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To be exalted (1Pe 5:6), we must first be aware that the “flesh” (old man; sin nature) is always a haughty and evil thing. There must be an experience of going through to know our evil before we can know the good, yea, the holiness of God; and there’s no doubt that this experience is worth the enduring of evil in order to know and be with God!
NC
What a comfort it is to us, if we are earnest, if we seek to serve and to glorify the Father down here, that the eye of the Lord Jesus is never off us! “He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous” (Job 36:7). Let us remember that the flesh (sin nature or “old man”) never can be made good; but the Lord Jesus is continually thinking of us to do the needed thing. What does He do? He puts down the flesh. How does He deal with us? He makes nothing of us (not us in the new man but concerning everything related to the old man—NC); and that is not at all pleasant (because believers still have a propensity but not a strong desire for the ease of things and for evil—NC).
The Lord Jesus took care by this thorn in the flesh that Paul should be a person in some way contemptible (God wanted him bothered so he would seek God’s way of comfort—NC). Paul asked three times that it should be taken away. Not at all, the Lord says: I have given it on purpose; I must make nothing of Paul, that I may be everything to him. Do you say you are in Christ Jesus before the Father, and loved as Christ is loved? Take care, however; you are in a place of temptation (because of self, Satan and society—NC); you have to “bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus” (2Co 4:10). I reckon myself dead, if I talk of my place before the Father; I bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus, if I am to manifest His Life in the world. Nature (human nature—NC), of course, does not relish that; but, if we are to manifest the Life of the Lord Jesus in or mortal bodies, the flesh must be put down.
Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, because in Christ you have died. When you go down to this world, the only possible dealing with the old man is making nothing of you (God keeps the believer apart from “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” - 1Jo 2:16—NC). This is not power, but it is the way the Father deals with us to give power, whether to an Apostle or to the giver of a cup pf water. If you are in Christ, one needs nothing but Himself from you. The thorn is not strength in itself, but preparation for power. Suppose Paul in his ministry: there never was such a work done before (Paul was first to teach about the Body of Crist and many other important doctrines—NC). Then there must be something besides Paul here. It must be Christ! Paul says, “I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ my rest upon me” (2Co 12:9).
The Lord Jesus’ strength is made perfect in our weakness. He cannot make it perfect in our strength (He causes us to utilize His strength—NC)! I am weak as water—a poor weak thing. God has chosen that no flesh may “glory in His presence” (1Co 1:29). Where a person is nothing (concerning having your own strength—NC), “My grace is sufficient,” Where is His strength made perfect? In a person who has no strength at all (one not depending on self but Christ—NC): then it must be the Lord Jesus. When I am made nothing of, “I glory in my infirmities.” There is what the Christian is.
My Father says that I have died, and am now alive unto Him, and loved as His beloved Son is loved. My position is in Him, and in Him only. Experience contradicts this. So I have to find out that the flesh is a judged and crucified thing. “I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live” (Gal 2:20). If in point of fact the flesh is there, it is condemned. If I know that my servant is a rouge, I keep my things all locked up (godly virtues—NC), and so they are safe; not that he is changed but that the state of things is changed. When the flesh is really distrusted, though it is there, there is not any part of the danger.
The Lord Jesus keeps me then (Jde 1:24); He sends a thorn, if needed, to put me down completely. When the flesh is, in practice put down in its place of death, then Christ’s strength is made perfect in this weakness, for then there will be no doubt that it is His strength. Are your hearts content that the “old man” should be put down? Are you glad of it? Can you glory in infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon you?
If we seek to have the life of the Lord Jesus manifested in us; if we are conscious that He is our blessed portion, we shall want more of that kind of putting down of the flesh. We want more depth—all of us—showing us what the flesh is, and what the Lord Jesus is. The time is coming when we shall see all the rest was worse than vanity, stunting the Life of Christ in us, instead of “mortifying” our “members” on the earth (Col 3:5). May the Father give us to see the Lord Jesus that we may now say with Paul, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord!
—William Kelly (1821-1906)
MJS daily devotional for March 25
“The flesh (“old man”) need not be an ugly form of life (to fool others—NC), indeed it can be apparently very nice, but it is alien to this new life in the Spirit. It belongs to another race; it is not the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are told that the Holy Spirit is in open conflict against the self-life (Gal. 5:17).
“It is equally true that the flesh lusts (strives) against the Spirit, but He is well able to take up the challenge. He will not quietly accept this rival to the rule of Christ, so He stands, with His great weapon of the Cross, to render inoperative everything which is a menace to the life of Christ in us. He calls us to cooperate with Him in this matter by reckoning (reckoning doesn’t produce attributes but rather agrees what is already produced—NC), for only so can the excellency of Christ be manifested in the believer.” -H.F.
NC
Thorny Question
What a comfort it is to us, if we are earnest, if we seek to serve and to glorify the Father down here, that the eye of the Lord Jesus is never off us! “He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous” (Job 36:7). Let us remember that the flesh (sin nature or “old man”) never can be made good; but the Lord Jesus is continually thinking of us to do the needed thing. What does He do? He puts down the flesh. How does He deal with us? He makes nothing of us (not us in the new man but concerning everything related to the old man—NC); and that is not at all pleasant (because believers still have a propensity but not a strong desire for the ease of things and for evil—NC).
The Lord Jesus took care by this thorn in the flesh that Paul should be a person in some way contemptible (God wanted him bothered so he would seek God’s way of comfort—NC). Paul asked three times that it should be taken away. Not at all, the Lord says: I have given it on purpose; I must make nothing of Paul, that I may be everything to him. Do you say you are in Christ Jesus before the Father, and loved as Christ is loved? Take care, however; you are in a place of temptation (because of self, Satan and society—NC); you have to “bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus” (2Co 4:10). I reckon myself dead, if I talk of my place before the Father; I bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus, if I am to manifest His Life in the world. Nature (human nature—NC), of course, does not relish that; but, if we are to manifest the Life of the Lord Jesus in or mortal bodies, the flesh must be put down.
Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, because in Christ you have died. When you go down to this world, the only possible dealing with the old man is making nothing of you (God keeps the believer apart from “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” - 1Jo 2:16—NC). This is not power, but it is the way the Father deals with us to give power, whether to an Apostle or to the giver of a cup pf water. If you are in Christ, one needs nothing but Himself from you. The thorn is not strength in itself, but preparation for power. Suppose Paul in his ministry: there never was such a work done before (Paul was first to teach about the Body of Crist and many other important doctrines—NC). Then there must be something besides Paul here. It must be Christ! Paul says, “I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ my rest upon me” (2Co 12:9).
The Lord Jesus’ strength is made perfect in our weakness. He cannot make it perfect in our strength (He causes us to utilize His strength—NC)! I am weak as water—a poor weak thing. God has chosen that no flesh may “glory in His presence” (1Co 1:29). Where a person is nothing (concerning having your own strength—NC), “My grace is sufficient,” Where is His strength made perfect? In a person who has no strength at all (one not depending on self but Christ—NC): then it must be the Lord Jesus. When I am made nothing of, “I glory in my infirmities.” There is what the Christian is.
My Father says that I have died, and am now alive unto Him, and loved as His beloved Son is loved. My position is in Him, and in Him only. Experience contradicts this. So I have to find out that the flesh is a judged and crucified thing. “I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live” (Gal 2:20). If in point of fact the flesh is there, it is condemned. If I know that my servant is a rouge, I keep my things all locked up (godly virtues—NC), and so they are safe; not that he is changed but that the state of things is changed. When the flesh is really distrusted, though it is there, there is not any part of the danger.
The Lord Jesus keeps me then (Jde 1:24); He sends a thorn, if needed, to put me down completely. When the flesh is, in practice put down in its place of death, then Christ’s strength is made perfect in this weakness, for then there will be no doubt that it is His strength. Are your hearts content that the “old man” should be put down? Are you glad of it? Can you glory in infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon you?
If we seek to have the life of the Lord Jesus manifested in us; if we are conscious that He is our blessed portion, we shall want more of that kind of putting down of the flesh. We want more depth—all of us—showing us what the flesh is, and what the Lord Jesus is. The time is coming when we shall see all the rest was worse than vanity, stunting the Life of Christ in us, instead of “mortifying” our “members” on the earth (Col 3:5). May the Father give us to see the Lord Jesus that we may now say with Paul, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord!
—William Kelly (1821-1906)
MJS daily devotional for March 25
“The flesh (“old man”) need not be an ugly form of life (to fool others—NC), indeed it can be apparently very nice, but it is alien to this new life in the Spirit. It belongs to another race; it is not the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are told that the Holy Spirit is in open conflict against the self-life (Gal. 5:17).
“It is equally true that the flesh lusts (strives) against the Spirit, but He is well able to take up the challenge. He will not quietly accept this rival to the rule of Christ, so He stands, with His great weapon of the Cross, to render inoperative everything which is a menace to the life of Christ in us. He calls us to cooperate with Him in this matter by reckoning (reckoning doesn’t produce attributes but rather agrees what is already produced—NC), for only so can the excellency of Christ be manifested in the believer.” -H.F.
