Flesh

(by Michael Pearl Nogreaterjoy.org)

 

What is flesh? The unschooled and untutored could answer this accurately. There is nothing mystical about it. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6). One simple and most common Greek work, sarx is used 143 times, and is always translated flesh in the King James Bible.

The weakness of the flesh is found in its inability to deny pleasure. The flesh of a human, like the flesh of an animal, has but one end.....self-gratification. The flesh does not come with a built-in governor that says "enough." It has no discrimination. It does not matter to the flesh whether the pleasure is legitimate or selfish.

Flesh is amoral, neither righteous nor evil. There is nothing evil in appetite itself----Christ hungered. Adam and Eve were created in bodies of flesh. Even before they sinned, their flesh craved indulgence. They had eyes for things lovely, an appetite for things pleasant to the taste, and a desire to have knowledge like the gods. Eve could be tempted to disobey God because of the innate desires of her flesh.

The original sin of Lucifer sprang from pride over his beauty (Ezekiel 28:17). He lusted after the promotion of his beautiful self to a place of prominence. Many thousands of years later he still regarded that drive so highly that when he had an opportunity to tempt the Son of God he offered Him the kingdoms of the world if he would just fall down and worship.

The flesh is sinful or righteous only in its application, that is, as it is used by a moral agent. The flesh does not have a mind or a will of its own. It has no responsibility. The flesh should be the agent of the mind. The flesh answers to the natural world, the mind answers to God. The mind should rule as the spirit directs. When knowledge of duty---of that which is good and just----is set aside for the desires of the flesh, the mind becomes servant to the appetite. When the mind becomes the agent of the flesh, answering to the desires of the flesh, then the state of the mind is altogether one of sinfulness. The selfish habits formed in the flesh are called sinful. But the sin is with the moral agent who has allowed his mind and will to be taken captive by the desires of the flesh.

Sinful flesh is flesh that has been allowed to selfishly indulge. It is nonsensical to speak of the flesh as evil in nature. It can be neither good nor evil since it has no intentions and no responsibility. Flesh is the creation of God. When it is allowed to run out of control, used to do evil, even when it is conditioned to evil lusts, it remains natural flesh as originally created. Preference for evil would involve moral values and choice. The flesh cannot choose. The person living in the flesh chooses. The fleshly desire for pleasure is the same in saint or sinner.

All of the verses below have the word flesh in them. This list represents the 144 times the word flesh appears in the King James Bible. Every time the word flesh appears in these verses it is translated from the one Greek word "sarx."

Matthew 26:41 "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." The disciple were yet unregenerate, still they experienced struggle between the flesh and the spirit.

John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Jesus was made flesh, the same flesh (sarx) that is weak in man and leads to sin.

John 6:51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Jesus gave his "sarx" to save the world. This is the same "sarx" of man that is called sinful flesh.

Romans 13:14 "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. " The Christian is to not provide occasion to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Lust is in the "sarx."

1 Corinthians 15:50 "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." Flesh is corruption, it has the ability to decay.

2 Corinthians 4:11 "For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."

 2 Corinthians 7:1 "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. " It is clear from this verse that the word flesh cannot apply to any part or function of the spirit, for flesh and spirit are sharply distinguished.

2 Corinthians 10:2-3 "But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: " The same Greek, "sarx," is used these three times. To walk according to the flesh would be to walk in accord with the desires of the flesh. To walk in the flesh is nothing more than having the flesh as the earthly tabernacle of the soul. To war after the flesh would be to enter spiritual battle in the power of and with the resources of the flesh. No Christian walks according to the flesh. All Christians walk in the flesh until they get their glorified bodies. Though a Christian could attempt to war after the flesh, and be a total failure, he should war after the Spirit only. The first is never true, the second is always true, and the third should not, but could be true of every believer.

Galatians 5:13 "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."

Galatians 5:16-17 "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

Galatians 5:24-25 "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." No one is ever told to crucify the flesh. All that are in Christ have crucified the flesh when buried into His death.

Galatians 6:12-13 "As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh." Flesh can be circumcised. That rather limits the possibilities in seeking to identify the flesh.

Ephesians 2:3,15 "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; " The mind, even a sinful mind, is not the flesh. Christ terminated sin in His flesh.

Ephesians 5:29 "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:"

Philippians 3:3 "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

Colossians 2:11 "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:" Christ's death and our entrance into it was a circumcision of the flesh. In circumcision the flesh is discarded.

Colossians 2:18-23 "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. 20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." A fleshly mind is a mind set on fulfilling the desires of the flesh. The believer does not have two minds, a fleshly mind and spiritual mind.

Hebrews 2:10,14-15 "By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

1 Peter 2:11 "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;" The flesh is distinct from the soul or it could not war against it.

1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: "

1 Peter 4:1,2 "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."

2 Peter 2:10 "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities."

2 Peter 2:18 "For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error."

1 John 2:15-17 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

Summary of flesh

The flesh is endowed with certain needs. When those needs are met, it gives a sensation of bodily pleasure. The meeting of legitimate needs gives pleasure----to eat when hungry, to be made warm when cold, etc. Legitimate needs give way to wants, and pleasure becomes an addiction. To be stroked, curried and comforted, to be fed to the full, and to feel till it tingles becomes an end. The line between needs and wants grows indistinct, even nonexistent, where the mind loses control---a constant occasion to the mind and will that inhabit it.

The nature of man is not altered, but the nature of his relationship is. Man is called flesh because the flesh is now his primary orientation. The regenerate man is called spiritual, the unregenerate is called natural.

Man was created to be in community with God. The faculties of man as created, and remaining such after the fall, are sufficient for self-direction. But without the fellowship of God, the attention is easily captivated by the ever-present desires of the flesh.

The crucifixion of the flesh and the introduction of the Spirit of life restores fellowship and completes the original relationship. Regenerate man is now circumcised of the body of flesh but is still in such close proximity to it so as to be drawn away of its lust. The battle continues between the flesh and spirit but this time it is with a spiritual orientation.

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