It Must Be A Work of Christ

An attempt to be holy in the flesh will only be met with failure, God works on our spirit, when our spirit is being cleansed by God, then our actions will follow, but if we start with the flesh, forgetting about the spirit, then we are feebly attempting to change the flesh before God cleanses the spirit. It will not last, it is fleshly. We must focus on the spiritual for the change in us to be permanent and real.

John 4:24 " God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

Our life in the Lord is not to be lived in the flesh but in the Spirit, our flesh is fallen and dying, but the Spirit is what has been changed into a new creation.

Romans 7:14-25 "
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the [n]principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God [o]in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in [p]the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner [q]of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from [r]the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."

Notice that our bodies do not go with us when we die and go to heaven, because God can have no sin in His presence. Our Spirit has been changed into a new creation, but our body remains the old dead man that we battle everyday.

Our body will someday be changed before entering heaven and be reunited with our spirit, but until that happens our bodies cannot come into the presence of God. We must spend less time focusing on our fleshly nature and more time focusing on our spiritual nature, that God be changing us His way, to grow in holiness.

1 John 3:6-7 "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother."

If God is not working in us though His Holy Spirit, if we are working in the flesh then we cannot be born again. Anyone born of the Holy Spirit knows their inability to be righteous. IT MUST BE A WORK OF CHRIST.