Most of the time, we don’t move from living a surrendered, obedient life in Christ, to a life of sinful rebellion against Christ, in one big jump. Much more often, we slip into it gradually. We take one step at a time in the wrong direction. In the words of a Casting Crowns song, “It’s a slow fade.”
Righteous Flesh
I recently heard a new term that I think helps understand the ways in which we ease into sin. Alec Rowlands, who is the senior pastor at Westgate Chapel in Edmonds, Washington, mentioned it in a message I heard him preach. I think he was quoting someone else, but I am not sure about that. The term that caught my attention was “righteous flesh.” What was meant by that term is this: When we do good things but do them in our own abilities, our own wisdom, our own strength, our own flesh, we are acting out of “righteous flesh.” We are not doing sinful things. There is nothing unrighteous about our actions. The problem is that we are doing them according to the flesh. We are in charge. We are living according to our flesh rather than according to the Spirit. When we do this consistently over a period of time, it will result in our intimacy with God being hindered. When that happens, we will begin to act in unrighteous flesh, meaning that the actions we are now doing in the flesh will themselves be sinful actions.
God looks beyond the external
This thought struck me because most of us simply look at the actions we do to determine the spiritual state of our lives. As long as our actions are righteous, that is, not sinful in themselves, we feel like we are doing well. We believe we are living lives of obedience to Christ. God, however, always looks beyond the externals and into our hearts. When we have wrong motives or attitudes, we may realize that we aren’t living as God would have us live, but often the first step in moving away from obedience to God is not even a wrong attitude. We can do a righteous act, with a good attitude about doing it, and even with a good motive, but if we do it in our flesh, we have moved a step in the wrong direction. Doing good things in our own strength and ability is living out of our flesh. It may seem to be righteous, but even “righteous flesh” is not what God desires. God desires us to live in surrendered dependence to Him.
Live according to the spirit
The problem is our flesh. We are not to live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Anything short of living in surrender and obedience to the Spirit is a step in the wrong direction. Any step in the wrong direction is a problem in itself but also is compounded by leading to the next step. Let us walk in the Spirit, and we will be able to stay away from the deeds of the flesh.
