What is it to live after the flesh? We answer, It is to live after, in conformity to, and in gratification of, the inclinations and cravings of the fallen human nature. And it is the easiest thing possible to do this. All we have to do is just listlessly to abandon ourselves to the current of our old nature, and cease to strive against it. As soon as we do this, we begin to float down the stream, and by and by we find the current more and more rapid and resistance more and more difficult.
The flesh is both the natural and the acquired sinful disposition, as well as the natural and acquired selfish disposition. To live after these would therefore mean to act out the principles of the natural and acquired depravity, as well as those of the natural and acquired selfishness. Such a course will kill the new heart, mind and will; and since the humanity is offered as a sacrifice, it is inevitable that those individuals who backslide, and who continue to live after the flesh, must eventually die and remain dead forever.
Job 4:8; Prov. 14:12; Matt. 26:41; Rom. 6; 8:4-12; Gal. 6:7, 8; Heb. 6:4-8; 10:26-31; Jas. 1:15; 4:4; 2 Pet. 2:20-22; 1 John 5:16; Jude 1:11-13; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 4:22.
