The Religious Performance of the Flesh.
Orientation
The flesh's desire for righteousness through religious performance is a deceptive path that leads to spiritual ruin, not life.
- The flesh lusts not only for sin but for godliness and spiritual achievement to merit favor.
- This religious striving appears holy but is fueled by self-glorifying covetousness.
- It inevitably produces pride, envy, judgment, and eventual moral decline, despite initial outward holiness.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. (Romans 7:5)
— Romans 7:5
Clarification
God's allowance of legalism and perfectionism is not endorsement but a means to expose the futility of fleshly righteousness.
- Legalistic environments may initially produce outward spiritual activity, but this is a façade that revives sin.
- The crisis of repeated failure under law is God's tool to drive us to the end of ourselves.
- This exposure is a positive turning point, not punishment, intended to lead to Christ alone.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)
— Romans 7:24
Structure
True Christian life is characterized by walking after the Spirit, where both sin and self-righteousness are put out of God's sight through faith in Christ.
- Justification by faith alone crucifies both our sins and our self-righteous striving.
- Walking after the Spirit is freedom from condemnation and reliance on grace, not law-keeping.
- This is the 'offense of the cross'—it excludes all human boasting, even in religious achievement.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
— Galatians 2:20
Weight-Bearing Prose
The flesh’s religious performance is a covetous pursuit of righteousness to establish its own merit before God and men. This is the root of Pauline legalism and self-righteousness. Walking according to the flesh—even in zealous law-keeping—stirs up the motions of sin and leads to the works of the flesh: division, envy, and spiritual death (Galatians 5:19-21; 6:8). This is the ‘Romans 7 road’ of bondage. God’s providential allowance of this legalistic crisis serves to expose the bankruptcy of the flesh and drive the believer to justification by faith alone. In this gospel reality, God has dropped every expectation of the flesh. He is not looking for your righteousness, but for your faith in Christ. Both your sin and your self-righteousness have been crucified with Christ; they are put out of God’s sight. The alternative is the Galatian regression: beginning in the Spirit but seeking perfection by the flesh, which revives sin and leads to death.
Integration
Your standing before God is not, and never was, based on your religious performance. It is based on faith in Christ alone. The flesh’s striving has been exposed and crucified. God is not waiting for you to achieve a spiritual state; He has already provided everything in His Son. Walk in this assurance. The Spirit’s life within you is characterized by freedom from condemnation, not a new list of duties. Rest here. Christ is your righteousness, your sanctification, your reward. There is no pressure to advance, only the invitation to abide in what is already, and always, complete in Him.