(The Former Use of the Flesh and the New Direction of Sonship)

September 15th brings together two warnings about what can happen when pressure reaches the human life. Chambers distinguishes the new nature from the flesh that was formerly yielded to sin, while Spurgeon warns that difficulty can drive the mind back toward familiar, self-originated means of escape. Together they reveal that the presence of an old reaction does not mean that the believer’s new nature has disappeared. It reveals the continuing possibility of allowing the flesh to move again according to patterns formed under independence. Sonship does not answer those movements through greater self-control. The human spirit remains responsive to divine operation, and the life received from God through the Son finds expression where the flesh once served another source.

The Flesh Remembers How It Was Formerly Used

Chambers writes:

“Envy, jealousy, and strife don’t necessarily arise from your old nature of sin, but from the flesh which was used for these kinds of things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1-3). You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.” (My Utmost for His Highest)

Chambers makes an important distinction.

Envy, jealousy, and strife may appear, but their appearance does not necessarily mean that an old sinful nature remains as the believer’s governing source. Chambers points instead toward the flesh and its former use.

Paul makes a similar distinction in Romans 6:19. The members that had once been yielded to uncleanness and lawlessness are now to be yielded differently. First Peter 4:1–3 likewise speaks of a former manner of life that belonged to “the time past.”

The body remains.

The human faculties remain.

Memory remains.

Patterns of reaction may remain familiar.

But the source of life has changed.

This helps us understand why old reactions can sometimes appear with surprising speed. The flesh has known envy. It has known jealousy. It has known resentment, rivalry, defensiveness, and strife. These were familiar expressions when the life proceeded from self.

But familiarity is not identity.

The believer does not have to interpret the appearance of an old pattern as evidence that nothing has changed. Nor should it be excused simply because it is familiar.

The question is whether the life will again be yielded to that former pattern or remain responsive to the new source God has brought forth.

Pressure Tempts the Mind to Return to Familiar Means

Spurgeon writes:

“Unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape from difficulties, and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present pressure. Trust in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” (Morning and Evening)

Spurgeon identifies the setting in which old patterns become especially attractive.

Pressure.

Difficulty creates urgency.

Something must change.

Something must be resolved.

Something must be escaped.

And under that pressure, the mind can begin reaching for whatever means once promised control.

That movement may take many forms. We may manipulate circumstances, force a conversation, retaliate against someone who has wounded us, withdraw in resentment, become jealous of another person’s apparent advantage, or attempt to secure an outcome before God has given direction.

The particular expression varies.

The source does not.

Self has resumed responsibility for preserving and directing the life.

This is why Spurgeon’s answer is not simply, “Choose better means.”

He says:

“Trust in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”

Waiting interrupts self-direction.

It refuses to let pressure become the source of movement.

The circumstance may demand an immediate answer, but sonship remains free to receive before responding.

Jesus revealed this freedom perfectly. Pressure never became the source of his life. Opposition did not determine his response. Human expectation did not dictate his direction. Even suffering did not force him into self-preservation.

He remained the Son.

He received from the Father.

Where the Two Meet: Pressure Reveals Which Source Will Govern the Flesh

Chambers speaks of flesh that has previously been used for envy, jealousy, and strife.

Spurgeon speaks of a mind tempted under pressure to return to wrong means.

These are two sides of the same reality.

Pressure does not create self-direction.

It gives self-direction an opportunity to reassert familiar patterns.

The flesh remembers how independence once expressed itself.

This is why watchfulness matters.

But watchfulness is not anxious self-surveillance. If the believer becomes preoccupied with preventing every possible wrong reaction, self has simply taken responsibility for producing holiness.

True watchfulness remains oriented toward source.

When jealousy appears, the deeper question is not merely:

“How do I stop feeling jealous?”

It is:

“What is jealousy asking me to receive from self rather than from God?”

When strife arises:

“What am I attempting to defend, establish, or control?”

When pressure creates urgency:

“Am I receiving direction, or am I originating a way of escape?”

These questions uncover the movement beneath the behavior.

The flesh may present an old response.

But the human spirit no longer has to yield the life to it.

God has brought forth another nature.

And as the Holy Spirit operates upon the human spirit, the spirit of sonship becomes responsive to what proceeds from God rather than to the demands arising from flesh and circumstance.

Pastoral Orientation

September 15th invites the believer to recognize familiar reactions without allowing those reactions to define the life.

Perhaps pressure has exposed jealousy.

Resentment.

Competition.

Defensiveness.

The desire to retaliate.

The need to control an outcome.

Do not immediately conclude that these things reveal your deepest identity.

But neither allow them to become direction.

They belong to patterns the flesh has known before.

Chambers says to remain watchful.

Spurgeon says to trust and wait.

Together they describe a life that refuses to return to independence.

The flesh says:

“React as you have reacted before.”

Pressure says:

“Do something now.”

Self says:

“I must secure the outcome.”

But the spirit of sonship can remain.

The Holy Spirit operates upon the human spirit, bearing witness to what is of God and directing the life toward the filial pattern revealed in Jesus. The believer does not need to manufacture a better response. The new nature is responsive to another source.

This is where the Father becomes particularly important.

Jesus did not overcome pressure by developing superior self-control. He remained in filial dependence upon the Father. What circumstances demanded from him never displaced what he received from the Father.

That same order characterizes sonship.

The flesh may remember the old way.

But memory does not have to become mastery.

Pressure may awaken familiar reactions.

But pressure does not have to become direction.

God remains the source.

The Son reveals the life that remains dependent upon the Father.

And as the human spirit responds to divine operation, the flesh that was once yielded to independence becomes the place where another life can now be expressed.

The old pattern says:

React.

Sonship remains.

The old pattern says:

Protect yourself.

Sonship receives.

Pressure says:

Find your own way out.

Sonship waits upon God.

The change is deeper than improved behavior.

The source has changed.

And where the flesh once expressed the patterns of self-directed life, the life of the Son received from the Father can now become visible.