In Genesis 2:7, the scripture helps us to understand that God created man from the dust of the ground and afterward blew breathe of life into his nostrils and he became a living soul.
In essence, what the above scripture is trying to tell us is that man is made up of two elements which are the dust of the ground and the breathe of life.
Now Ecclesiates 12:7 further helps us to understand that at the point of a human death, the flesh returns back to dust from whence it came while the spirit returns back to God who gave it.
The latter scripture therefore helps us to gather the understanding that the dust of the ground is the flesh while the breathe of life is the spirit.
In this sermon therefore, we are going to build on this understanding with the aim of discovering exactly what it means to be born of the flesh and of the spirit.
But before we do so, let us see what the flesh and spirit really means.
What is the meaning of the flesh and spirit?
As we can understand from the Bible in Genesis 2:7, the flesh is the physical nature of the human being which was made from the dust of the ground while the spirit is the breathe of life which God blew into the human nostrils for him to become a living soul.
Both flesh and spirit constitutes the human life because one cannot live on earth without the other and when both of them are seperated the human life incidentally comes to an end.
And as the scripture further helps uus to understand in Ecclesiastes 12:7, at the point of death, the flesh will return back to the dust from whence it came while the spirit will return back to God who gave iit.
As a matter of fact, creating man from the dust of the earth and giving them the breathe of life to begin living connotes the two birthing process that every human beings must go through which the Bible terms as being born of the flesh and of the spirit.
Let us therefore move on to see what it really means to be born of the flesh and of the spirit.
What it means to be born of the flesh and of the spirit.
To be born of the flesh means to live a sinful lifestyle that is harmful to mankind and distasteful to God, while to be born of the spirit means to live a righteous life that is beneficiary to mankind and pleasing to God.
According to the Bible in John 8:44, those who sin belongs to their father, the devil, who is identified as a liar from the beginning and the father of all lies. The scripture notes that they children of the devil will always carry out their fathers desires wand mentions murder and lying as some of them.
In 1 John 3:9, the Bible reveals that those who are born of God, Who is identified as a Spirit in John 4:24, will never sin instead they will always practice righteousness as it concludes in 1 John 2:29.
The statement to be born of the flesh and of the spirit was made by our Lord JJesus Christ during his encounter with a JJewish Pharisee known as Nicodemus.
According to the story as recorded in John chapter 3, the man Nicodemus went to Jesus at night to inquire from Him what human beings must do in order to enter the kingdom of God.
And in answering him Jesus said that to enter the kingdom of God, a man must be born again to which Nicodemus further inquired about how possible it is for a human being to enter the womb and be born again.
Then Jesus gave him the final reply saying “unless a man is born of water and spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God, that which is born of the flesh is the flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit”.
According to what learn from the Bible, this flesh and spirit that makes up the human being is constantly at war with each other to the point that it leaves the human being unable to do what he truly seeks or desires.
As it clearly points out in Galatians 5:7, both the flesh and the spirit lusts against each other and in the end the human being cannot do what he wants to do.
Romans 8:5 draws a conclusion on this sub-heading by letting us to understand that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh while those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.
And to further get more understanding about the flesh and spirit we are going to what it means to live according to the flesh and how to live according to the spirit.
What does it mean to live according to the flesh?
To live according to the flesh means you are carrying out or practicing one or several sinful acts which the scripture refers to in Galatians 5:19-21 as the works of the flesh which are listed in their respective order below:
- Sexual immorality: this includes fornication, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, masturbation, incest etc.
- Worship of idols (idolatry).
- Witchcraft or sorcery: which is the art of consulting mediums to see the outcome of the future or the circumstances of the past.
- Enmity.
- SAtrife.
- Jealousy: having the fear that others are going to take what belongs to you.
- Anger.
- Rivalries.
- Dissensions.
- Divisions.
- Envy: having the desire or huge to take what belongs to others.
- Drunkenness: these includes smoking, alcoholic and drug abuse.
- Orgies: this means engaging in a group sex.
How to live according to the spirit.
To live according to the spirit means you must seek to bear the fruits of the spirit which the Bible lists in Galatians 5:22-23 as:
- love
- Joy.
- Peace.
- Forbearance
- Kindness,
- Goodness,
- Faithfulness,
- Gentleness and
- Self-control.
