Spirit Willing But Flesh Weak

“And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.” But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.” (Joshua 24:18-19 NKJV)
 

Why did Joshua not commend when the people said that they would serve the Lord God? Instead, he said that they could not server the Lord. The people of Israel remembered what the Lord had done for them from the deliverance from the hands of Pharaoh, letting them cross the Red Sea and Jordan River, to the dispossessing the land promised to the ancestors. So, they eagerly wanted to serve the Lord and meant it. It happened when Joshua delivered the farewell message to his fellow people just before he died.

Despite of the eagerness and devotion to serve the Lord, what Joshua said was true. We cannot serve the Lord even after we have been born again. Here, we need to understand that humans are three-fold, body, soul, and spirit. Our human spirit has been freed and made alive when we received Jesus Christ as Lord. So, we are willing to serve the Lord. However, our body is not yet redeemed and still under the influence of sin. Jesus said to His disciples at the garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14:38 NKJV)

No, we cannot keep the Law of God although our spirit is willing. Our body is weakened by the desire of sin and inevitably fails. That is what Paul says in Chapter 7 of Romans. What he wanted to do is what he did not and what he wanted not to do, what he did. He cried out, “O wretched man I am!” The regenerated Christians serve the law of God in spirit but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:25) However, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus because He paid the full price for all the sins committed and committing (Romans 8:1).

Yes, we can keep the Law of God in Christ Jesus who is unqualifiedly supplying the dynamics to obey Him. We do not walk in the flesh but in the Spirit because we died to sin. We can refuse to sin in Christ, which is the first step to obey Him. Then, we can be clothed in His righteousness that enables us to stand before the throne of grace in confidence. The grace of God overflows out of unsearchable riches of Christ, the well of living water within. Only when we enter into the holy of holies we can serve God. Entering into the throne of grace is only possible through the way of the cross because without blood even the high priest was not permitted to enter the most holy place. The most sacred place is the picture of our human spirit where Eternal God dwells forever.