It’s a paradox that we often experience the weakness of our flesh in the strength of its sinful cravings and compulsions. It’s maddening because our flesh frequently demands to think or do things other than what we should be thinking or doing at the moment. These range from mildly distracting to disturbingly dark.

How God Conquers the Power of Our Weakness

But in Christ, God sets us free not only from the penalty of our sin (Colossians 2:14), but also from the power of our sin that remains very active in our flesh (Romans 8:2; Romans 7:23):

For God . . . [by] sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin . . . condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3–4)
The Word became flesh (John 1:14) in order to be condemned in our place for our sin and in doing so paid the full penalty of our guilt. And then Jesus gives us his Spirit to empower us to walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) so that we no longer are enslaved to cravings and compulsions of our flesh (Galatians 5:16).

Sin-penalty paid, Spirit-power imparted, and the kingdom inherited (Matthew 25:34), all because our King is so gracious and lavishly generous. What a gospel!

Choose Life: Die Every Day

When it comes to resisting the powerful demands of our weak flesh, the Bible describes it as a kind of dying (1 Peter 2:24). That’s because our deceived, corrupt flesh believes our life will be happier if we gratify it. Denying it can feel like dying to something life-giving.

We must remember every day that “nothing good dwells in [us], that is, in [our] flesh” (Romans 7:18). When we, in following the Spirit’s direction, die to our flesh, we are dying only to what would destroy us, things like “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” (Colossians 3:5). All we are dying to is death. That kind of dying is worth dying every day (1 Corinthians 15:31). For in such dying we choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19).

When our weak flesh seems to wield great power through its cravings and compulsions, we must watch and pray for the Spirit, for greater is he that is in the new (regenerate) us than he that is in the old us. All our sinful flesh will yield is death. But if by the Spirit we put our flesh to death, we will live (Romans 8:13).

Today, when your unruly flesh makes maddening demands on you, remember: It will not kill you to die to your flesh. You are choosing life.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/die-to-your-flesh-and-live

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