“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil ‘the lust of the flesh’” (Gal. 5:16) 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,” it’s important understand the two key terms used in it, that is “lust” and “the flesh.”

“The Lust of the flesh” - ‘Lust’: In very simple language this lust is desire gone wrong. It’s a strong craving or evil desire, often but not limited to sexual desire. I should point out that our human desires in themselves are not evil. Many believers make the mistake of thinking that our desires in themselves are evil. Yes, the fallen, sinful, human nature is corrupted by Sin, but aside from sin, God made us to have thoughts, desires, feelings, imagination, and the power to make decisions. These things in themselves aren’t evil. It’s not wrong to desire. David said; Delight thyself also in the LORD, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart (Ps. 37:4). This verse agrees with Phili 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13) This means the Lord puts it into our hearts to… desire what He desires… NOT to get what we want of and for oursleves.

‘Evil lust’ is of the Sin-nature twisting our natural desires against us to meet Satan’s purposes in our lives. Satan, the “adversary,” wants to destroy our usefulness toward the Lord’s eternal purposes. There are two key characteristics of evil lust that distinguish it from the pure, natural desires the Lord gives us.

1. The word ‘lust’ in the Bible simply means “strong desire,” just as hunger and thirst are used to describe a holy longing and desire for God. But often lust is an ‘evil desire,’ referred to in the scriptures as the precursor to our evil doings or evil acts. ^“when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin” (Jas 1:15).
2. ‘Evil desire’ comes as an overwhelming power that is almost irresistible. This lust comes with a passion that is unequaled and almost impossible to defeat. It ensures you will do what it compels you to do. You’ve known how it feels when your heart is lusting after something; food, drink, clothes, a new car, or sexual. Usually, after we get what we lusted after, then we find that it fails to satisfy us as we had thought it would.

“The Lust of the Flesh” — ‘Flesh’: The second part of “the lust of the flesh” is “the flesh.”  If you’ve ever wondered what the worst enemy of the believer in Christ is, here it is, “the flesh.” You might have thought that Sin or Satan is our worst enemy. Your close, but there is a closer enemy to a life of victory and spiritual prosperity than sin or Satan, because it is part of us… it is Satan’s Sin-nature “in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3b). The worst enemies are not those from outside but from inside. It is “the flesh.”

Here are the main features that are key to the understanding “the flesh.”

1. The Natural Man: The flesh body was originally created as a natural part of man, along with man’s human spirit and soul. The ‘flesh’ aspect had no direct relationship with sin until Adam’s fall, by whom “Sin entered the world” (Rom. 5:12). The flesh was created simply as that natural part of man, needed to function on the earth. Man is essentially a spirit being living in the flesh body… via his soul’s functions of mind, emotion and will. God made the earth for flesh and blood to inhabit eternally. The human spirit can only live on the earth… through the body. The real person of “the spirit of man” interacting with the natural world through the flesh body’s five senses. You’re able to read this because you have eyes that are able to see physical light, as a natural aspect of the flesh body. So, as created, the flesh body was not evil or opposed to God’s purposes.

But we know Adam, and all mankind with him, became fallen under Sin’s dominion (more later). The “arm of the flesh” in the Bible refers human abilities under Sin. Jeremiah wrote; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and Maketh ‘Flesh’ His Arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD (Jer. 17:5) When we trust in our own strength or abilities, or in others, we are acting independent of God, trusting in “the arm of the flesh.”

Many believers don’t see this potentially catastrophic aspect of “the flesh,” since they’re solely focused on the fact that the flesh is exclusively sinful. But, one of the greatest obstacles that we can put in God’s way is us trying to do spiritual things by own strength, which is by “the flesh.” We need to know and recognize an Old Testament metaphor where “the house of Saul” represents “the arm of the flesh” and “the house of David” represents the work of “the Spirit.” - “Now there was LONG war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.” (2 Samuel 3:1)

So, take heart, our contending with “the flesh” will be life-long while we grow stronger in grace and faith.

2. The Spiritual Man: From the above, we know “the flesh” is humanity gone wrong. Yet, the flesh is the natural part of man. With the fall of Adam, the evil spirit-power of Satan came into Adam, now “working in” fallen mankind (Eph. 2:2), as “Sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3) The Apostle Paul says;

“… in me (that is in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Rom. 7:18-19).

Paul was then caught in a vicious cycle with something quite powerful, as part of him, seeming to compel him to commit ‘acts of Sin.’ This is the spiritual side of “the flesh” that operates by the Sin-spirit in man’s flesh body members. It’s an evil spirit nature that has sunk its natural roots in the natural aspects of “the flesh” … for its natural to eat, but sinful to be gluttonous. The reason why the flesh is so subtle is because it is part of us. It’s not some external thing, but part of the earthly make-up of our natural, but now fallen, humanity. The only time we will be free of “the flesh” is when this Sin-infected fallen, earthly, corruptible, body is replaced by our new glorified spirit body in our resurrection at the Rapture. (1Thes 4:13-18, 1Cor 15:51-55)

That said, what then is “the lust of the flesh”? If you put together lust and flesh as briefly discussed above, you will immediately see what the Lord is wanting to communicate to you. Lust is a strong evil desire, and the flesh is natural aspect of man that has been corrupted by the Sin-nature working to make humans do evil and commit sin. A classic example is sexual lust. Once that desire is awakened, it takes the Holy Spirit to destroy its power, otherwise it will almost always get that person to do what it wants. The flesh, with its lusts, is the mother of all sin. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. (James 1:14-15 KJV)

Lust becomes prenatal, then giving birth to sins, as sin’s mother! So, who or what is Sin’s father? The Devil “sinneth from the beginning” (1Jn 3:8). Jesus told the Pharisees; “You are of your father the Devil” (Jn. 8:44s) So, lust (desire) in itself is not sin, except in situations such as covetousness when the desire itself is the sin. Lust becomes sin when it succeeds in getting the person to do what it wants him or her to do. For example, if it is sexual lust, it might compel that person to seek to satisfy that lust by engaging in ungodly sexual encounters or watch pornography. Evil lust will culminate in acts of sinning. As alcoholic are warned, just don’t go there.

Overcoming lust: It is possible to overcome lusts as a believer. We have all struggled with lust of some kind at some point in time. In fact, you might even be struggling with it right now. We all understand the struggle of Apostle Paul with “the flesh” in Romans 7 below;

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:24-25) “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:” Romans 8:3 (KJV). “they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit (do mind) the things of the Spirit.” Rom. 8:5 (KJV)

Paul called himself a “wretched man” in his state of living by “the flesh” because of the inner struggles and battles with a power to do evil that he finds himself helplessly controlled by. For Paul had lost sight of his new identity “in Christ” wherein he is free from the dominion of Sin, because he is “not under the law but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14), free from the Law’s “condemnation.” But, in Rom. 7:25 Paul thanked the Lord Jesus Christ because he had found new life, a higher life, one above the power of lust and “the flesh.” Paul says;

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, (they are those) who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:1-2)

As a spiritually regenerated believer in Christ, Paul says “the Spirit of life in Christ” is the source of power for our freedom from the power of “the lust of the flesh.” The unsaved can struggle to refrain from doing the compulsions of their lustful feelings, for a time… but eradicating that lust from the heart of a man is a completely different issue altogether. Lust will stay in a man’s heart for as long as it takes to get what it wants. The Apostle here points to the life higher of “the Spirit (of Christ)” as greater than “the lust of the flesh” in his letter to the Galatians.

“… Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16)

Paul here continues, comparing walking in “the flesh” with walking in accord with “the Spirit.”

¹⁷ For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other (as opposites): (the flesh working) so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. ¹⁸ But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰ Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred (hostility), variance (quarrelsome), emulations (indignation, jealousy), wrath (fierce passion), strife (contentious), seditions (division), heresies (party, disunion), ²¹ Envyings (ill-will of jealousy), murders, drunkenness, revellings (letting loose, rioting), and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

²⁴ And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. (Gal. 5:16-26)

So, how do we get free from the power of “the lust of the flesh”?

1. Overthrow of the Sin-Spirit Nature of The Flesh: This is possible only by the death of our “old man,” who is “crucified with Christ” (Rom. 6:6, Gal. 2:20). The “old man” is the corrupted sin nature that is driven by the Sin-spirit power behind “the flesh” in our lives… producing acts of sinning. Paul here sets forth key facts.

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit (the Devil) that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” (Ephesians 2:2 (KJV)

“… our (the believer’s) ‘old man’ is (currently) crucified with him, (so) that the body of sin might be destroyed (Gk. kartargeo, made of no effect, rendered impotent), (so) that henceforth we should not serve sin ⁷For he that is dead is freed from sin (from Sin’s dominion).” (Rom. 6:6-7 KJV)

When you received Christ, your “old man” was then crucified “with Him,” and you were resurrected with Him “in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3-4) The “flesh,” that “old man” of sin, was crucified with Christ, and a new you, the “new man” was created by the power of the Holy Spirit the moment you were saved. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17) Our freedom from the “the lust of the flesh” is in the Cross-work of Christ that produced a new us, a new creation established through the power of the truth of Paul’s ‘mystery’ Gospel. The human nature is so fallen, the only thing God could do to remedy this is kill our “old man” and create a “new man” in Christ. (Rom. 6:3-6, 6-7, 7:4)

Many say, if the flesh was “crucified with Him (Christ),” when we received Christ and as savior, why am I still struggling with the flesh today as if I was not born again? If you understand the two aspects of the flesh discussed above, and their relationship to each other, then you will easily see why the flesh is still a problem even after we are saved. Our “old man” is crucified. However, “the flesh” has its seat in the body with its natural senses, including the desires and feelings, so it cannot be eradicated as long as you are still living in this natural, fallen human body. It can be compared to a train that has the power to the engine turned off but still in full motion forward as though nothing has happened. The Sin-spirit power of the flesh was forever put to rest by our co-death and resurrection in Jesus. But, the train of the flesh, with its human body senses and our soulish cravings, are still there, and given the opportunity, they will do what they are always looking forward to doing, that is to compel the person with evil desires to commit sin.

So, what should we believers do while we are still living in the body? God’s plan for this phase of life on earth calls for ‘mortifying the deeds of the flesh’ … by the power of “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”

2. Mortifying “the deeds of the flesh”: The Apostle Paul continues to teach us that “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” (Rom. 8:13) The flesh’s objective is to destroy you as a believer, so Paul says you should “mortify ‘the deeds’ of the flesh”; meaning to put to death “the deeds (or works) of the flesh,” by not giving in to their cravings. For the believer “in Christ,” this means to rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit to deny the desires of the flesh and refusing to what it demands. It takes Holy Spirit power to say no to the flesh and succeed. Holiness and righteousness in our lifestyle are not just an issue of sincerity with God or making a decision to do so. This is an issue of the power of the Spirit. One may be sincere but lack the ability to do what they know is right to do. The believer possesses Christ’s life and resurrection power to say no, which the unsaved do not have.

The Spirit does not end with saying ‘no’ to lust, but continues to give you the power to remove lust from your heart. Saying “no” to lust is not enough. We must completely remove it from our hearts. Harboring lust in your heart, while constantly trying to refraining from the evil it compels you to do, can be compared to hiding a pile of burning coals in the basement of your house while you go upstairs to relax!  Lust is latent in the heart and will find a way to express itself. Lust in the heart is simply Sin waiting to exert itself! But the Lord wants you to enjoy life and liberty by having not only an outward life free from sin but also an inward life free of lust. Only the knowledge of and trust in the truth of the cross seen in the “Word of God” will free us from “the lust of the flesh” while we live in this corrupted ‘flesh body’ on earth... til He comes in the air. 

The Word of God is as heavenly soap and water to wash the human heart from impurities. Do you recall how clean you felt that day you first believed after hearing the word of God? While we wait for our heavenly body when Jesus returns, we must continually wash and cleanse our hearts by the Spirit through the Word.

If you are struggling with lust that plagues you, put God’s soap into your heart and allow it to work. Stop fighting the lust. Rather, put God’s Words into your heart and watch the Spirit at work. “he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Titus 3) “Sanctify them (His body members) through thy truth: thy Word Is Truth.” (Jn. 17:17) “sanctify and cleanse it with the Washing of Water By The Word,” (Eph. 5:26)

I’ve just given you God’s answer to cleanse your heart. Lusts will not go away just because you are a Christian. It must be continually washed away by the Spirit through the sanctifying power of His Word. So, it’s possible to not only mortify the deeds of the flesh, but also to guard your heart diligently and protect it from lust. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23 KJV)

If you give lust an opportunity, it will gladly come and make its home in your heart, waiting to become pregnant and deliver sin!  We must always be on the guard as long as we are still here in this earthly body. There is a price to pay for a clean heart. It is not a billion dollars. It is in feeding on the Word of God constantly and fellowshipping with the Spirit in prayer. It takes the power of the Spirit to make the cross effective in you, to overcome “the lust and the flesh”? This is how we prepare our heart to do so, by His Word and prayer.

The more we prepare and strengthen our hearts spiritually, it becomes easier and more natural to us to say NO to the flesh and YES to the Spirit’s leadership. This is the dilemma of most believers. They have foolishly been taught to fight and not give in to the desires of the flesh, but they are still screaming like Apostle Paul in Romans 7 who finds himself doing what he does not want to do, and unable to do what he wants to do.

“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (Rom. 7:15 KJV)

We need the Holy Spirit’s ever-present power. Religion will not do it. Church will not do it. Being a “good Christian” will not do it. Avoid the temptation of loving the Lord while dying in silence inside with all sorts of evil desires and feelings. Some Christians have concluded that it is just not possible to have a life free of sin or of lustful thoughts and feelings. They read Romans 6 that talks about our freedom from sin, but their experience tells them that cannot be true. And they get support from many other Christians that gives credence to their experience and they recline silently within thinking that is how all the other Christians are struggling. They feel those who say they are experiencing the life of the Spirit are probably faking it or some spiritual fraud. The Lord knows that as we continue to live in this natural flesh body, the temptations to sin will continue and we will sometimes fail in what we do and say. Thankfully, He made provisions for our ongoing forgiveness and cleansing when we do. But, living a daily life of sin in “the lust of the flesh” is different issue.

I’ve had my own inner struggle with immoral thoughts. It seemed not possible to live with a pure mind free of such impure thoughts. But God has unveiled His Word to me and He so washes my mind as I spend hours studying or meditating on the Word, that I no longer need to struggle with the same thoughts. I also practice the warning to alcoholics… “don’t go there” - Don’t watch that TV program, or follow that article on the net, etc. Temptations are all around us. Yes, as all of us on occasion, the “fiery darts” of Satan (Eph. 6:16) still come to “tempt” me, but I’ve learned to dismiss those quickly without being “drawn away” in lust (Jas. 1:14). I may fail at times, but I thank God for His heavenly ‘soap and water,’ and His… “no condemnation” toward me (Rom. 8:1a). We keep our minds cleansed by the power of His “Words,” which “are spirit and they are life.” (Jn. 6:63)

I say this to assure you that your faith in Christ is genuine and the Word of God “worketh in you,” or you would not care about your failures. You can be from the “deeds of flesh” as well as overcome the inner battles with lustful desires and feelings. The worst thing we can do is to ignore lust in the heart and continue as though it is not there. We need to read, study, and do the work to get God’s Word of truth into our hearts, then watch the wonders of the operation of the Holy Spirit. If you do not sow to your spirit in the Word and prayer, don’t expect to muster the strength of the Spirit.  - “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap (of the) life (that is) everlasting” (Gal. 6:8 KJV)

2. The Ultimate Destruction of The Flesh: The final straw that will forever eliminate the flesh is the redemption of our bodies at the resurrection (Rapture). What a glorious day that will be, when this fallen body will be completely replaced by a spiritual and heavenly body. The flesh will never be remembered again, praise the Lord! But until that day, we need to mortify the deeds of the flesh by walking in the Spirit!