Putting off the body of the flesh

This is a part of a series

• A key choice: wisdom or faith
• Putting off the body of the flesh
• It’s a new beginning
• A new creation (not evolution)
• If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come

This change-over, from the old nature to the new nature is utterly profound. The change is so big and complete that Paul describes is as being “hidden” in Jesus Christ. Our old self is so hidden, that in fact it is no longer us who live, but Jesus Christ lives in us.

When we “sow” our physical bodies as living sacrifices (through faith)… then we enter into this union with Jesus Christ… and then something utterly marvellous happens to us… we change…

And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen… – 1Co 15:37-38

There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. – 1Co 15:40

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. – 1Co 15:42

What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. – 1Co 15:42-43

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. – 1Co 15:44

IF you become baptised into Jesus Christ through your faith, IF you believe that you have died with Him and IF you believe that you have been raised up with Him and IF you believe you are now seated with Him at the right hand of the Father… then those verses are true for you… and indeed you have been raised up in a spiritual body.

Paul often describes this putting off the fleshly body as a cirumcision…

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, – Col 2:11

IF you have accepted this as true and uttered your amen, then you are a spiritual body, in union with Jesus Christ, where He is, as He is. You are raised up in glory. You are raised up in power. You are imperishable. You are immortal. Believe it, in order to receive it!

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. – 1Co 15:53

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality,

then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” – 1Co 15:54-55

That saying that Paul was using “then shall come to pass the saying that is written: death is swallowed up in victory” is a reference to Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming Messiah, which is Jesus Christ

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, – Isa 25:8

Isn’t that remarkable and astonishing? Jesus Christ did achieve what was prophesied about Him. Jesus Christ completed His work on the cross and what remains is for you and I to receive it, for ourselves and for the world around us.

IF you are IN Jesus Christ (through your faith) then your old body has been sown and has already been raised up a spiritual body with incredible supernatural characteristics!

Earlier I quoted 1 Corinthians; and in 2 Corinthians Paul confirms this message that we are no longer “in the flesh” because we are a new creation IN Jesus Christ…

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. – 2Co 5:16-17

Imagine that, if you have been baptised into Jesus Christ (through your faith in Him), you should not regard yourself as flesh any more, but as a new creation, a spiritual person. Receive that!

And that verse makes it clear, we must not think of any other Christian as being in the flesh either… they are also in Christ Jesus, they are also a new creation. Because of their faith in Him, they are already the salt and light of the world, and their physical body has been sown and they have been raised a spiritual body – whether they know it or not.