Genesis 8:21. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
We might expect God’s words after the flood to sound more like this: “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for now they are perfect because of the flood and will never sin again.” Or maybe this: “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for they have learned their lesson and will never sin again.”
Instead, God’s words are a bit surprising – for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. The flood didn’t fix people. After the flood, people are still just as evil as they were before the flood.
Wait a minute, if the flood didn’t fix man’s heart and remove his sin, then what was the point?
Our verse tells us that it wasn’t mankind that was changed by the flood, but instead it was God who was changed. God isn’t changing who he is, or what he is like, that’s impossible. But God is changing how he will deal with our sin moving forward. God promises that he will never again curse the ground, or send a flood, or destroy everyone and everything. And do you remember what we said on Day 33 about the rainbow? God’s bow and arrows are aimed at himself, not at us.
In a very real way we are all like Noah after the flood. We are all still sinners. Noah was graciously saved by God from the flood. Noah had faith in God and he entered the ark. But inside of Noah there was still sin. Every intention (imagination) in his heart was evil.
The truth is that when we trust in Jesus, when we are saved by his grace, when we have faith in him, we are STILL sinners. We still have sin living inside of us. This sin makes us selfish and it makes us want to do what we want to do, instead of doing what God wants us to do. This sinful part of us is called our “flesh” in the New Testament.
But the good news is that there is also a non-sinful part of us called the spirit. The Holy Spirit? Yes, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us too, in our spirit. And the Holy Spirit is constantly fighting against our flesh. Here’s how Paul says it in the book of Galatians.
Galatians 5:17. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
When your flesh tells you to cheat on that quiz, the Spirit says you don’t have to because God loves you no matter what grade you get.
When your flesh doesn’t obey mom and dad, the Spirit tells you to apologize and try again.
When your flesh tells you to show off so that other people like you, the Spirit reminds you that God likes you and accepts you just as you are.
One day the flesh will be gone. Jesus will come to take us to his heavenly kingdom where there will be no more sin, inside of us or outside of us. Everything God wants us to do we will want to do. We will love God and others perfectly, without selfishness and without even having to think about it. Until then, we must learn to listen to the Holy Spirit when he tells us how much God loves us. We must let the Spirit win the battle against our flesh, as we learn to trust that Jesus is better than anything else.
Questions: Can you tell that there is a battle happening inside of you between your flesh and the Spirit, between what God wants and what your selfishness wants? This battle is happening in our choices that we make. What choice can you make today to trust Jesus and obey him instead of being selfish?
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