The Battle of the Flesh

The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.
GALATIANS 5:17
+
The Battle of the Flesh
When someone becomes aware of this battle of the flesh, he should not lose heart on this account; but by the Spirit he should fight back and say: "I am a sinner, and I am aware of my sin; for I have not yet put off my flesh, to which sin will cling as long as it lives. But I will obey the Spirit rather than the flesh. That is, by faith and hope I will take hold of Christ. I will fortify myself with His Word, and thus fortified I will refuse to gratify the desires of the flesh." . . . Thus there is great comfort for the faithful in this teaching of Paul's, because they know that they have partly flesh and partly Spirit, but in such a way that the Spirit rules and the flesh is subordinate, that righteousness is supreme and sin is a servant.

From Lectures on Galatians (1535) (Luther's Works 27:72-74)
Posted in

Recent

Archive

Categories

Tags