I’ve questioned the wisdom of allowing tares to grow along side of the wheat. What good is it to live with such internal conflict? I’m beginning to see…the mind of the flesh remains because contrast is a great teacher. The flesh depicts a graphic image of impotence. The contrast between flesh and spirit creates the tension necessary for renewing the mind. The mind is being convinced that she is a servant, not a master. The soul wants what the new heart holds and still argues an ability to produce it independently.
Flesh is the instrument used to reprove her fallacy time and again. Retracing old memory patterns is a part of the process too; it’s a convenient agent of salvation. The mind retraces, but the spirit renews. The difference in function reinforces the soul’s need. In essence, flesh and spirit co-exist to save the soul. The flesh serves God by presenting opposition and resistance for the soul. He uses it to illustrate her inability to produce insight (or anything else) apart from Christ. Deception is lifted and union life becomes the liberating truth.
The cycle of failure is the renewing of the mind. It convinces the soul that she expresses thought, but does not originate it. Fear has always suggested that the flesh is our enemy, and so we resist it. In the end, truth prevails; what Satan means for evil God intends for good. The weakness of the flesh dispels a lie by shattering the soul’s illusion of independence. “Good” is the true view.