# Flesh Is Flesh.



## Blueridge Believer (Mar 19, 2007)

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:6

There is no promise made that we shall be set free in this life from the indwelling and the inworking of sin. Many think that they are to become progressively holier and holier, that sin after sin is to be removed gradually out of the heart, until at last they are almost made perfect in the flesh. But this is an idle dream, and one which, sooner or later in the case of God's people, will be rudely and roughly broken to pieces. Nature will ever remain the same; and we shall ever find that the flesh will lust against the spirit. Our Adamic nature is corrupt to the very core. It cannot be mended, it cannot be sanctified, it is at the last what it was at the first, inherently evil, and as such will never cease to be corrupt until we put off mortality, and with it the body of sin and death. All we can hope for, long after, expect and pray for, is, that this evil nature may be subdued, kept down, mortified, crucified, and held in subjection under the power of grace; but as to any such change passing upon it or taking place in it as to make it holy, it is but a pharisaic delusion, which, promising a holiness in the flesh, leaves us still under the power of sin, while it opposes with deadly enmity that true sanctification of the new man of grace, which is wrought by a divine power, and is utterly distinct from any fancied holiness in the flesh, or any vain dream of its progressive sanctification.

J.C. PHILPOT


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## Pergamum (Mar 19, 2007)

Just a note: 

Though we can never become sinless, there IS a thing called progressive sanctification. Some such as the hypercalvinists deny it, but we DO become progressively more holy - through God's grace. 

Our sancitfication is both positional AND progressive. 



I only note this because many calvinistic baptists who quote things such as this, especially those who have been influenced by Don Fortner, tend to deny this progressive aspect of sanctification. Don't get taken in, brother.


Thank God! I am not yet what I will be, but I am not what I was before!


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## Blueridge Believer (Mar 19, 2007)

I know what you're saying my dear brother Trevor. At the same time I'll strive to make sure that my sanctification doesn't "puff" me up in my flesh.


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## Pergamum (Mar 19, 2007)

Amen....if we lived 1 million years before glory..we would still be sinners!


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## Greg (Mar 19, 2007)

Thanks for that post James.




trevorjohnson said:


> Just a note:
> 
> Our sancitfication is both positional AND progressive.



Good point Trevor. Here are a couple of good articles on just those points:

Definitive (or positional) Sanctification and Progressive Sanctification 




> Thank God! I am not yet what I will be, but I am not what I was before!


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