“Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” Eph. 2:3. “For the desire of the flesh is death, but the desire of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the desire of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Rom. 8:6-8. Why were we by nature children of wrath just like the others, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind? It is because the desire of the flesh is enmity against God. We are children of wrath. “Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of unbelief.” Col. 3:6. Jesus partook of flesh and blood just like the children. Heb. 2:14. He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Rom. 1:3. How, then, were He and the Father one? They were one in hating the flesh of man, the flesh about which Paul says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells,” and “For if you live according to the flesh you will die.” Rom. 7:18, 8:13. The law was weak through this flesh, just as man is weak in himself. By sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, God wrought an eternal salvation through Jesus to all who obey Him. On account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. The Father and the Son were one in this. Rom. 8:3. The veil, which hindered mankind from living for God, was the flesh with its passions and desires. Because Jesus was one with the Father in hating the flesh, Jesus could consecrate this new way through the veil, which is His flesh. Heb. 10:20. Jesus called Himself a Son of man (KJV) and the Son of Man. John 5:27, 6:62. “Yet it pleased the Lord to crush Him.” Isa. 53:10. He was crushed as a Son of man, and the fullness of the Godhead came to dwell in Him. Col. 1:18-19. Jesus’ hatred of the flesh of David was so great that He was one with the Father in being crushed—so that sin was condemned in the flesh. We read about this battle in the days of His flesh in Hebrews 5:7 and in Isaiah 63:1-6. He offered Himself in the power of the eternal Spirit. Heb. 9:14. It was this Spirit about which Paul says “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16), that He sent into the world on the day of Pentecost. Based on this, we understand Jesus well when He says that no one can be His disciple unless he forsakes everything and hates even his own life. Luke 14:26-27, 33; John 12:25. Paul writes, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Rom. 8:9. In other words, you cannot be in the flesh and in the Spirit at the same time, for they lust against each other. To be in the Spirit means to hate your own life according to the flesh. Then you are no longer “children of wrath.” You are one with the Father and the Son and belong to Christ, if you have begun to hate the flesh with its passions and desires. Gal. 5:24. They are the ones who will be made alive at Christ’s coming. 1 Cor. 15:23. It was Jesus’ prayer that all those who would come to faith in Him through the word of the apostles may be one just as He and the Father are one. We can only be one by hating the mind of the will and of the flesh according to which we used to live. Then we are one just as the Father and the Son are one. This oneness increases in content as we walk in the light and gain the knowledge of God’s will. 1 John 1:7; Col. 1:9-11. How much division and strife do you think there can be among such people? Jas. 4:1-3. They are acquainted with the new and living way through the flesh. They are also familiar with the sufferings of Christ in order not to sin—He who suffered in the flesh when He was tempted as we are. Heb. 2:18, 4:15; 1 Pet. 4:1-2; Phil. 3:10. Instead of strife and division, oneness gains an increasingly divine fullness. This is the church—the body of Christ with Jesus as Head.Sigurd Bratlie