THE MIND OF THE FLESH

The mind of man is in two minds about his existence.

Many Christians mistakenly believe (or understand) that the physical component of the human make-up possesses both a conscience and consciousness of its own, meaning that the human body is capable of thinking and acting independently of the human spirit – as if two lives, each with a mind of its own, exist within a single human body.

The reading of Romans 8:5-7 would certainly give this impression. “For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace: because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be:”

And, if we have two minds, then which of the two is being referred to in Romans 12:2? “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

To complicate matters even further, Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us that both an old man and a new man are involved in our deliberations. “...that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

And again those two “men” enter the picture as per Colossians 3:9,10. “...lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him:”

Allow me to introduce you to both these men. The “old man” lived in ignorance until he met Jesus. He then became a “new man”. However, the old man in you keeps tapping the new man in you on the shoulder in an attempt to remind you of those “good old” sinful times. So, obviously, both are the same man, but with different beliefs. This hardly seems possible when we consider 2 Cor. 5:17. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.“

Surely, in light of the above verse, that old man should be dead, so why should he keep popping up?

Although God has forgiven and forgotten our sins upon our repentance and being born again to become a new creature in Christ, the old pages of our book of life remain. They contain all the memories of former words and deeds committed by us since we were born and are stored in the memory banks of our spirit. They form part of our personality and, therefore, part of our soul. Upon our spiritual rebirth, we start “writing” new pages in our book of life that still contains the old pages.

The new “entries” in your book of life by the new man are going to have some serious opposition from the former pages of your book of life. These former pages are known as your “old man”, made up of the recorded memories of the activities and the blueprint of your former life. They were not erased. Now this is important, if they were erased, you would have suffered from amnesia and your new life would not have had any meaning, for how would one distinguish the one from the other if one’s soul is emptied of all its former content? In other words, there would be no consciousness of a past sinful life and, therefore, no need of repentance and a new, re-born life.

So, your mind is going to have to take control of the situation and assert itself when the old man comes to visit with reminders of the pleasures of the world, hence Ephesians 4:22-24. “...that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

It is clear that it is a process of continually prevailing in a renewed state of mind until that old man withers away in the former pages of your book of life and the new man reigns supreme, more and more conforming to the image of Christ. Only then will the old man be truly dead and forgotten. And if any person tries to revive that old man by reminding you of your past, you could say to that person, “Really, why don’t you ask God about that?”

This brings us to the opening paragraph of this article. All of our thinking, deliberations and decision-making processes take place in our spirit. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah17:9).

Absolutely nothing is conjured up by our flesh, that is, the physical body. And neither is the human brain capable of any such task. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26)

An unsaved person is spiritually dead in the sense that he spiritually separated from God. He is oblivious of the fact that he is alive for no other reason that he still has a spirit and is, therefore, able to fill his mind and spirit with the ways of the flesh, which are in opposition to the will of God for man. He has a “mind of the flesh”. Such a person believes that his consciousness and individuality are seated in his bodily make and that he is a brain-controlled creature. He does not realise that his individuality, consciousness, intellect and emotions are seated in his spirit and that all of his memories are “stored” in his spirit.

Unfortunately, many Christians also think that they are brain-controlled creatures, which is why many are unable to grasp spiritual truths and apply them in their lives.

It is quite probable that the mind part of the spirit within the human body is positioned exactly where the physical brain is located, which would explain why we feel as if our thinking is taking place in the brain and why we have a tendency to point to our head when indicating to others that we are busy thinking.

It is the mind of the spirit that does all the thinking, sets the intellectual processes in motion and extracts memory from the “filing cabinets” of the spirit. The brain can be likened to a robotic mechanism plugged in to power and on standby for instruction from the spiritual mind to perform a physical function, such as the movement of limbs and, importantly, to form and speak the words of the spirit. In other words, the body conveys (by word or deed) what the spirit within thinks.

But without the spirit of man – and thus the spirit of the mind – the brain is dead. (“For as the body without the spirit is dead...”).

Logically, should the body succumb through illness or accidentally, the spirit will no longer have a physical body to personify what it (the spirit) thinks or feels. The spirit (the real you) then departs and enters eternity – the destination being a pre-determined choice between Heaven and hell. That’s when worldly achievements, pleasures and blissful retirement plans have no more meaning.

And then there was sin

It took several words in the Garden of Eden to plunge mankind into darkness, but it took just one Word to reverse the process.

Dialogue and Doubt

The serpent was an animal that walked upright and it was intelligent. Adam and Eve were able to communicate with it, whether by speech or thought, we don’t know. What we do know is that Satan had taken over the mind of this animal and used it to pose a question or two to the first couple on earth. He had a motive up his sleeve and he was the master of deceit.
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Gen 3:1)

Denial and Delusion
Taken aback by the brazen authority of the serpent, the woman pondered and weighed up the possibilities. Perhaps the serpent knew something they didn’t. Perhaps he was right.
“And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:” (Gen 3:2-4)

Desire and Decision
She turned her gaze from the serpent to the fruit of the tree while considering the potential thereof. Her decision was already made. She did not know that she was a free moral agent and was about to use her free will to establish a new direction for mankind. Of course, her husband followed suit, for he did not even question the decision.
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” (Gen 3:6)

Death and Destruction
A sudden change came over them. They had knowledge they never had before and an awareness of wrongdoing. They had opposed the One Who created them and favoured the one who deceived them. They gave up their fellowship with the God of love, mercy and grace to follow a created, fallen angel – the father of lies.
“And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” (Gen 3:7)

They moved from spirit to flesh and from life to death. Unwittingly, their allegiance switched from God to Satan and the wickedness that came with it.

All of mankind – their offspring – would now be prone to spiritual death followed by physical death and damnation. There was nothing they could do to reverse the process.

And then the Word was made flesh
About four thousand years later the Word of God, Jesus Christ, was born into the earth. He was the next and last Adam. He created the world and everything in it. He was the very Word that commanded Adam and Eve not to partake of the forbidden fruit. But His love for man was so great that He simply had to offer redemption by taking the death penalty upon Himself, in man’s place, so that man could be set free. He was without sin, therefore, had the power to rise from the dead and so impart spiritual rebirth and eternal life to man.

Yes, it took just one Word - the Word of Life – to reverse the process. Alas, a great many are still walking around naked, hiding from the One Who loves them and siding with the one who wants them dead and buried and eternally removed from the One in whose image they were created. Their only hope is to make a decision before that moment of physical death arrives – a death that might come without notice. He is coming back soon. And then the fire.
“In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;” (2Thess 1:8,9)

Not later, but “NOW is the acceptable time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation.” (2Cor 6:2)

AND NOW, A WORD FROM ADAM

Adam, the very first man on this speck of dust hurtling around the sun, has something to say. Let’s lend him an ear.

THE BEGINNING

My eyes opened. I looked upon an environment filled with an array of beautiful colours. It is as if I instantly knew who and what I was as I observed the lushness of a variety of trees and the fruit thereon. There were sections between the trees where colourful plants and herbs of all kinds grew, ready to be harvested. A thought registered in my mind. I was in the Garden of Eden.

I became conscious of a sense of individuality about me and an even greater awareness that I was not alone. And then I saw Him. I did not know fear as I would later, but for now my only emotion was gladness and joy. There was a gentle authority in His voice when He started speaking and as His words came to my hearing I knew that this was my creator. He said He brought me into existence for His pleasure and to have constant fellowship with Him. And then He showed me all the animal creatures He had made and asked me to name them all, which I did. He smiled, as if bemused by my creativeness.

The next thing He told me was that He was giving me authority over the whole earth and everything therein. He also told me that I may eat the fruit of all the trees except for a certain tree in the midst of the garden, the fruit of which was strictly forbidden for me to eat and that I would die should I eat thereof. I wondered about the meaning of death, but knew I had to obey the Creator’s command concerning this particular tree.

Suddenly, I was gone. When I came to there stood before me another creature, just like me, but very pleasing to the eye. I don’t know why, but my heart skipped a beat and I felt weak at the knees. Then the Creator told me who she was and that we were to multiply and bring forth many just like us. I named her Eve. We became as one. She was to become the mother of all human creatures on earth.

FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE

For the next few days we frolicked and played in that beautiful place. We enjoyed each other’s company immensely as we explored the garden, eventually gravitating to the middle thereof. My wife looked up at the forbidden tree, not noticing the serpent that had sidled up to her. He started discussing the merits of the fruit of that tree with her and assured her that nothing would become of us if we partook thereof and that it would open a new dimension to our existence. My wife believed him and plucked from the tree, took a bite and handed it to me to do the same. I was a bit apprehensive, remembering the Creator’s words. Surely, I thought, the woman given to me by the Creator knew best – and why would that God-created serpent mislead us? So I ate of the fruit.

And then a strange thing came over both of us. We suddenly saw that we were naked, something we had not noticed before. A brand new emotion added itself to my inner being – something called fear. The words of warning from the Creator flashed through my mind. My heart pounded in my chest. We were in serious trouble. I just knew we had to hide. That serpent removed himself from the scene – and so did we.

What I feared most happened. The voice of the Creator rang through my ears. He looked upon us as if He knew that we had transgressed. I tried to blame my wife, to no avail. We listened as He pronounced judgement upon us and the serpent. The penalty was death and eternal damnation. There was nothing we could do to restore our standing with the Creator.

THE PENALTY

I later ruminated over the situation and figured that if we could pay the penalty by dying physically and coming back to life again, we would be able to reclaim our former status. There was only one very big problem. Who would raise us from the dead? Besides, we were spiritual beings wrapped in flesh and bones and only the Creator had charge over our spirits. In fact, we were spiritually cut off from Him, having put on a new nature imposed upon us by a fallen angel, Satan. By deceit, our God-given dominion over the earth was snatched by him. For some reason we preferred to fall in line with the evil side of good and evil. The knowledge we gained from eating the fruit of that forbidden tree would be a condition inherent in our offspring. Nevertheless, remorsefully, we would never forget from where we came.

We tried to instil our knowledge of God in our children, but the overwhelming trend for them was to do their own thing. Our first son, Cain, murdered our second son, Abel. Over the centuries, as nations were formed from the many children born into this world, things grew worse. However, a handful of individuals did manage to walk righteously before God and they were marked for some kind of redemption at a future date known only by the Creator. About seventeen hundred years after my wife and I first opened our eyes on this planet, human creatures had become so wicked in their ways that God destroyed all of them except for eight individuals, namely, Noah and his family. They were to restart the human race – and, once again, Satan had to recruit new human agents to continue on his destructive course against the human race made in the image of God.

During the centuries that followed, millions more were obliterated from the earth either directly by the Creator or by a chosen race of people assigned to carry out the judgement.

YOUR WORLD

I know I’m no longer alive to write any of this, but I’m representative of the spirit of man and responsible for your downfall, so for the sake of continuity, I will proceed. I could, of course, hand the pen over to my wife, Eve. She knows as much as I do, but I’m still annoyed with her.

You, the readers, live in an advanced age filled with modern technology and your minds are in total captivity to what it represents. Without it you would be lost. At least in my age we had time to think about the reality of our situation.

Perhaps you should switch yourself off from everything around you for a few moments and do some serious thinking. Earlier on I mentioned that it would be impossible for me to pay the penalty for my transgression, for if did not have the power to raise myself from the dead and restore my relationship with God.

Well, I have some good news. There was a second Adam – one who was without sin and who had the power to raise himself from the dead because of who he was and still is. His name is Jesus Christ, the very Word of God made flesh. He did, in fact, do just that. He died to pay that penalty on behalf of mankind and raised himself from the dead so that all could be made righteous and live in perfect relationship with God.

I, the first Adam, plunged all of you into darkness. Jesus, the second Adam, pulled all of you out of darkness into his marvellous Light. There’s an open invitation from him to you. He is waiting for you at the Cross – the only entrance to redemption for all.

You need but one thing only – and that is to believe who he says he is. It is entirely up to you.

Thank you for your time.

WORD OF THANKS

On behalf of all readers I want to thank Adam for paying us a visit and laying it on the line for us.