Carrying a Corpse

As Christians, we live and walk in two natures: the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is the old nature that is sinful and that won't go away until we meet the Lord face to face. The Spirit is God's nature that works itself out as we mature in Christ. The conflict goes on as long as we are here on earth.

During Roman times, if you murdered somebody, there is a very unusual penalty for you. You would be tied to the corpse of the person you killed, and you had to walk around carrying that corpse. The corpse starts to rot and smell bad, but you still had to carry it. This is what the Apostle Paul talks about when he said in the book of Romans, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."

This situation is spiritualized in our present day walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are born again and alive in the Spirit and at the same time, we carry around this old corpse called the flesh. That's why it's usually hard to make important decisions when the two are opposing each other. But the situation is not hopeless. God does the work to enable us to obey the Spirit as Paul said, "through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Our responsibility is to stay close to Jesus Christ our Lord. Read the Bible. Pray. Fellowship with fellow Christians. Obey God. You'll strengthen the Spirit's nature in you and starve the flesh. And the strong will dominate.

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