A Four-part Study Series by Arthur J Licursi
The “lust of the flesh” is of the evil power “in the flesh” of man that produces sins as it’s outward display.
It’s immediately obvious why this is such an important topic for every believer to fully understand.
However, before we look at the entire phrase “the lust of the flesh,”
Since God is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Pet. 3:9) and His Spirit works to “(draw) to Himself every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9), everyone has the option to be saved from “everlasting destruction” (2Thes. 1:9). The Lord seeks for every individual to do what He did with Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened” (Acts 16:14): drawing him or her to a personal decision of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of us as Christians would have to admit that on many levels of our daily life we sometimes know to do right, but we don’t do right, and we also know not to do wrong, but sometimes we do wrong. This failure reveals the conflict between the two natures in us. Thus there is a struggle in every believer’s experience.
In Romans 7 the Apostle Paul writes of the frustration he had as a Christian. He found that this frustration was due to the ongoing conflict between the “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” and its righteous nature within the believer’s spirit (cf. Romans 6-8), and the still ever-present “Sin (nature) in the flesh” (Rom 8:3b), which seems to overwhelm the believer’s good and righteous intentions.
Among all unregenerate mankind there is a desire burning within – desiring to be quenched or satisfied. As we've stated earlier, God's innate desire is as a giver, a lover, a self-for-others. Man was created "upright" (Eccl 7:29), having that same innate desire, that is before Adam's fall. Then Adam's self-being became transmuted into a self-for self, a self-getter, and a manipulating taker, a trait we see in all men today, from their birth. By Adam's fall in the garden, mankind became a twisted self.
The "Breath of Life" & God's "Seed, which is Christ" :
"All Have One Breath And Spirit "
The Tri-part Anatomy of All Humans:
1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If I were to diagram the Believer's whole being ... In Christ; I would draw 3 concentric circles around a core circle.