The War that Never Ends.

Within the Christian’s heart, two combatants are constantly at war. Dr. Northcote Deck, veteran missionary doctor to the Solomon Islands, describes this war and how its outcome is decided.

A MAN becomes a Christian, his soul immediately becomes the battleground for two strong opposing forces—the evil desires of his unregenerate nature as opposed to the righteous desires of his new life in Christ.
Because they have been led to expect that life will be one endless song after their surrender to Christ, some are dismayed to discover this conflict within themselves. And some—despairing— solve the whole problem by conceding victory to the desires of the flesh.
In order to understand what the Word of God has to say about the matter, we must first know what the Scriptures teach about the relation of the spirit, soul, and body to each other.
FLESH vs. SPIRIT
In Genesis 2: 7 we are told, ‘‘Man became a living soul.” Here the word soul is used by God to describe the whole personality of man, the ego. Similarly in Genesis 46: 26, “All the souls that came with Jacob . . . were three-score and six.” This soul of man is the seat both of his desires and of his emotions, for in Psalm 42: 1, David cries, “My soul panteth after thee, O God,” and in verse 4, “I pour out my soul” [in tears]. In the Scriptures, soul and heart are practically synonymous; thus, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4: 23). It is also the seat of the will, for, “A man’s heart deviseth his way” (Proverbs 16: 9). Our will is the supreme expression of our personality.
But for life on earth, God has endowed man’s soul with a spirit. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5: 23 prays by inspiration, “I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless.” The spirit of man is the seat of the mind and intellect, for, “What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man?’’ (1 Corinthians 2: 11). Paul states further, “I serve God with my spirit” (Romans 1: 9), for it is man’s spirit that responds to God. Lastly, the spirit as the seat of the mind is also the seat of the “divine nature” (2 Peter 1: 4) which the believer receives at the new birth.
Then God places the soul in a body, in which man lives and moves and finally dies, for, “There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15: 44). The body is the seat of the old fallen Adamic nature as seen in Romans 7: 23, a verse worthy of close attention. There Paul stresses, ‘‘I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Members here implies body, and in those members is “the law of sin,” the fallen Adamic nature. The opposing force for good, the divine nature, evidently resides in “the law of my mind.” It is congruous with the fact of the sinful nature residing in the body, that both are left behind by the believer at death.
The sinful Adamic nature is usually termed the flesh and is the cause of all the problems of sin in the human heart, even of the believer. Of it, the Saviour said: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3: 6), thus distinguishing the two realms of life from each other. Then in John 6: 63, He said: “The flesh profiteth nothing.” Thus, there is part of man’s being which is no asset at all. Paul emphasizes this further in Romans 7: 18, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.”
But the flesh is not only negatively bad; it is aggressively bad, for Romans 8: 7 says, “The carnal [sarkikos, fleshly] mind is enmity against God.” So, I am forced to recognize that in me as a child of God, there remains part of my being that hates God and the things of God. Then, when I read Galatians 5: 19, “The works of the flesh are . . . adultery. . . uncleanness . . . hatred, variance, strife . . . and such like”—a list so long that Paul does not complete it—I understand the reason for its antagonism to God. Peter goes a step further and urges that we “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” The ‘‘flesh” in us is practically synonymous with the self in us, which causes all our selfishness.
There are two very important verses in Galatians bearing upon the operations of the flesh. Chapter 4, verse 29 says, “As then, he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now”; and chapter 5, verse 17 says, “The flesh lusteth [striveth] against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other.” These two remarkable verses describe the two civil wars being waged in the believer's heart. But if the second war—'‘the Spirit against the flesh”—is conducted in God's way, the first—'‘the flesh against the Spirit’’—may be kept in abeyance.
AMALEK vs. ISRAEL
Notice that Galatians 4: 28 begins, “As then.” As when? We find the background in verses 22 to 24: “Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory.” In other words, God controlled Abraham’s family and the record of it to teach spiritual lessons of a later day. So, we may apply the “persecution” of a man in the Old Testament (verse 28) to the believer in the New.
Ishmael, ‘‘born after the flesh,” persecuted Isaac, the heir of promise. The same thing was true in the next generation, and for the same reason. Esau, the natural man, persecuted Jacob, the spiritual man—for even though Jacob had many failings, he did aspire after God.
Jacob’s family went down to Egypt, multiplied into a nation which was later delivered for bondage, and set out for Sinai to be instructed of God, and eventually for Canaan. In the desert, the Amalekites—a cousin race—came out to meet them (Exodus 17: 8). They were named after Esau’s grandson, Amalek. Because of their kinship, we would expect them to greet the Israelites with friendship and help. But there existed in the Amalekites the inherent antagonism to the people of God indicated in Galatians. So, “Amalek fought with Israel in Rephidim.” This was no mere tribal skirmish. It had such far-reaching spiritual significance that God said to Moses (verse 14): “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua,” to instruct all future generations.
Two lessons stand out. Israel’s own resources were inadequate to give them victory. They fought and struggled and prayed and could only “discomfit” Amalek. Second and most significant, Amalek came between them and the revelation God wanted to give. So today, the flesh seeks to frustrate any “hunger and thirst after righteousness” aroused in the soul by the Holy Spirit.
After Sinai, Israel approached the Promised Land at Kadesh-barnea. Their faith failed them when they saw the giants, and they were turning away when they realized their mistake. They had come so far that they would have a try for the land (Numbers 14: 40). But it was too late. They were warned by Moses, ‘‘Go not up, for the Lord is not among you . . . for the Amalekites . . . are there before you.” How typical and true! At first Amalek was down south by Sinai; this time they were north on the border of the land. Each time they came between Israel and the will of God, just as the flesh seeks to come between the believer and God’s desire for an advance in holiness and victory. This time Israel was discomforted, because their effort was made in the energy of the flesh.
Israel finally entered the land by Jordan. By and by, they became apostate and idolatrous. In 1 Samuel 15, we find that God allowed them a new start under their first king, Saul. His initial commission from God was: “Now go and smite Amalek . . . and spare them not.” Now Amalek was in the center of the land, still disputing possession with Israel, as the flesh always will dispute the supremacy of Christ in the soul. This third encounter shows how Saul lost the kingdom by trying the impossible. He “spared the best of the sheep” (verse 9), when there is no “best’’ in the flesh (“no good thing” said Paul). Even so, half measures will never avail in this holy war. We shall lose the kingdom of God’s blessing as surely as we spare the flesh. For Christ cannot give us the complete deliverance we need if He is not Lord of all.
Let us look at one more example of this spiritual conflict as found in 2 Samuel 1, This deals with the death of Saul, who took a lot of killing! As you carefully read the record, I think you will agree with David that this young man was speaking the truth. David asked: “How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead?” The young man answered, “As I happened by chance upon mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear. And [Saul] said unto me, “Who art thou?” And I answered him, “I am an Amalekite.” Then, he reports, “I stood upon him [Saul] and slew him.”
I am sure it was not chance that brought this young man there at the critical moment. It was prophetic and in keeping with spiritual realities that Amalek should be “in at the death.” For that is tragically so of many believers. They live lives of continual defeat in spite of their best efforts, crying continually, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” and find no answer but in death itself. Yet Paul is inspired to protest: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” [that God may keep on forgiving us]. And the idea of such domination by habits of sin is abhorrent, for he cries out, “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6: 1-2). For God has indeed a way of deliverance, and it is made known in the Scriptures.
I think it is foreshadowed by what happened to David in 1 Samuel 30. David had been away north, and in his absence, “the Amalekites had smitten Ziklag . . . and taken the women captive,” including David's family. In verse 6, “David was greatly distressed,” and no wonder. We ought to be equally distressed when the flesh is victorious, But David went into verse 6 distressed and came out of it in a very different frame of mind for, “David encouraged himself in the Lord his God”—a very sane and practical thing to do. Then he asked God: “Shall I pursue after this troop?” And God answered, “Pursue, for thou shalt  . . . without fail recover all.” I believe that promise was prophetic. Given to David, it corresponds to the promise of Romans 6: 14, ‘‘Sin shall not have dominion over you.” Instead, we are to be “more than conquerors” (Romans 8: 37).
SATAN AGAINST GOD
Now let us go from these illustrations of conflict between flesh and spirit (Amalek and Israel) in the Old Testament, to the doctrine of deliverance of the soul in the New. For surely the “persecution” mentioned in Galatians 4: 29 has a very real application to the Christian life. In Galatians 5: 17, we find that a new combatant—the Spirit—has come to the assistance of the believer: “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other.” Here is an accurate picture of the believer's heart from the moment of conversion. Yet it looks more like a battleground!
And it is. The believer’s heart is a continual battleground between God and Satan. There, great issues are decided.
In World War I, an insignificant little hill in Flanders was invested with an importance out of all proportion to its size. Money and lives and resources were poured out unstintingly because it was the focus of the conflict between mighty armies and nations. Even so, the believer’s heart is the focus of the war between Satan and God.
You say, but where do I come into this battle of verse 17? You don’t come into that verse at all. As a believer enjoys the peace of God, he may be quite unconscious of the battle ever being waged in the heart. Yet Satan, working through the flesh, is not going to abandon his struggle for control of the heart, while the Holy Spirit, operating through the new nature will ever seek to lead on in triumph and righteousness.
WE CHOOSE THE VICTOR
But where do I come in? Where but in verse 16, where I stand in the position of umpire between these two contending forces. Whichever one I side with will be victorious. It is a kind of triangular duel with two contenders—flesh and Spirit—but with my ego as the third party is also involved. The problem becomes clear when we recognize once for all that we do not control, but with the free will, God has given us, we have power to choose which shall control—the flesh or the Spirit. This option is clearly indicated by verse 16: “Walk in the Spirit [whatever that may be found to mean] and ye [your ego] shall not [need not] fulfill the lusts of the flesh,” Conversely, if you are fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, you are evidently not walking in the Spirit.
This important distinction, that we do not control our level of life spiritually, but do and must choose who does control, is so basic and vital that Paul urges in Romans 6: 16, “Know ye not [don’t you know] that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are to whom ye obey, whether of sin [the flesh] . . . or of . . . righteousness [the Spirit]?” There is no question that we are yielding ourselves servants to one another and that we inevitably obey that power to which we have yielded.
Let us keep the ego, the central personality, separate from its two natures in our thinking. A room may have two windows; out of one, we may overlook a dirty slum; across the room, the other may look out on delectable mountains. Yet neither window is the room, Similarly, neither the flesh nor the new nature is regarded in Scripture as the man, the ego. Man has two natures, and which ever one is in exercise, controls his level of life.
Some years ago, a commander in the British Navy went to the Keswick Convention in England. He was a very earnest Christian, but was afflicted with an ungovernable temper, which was always flaring out to shame him and spoil his testimony. At the convention, he had an experience with God which sent him home a changed man, to the great joy of his friends. They asked, “What has happened to you since we last saw you? We are very glad it has happened. But what brought it about?” He answered, “When I went to Keswick, I was a real Christian and in some measure, Christ my Saviour was also my King. But up until then, I had allowed Him only a Limited Monarchy over my soul, while I had appointed my Self as Prime Minister. And my Self, being Prime Minister, had the deciding word in my life, so that I was always yielding to sin. But at those meetings, I realized, as I should have long before, that Christ’s death had bought Him the right, here and now, to be Absolute Monarch of my soul, So I forced (he was able to) my Self to resign as Prime Minister, and I appointed Christ as my Absolute Sovereign.”
In this statement, the commander was stressing precisely what Paul emphasized in Romans 6: 16. He had the power to force self to resign or surrender, and he had the power and sense to yield himself unto Christ as supreme. There are likely to be a lot of prime ministers among those who read this. One notable thing about prime ministers is that they cling to office! And so will Prime Minister Self.
In Galatians 5: 16, the choice we make is stated as an alternative. In Romans 6: 13, it is stressed as a command, a command to be observed and obeyed if we are to be ‘‘more than conquerors.”  “Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.” Peristemi, here translated yield, is rendered present in Romans 12: 1. Both words imply surrender, which is a stronger English word meaning the giving over of something so far held back. A person once said to me, “I don’t like the word surrender; it sounds like giving up to an enemy.” And I had to answer, “That is just what it is. The Holy Spirit is the enemy of the flesh which has been in control of the life so often and so long.”
Some years ago I was speaking on this subject at a large meeting of the Officers Christian Union in England. Several admirals and generals were present as well as many other commissioned officers. As I was urging the need of a sincere and complete surrender, I suddenly noticed an old admiral glaring at me through his eyeglass! For a moment, I was disconcerted. Here was I, a layman, urging surrender to His Majesty's officers. Yet whether they liked it or not, there it was. They were all surrendering, either to the flesh or to the Holy Spirit. And I told them so. We shall get nowhere in our spiritual lives unless we surrender ourselves to the control of God’s Spirit.
Once in Australia, where I was having a series of meetings, there were three university girls in the front seat every evening. One night, I told the story of the commander and his Prime Minister Self. When I returned to that town some weeks later, these three were there as usual. After the meeting, they came forward and one of them, speaking for the others, held up three fingers and said, “Doctor, we have three prime ministers now on the dole!” (The dole was the subsistence allowance given to England's poor in depression days.) But I had to say, “No, the dole is much too good for Prime Minister Self; it will keep him too active.” God's prescription is death, “Reckon yourselves to be dead” (Romans 6: 11).
So the level and enjoyment of our Christian life, the power we have for God’s service, depend continually on whether the flesh or the Spirit is in control. We can and we do choose who controls. And the choice makes all the difference. Certainly, this question of making a deliberate choice may seem only to push the problem one stage further back. As one has said, “If I could always choose rightly, I would never sin!”
Yes, it does push the problem further back—right back from the moment on the street when I am assailed by temptation and may yield to it, to the moment earlier in the day when I was on my knees with the Word of God before me. If my will was yielded to Him there, I will find no difficulty in making the right choice. I can meet the temptation “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” having built up a resistance to sin’s infection. As life goes on, the right choice can become habit, so that victory is the rule rather than the exception. Wherefore, “choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24: 15).
Awake, my soul, and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run . . .
Glory to Thee who safe hast kept, and hast refreshed me whilst I slept . . .
Direct, control, suggest, this day, all I design, or do, or say. —THOMAS KEN.
“His” (IVF) Nov. 1948