The Life of the Second—Painful to the Flesh

Be aware, of course, that the flesh will most assuredly cry out:

“What a painful life this is! I will not have any liberty to act as
quickly as I wish; I must instead wait on God! I will have to
acknowledge my corruption and uselessness and spend time in

prayer!” Yet we need to be reminded that this kind of life is fruit

bearing: “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it
abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit” (John
12.24). Despite the word of their Lord, however, many believers
refuse to assume this attitude. With the result that all their lives they
live in the first. They have never known or little known the life in the
second. Their natural life refuses to pass through death. They may
appear quite good outwardly, but they cannot bear real spiritual fruit.
Let me use the Lord Jesus himself as an illustration. Our Lord
when on earth never knew what sin was. Even had He spoken out
from himself, all which He would have done on that basis would still
have been good, simply because He was sinless, pure, and without
blemish: His life and nature are perfect. Nevertheless, as He walked
on earth the Lord Jesus repeatedly declared: “The Son can do nothing
of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever
he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner” (John 5.19). Why
did He not do anything out from himself? Simply because He saw
that that would have been done in the natural realm and not
something done by the Father. If someone so naturally perfect and
pure and beautiful as the Lord Jesus could not do anything from
himself, how much more needful is it that we not try to do anything
from ourselves. If He who himself came from heaven would not rely
upon His perfect flesh but relied instead upon the Holy Spirit, how
much more ought we to depend upon the Holy Spirit.