Mon 5.1 – To kill a mocking flesh

Today’s Readings: Colossians 3.1-7; Romans 6

Hey everyone! Man, I had a blast at the camping trip this weekend. Okay, so I was only 2 for 10 with the skeet shooting, but I still had a blast! We had a few close calls with the weather but God was protecting us, and we thankfully praise Him for that! I want to note that there was no devotion from Saturday because we didn’t have any internet access at the property where we were camping. As a matter of fact, we didn’t have access to anything but woods and dirt there J . So, since I couldn’t access the internet to post Saturday’s devotion, there wasn’t one. I appreciate your faithfulness for checking in to see it, it really encourages me to know that you guys are getting so faithful with these devotions. We are averaging like 35 people doing them a day. That’s almost half of our youth group, which means we are getting more and more people on board.

Today, I want to simply answer a question. We’ve been talking about mortifying the flesh, which is something we all know that we should do. However, it can also seem to be a pretty complicated thing to explain. Therefore, today I just want us to look at some scriptures that explain the process of making that REALITY in our lives. If you would, start today by reading Colossians 3.1-7 to remind yourself of God’s commission for the one who is RISEN with Christ. We are to live our life here like the life we have with Him in heaven. We are to SEEK and SET OUR AFFECTION on things above where God is, not things of earth where we are. We saw the things of earth are mainly things of our BODIES and that’s why God mentions in Colossians 3.3-4 that one day our bodies will be redeemed, but in the mean time we need MORTIFY our MEMBERS which are UPON THE EARTH.

Now, right there is where we pick up for today. If we are to mortify our members on this earth, how do we do that? That’s a fair question, and a good one at that. Well, I think one of the best portions of scripture for us to examine is a simple one found in Romans 6. Paul is talking about this very idea of MORTIFYING or making DEAD our flesh on this earth that we may LIVE UNTO GOD and not unto ourselves. Paul gives a little formula for this process, he says we have to (1) Know, (2) Reckon, and (3) Yield to the truth that we are dead.

1.     Know it. Paul takes Romans 6.1-5 to remind us that we ARE DEAD with Christ. Then in verse 6 he says, “KNOWING THIS…” What is it that he says we are to KNOW? He says we are to KNOW that our OLD MAN (that is our old nature) is CRUCIFIED with him…and therefore because our OLD NATURE (that part of us that yielded itself to the body that we currently live in) is now dead, we no longer have to SERVE SIN. It is interesting to note how Paul describes our bodies in this verse. What does he call them? Bodies of …SIN. Wow, what a strong name.

Okay, so first things first – in order to mortify the flesh we have to KNOW that we no longer are bound to serve it because our OLD MAN is CRICIFIED with Christ, freeing us to live unto HIM and not this BODU OF SIN.

2.       Reckon it. In Romans 6.11, Paul says we are to RECKON ourselves to be DEAD UNTO SIN, but ALIVE UNTO GOD because of the truth we now KNOW from verse 6.This is a word you probably don’t understand unless you are related to country people. “I reckon so” was a common response to questions when I was growing up. What it meant was “My calculations would lead me to say yes.” And really, that’s not such a bad understanding of this word. It is actually a word that, in the days when the Bible was written, would have been used as an accounting term. Today I might say I have RECKONED, or balanced, my checkbook. It means to survey what you know about the situation, and calculate the truth. If I had $100 Monday, and I spent $20 on Wednesday, and deposited $10 on Friday, then Saturday I would RECKON that I have $90 available to me in my account.

So, in dealing with our flesh, we are to begin to account, or RECKON, the truth of our freedom from the bondage of sin in our bodies and realize the life we can now life unto Christ. Once we know something is truth, then we can begin to adjust our RECORDS to match what we know is truth. (when people’s personal RECORDS do not match the truth of the ACCOUNT they are recording, that is when people get into trouble and bounce checks. People get into trouble much the same way spiritually.)

3.     Yield to it. In verse 13, Paul says that once you KNOW it, and once you’ve moved your life to RECKON it, then you simply YIELD to what you already know is true. If you are DEAD with Christ to sin, and you have ACCOUNTED that truth to mean you no longer have to SERVE sin, then when the hunger for sin presents itself, you no longer have to YIELD YOUR MEMBERS to unrighteous acts, but you can YIELD THOSE MEMBERS as instruments of Christ. Those are the SAME MEMBERS that Paul talks about MORTIFYING in Col 3.5. When you kill them to the flesh, you can utilize them to the Spirit, as one ALIVE UNTO GOD.

So that’s the very simply progression God gives to help us with mortifying the flesh… (1) KNOW the truth of your freedom from sin and your DEATH with Christ. (2) RECKON the truth in your personal life, do not let this simply be something you know “is”, but make it something that “is true about YOU.” (3) YIELD to that truth in your life. When we realize we are dead unto sin, and alive unto God, then we can YIELD to the right master…the only Master! Amen.