Your Religious Flesh System is not your Guide

Didn’t I say that before? Well, actually, no. But I want to show clearly that what most of us call the conscience is just the old religious flesh system at work. It has the answers for us.

Should you go into that bar with your friend? For some people the answer is pre-programmed. If they even begin to think about going into the bar, they hear sirens and see red flags. Their “little voice of law” reminds them that bars are bad and that they will become bad by going into one. No real Christian would even consider such a thing. That’s what their conscience says.

I went through this several years ago when a pastor (!) friend suggested that we could get a great burger at a certain bar in the big city. Well, I confess that I not only went but I truly enjoyed the burger. We didn’t drink or smoke or flirt or whatever else bad is supposed to happen in a bar. We just ate great hamburgers.

How could I do such a thing? Well, I reasoned that I didn’t want to offend my friend by suggesting that he was less spiritual than I and probably no one would see me and we were just going for hamburgers and it wasn’t my idea and … and… Do you see what happened? I was able to reason away, to compromise, my conscience.

The Scripture says that whatever is not of faith is sin. (Romans 14:23) Well, I didn’t go into that bar by faith. I fought my conscience and was eventually able to circumvent it. Nothing bad happened, so it must have been the right decision, right? If I had choked on my burger, I suppose I would have known right away that I was being judged for going into the bar.

This is the kind of battle we fight with that “little voice of law” in our heads. How much different would it have been if I had simply asked the Lord, as I would now? If I asked and He gave me the freedom to go in, I would do it in faith. If He made it clear that I should not, for some reason, I could refuse without worrying about my friend because I would simply trust the Lord. I could still disobey, but at least then I would know that I was disobeying. If there were negative consequences, I would know that the Lord, in His love, was trying to help protect me.

Now, I hope you understand. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with going into a bar. I am saying that, at one time, my conscience (designed by my religious flesh system) told me there was something wrong. Nor am I saying that it was right for me to go into that bar or to go into any bar. I am saying that I didn’t even bother to ask the Lord.

The Lord is your Guide. He is ready to lead you. Go to Him and trust Him to lead.

http://graceformyheart.wordpress.com/page/2/

After yesterday’s post, I thought I should write something on what I mean by the “religious flesh system.” I have written on the “flesh system” before but it may be helpful to address it again.

The reason I use the term “flesh system” is because using “flesh” alone is confusing for people. We have been taught to equate “flesh” with “body.” That isn’t correct in many verses of Scripture. Instead, the Greek word, “sarx,” often suggests something more than just physical flesh. When Paul says that he no longer has “confidence in the flesh,” in Phil. 3:3, he is referring to the religious system he created for himself through what he learned about and how he interpreted the Law.

We each grew up building a flesh system to guide us through life. Certain things work and others do not, according to what we have learned or experienced. When religion came into our lives, our flesh system was restructured according to someone’s ideas on law and behavior. Of course the Scripture was used, at least for Christians, but it was still someone’s interpretation of the Word. It may even have been our own interpretation. That molded our flesh system so that we could think of ourselves as spiritually guided.

So we learned what we were supposed to do and what we were not supposed to do. We learned what gave us spiritual points and what cost us spiritual points. And we learned that all of this was from God. We became convinced that this was the system He would use to judge us. Almost any church we went to supported the system. Try harder, work smarter, do more. Stay away from evil. Then, if you are good enough at the end, God will accept you. It all made sense and fit into the system.

Of course, the religious flesh system leads people away from Jesus. Jesus is just the One who paid to make the system work. We needed what He did, but we didn’t need Him. We just needed to “pick and choose” the right rules to follow. (Oh, that’s right—we didn’t need the whole Law, just the parts that made us feel spiritual.) That way we could feel good about ourselves.

Except that it didn’t work. Those who live under the religious flesh system can never find assurance or acceptance. Those aren’t part of the system.