Ted Haggard and the Indulgence of the Flesh

Colossians 2:20-23 says that the commandments and doctrines of men are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

When the sin of Ted Haggard was exposed this past week what we saw was a man overtaken by the indulgence of the flesh. The flesh has an insatiable appetite for all things sensual. The word sensual simply means those things that titillate the senses. Face it. Our bodies are nothing but sensually focused. But the body is simply the means to gratify the sensual appetite. The sensuality that must be satiated is in the inner man. It is the center of man – the inner man – that our English Bibles translate into the “heart” of man.

Yeshua - Jesus said what comes out of a man defiles that man; it is what proceeds from the heart of man. So the important factor is the consistency of the heart of a man. What is the consistency of the inner man? That is determined by a man or woman’s choice.

To make that choice, in the positive, one must be a believer in the God of the Bible. HE is the ONE who has shown us the wickedness of heart by revealing to us HIS standard of righteousness through HIS Word. Every man or woman will come to the understanding that their practices are lawless – transgressing the Law of God. Even if they never see a Bible or one is read to them, the Almighty Creator will reveal each person’s sin, and need for HIS salvation to them, just as HE did to Abraham.

The Book of Galatians tells us that the Scripture preached the gospel to Abraham. At the time of Abraham there was no written Word. They had no Bible. We place God in a box when we limit HIS ability to our sensual capabilities of sight and sound. The Scripture – Yeshua, the LIVING WORD preached the gospel to Abraham. Abraham believed HIM, obeyed, and it was accounted to HIM as righteousness. We are made righteous by believing what God has said. True belief, however, results in doing what we believe. One can say they believe that eating a balanced diet will make their life better, but if they do not eat balanced their belief is merely intellectual assent. It is not true belief. True belief acts on belief.