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nothing to promote a life of dependency on
Jesus.
    Consider
the person who treats the Bible as little more than an instruction manual for
living. That is, they don’t read it to grow in the knowledge of Jesus but to
answer the question, “What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?” Their
line of thinking runs like this: If I do good and avoid evil I will be
judged to be a good person. From a religious perspective, this makes
perfect sense. It also explains why so many are asking, What must I do?
    But
there’s a problem. In the Bible you will find some good things that are bad for
you. Other things are good for one person but not for another. And then there
are things that used to be good but aren’t good any more. It’s almost as if the
Bible was designed to frustrate the religious quest for being good. It’s almost
as if the Author is trying to say, “Why do you ask me what is good? That’s the
wrong question.”
     
    The law is good…
     
    The best example of something that
is good yet bad for you is the law. Paul said the law is “holy, righteous, and
good” (Romans 7:12). He also said, “the law is good if one uses it properly” (1
Timothy 1:8). When a moral person discovers the law their initial response is
delight. “Finally, some good instructions to live by!” But when they try to
keep the law they find themselves breaking it despite their best intentions.
They try harder and fail again. Then the law—which is good—begins to condemn
them (2 Corinthians 3:9). Worse, sin which they did not know they had until
they met the law, rises up and begins to kill them (Romans 7:10–11).
    Paul
said the law is good but those who rely on it place themselves under a curse
(Galatians 3:10). This seems paradoxical. How can something that is good be bad
for us? Is the law defective? No—it’s good! The problem is not with the law but
your flesh. Your flesh cannot cope with the law (Romans 8:3). And it’s not just
the law. Anything that is good will become bad for you once your flesh gets involved:
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die…” (Romans 8:13).
     
    …but your flesh is weak
     
    Every day the believer gets to
choose between walking after the flesh or walking after the spirit. It’s a
mutually exclusive choice; it’s one or the other. We walk after the flesh when
we rely on our own resources—our resolve, our abilities, our understanding—and
we walk after the spirit when we rely on his. It’s the difference between
walking by sight or by faith.
    The
problem is that walking after the flesh comes naturally to us. We’ve had a lot
of practice. Before we were born of the Spirit the flesh was all we knew, and
old habits die hard.
    An
illustration may help. I lived in Hong Kong for close to 15 years but now I
live in New Zealand. Even though I am in New Zealand, I can still walk after
the ways of Hong Kong—and to some extent I do. (I love Chinese New Year!)
    The ways
of Hong Kong are no better or worse than the ways of New Zealand, but the same
cannot be said of the flesh. Walk after the flesh and your life will be barren
and unprofitable: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing”
(John 6:63, NKJV).
    The
supernatural and abundant life that we’re called to live can only be received
by faith and experienced when walking in the spirit. It’s a choice we get to
make. This is why the New Testament writers admonish us to put off the old ways
of the flesh and put on the new ways of the spirit:
     
    You were
taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of
your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22–24)
     
    We don’t put off and put on to become spiritual; we do it because we are spiritual. Everyone who is born again
is born of the spirit. Since we are already in the spirit,