Using our Position to Defeat the Flesh

Introduction

Today I want to tell you the story about Bill. Bill has a great job at a good company. He has several coworkers who work together on various projects. He is just one of the team. He’s everyone’s friend. Bill and his coworkers regularly socialize together, celebrating family birthdays, anniversaries, and other special events.

Then, one day Bill gets a promotion. He is now the manager for the team. His coworkers are happy! They throw a party and celebrate his success. But before too long everyone notices a change. Bill is no longer in included in some of his team’s conversations. When they do all talk together, it is primarily about work. They don’t share the same way they did before bills promotion. Bill and everyone on the team slowly began to realize there is now a difference in their relationship. They all sense there is a distance between them that wasn’t there before.

What happened? Bill’s change in position resulted in a change in his relationships.

Why did this happen? Bill’s perspective on his coworkers changed and their perspective of him changed. Bill now looks at them differently, at their work, at their production, at their attitudes, and at their value to the team. The team now looks at Bill as someone who has authority over them and can promote them or demote them. Bill has a degree of control over them, their work, and their projects, that he did not have before. Both Bill and the team think about each other differently because Bill’s promotion changed their relationships.

Have you ever seen this happen? It is impossible for someone who changes from the position of a peer to the position of a supervisor to have the same relationships as before the change.

This principle of position is one that we understand intrinsically in our day to day lives. If you are driving down the road and come to a policeman standing in the road with his hand up, you stop. You could easily drive around him, but his role or position as a policeman includes authority that enables him to stop traffic simply by holding his hand up. If you want to take a loan to buy a house, you go to a bank and meet with a lending officer. You fill out all the forms, give them all the appropriate information and then wait for an answer. The lending officer, because of her position, decides whether you will get the loan. If the lending officer says, “No,” you can appeal, but the decision is still hers.

From a biblical perspective, all people are in one of two positions. There are those who are not in a relationship with God and those who are in a relationship with God. There are things that are true of people in these two positions that are quite different and quite significant.

Let’s consider things that are true of a person who is not in a relationship with God.

1. Those without a relationship with God are in the position in sin.

Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 5:12

Let’s see how the Bible describes those who are in sin.

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

A. Everyone starts life in the position of being in sin.

Romans 5:12 ESV

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

All are in sin because we are sinners born with a fallen nature. This was one of the consequences of the first sin by Adam and Eve.

B. The characteristics of those in sin.

Living in sin and dead to God Ephesians 2:1

children of wrath Ephesians 2:3

separate from God Ephesians 2:12

far short of the glory of God Romans 3:23

enemies of God Romans 5:10

slaves to sin Romans 6:17

condemned to eternal death John 3:18

This is not a pretty picture. Now, let’s consider things that are true of a person who is in a relationship with God.

2. Those with a relationship with God are in the position in Christ.

Ephesians 2:4-6, 8-9

Let’s consider the characteristics of those who are in a relationship with Christ are described as being in the position of “in Christ.” This is described in Ephesians 2:4-6.

Ephesians 2:4–6 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

A. Everyone starts being in the position of in Christ by faith.

This position of being in Christ is the state of all people who have experienced the second birth. This is described in Ephesians 2:8-9.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

In contrast to being born into this world as sinners, in sin, without any personal choice in the matter, one enters a relationship with God and becomes in Christ by personal faith. God did all the work by sending Jesus to die on the cross and pay for our sins. Our only part is to accept what God has done for us by faith. When we do that, we change our position from being in sin to in Christ.

B. The characteristics of those in Christ.

Here are the contrasting characteristics of those who have a relationship with God and are in the position of being in Christ.

dead to sin and alive to God Romans 6:11

loved children of God 1 John 3:1

near to God Ephesians 2:13

complete in Christ Colossians 2:10

friends of God John 15:15

free from sin and slaves to God Romans 6:22

free from condemnation Romans 8:1

3. Living in Christ when the flesh attacks

Living in our position in Christ when the flesh attacks means having a different view of an attack from the flesh versus the perspective we had when we were in sin. Here’s how it works.

A. You are attacked with an evil desire.

Romans 1:29, 13:9; Galatians 5:19-21 Ephesians 4:31, Colossians 3:8; Titus 3:3; 1 Peter 2:1

It may be anger, anxiety, etc.

The flesh gives you an evil desire. There are many possible evil desires the flesh uses to attack us. The verses listed above and excellent list, although it is not necessarily exhaustive.

B. Identify the evil desire as an attack.

Sometimes it is a desire we have given into so many times that we don’t seem to have any control. We can feel like we are enslaved to the evil desire and must do what it is urging us to do. But we don’t have to. Defeating the flesh requires identifying the evil desires as attacks. These evil thoughts are not your own, at least not yet. You didn’t sit down and decide that you haven’t been angry in a while and so you need to get angry. You didn’t think that it has been a long time since you were really depressed, so you should feel depressed. No, that’s not what happens. The evil desires are not yours. They are attacks.

C. Don’t respond to the evil desire the way you used to respond.

Don’t respond as you did before you knew Christ, when you were in sin.

Don’t accept the evil desires and embraced them.

Don’t allow the evil desire to become a temptation to sin.

Don’t act on the temptation to sin as one who is enslaved to sin.

D. Respond to the evil attacking desire from your position in Christ.

Think. “I am dead to this evil desire, it has no control over me and I do not have two entertain it or fulfill it.”

Pray. “Father, I am alive to you and want your perspective on this evil desire and I want to have a godly response to this challenge. See how I should think and act as your loved child, one who is free from sin and complete in Christ.”

Act. Choose the godly quality from the Holy Spirit which is the opposite of the evil desire of the flesh and begin to act in that way with the power of God living through you.

We have the power of God to defeat the flesh by thinking about ourselves and living as those who are in the position of being in Christ. There are times when we fail, and our condition, that is how we live, doesn’t match our position. When that happens, we confess our sin and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We ask God to enable us to change our sinful habits of almost automatically following the evil desires of the flesh as if we were still under its power.

We all have the choice. On the one hand, it is an easy choice. On the other hand, it is a battle and takes effort to defeat the flesh.