Desires of the Flesh

"You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." Galatians 5:4

"I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." - Philippians 3:8-9

Any desire, however high and lofty, becomes a desire of the flesh when it is prompted in response to a sense of condemnation; that is a sense of guilt and pressure. Even a high desire like loving God and others becomes a movement of the flesh in that instance because, however good and noble the action, it is actually a movement toward self-justification and self reliance. Whenever we feel the need to justify ourselves it is always an indicator that we are under law.

God has given us a Spirit of freedom, and freedom is our safeguard. A sense of pressure, guilt, fear, or resentment is always an indicator that, at that moment we are trusting, or are being tempted to trust, something other than Christ for our sense of justification. We have turned to some other law or rule keeping system, and our attempts to gain self-justification war against the spirit of God within us.

The pressure simply reveals. The pressure is not the problem. Neither is guilt, fear, or resentment. These disturbing emotions are gifts notifying us, like dummy lights on a car, that there is something wrong. We need to check under the hood...check our heart, and let these disturbing emotions lead us back to the freedom of trusting, not in our ability (or inability) to establish our own sense of righteousness, or right-ness, but back to the freedom of trusting in the sure truth that we are acceptable and counted righteous by our faith in the finished work of the cross.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." - Galatians 5:1