The Pilgrim Path---Galatians 5: 24

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

“CRUCIFIED THE FLESH…”

Neither Jesus or Paul ever described the Christian life as a “walk in the park” or “a nap on the beach.” The imagery is more that of a battle. It was also depicted by the Christ as, “plucking out an eye,” that is troublesome (yikes) or even being crucified. Need I remind you---crucifixion was one of the most awful means of death in the ancient world. Following the God-Man is serious business. Radical is not enough to cover the commitment to the Christ of God?

This is a fine time to pull out material from J. I. Packer’s Rediscovering Holiness. I need the assistance. Maybe you do as well. Here goes:

Jesus told us vividly that mortifying sin could well feel like plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand or foot---in other words, self-mutilation. You will feel you are saying good-bye to something so much a part of you that without it you cannot live.

Both Paul and Jesus assure us that this exercise, however painful, is a necessity for life, so we must go to it. How? Outward acts of sin come from inward sinful urges, so we must learn to starve these urges of what stimulates them. And when the urge is upon us, we must learn, as it were, to run to our LORD and cry for help, asking him to deepen our sense of his holy presence and redeeming love, to give us the strength to say no to that which can only displease him. It is the Spirit who moves us to act this way, and who actually drains the life out of the sins we starve.

Thus, habits of self-indulgence, spiritual idolatry, and abuse of others can be broken. But while surrendering sins into which you drifted casually is not so hard, mortifying what the Puritans called “besetting” sins---dispositional sins to which your temperament inclines you, and habitual sins that have become addictive and defiant---is regularly a long, drawn-out, bruising struggle. No one who is a spiritual realist will ever pretend otherwise.

Oh LORD---help Us be realists---and to Tell You---and ourselves the truth!

From Matthew Mead: God is never better to us than when the earthly is most bitter. To forsake God to live upon earthly pleasures is a great loss; it is to forsake a living fountain for a broken cistern and leads us out of God’s blessing. An excess in creature-comforts drowns our reason in sense, and our judgment is extinguished by our appetites. When God weans a soul from the world, he makes the earthly bitter by some affliction or disappointment. Thus he leads the souls to look out for a more pure and lasting satisfaction in Christ. In times of outward prosperity, we are full of the world, and the LORD can find no room in our hearts.

From Samuel Annesley: Enjoy Christ more and entertain good thoughts of God. Whatever you do, do it out of love for God.

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason