Jesus’ Flesh
By Mike Rule

I have been pondering whether Jesus had flesh to deal with as you and I do. The Scripture says that He was tempted in all things but knew no sin… but did He have flesh? That’s a good question, isn’t it?

If flesh is the residue of my sin nature, Jesus couldn’t have had it since He never knew sin. But if flesh is the residue of living in this world, then He must have had it. Did “stuff” happen to Jesus as He lived in this world? And if it did, did He carry the memories and hurts with Him through His life? We don’t know what happened to Jesus from the time he was 12 until he was 30, but we would have to assume some things happened in His life. I also would dare to say that He must have remembered those events both mentally and emotionally. Of course, Jesus never had a sin nature, as I already mentioned. He knew NO sin. Are we in an unfair position since He didn’t have a sin nature but we do?

It is true that we were born in sin, but as believers, sin is no longer natural to us. It is NOT our nature any more. We are partakers of the divine nature – we have received a new nature. We have everything we need pertaining to life and Godliness. Jesus may never have had the residue of the sin nature in His flesh, but He certainly must have had to battle the lusts of His own flesh that wanted to make Him turn from His Father and choose actions that did not line up with who He really is. Likewise, our flesh carries the stuff of this life – the memories of experiences and the resulting emotions. We have the residue of that old sin nature there. Yet now, as believers, we are working from the same complete state that Jesus had when He was walking on this earth. In overcoming those lusts, He could not do it in and of Himself; neither can we. He relied on His Father to do it through Him, and He wants us to live in the same way – to rely upon Him to do what we could never do.

Jesus was victorious over His own flesh. He is also victorious over your flesh. Jesus made it clear that greater things than He did, we will do. Living in victory over the sin dwelling in the flesh is just one “greater thing.” He overcame sin once for all so that He could express Himself through a holy and righteous people – a people whose greatest treasure lies within earthen vessels – that the excellency of the power would be of God and not us. When we see true victory in our lives, it is not we who are doing the overcoming. It is the Father doing it through us. Will you let Him do through you what you can never do? Christ’s life was not only victorious over His own flesh, but he is victorious over yours as well. To me, that truly is GOOD news. Will you believe it today? Will you let Him live victoriously over your flesh so that your spirit expresses His Spirit through a human soul and body?