The Conqueror From Edom

We need not fear the flesh if we abide in Jesus, because He has so absolutely encountered and mastered it, and if we abide in Him we share His victory. It is indeed as much ours as it is His. It is ours because we are one with Him. It was His that it might be ours. Let us meditate on this great fact until it has become part of the texture of our inner consciousness. Let us call to mind the special form of pride, selfishness, or self-indulgence that most perpetually masters us as Edom did Israel, and let us realize as a matter of fact, if not of feeling or consciousness, that this has been specifically encountered and mastered by our blessed Lord. It was included in the victory of Calvary. It was one of the cities or townships in that territory of Edom over which He cast out His shoe, and therefore, by virtue of union with Him in His glorious resurrection, it has no right for a single other moment to assert supremacy over those who live in vital and conscious fellowship with Him. It is a great point gained in the inner conflict to know that our Edom has been vanquished; to know that no proud lust is too strong for Jesus; to know that His victory was acquired for us and is ours if only we dare avail ourselves of its prevalence.

Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man (our flesh) was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. NKJV

Whenever, then, the Edom of the flesh asserts itself, fall back on the victory of the cross, where Christ refused to listen to its solicitations, but laid down His life and gave Himself to the rending nail, the piercing spear. Identify yourself with that victory; believe that the body of sin has been done away—that we should no more be in bondage to sin. Assert your freedom and reckon that the living Savior comes from your Edom, leaving it a defeated and devastated kingdom, mighty to save you to the uttermost since you have fled to Him for shelter, succor (for His complete victory over your flesh), and salvation.

Romans 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon (believe) yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. NKJV

As long as the soul (meaning, the choices and decisions of the will, which has once been freed by Christ from captivity to the flesh) maintains its position in the risen and victorious Son of God it is invulnerable. The flesh may chafe for its old supremacy, but in vain. It cannot pass across the great gulf of Christ's grave and resurrection; it cannot reassert its pristine power. The only way, therefore, in which Satan can succeed in bringing us again beneath the power of the flesh is either by hiding from us what Christ has done or by leading us to look away from it to the strength of the foe, the weakness of our might, the perpetual failures of the past.

"The flesh is so strong," the tempter says. "Look at it in its pride; is it likely that you will ever be able to master it?" "You are so weak," the tempter suggests. "It is not to be supposed that you can hold your ground against so mighty and persistent an adversary."