Focus: The Sin Of Self-reliance

Text: Rom.7:18

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…"

The world believes in and teaches self-reliance, and man practices self-reliance to the degree that God-reliance as the principle of life is not valued as anything essential, pivotal or vital. We are using the word 'flesh' here as that which is diametrically opposed to God. It has the proclivity and capacity for evil.

Our text has it on the authority of divine inspiration as penned by Paul that "in me dwells NO GOOD THING." In fact, quoting a text from the Old Testament, Paul says, "There is NONE that doeth good, no, NOT ONE…" (Rom.3:12). Man's capacity for moral goodness was corrupted in the Fall of Adam. 

Jesus Christ Himself says, "The flesh PROFITETH NOTHING…" (Jh.6:63). Nothing good dwells in man's flesh. No man is capable of doing good selflessly or doing good without sinning. The flesh is a bad business. It yields no profit. Another bullet point, according to Paul, is that "they that are in the flesh CANNOT please God" (Rom.8:8). The flesh is rotten - and depraved. Fleshly religion is a mess. The flesh is incapable of pleasing God. Paul continues in another place to say, "But as then he that was born after the flesh PERSECUTED him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now" (Gal.4:29). The flesh is at war with the spirit. It persecutes the spirit. Back in Genesis 21:9, the word used is 'mocking.' Sarah sighted Ishmael mocking Isaac - laughing him to scorn. That is what the flesh does. It has no respect for what the spirit does. It lacks a sense of spiritual value. Paul says again, "For they that are AFTER the flesh DO MIND the things of the flesh…" (Rom.8:5). 

The flesh is totally self-absorbed, self-preoccupied or self-focused. That is why it is said that self-preservation is the first law of the universe.

In another sweeping statement, Paul says concerning the Christian, "But ye are not IN the flesh, but IN the Spirit…" (Rom.8:9). Christ has established a new spiritual paradigm for the believer in Christ. The believer is now in a new sphere of spiritual reality. The flesh no longer governs. The Christian function in the Spirit and by the Spirit, and for that, the believer belongs to the class or category of those "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom.8:4). The believer is not IN the flesh and he not AFTER the flesh.

Whoever has this powerful knowing and the experience of this awesome reality cannot be part of those who practice self-reliance. The flesh is not reliable. In every sense of it, the flesh fails. Mary Morrison Suggs says, "I grew up learning to be self-reliant, but now, to grow up in Christ, I must unlearn self-reliance and learn self-distrust in light of his all-sufficiency." Hallelujah! I say to you today, Practice God-reliance, for our sufficiency, according to Paul, is of God. In Christ we are accepted and complete. Avoid the sin of self-reliance!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter