Creflo Dollar - Holiness vs. The Flesh
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 30, in the King James and then in the Mirror translation. And if you don’t mind, I’d just like to hop right on into this, amen, and we’re gonna focus in on what does it mean to live by the flesh? What is the flesh? What does that mean when somebody says you’re in the flesh? Now, does it mean that… is it referring to your physical body? No, it’s much more than your physical body, and we need to understand what it means to walk in the flesh versus walking in the Spirit.
Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 30. Now here’s what he says. He says, «But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom». So he says, «Of him are you in Christ Jesus». Now those of you who have been born again, you are in Christ Jesus. Say out loud, «I am in Christ Jesus». So you’re born again «and you’re in Christ Jesus, who of God,» Jesus, «who of God, Jesus has been made for us wisdom». So Jesus is our wisdom, and we’re in Jesus, so we have access to that. He has been made our righteousness. Jesus is righteousness, and we’re in him, we have access to that. We’re in him, we live by the faith of Jesus of the Son of God. He has been made righteous, we’re righteous. He has been made wisdom, we have been made wisdom. He says, «And he has been made unto us sanctification,» or holiness.
Sanctification and holiness come from the same Greek word. Sanctification and holiness. He’s been made holiness. He’s been made sanctification. So we are in him, so we’ve been made sanctification. We’ve been made holiness. He says, «And he’s been made redemption,» which means we are redeemed. Now, based on this scripture, practical holiness is not possible if you don’t understand what we just read here. If you don’t understand that we are as he is, I am righteous 'cause he is righteous. I’m not righteous 'cause I do right. I’m righteous because Jesus is my righteousness. I don’t have wisdom because I got degrees. I have wisdom because Jesus has been made wisdom. I am not holy because of my conduct. I am holy because of what? Because Jesus is holy.
So once you get in him, you’re going to have to now step up and mature and now realize I am holy 'cause he is holy, versus I am holy because I’ve got good conduct. And if you don’t have good conduct, then you’re not holy. Oh, there’s something about the flesh that I have yet to see. But it is this performance-based Christianity that is the biggest devil that we’ve ever seen in our life. In fact, Satan is now disguised in your self-performance. And so you have to really look at what’s happening here. I am sanctified because he is. Now, realize that, so you can receive that, so you can rest in that. I am holy because he is, I realize I am holy. Say that, «I realize that I’m holy».
Now, maybe several years ago, you would have never said you was holy because now you’re weighing it against your conduct. And if your conduct is good enough to make you holy, then we don’t need Jesus. All we got to do is depend on the conduct of people. But we’re not holy because of our conduct. We are holy because of our Jesus. And we realize I’m holy because of Jesus. Wait a minute, I stand out or I’m sanctified because of Jesus. Wait a minute. I am righteous because of Jesus. For so long, the church has deceived us into thinking, you are righteous only because you do right. And that’s not right. That’s not right. You are right. Jesus is the center of all of this. Of every bit of this, he’s the center of it.
And so if you don’t understand what verse 30 is talking about, practical holiness is just not gonna be possible. So you are in Christ. You are holy 'cause you’re in Christ. And because you’re in Christ, you’re all these things that he mentions. Now, once you have and understand that the person of Jesus Christ is what makes you who you are, then you quit questioning whether or not you can be all these things. Look at The Mirror Translation real quick, this, before we go forward 'cause I got a lot I want to cover. I got this one area I can’t wait to get to, so. He says in verse 30 here, «Of God’s doing are we in Christ». It’s God’s doing that you’re in Christ. It’s not your doing that you’re in Christ. «He is both the genesis and the genius of our wisdom».
My God. Did you see that? He said, «A wisdom that reveals how righteous and sanctified and redeemed we already are in him,» already are righteous in him, already are redeemed, already are holy in him, and he is the genesis and the genius of making you righteous without you doing right. Now, let’s move on to this. And once you have the person, you have all these things. Once you have Jesus, you have all these things. You have righteous, you have everything. But look what he said in Romans chapter 8, and verse 32. Romans 8 and verse 32 with King James first and then Mirror. Look at what he says here. He says, «He that spareth not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things»? He gave us Jesus.
Look at what he said. I gave you Jesus, and when I gave you Jesus, I gave you all things. 'Cause all things exist in Jesus. And instead of me, you know, taking all the little things out and making a list of them, I just gave you Jesus and then Jesus is everything. Now look at this in The Mirror Translation, verse 32. He says, «The gift of his Son is the irrefutable evidence of God’s heart towards us. He held nothing in reserve; but freely gave everything we could ever wish to have; this is what our joint sonship is all about».
We are joint sons of God. We’re joint heirs together, which means all that Jesus is, we are. All that Jesus has, we have. You now have got to go through what the scripture says, a radical mind shift and bring your mind into a place where you can realize that I don’t have to go get what already been gotten. I don’t have to go make what’s already been made. I’ve got to realize, receive, rest, and if trouble should come, open my mouth and remind myself and the devil that it is already done. Are you listening to me? So holiness, digging a little deeper, holiness is a person. Holiness is not a conduct, holiness is a person. Let’s think on that for a moment now, because for a long time, we’ve been pretty satisfied with this conduct. And you try to conduct yourself. I remember back in the day where a woman had to wear a long dress and you ain’t holy if you wear pants.
And so she out there playing softball with a long dress on. Y’all, some of y’all, how many of y’all know what I’m saying is true, right? Yeah, that was a time, and especially where women were concerned. If you wore makeup, oh that wasn’t good behavior, you were Jezebel. And then we found out that the spirit of Jezebel can also inhabit the body of a man. It’s not conduct. You should… please understand, if it was conduct, if it was left up to conduct, then you don’t need Jesus. You don’t need Jesus. And holiness, clearly in verse 30, is a person. Jesus is our holiness. And I look at some of you right now, and I know what you’re going through. It’s like, wait a minute, it is the conduct, yeah, you know, you got to be holy, you gotta be baptized and you gotta do this if you want to see Jesus, you got to be holy and, you know, without holiness, no man can see the Lord.
Well, that makes sense. Without Jesus, no man can see the Lord. Brother Dollar, they said without holiness you can’t see the Lord. And what we heard was without having the correct conduct. Well, your conduct gonna be off, your conduct, your conduct, may Please may I speak, Collipark, your conduct is always gonna be kind of off until you see Jesus. You’re seriously trusting your effort. Religion is built on trusting your effort. And he is saying, I need you to trust me. Trust me, not your effort. Look, look at where trust in your efforts has gotten you. And then you got so tired of your effort that one day you said, «I’m just gonna trust Jesus,» and, man, the bottom fell out. Everything started working and you’re like, «What happened? What happened»? And you don’t even see it was Jesus, you’re now gonna give credit to your self-preservation, wow.
So holiness comes from the word «complete». Think about that. Jesus is complete. It comes from the word «whole». See, Jesus made us whole. Complete, whole. The opposite of holiness, we used to think it was sin, but the opposite of holiness is not sin. The opposite of holiness is being common with the world. That’s what the opposite of holiness is. So when God says be holy, he is saying stand out, be separate. You’re my people. Stand out, be separate. You’re my people. So when the people of the world are worried, you’re gonna be full of peace. When the people of the world are broke, you’re gonna have all your needs met. When the people of the world are sick, you’re gonna be meditating and thanking God that you’re healed. Stand out. Stand out. Whatever’s going on with them, you are not a part of that. You are holy, you are a part of me and what I am, that’s what you are, so stand out. Stand separate from that.
Holy literally means separate from the world’s system or the world’s way of doing things. So when people… and you’re separate because of who you have and whose you are, that’s what separates you. You put so much stock in your conduct that you put very little stock in who you are in Christ and who you have, Jesus Christ, not understanding that once you realize that you’re his, the conduct’s gonna change. Once you realize whose you are and your identity, the conduct’s gonna change. You focus it on your conduct and ignore Jesus. And you come in with rules and laws, trying to get a better conduct and don’t know Jesus. And that’s what’s happening: a lot of people are trying to live under the conduct of holiness and they don’t even know who holiness is. When people don’t see the beauty of holiness, they won’t pursue it.
The beauty, David said, «Worship the Lord and the beauty of his holiness,» 1 Chronicles 16. When they don’t see the beauty of holiness or the benefit of holiness or understand what holiness is, they won’t pursue it. So number one, holiness is a person. His name is Jesus. Holiness is a person, and you are in this Jesus. You are in him. You live in him. So holiness does not depend on human input. Holiness does not depend on human input. Holiness does not depend on human conduct or human input. If holiness depends on us, if holiness depends on our feelings, if holiness depends on our experiences, if holiness depends on our consciousness, then we will always be depressed if it depends on some human input.
So whenever you look at you, now this is important. Whenever you look at you, all you see is corruption and darkness and all of that stuff. When you look at you. Try that. Try looking at you when you’re in trouble. Try looking at you when you’re broke. See, 'cause we’re used to looking at us. I’m gonna make it happen. I’m gonna figure this thing out. And I’m not saying stop living, but I’m saying you are depending more on you. You’re looking at you more than you’re looking at him who has everything, and he’ll let you look at you. For some years, he’ll let you look at you. Until you get tired of looking at you or depending on you, and then you make a decision, I’m gonna look at him because looking at me ain’t changing nothing. Are you listening to me?
Let’s go to Romans 7, verse 18 through 24. And I’m gonna read that out of The Mirror Translation. It’s Paul’s conflict with the flesh. Paul’s conflict with the flesh. Looking at you or looking to you for the answers or looking at you or looking to you for the way out, it’s a position of self-preservation. I don’t trust that God can preserve me, so what I’m gonna do is trust me to preserve me. And you know, all of your big talkers, you know, online will teach this, you know, you’re the guy you look to, to do that. That’s wrong. You gotta look at their lives. And one day you’ll wake up and say, well, they’re giving you advice that’s not working because they need you to pay them. «No»! Yeah.
All right now, watch this. I’m gonna read verse 18 through 24 and everybody in here will be able to relate with Paul’s dilemma. Verse 18. Now I’m gonna read directly from the Greek translation into the English. I discovered this yesterday. I just didn’t think about it. You have to be careful when you read a Greek Bible because you gotta ask yourself, was this Greek Bible translated from an English version into Greek or was it translated from the Greek language into English? Because if it was translated from the English version into Greek, then it’s just gonna go right back to the English version, okay? I stumbled across it last night when I was looking for a Greek Bible because I couldn’t find mine and I’m like, «Oh, they just translated that directly from the King James Bible, so all I’m gonna get is the King James because I knew that that word was not the Greek word here to do that».
And so I’m gonna read a Bible that’s gonna translate it from the Greek language to the English language. Greek language pays a lot of attention to verbs. And the English language pays a lot of attention to objects, which means in translating, you’re gonna, it’s not gonna be certain words that you have in the English that’s available to you in the Greek and vice versa. So this is going to be, it’s an updated language. But it is amazing of the accuracy of the Greek that we can look at it and I think this will bless you. So look at Paul’s dilemma here. Some of you think, «Well, I didn’t care about none of that stuff you just said, let’s just read,» you know? Well, I do. It just, I get happy over that kind of thing.
All right, verse 18: «The total extent and ugliness of sin that inhabits me, reduced my life to good intentions that could not be followed through». How many of you had some good intentions, but you were not able to follow them through? And then somebody made you feel bad and said, «Well, hell is paved with good intentions,» okay? Good intentions. In other words, I wanted to do that. That’s how I wanna live. That’s how I want to respond. That’s how I want to act. I fully intended on doing that. However, I couldn’t follow through. Now, no matter what you think as a Christian, that’s everybody in here that has something in our lives that we intended to do, but we didn’t follow through, okay? And it was used to condemn us. And I’m gonna show you today the little trick that’s been played on mankind. And you’re gonna want to spine the devil and slap him after the sermon is over with.
All right, verse 19. He says, «Willpower has failed me». Huh, how many of you have tried to use willpower to accomplish good conduct? And you tried and you tried, tried all night long. You tried and you tried. «Until I found the Lord» who didn’t need to be found because he wasn’t lost. He’s the one that found us 'cause we was lost, right? Willpower. I thought, Well, I’m a Christian now, but I didn’t dismiss willpower. I’m gonna use willpower and I’m gonna fast and I’m gonna use willpower. And it was, it was looking pretty good maybe that first 2 weeks, and maybe that month, it was willpower. Maybe 2 months, it was willpower. I’m gonna use willpower not to cuss. I’m gonna use willpower to stop cussing. I’m gonna… willpower to start cussing. Somebody did something in the… I ain’t know what happened to the willpower and the cuss just flowed out like I never stopped. Paul said, «Willpower has failed me». He said, «This is how embarrassing it is, the most diligent decision that I make to do good,» and you do that. You come to church, you get inspired, and you make a diligent decision to live right.
You told yourself while you was at church, «I’m leaving Roscoe. We ain’t married and this is over with. I’m gonna leave him. I’m not doing it». No, no, no pun intended, Roscoe, because you and Betty have been together forever, you know? And so Betty ain’t left you, you know, you know, and listen. I had good intentions. I wanted to do it. «Willpower has failed me; this is how embarrassing it is, the most diligent decision that I make to do good, disappoints; the very evil I try to avoid, that’s what I do. If I do the thing,» Paul says, «I do not want to do, then it is clear that I am not,» now this is so interesting. «If I do the things I do not wanna do, then it’s clear that I’m not evil. It’s clear that I’m not evil, but that I host, I play host to sin in my body. And I host it against my will».