Fleshly Lusts Against the Soul

“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts,

which war against the soul.”

(1 Peter 2:11)

Every regenerated child of God struggles with fleshly lusts. Often the question arises that if I am a child of God, why are the lusts of the flesh so strong? More importantly, if the Spirit of God indwells me, why is it that the Spirit of God does not once for all defeat the flesh and render it a death blow? The clear answer is that God has purposed that the Spirit should indwell the child of God and sustain him even against all of the fleshly lusts that war against the soul. The reality is that to completely kill the flesh, the LORD would have to kill the body because the sinner is both body and soul and the only way that the flesh will die is when the body is dead. Until then, there will be warfare. And yet, the fact that there is warfare is evidence that the Spirit of God indwells you, or else you would not feel the weight of your flesh and the sinful lusts that battle against the soul.

The fleshly lusts to which Peter refers are not only the sensual lusts of the flesh that, without the Spirit of God, most certainly lead to sins of the flesh. But particularly here, he refers to any temptation to lean on the flesh as a means of personal sanctification. Thinking that appealing to the flesh to improve your standing with God in holiness is in reality a war against the soul. It is only the blood of the LORD Jesus that has made the soul of His redeemed ones holy. Therefore, no child of God is to yield to the temptation of depraved flesh in thinking that the works of the flesh are necessary in addition to the finished work or the LORD Jesus to make them more holy. Saved by the blood of the Crucified One gives that one perfect standing before God in His righteousness imputed but the flesh will always war with the soul, making you think that something more is necessary.