What is the flesh according to the Bible?
The Bible uses one short word — "flesh" — for something every reader meets daily but few can name: the nature we were born with, inherited from Adam, which never gets better no matter what is done to it. Two questions follow: what exactly does Scripture mean by the term, and what has God done about it?
Two Uses of the Word
The word does not always carry a bad meaning. Scripture sometimes uses it simply for the body we live in, and at other times for something else entirely:
James BoydThe flesh is viewed in two ways in Scripture. In the first place it is what the body is (Gen. 6:3, 13); "the life I now live in the flesh" (Gal. 2:20); "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). Another way in which it is viewed is in its fallen and corrupt condition, in which dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18)… The flesh in its corrupt state has been defined as "the body with a will in it," and I take this as a fairly correct definition.
In its second sense the word describes not a part of us but a whole condition — the man himself as he stands connected with Adam:
Hamilton Smith"In the flesh" is a term used in Scripture to set forth our fallen condition, governed by the old nature, as connected with Adam. Adam innocent was in the flesh, but without sin. The Lord Jesus too, was in the flesh, but without sin. By the fall the flesh, or nature of man, came under the dominion of sin, and so flesh became sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3). In this struggle to do right we discover that, in spite of all our efforts the flesh does not change.
Its Character: Enmity Against God
What is this nature actually like? One writer traces its description through several passages and reaches a conclusion that touches more than the question of forgiveness:
The Christian's FriendYou may educate the flesh, take every possible pains with it, even make it religious, but, after all, it remains what it began with — flesh. And in Rom. 8:7 we have what this flesh is, or rather what the mind of the flesh is — "enmity against God"… Many think and speak as though the forgiveness of sins was the only thing that was needed in order to fit us for God's presence; but it is not so. Supposing that a man were on his death-bed, and every one of his sins were forgiven him, would he then be fit for the presence of God? No; because he would still have a sinful nature that hated God.
Beyond Improvement
Because the flesh is what it is, effort spent on repairing it is wasted. Culture and refinement change how it looks, not what it is:
Andrew MillerThere is nothing good whatever in our carnal nature. The most advanced in the divine life has said, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh." How sweeping! "Nothing good." But can it not be improved by diligence in prayer and watchfulness? No, never: it is wholly incurable… True, in some we may find nature polished, cultivated, and refined; in others, rough, rude and rugged, but carnal nature in both. We may not be able to bend a bar of iron, yet it may be so beaten out as to become quite flexible, but it is the same iron still. Its appearance has changed, but its nature is the same.
The Flesh Can Be Religious
Its worst forms are not always the ugly ones. Alongside its appetites, the flesh has a piety of its own — and that piety is judged just as severely:
The Christian's FriendThe religion of the flesh is altogether as evil as its lusts; for after all it is but one of them, though covered up with the veil of works and of holiness. It can be occupied much in good works, be without reproach as to conduct, have much of self-denial, much of piety, plenty of humility… One may ask, But if all these things can exist in a person and be nothing but the flesh, how can we discern the true circumcision? IT REJOICES IN CHRIST JESUS.
God's Answer: The Cross
Since the flesh cannot be mended, God did not mend it. He judged it in the death of His Son, and the result reaches back to the believer's standing:
William KellyIt was not enough that Christ by His own perfect purity condemned sin in the flesh, for that would have made me worse than ever; but after Christ in His life showed me a pattern of all purity, He became a sacrifice for sin, and then God condemned sin in the flesh — this nature that troubled me. Accordingly, if God has given me a new nature found in Christ risen from the dead, and also has condemned my old nature, it is very evident there can be no condemnation to those in Christ.
When we come to Christ, we take God's side in that verdict:
Leslie M. Grant"And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (v. 24)… when we receive Christ as Saviour, we accept God's judgment of sin as applying to our own sinful nature. We virtually admit that the flesh is only good for crucifixion… This is in contrast to making excuses for the sin of the flesh, or justifying what the flesh in us has been guilty of.
Still Present, No Longer Ours
Judged does not mean absent. Writers here draw a careful line between the position we are in and the thing that remains in us:
Frederick W. GrantOur old man represents what we were by nature — the man in the flesh; but although we are not in the flesh (that is a wholly past condition), yet the flesh is in us, and we may permit it, in fact, to assert itself. It is we that are dead, not the flesh; the flesh remains, but as a foreign thing which is no more accounted our own… nothing but corruption attaches to it; nothing but corruption can we expect from it; it is the carcase of an enemy, not ourselves.
Summary
- Source. The flesh is the nature we received by birth from Adam — sometimes the word simply means the body, but in its moral sense it is the fallen self that came under the dominion of sin.
- Verdict. Its mind is enmity against God, so forgiveness of sins alone would still leave a man unfit for God's presence.
- Futility. It cannot be educated, refined or prayed into improvement; polish changes its appearance, never its nature — and its religious form is as evil as its appetites.
- Cross. God did not reform the flesh; He condemned sin in the flesh in the death of His Son, and faith takes His side by counting the flesh crucified.
- Walk. The flesh remains in the believer but the believer is no longer in it — it is treated as an enemy's corpse, not as self, while the Spirit is left free to work.