Written by Michelle J. Goff, Founder and Executive Director of Iron Rose Sister Ministries
My humanity was never more apparent than when an overwhelming flood of conflicting emotions confronted me. My pursuit of holiness was confused by my incapacity to handle my tremendous sense of loss and pain. Romans 8 and the admonition to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh felt like a condemnation of my disorienting fleshly state of disarray.
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Ro 8:8 NKJV)
Wrestling through sleepless nights and an inability to verbalize my cries to God or hear others’ prayers on my behalf, I was faced with my profound imperfections. My fleshly humanity was my hindrance to pleasing God. I was doomed.
The pursuit of holiness is a pursuit of perfection, right? “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48 NIV).
This well-memorized verse from the Sermon on the Mount, along with the admonition from Romans 8, echoed in my mind as the accuser tried to use a misunderstanding of these verses against me. He wanted them to be definitive declarations of my condemnation. However, the Holy Spirit wrestled alongside me to defeat the lies and seek Truth. And so, I looked to the Truth, to Jesus, and His example.
If Jesus came in the flesh, 100% God and 100% human (Jn 1:14), a condemnation of the flesh would imply a condemnation of Christ. Nope. Not happening. I cannot condemn the Son of God for coming in the flesh. He was perfect, a vital part of the Father’s perfect plan to send Him to earth for us (Jn 3:16). Greater truths came back to light and began to clarify my focus. Jesus even empathizes with us in every way, being tempted as we are.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. (Heb 4:15)
We have physical flesh, just as Jesus did. And that was not what was being condemned. Jesus faced all the human emotions and conditions we face. Our physical flesh began without sin in a fallen world. It is our fleshly desires that lead us to sin (Jas 1:13-15). My light bulb of understanding grew brighter.
Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh, provided me a way to be human AND holy. I could learn from His perfect example about how to respond to the human emotions and conditions I face daily.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Ro 8:1-2)
As I go back and read the entire chapter of Romans 8, after Paul’s description of his own wrestling in chapter 7, my eyes fill with tears of hope and gratitude. God knows that I can never attain an imperfect pursuit of holiness on my own. He executed His perfect plan that we might come to know Him more deeply through our process of sanctification (making us holy through the blood of His Son).
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Ro 8:11)
Today, I invite you to freedom from condemnation of your physical flesh. I invite you to put to death the fleshly or sinful desires. And if you’re struggling in this imperfect pursuit of holiness (not perfection), I invite you to utilize one of our resources, the book Human AND Holy, written during the time I was wrestling to comprehend the very points in this blog post. You are not in this pursuit alone.
And to complete the thought of the verse we read from Hebrews 4,
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Heb 4:16)
