The Works of the Flesh Are Manifest

In Galatians 5, Paul tells us that "the works of the flesh are manifest." In other words, the works of the flesh will become obvious over time. The works of the flesh are contrasted directly with the fruit of the Spirit. Just as the Spirit bears fruit, the flesh bears fruit—or, produces works. The apples of the apple tree are manifest. You know a tree is an apple tree because it bears apples. And amazingly, this sort of blatant manifestation is also true of orange trees. You know a tree by its fruit. Seems simple enough.

Just so, we can know what is of the flesh because it will produce the works of the flesh. And the works that the flesh will produce is a rather wicked collection of evil works. The flesh will produce adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, hatred, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, and so on and so forth. That is quite a list. No doubt.

But here is where it gets interesting. When we think of the flesh and its works, we immediately think of unrighteousness of every type. And we do so because of the aforementioned list of distastefuls. But Paul tells us that these works are the result of seeking righteousness in the flesh, not unrighteousness. In other words, when Paul warns the Galatian believers about the risk of producing adultery and fornication, he is pointing to their desire to be righteous in the flesh. Think about it. Paul is in full battle array against the Judaizers, a bunch of first-century Jewish-Christians that demanded circumcision and law-keeping of Paul's fledgling Gentile congregations. The Judaizers have almost persuaded the Galatians that they cannot attain righteousness before God apart from circumcision and law-keeping. Paul sees this as seeking righteousness "in the flesh." And Paul insists that this sort of self-righteousness will produce exactly the opposite of what the Judaizers promise. They promise love, joy and peace, but they will produce adultery and fornication.

Of course, the Judaizers were not trying to produce adultery and fornication. They were trying to produce holiness. Problem was, they were teaching the Galatians that they could not really be holy unless they were circumcised and kept the law. Both Paul and the Judaizers were working toward the same goal: both wanted the Gentiles to be holy. But Paul insists that true holiness cannot come from the flesh. It must come from the Spirit. He asks, "Having begun in the Spirit are you now made perfect in the flesh?" He understands by revelation what the Judaizers have missed: to seek righteousness in the flesh is to guarantee unrighteousness. When we set out to be holy in the flesh, we invariably end up with the very behavior we are trying to avoid. Seeking righteousness in the flesh will always produce the works of the flesh. That is a profound irony.

This goes all the way back to our original sin in the Garden. Satan did not tempt Adam and Eve to commit adultery (though that may have been difficult right at first, anyway). He tempted them to discern good from evil, to become like God, to seek God-likeness—or, godliness. Did we get that? The devil tempted Eve to godliness. However, their attempt at godliness produced ungodliness. Why? Because they sought godliness apart from God.

When Paul speaks of "the flesh" in Romans and elsewhere, he is speaking of the righteousness of the flesh, the attempt of the flesh to do right apart from faith in God. When we read references to "the flesh" in Paul's writings we automatically think of adultery, fornication and other forms of human mischief. But when Paul speaks of "the flesh," he is thinking of prayer, giving, worship, church attendance, and other forms of human mischief—at least, it becomes mischief when these good things are done in the flesh apart from the life of the Spirit. In other words, Paul understands that the attempt to serve the Lord in the power of human effort rather than by the power of the Holy Spirit is serving God "in the flesh," and it will always lead to the very ungodliness we are trying to avoid. The works of the flesh are manifest.

Saved By Works

The Bible clearly teaches that we cannot be saved by good works. And the Bible also clearly teaches we cannot be saved without good works. This is a notorious "contradiction," but it is only an apparent one. The tension is usually resolved by speaking of works that precede salvation and works that follow salvation. In other words, we cannot be saved by good deeds done prior to conversion, but we must produce righteous works after conversion as the fruit of salvation. Another common explanation is that we cannot be saved by the works of the Law of Moses, the sacrifices and services of the Old Covenant Temple; but we shall be judged by the good works we produce after we are baptized into the New Covenant and fulfill the Law of Christ. Both explanations have a certain truth to them, but I think there is something deeper at work here.

It seems to me that Scripture is teaching us that the works by which we are judged are the works of God in Christ through the Spirit in us. Thus, the works that are accepted in God's sight at the Judgment are the righteous works of Christ in us. Our good works cannot be our good works at all. Our good works must be the good works of Christ in us by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot present our fleshly righteousness—before conversion or after conversion—before God, for the works of man are done in the power of man to the glory of man. The works of Christ within us are done by the power of God to the glory of God. And of course, in a sense, this carries further both points of view mentioned above. The works of Christ in us certainly are the righteous works that follow conversion and are the works that accompany New Covenant salvation. The work of Christ in us is neither our own pre-conversion self-righteousness nor a Judaistic preservation of Old Covenant works.

The key verse is in Philippians 1 where we are told to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that works in us." Here lies the answer to the problem. We work out our own salvation as God works in us. It is not so much a matter of timing, before or after conversion. Neither is it merely a matter of Old and New Covenant. It is a matter of works done by man to the glory of man vs. works done by God to the glory of God. Are our good works flowing out of human strength? Then, those works cannot save us no matter when they are done. Are our works flowing out the power of the Holy Spirit? Then we shall be judged by those works—the works of Christ in us—and we shall be saved by those works. As Paul says elsewhere, the works of man shall be burned up whereas the works of the Spirit shall endure (I Co 3).

The bottom line? We must be filled with the Spirit.

Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone

Jesus said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by "every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Jesus is saying that man lives by the Word of God as much as he lives by bread. This means that our human existence and life proceeds out of spiritual sustenance as much as natural sustenance. Since the fall, and particularly in modern times, man tends to think that he lives only by the natural food that he takes into his mouth, but this is a delusion. Indeed, the lack of true "life" that we see around us every day, the poor quality of life that most people endure, is a result of trying to live only by physical bread, only in the physical realm. Man was created to live by the Word as well as by bread, and thus, those who do not feast on the Word of God are starving their soul. Existence becomes subsistence without the Word of God.

Man gets hungry for bread. Man also gets hungry for the Word. Just as man craves bread, man craves the bread of life, the Word of God. There is no substitute for it. The Word of God is God speaking His mind to us through the Word and Spirit. We receive the Bread of Life when the Word and Spirit bring the Scriptures to life through faithful gospel preaching. We receive the Bread of Life when we read our Bibles in faithful, daily devotions. We receive the Bread of Life when we read morning and evening with our children. We receive the Bread of Life as we meditate daily in the law of God. When we are hungry we will reach for the Bread of Life in any way we can get it.

There is a secret here. We have learned to eat natural bread as soon as we get hungry in the flesh. We must learn the importance of doing the same as soon as we get hungry in the spirit. We must start out our morning with a healthy breakfast of the Word of God. A midmorning snack would be good. And then, lunch—ah, lunch! Everybody looks forward to lunch. Well, how about a moment or two breaking the Bread of Life? We should carry a Bible in our lunch box so we are reminded, "Man shall not live by bread alone." Throughout the remainder of the day, and just before we go to bed, we should seek to satisfy the soul with spiritual bread just as regularly as we seek to satisfy the body with natural bread. It is a simple concept. We just simply need to learn what we are hungry for.

Prophecy

N.T. Wright defines prophecy in the best, most succinct way I have ever read. He says that prophecy is "the Spirit-led interpretation of scriptural truth." I would add only one thing: Prophecy is the Spirit-led interpretation and application of scriptural truth. And I say this because it seems to me that prophecy has a way of going beyond mere interpretation of what the text said to addressing current situations and applying what Scripture says. However, I love this definition because it grounds prophecy in the Scripture. It connects organically Word and Spirit, which can never be separated. Too often prophecy is seen as a subjective, mystical experience where men speak out of their own mind rather than speaking the mind of God. And the mind of God can only be known by the Scriptures. However, the Scriptures cannot be understood apart from the Spirit of God. They are "spiritually discerned." Thus, the church functions as a prophetic community when we explain the sense of Scripture and apply it to current concerns by the illumination of the Spirit. Prophecy functions properly when the Spirit of God gives revelation and illuminates the meaning of the text giving present direction for the hearers. Our preaching must be prophetic in the sense that it explains the meaning of the Word by the Spirit and gives a Spirit-Word for the people of God today.

Judging Success

We tend to judge success by many different measures. Money, fame, possessions, friends, and so on. But it is striking that Jesus judges success altogether differently. At the last judgment, He describes a life "well done" in terms of care shown to the poor. It is amazing the things that Jesus does not mention. He said in Matthew 25, "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:34-40). This is the ultimate success as Jesus sees it. Maybe we should try to see it like He does.

Knights in Shining Armor

We have heard from childhood the ancient legends of "knights in shining armor." They traveled about the countryside, often in search of the Holy Grail, fighting giants and dragons and rescuing damsels in distress. Of course, these stories are mainly legends, and yet, the legends are rooted in truth. Indeed, many of these legends were crafted by medieval storytellers to preserve and present a timeless story—the biblical story of redemption. For our Bible is filled with tales of giants, dragons, and knights rescuing damsels in distress. Or, better the Knight rescuing the Damsel in distress, for the Bible story is the story of Jesus delivering His bride, the church, from the terrorizing clutches of evil giants (principalities and powers) and a fire breathing dragon (that old serpent, the devil).

The thought of knights in shining armor comes to mind in Ephesians 6 where we read about putting on the whole armor of God. We are called to finish the finished work of Calvary as we, the soldiers of the Cross, play out and realize the victory of Christ at the Cross. We are called to be "knights in shining armor" rescuing the "damsel in distress" of those who are called to follow Jesus. But there is a further angle that strikes me: Paul speaks about putting on the armor of God just as he concludes speaking to the Christian household. He speaks to wives, husbands, children, fathers, masters and servants, which were the members of the house in Paul's day. So, the exhortation to put on the armor of God and fight the good fight is directed to the Christian family, if I may say so without narrowing the focus too much. Of course, it also applies to everyone who is a Christian. This leads me to the observation that faithful Christian men must become knights in shining armor who rise up against giants and the dragon in our day to defend the home against the onslaught of the enemy. In other words, we must recognize the spiritual dimension to this battle for the home, and we must recognize that we are in a battle for the lives of our wives and children.

This becomes very evident when we see that Satan's war from the Garden of Eden and the fall of man has been to destroy the woman and her seed, for the devil remembers very well that the woman and her seed are to be the source of his defeat. And though he knows that Jesus is the Seed in the strictest sense, yet he also knows that Jesus has multiplied His presence through the children He has filled with His Spirit, and the promise that was made to Eve for salvation has now become "the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off" (Acts 2:39) Satan knows that he must destroy the children if he is to defeat the promise of God.

We see this in Revelation 12 where the dragon stands ready to devour the man-child as soon as the woman is delivered of him, and then, after the man-child is caught up into heaven, the dragon turns his fury upon the woman. This means that we must perceive the eternal importance of the war on the family and rise up as mighty men of war, knights in shining armor, to defeat the spirits of hell that are attacking our homes. Rise up, O man of God! Rise up, O mighty men of valor! The dragon hovers in every-lowering circles over our wives and children. He is awaiting the perfect moment to pounce in fury, breathing cruelty and slaughter. We absolutely must not stand by and permit that ancient serpent to destroy their souls.

Then, finally, we must consider the importance of each article of the armor and put it on. We must see the armor as being the collection of weapons needed to defend our families. We must see this armor as an armor worn at home. We cannot come home from work and remove the armor. We cannot return from church and cast the armor off in the corner. We must understand that the home is our greatest battlefield. This is where, more than anywhere else, we must put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. If we are to be knights in shining armor, we must defend the fortress of our home. Our home is our castle and it is under attack. We cannot be soldiers only on a distant battlefield. We must draw the bridge, arm the ramparts and fight for the castle of our home!

The Intersection of Heaven and Earth

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. And then, He created the firmament and divided heaven and earth. However, God provided that there should be moments when a sort of gateway would open between the two realms, and heaven and earth would intersect. This intersection occurred upon many different mountains. It also occurred at various places of sacrifice where the altar of God (representing the mountain of God) pierced heaven from earth, and the fire of God would fall and consume the offering. The rising smoke of the offering entered into the glory-cloud of God's presence and symbolized the ascension of the worshippers into the heavenly realm before the throne of God. The smoke of the offering would mingle with the cloud of God's glory showing how God receives worshippers up into Himself to share in His eternal glory. Thus, each altar was an intersection of heaven and earth.

Bethel is an example of such an intersection. Isaiah's vision is another. Uzza's breach is another. All of these examples show that heaven breaks into earth throughout biblical history. And the ultimate intersection of heaven and earth occurred at Bethlehem in the incarnation of God in Christ. Then, Pentecost is the next great intersection of heaven and earth when the Spirit of the ascended Christ was poured out through the Holy Ghost, and the fire of God settled upon those gathered in the Upper Room. As noted, when heaven and earth intersect at the altar, faithful worshippers enter into the heavenly realm before the throne of God. Paul teaches us that this happened at Pentecost and shall be fulfilled finally at the final burnt offering of heaven and earth when Jesus comes again, which is the final intersection of heaven and earth.

The intersection of heaven and earth always offers men a chance to choose one of two directions: they can choose either to ascend to heaven or return to earth. There are many examples in scripture of men who chose the wrong path when standing at the intersection of heaven and earth (Cain, Lot, Nadab and Abihu, Hophni and Phinehas, Uzziah, Uzza, Joab at the horns of the altar, etc). The altar represents a "choose you this day" moment. When we stand at the altar to worship, we are confronted with the choice: "I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that he present you bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed but be transformed." The altar, as the intersection of heaven and earth, is the time and place of choosing. What will we choose—heaven or earth?

Seeking Things Above

Paul instructs us in Colossians 3 to "seek those things which are above." Our problem is that we often fail to understand the reality of things above. We do not see things above as a place. We tend to see it as a realm, a dimension, an abstract and spiritual place where everything is ethereal and unreal. We envision heaven only in terms either an unreal place or John's vision of the city, and we fail to understand that there is a very real place that exists right now where Christ is actually, really, truly, substantially (in substance) seated upon a very real throne and very real angels worship before Him together with the saints of all the ages. They are there now. They may be invisible, but that is only because we cannot see them from here. It does not mean that they cannot be seen there. If we were there we could see them.

This means, then, when we worship every Sunday we must "seek those things which are above." We must see the ekklesia as the congregation and assembly of believers of all ages gathered together in Christ until the time of the New Heaven and Earth. We must become aware of the heavenly in which we partake. We must understand that we are worshipping before the throne of the Lord for real.

We need a revelation of where we are when we gather to worship. I am convinced this is one of the reasons why we fear the Lord so little as we worship, why worship is so trendy and man-centered. We do not see worship as exalting the Lord as much as we see it as edifying self. We orient our performance and audience participation toward gratifying flesh rather than glorifying God. Our focus is us.

We need to see where we are. Our worship is often like the kid who dances wildly to the music in his headphones before a highly amused crowd; or like the child who plays by himself and talks to himself while indulgent parents listen nearby. Each of these has no awareness of a greater reality beyond themselves. Most people go to church expecting to enjoy what they like most about church. They play the music they prefer, sing the songs they like, preach sermons that gratify them, forgetting that church is an assembly of believers before the throne of Christ who are watching our every move. We must recover the idea of church as assembling together with the heavenly throng.

Household Evangelism: Evangelism and Feasting

It is interesting to consider how eating together—feasting—was related to evangelism in the early church. First century believers broke bread in formal worship (“breaking of the bread”—Acts 2:42), but they also broke bread from house to house (Acts 2:46). It seems rather certain that this “house-to-house” practice was not an early form of our modern canvassing. Eating meals from house to house meant that they fellowshipped from household to household, from family to family, witnessing in the intimate setting of friends and family about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel. It seems that eating meals together were a central part of early church evangelism. This underlies the theme I have emphasized a great deal recently on "Household Evangelism."

Consider Acts 2:41-46 (with comments added throughout):

“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (v.41).
This is the point of conversion.

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (v.42).
This is the earliest form of the formal, public Christian worship service. They continued in the apostles’ doctrine by receiving their teaching and instruction in Solomon’s Porch (Acts 5:12); they continued in the apostles’ fellowship, or society (koinonia); they continued in the Lord's Supper by “the breaking of bread” (definite article in the original Greek) in their public worship services, which may have been daily at first and later became the weekly Christian observance of the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week; and they continued in public, corporate prayers (see Acts 4:24-30 for an example of this sort of public, corporate prayer).

“And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles” (v.43).
The people feared the Lord and miracles were done by the apostles as the confirmation of the Word they preached. Evangelism can only be done by those who fear the Lord. One of the greatest hindrances to evangelism is the fear of man. We must fear God more than we fear man. Indeed, the more we fear God, the less we fear man. This is why the early church prayed for boldness (Acts 4:24). They were being persecuted for the gospel's sake, and they needed the boldness to stand up in the face of persecution. We need the boldness to face the scorn of our world, which is the mild, but very effective form of “persecution” that we suffer today in America.

“And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need” (vs. 44, 45).
The church supported the poor, and this became one of the greatest marks of a Christian community. This is the “love” that Jesus spoke of when He said that all men would know that we are His disciples when we show love to one another. This sort of love is more than mere sentiment; it is an action. Specifically, the church is commanded to take care of the poor—the poor in the church and the poor around us in the community. This is an evangelistic work. When we help the poor, all men can see that we are true Christians.

“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (vs. 46, 47).
The church continued daily (later, weekly) in the formal public worship, but they also fellowshipped from house to house, eating, rejoicing and serving the Lord. This, too, is evangelism. For when they ate together and fellowshipped from house to house, witnessing of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost, they gained favor with the people in the city, and the Lord added daily to the church such as should be saved. The Lord added daily because they were evangelizing daily!

Thus, we see the evangelistic method of the early church:

1. The public worship service
2. The fear of God
3. Miracles
4. Benevolence
5. Central-local daily worship
6. Feasting together
7. Favor with the people
8. Souls added daily

Household evangelism was fundamental to the approach of the early church. They won souls to God because they fellowshipped and feasted together. This is so different from the sterile, cold-call, hard-sell, salesmanship, marketing approach that we often employ. We should re-work our approach and evangelize our communities around the kitchen table. This is where friends are made and souls are won. We need to reclaim the power of the table to open the hearts and minds of men to the gospel. This should be the basis for our new churches. Indeed, this sort of evangelism (household evangelism) works both for the pastor who is founding a branch work and the individual family that desires to be a witness in their neighborhood. We need the boldness to open up our homes and use our tables to reach family and friends. We must do more than just invite people to church. They should ask us if they can come. We should simply open up our homes and befriend everyone we can.

The key to household evangelism is family renewal and a restoration of biblical hospitality. We must learn once again how to open our homes to friends and strangers. Men who want to start a new church need to get a Bible and a grill. They need to learn how to put together a backyard barbeque. Bring in friends from the home church, set up a band on the back porch, and grill hamburgers in Jesus’ name. (Just don’t offer up burnt offerings!) This is the key to the sort of evangelism that results in the Lord adding to the church daily such as should be saved.

Jesus used this approach. We find Him often spending time with sinners at feasts in various homes. The kingdom is a feast, and everywhere we look, God is preparing a table for His people. We should see this as the primary invitation of the Kingdom: “Come to the table!” This should be our approach to evangelism. “Come to the table!”

The only way we can sustain household evangelism is to have a renewal of the Christian household. We cannot win souls in our home if our house is divided. This is one of many reasons why Satan works so hard against the Christian house. The Lord has chosen to use the Christian house as the central component in the task of evangelism, and Satan can effectively frustrate the purpose of God if he can divide the house. The Christian household should be the center of evangelism in the community. We have been focused primarily on inviting people to church, but we should consider turning our focus more toward inviting people into our homes and then “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (I Peter 3:15).

We should prepare meals, eat around our table, then sing and pray together, and conclude with scripture. This should not be a hard-sell event where we market the gospel like Amway soap. We should simply allow visitors to join us in worshipping God at our table, and we should present the gospel as they are hungry to receive it. Jesus ate with sinners, but we do not find evidence of Him turning the dinners into preaching points. He simply fellowshipped with sinners (without joining in their sin), and they followed Him into the arenas where He preached.

I do believe that we should combine the elements that the early church did: "Breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people." In other words, we should feast with gladness and generosity and praise God for His blessings at our table. This should include prayers of thanksgiving, songs of praise, and testimonies of God's goodness at our table. If the opportunity arises, we should give an answer to every man of the reason of the hope that lies within us. But I do not think that the meal should be just a prelude, a set-up, a sort of "Gotcha!", to a Home Bible Study. We should use the meal to reach out and make friends, and then if the opportunity arises, speak further to those who ask. Those who are hungry for God, those who are profoundly affected by the spirit of our home and the love our family displays to one another, will begin to ask questions about our hope. We should allow the meal to lead to the presentation of the gospel as the Lord wills.

So, what do we need to do to implement what the Holy Ghost is leading us to do? We need household renewal, first of all. Our home must become the sort of place where we can exemplify the Christian life and offer a valid Christian witness. Second, we need a revival of boldness where we are not afraid to extend a Christian welcome to our family, friends and neighbors. We must pray for the courage to be truly Christian in the face of rejection and scorn. Thirdly, we need to learn again the art of Christian hospitality. We must learn to open our homes to friends and strangers. Who knows, we may entertain angels unaware! (Hebrews 13:2)