In the two previous chapters we saw that all the service that God wants from man must be in spirit. To enable us to serve Him in spirit, He became the Spirit through incarnation, death, and resurrection. Then as the Spirit He comes to contact us in our spirit, making our deadened spirit alive so that we can serve Him by contacting Him as the Spirit in our enlivened spirit. Only the service that comes out of the contact and fellowship of our spirit with the Spirit is the service that God wants, and only this kind of service is acceptable to Him. This is how God wants us to worship Him—in spirit.
The verses above show us that in the matter of service to God there are two different sources: one is the flesh and the other is the Spirit. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” This shows us two different sources issuing in two different results. One source is the flesh, and the other source is the Spirit. Of course, the kind of result produced is determined by the kind of source that produces it. That which is born of the flesh can only be flesh and can never be spirit. That which is born of the Spirit can never be flesh but can only be spirit.
John 6:63 says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” Since the Spirit and the flesh are different sources, they have different natures. Consequently, their capabilities are also different. The substance of the Spirit (the Spirit of God) is the life of God; therefore, the Spirit gives life. The substance of the flesh is vanity and equals nothing; therefore, the flesh profits nothing.
Romans 8:6 says, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” The flesh not only profits nothing but also results in death, while the Spirit not only gives life but also imparts peace. The result of our serving God by the flesh is “nothing” and “death”; whereas the result of our serving God by the Spirit is “life” and “peace.”
Notwithstanding, Philippians 3:3 shows that just as we have the possibility of serving God by the spirit, so we have the possibility of serving by the flesh. Moreover, the possibility of serving by the flesh is very great in those of us who have not thoroughly dealt with the flesh and whose spirit has not yet become mature. Formerly we were deadened in our spirit, we had fallen into the flesh, and we were living by the flesh. Now, although our spirit has been made alive through God’s salvation, we are still living in the flesh. Our spirit has not become mature yet and it is not strong enough. Furthermore, perhaps due to our ignorance concerning spiritual matters we may not even know that we must serve God by the spirit and not by the flesh. Therefore, after we have been saved, in the same way that we conduct ourselves, we serve God mostly by the flesh and very little by, of, and in the spirit.
Many people think that our flesh is capable only of committing sins but not capable of serving God, that we are likely to commit sins but not likely to serve God by our flesh. In their consideration, there is only such a thing as man committing sin by the flesh, but not such a thing as man serving God by the flesh. However, the Bible tells us that just as man commits sins by the flesh, so man can also serve God by the flesh. Not only so, the facts also show that many indeed serve God by the flesh just as they commit sins by the flesh. No doubt the apostle Paul served God by the flesh before he was saved (Acts 22:3; Phil. 3:4-7). Although many Christians have been saved, they still serve God by the flesh, just as the apostle Paul did before he was saved.
There are some others who think that using the flesh to commit sins is wrong, but using the flesh to serve God is right, and that committing sins by the flesh is forbidden, but serving God by the flesh is permissible. They do not realize, however, that when one serves God by the flesh, not only is his service unacceptable to God, but it is also virtually impossible for him to have access to God and to contact God, because the flesh simply cannot have access to God, nor can it touch God.
The flesh includes man’s fallen body and soul. Originally, man was spiritual, being dominated by the spirit. After the spirit became dead due to man’s fall, the soul rose up, replacing the spirit to control man and subjected itself to the lusts of the human body. The human body became the flesh due to its lusts, the sin derived from Satan. Since the human soul is in subjection to the lusts of the body, it becomes fleshly. Therefore, in the Scriptures flesh denotes all the soulish and fleshly things outside of the spirit. (It also frequently denotes the soulish and fleshly man.) All things outside of the spirit are the flesh. To serve God by anything outside of the spirit is to serve God by the flesh. This kind of service is of no effect.