Fighting the Flesh #2: Desires

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”—James 1:14-15

We all have desires—desires that drive us. We have desires for food, drink, friendship, sex, shelter, significance, and success. But, like everything, our desires passed through the fall. Even our desires are fallen. Not that all our desires are bad, mind you, it’s the distortion of the desires whereby they are transformed to go against what God has deemed to be good. For example, the desire for food is good, right and healthy, but when our identity becomes found in our food, or when we continually go to food rather than God to find comfort, then it is bad. The same goes with sex. Sex is a gift of God and meant to be enjoyed between a husband and wife in the holy covenant of marriage. But when sex occurs outside of the holy covenant of heterosexual marriage, then it is not just bad, but evil. Our fallen desires are a bit like a frayed electric cord. The power, as long as it travels along the cord is good, but when the sparks get out of the cord, disaster occurs.

How can we defeat our sinful desires? First we need to understand that we are no longer bound by our desires. By trusting in Christ, our old way of life was crucified with Him on the cross, and by that same faith we participate in His resurrection life, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”—Galatians 2:20. All of those who belong to Jesus have crucified their old way of life and along with it our fallen passions and desires, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”—Galatians 5:24.

Once we realize that we have been crucified with Christ and are now participants in His resurrection life by faith, we then must continually take off our old life and put on our new one, like removing our old stained dirty clothes and putting on clean fresh new ones. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires”—Romans 13:14. What does it mean to “put on Jesus”? It means walking according to the desires of the Spirit of God within us, by setting our minds on the things of the Spirit, whereby we are “…renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”—Ephesians 4:23-24.

Once we nourish the Spirit, we continually “walk by the Spirit,” because when we are walking in the Spirit or “putting on” Jesus, there is no room to gratify the old sinful desires,

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do”—Galatians 5:16-17.

Dear beloved, you don’t have to keep on obeying your sinful desires. Jesus cut the chains of sin that held you in bondage! You are free and by living according to the Spirit’s internal witness to your soul as it is nourished and grown through His Word, you are able to live the life that God has planned. And then, you will experience the joy and peace of knowing that you are doing what God desires you to do. Amen.