The carnal Christian is a Christian who is seeking to live the Christian life in his own strength and no longer surrenders his life on a day-to-day basis to God. The carnal Christian is the most miserable kind of person there is. He is like the third of the three boys who were going swimming one hot summer day. As they neared the swimming hole, one of them broke into a run, leaped up in the air, grabbed his nose, and hit the water with a splash. He began to swim around joyously. The second young man followed close behind, but instead of jumping into the water he stopped right on the edge of the sand and began to walk around the pond on dry ground. The third boy came to the pond and started to wade very slowly out into the icy water. His teeth chattered and he shivered all over as he inched out into the deeper water.
The first boy was as happy as he could be. He was all the way in. The second boy was happy in a different way. He was all the way out. But the third boy was miserable because he was half in and half out. And the higher the water got, the colder he became and the more miserable he was. Many Christians today are just like that. They are miserable because they are neither in nor out. They are halfway in between. They are Christians but they do not know the victory that Jesus can give. They may be in church every Sunday, they may teach a Sunday school class, they may sing in the choir, and they may even stand in the pulpit. But their lives are not controlled by God’s Spirit and thus they are miserable, frustrated, and defeated.