The preachers quoted here use "the flesh" for the whole person apart from Christ, the sin principle that came in at the fall. They say it remains evil in the believer, always seeks to dominate the Spirit, judges wrongly, and is not to be improved or conquered but put to death.
The Bible uses "flesh" in more than one sense.1 It can mean the body, as when "the Word was made flesh" (John 1:14), or humanity in its frailty, "All flesh is grass" (Isaiah 40:6). In Paul especially it means human nature as it is since the fall, turned in on itself and away from God.
Jesus drew the line: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). Paul says of himself, "in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18), and of all people in that condition, "they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (8:8). Luther, expounding Galatians, held "that the flesh is unable to think, speak, or do anything except against God."2
Its fruit is listed plainly. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife" and more (Galatians 5:19-20). The list includes religious and social sins as well as bodily ones. The flesh can also be respectable: Paul speaks of having "no confidence in the flesh" with reference to his own religious credentials (Philippians 3:3-4).
Believers are no longer "in the flesh" as their ruling condition (Romans 8:9), yet the flesh remains in them and fights. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other" (Galatians 5:17). John Owen identified what must be put to death: "It is indwelling sin, the corrupted flesh or lust, that is intended."3
Scripture gives both a fact and a duty. The fact: "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24). The duty: "if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13); "make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (13:14); "abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11).
The flesh cannot be reformed by effort. Paul asks the Galatians, "having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3). The remedy is positive: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (5:16). And the choice has consequences: "he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (6:8).
- Strong's Greek 4561, sárx: "flesh (as stripped of the skin), i.e. (strictly) the meat of an animal (as food), or (by extension) the body...".
- Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, "CHAPTER II: Verse 1. Then fourteen years after I went up again to...".
- John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, "Chapter I: The foundation of the whole ensuing discourse laid in Rom....".
In their own words
Each line below is quoted exactly from a sermon on this site. Follow the link to hear or read it where it was said.
The flesh is the whole man, apart from Christ.
Leon Morris
in Flesh vs. the Spirit
Read in context
The flesh is the sin principle of satanic origin that invaded man's soul in the day that Adam fell into sin and forfeited the divine spirit.
Major Ian Thomas
in God at War With Flesh
Listen at 14:20
The flesh is evil, undiluted evil, just as much as before Christ entered the soul.
C.H. Spurgeon
in Flesh And Spirit—A Riddle
Read in context
The flesh is always wanting to suppress the spirit and dominate and rule.
Brian Brodersen
in (Galatians) Works and Grace, Flesh and Spirit
Listen at 47:14
The flesh is not to be conquered; it is to die.
Watchman Nee
in The Fleshly or Carnal Believer
Read in context
So the flesh is capable of judging, but it is a wrong judgment.
Phil Beach Jr.
in The Flesh Life
Listen at 22:19
But the flesh is so strong, the pull that after time, sometimes you lose a battle.
Shane Idleman
in Defeat The Flesh - Walk In The Spirit
Listen at 20:46
What Scripture says
- Galatians 5:16-17 walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh
- Romans 8:8-9 they that are in the flesh cannot please God
- John 3:6 that which is born of the flesh is flesh
- Galatians 5:24 they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
- Romans 13:14 make no provision for the flesh
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