Crucifying Your Authentic Self
How the gospel trumps therapeutic demon wisdom
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal. 5:24)
The apostle Paul, were he alive today, would no doubt be the bane of contemporary psychologists. The mere mention of his name would provoke outrage among the therapeutic community.
The reason for this would not be for any fault of his own, but rather because his views would be regarded as immensely unsavoury by the academic elites. His insistence on doctrines like sin and “the flesh,” and especially the need to “crucify” the flesh with its precious passions and desires, simply wouldn’t jive with the prevailing wisdom of the expert class, who believe firmly in the indulgence of the passions rather than their crucifixion. Indeed, to speak of the crucifixion of one’s desires would be regarded as downright repulsive, the symptom of a mind thoroughly corrupted by religious extremism and self-loathing.
The opposite, of course, is in fact the case—the apostle’s teaching on human nature both reflects accurately the true state of things and is also firmly undergirded by divine revelation. But therein lies the crux of the issue: the psychology experts of our time (let’s call them “Satan’s emissaries,” shall we?) are not at all interested in reality. They are not concerned in the slightest whether their views accord or clash with the objective world outside their heads, much less the authoritative word of Almighty God.
Rather, their primary concern—indeed, one could even say their sole concern—is whether or not a person “feels” as though their desires are being met. What those desires are, whether they are right or wrong, just or evil, in accord with reality or vainly set in opposition to it, does not even enter into the equation. Mere gratification—the raw, gluttonous indulgence of one’s desires and lusts—is the mark at which they aim.
This is why we now find ourselves living in a day where people think it acceptable, nay, even commendable, to chop little babies into pieces, to castrate children, to mutilate, dismember, and violate their bodies in heinous and egregious ways. Contrary to popular belief, such barbarity is not the result of decades of careful research. It is not a “scientific consensus” that has been reached through impartial observation, testing, and many thousands of peer-reviewed papers. Not in the slightest. Rather, such hellish practices are the result of men giving themselves over to one dark and demented belief, namely, that the way to happiness and satisfaction lies in the gratification of one’s flesh rather than its crucifixion; that joy can be had without God; that life can be attained apart from the gospel of grace.
It’s not without reason that Paul warns of the “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1).
In the face of such lunacy, there is only one way forward, and it is to keep preaching with all our might the blessed gospel of God’s crucified Christ. Only through Him can our sins be forgiven. Only through Him can we be reconciled to God. Only through Him can true life, eternal and abounding, be found. And only through Him can that wretched flesh, “the old man,” as the Scripture says, receive his proper treatment: death and crucifixion through the cross of Jesus Christ.
May God help us to that end. To Him be glory and dominion forever. Amen.
And Amen