues and examples of this, such as Galatians 5:19-21. The issue is not in a passive “flesh” but also the\u00a0mind<\/em>. Our thinking has been infected with sin. Our worldview has become distorted. We have rejected God’s way of righteousness and replaced it with rebellion and doing things that please ourselves.<\/p>\n

The result of this for all people is that every human being becomes a child of wrath. This is another way of saying that everyone will be judged for his or her sin. Rebellion leads to judgment. The problem is that this is our\u00a0nature<\/em> as descendants of Adam and Eve. No one can escape this problem because it includes\u00a0the rest<\/em>, an inclusive term that joins all of humanity in this problem. Being a “child” of wrath hints that we are born this way and grow up with this bent towards sin. No one can escape this problem except by the grace of God.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Ephesians 2:3\u00a03among whom we all once lived for a time in the desires of our flesh, doing the things willed by the flesh\u00a0and the mind, and were children of wrath by nature, like the rest of people. The Ephesians and all believers once were dead from following the ruler of this fallen world. The big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7000"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7011,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions\/7011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}