What Is "The Flesh"?

One of the weaknesses I feel I see in how American Christians approach non-Christians, is how our view of them (and of ourselves, from when we were also non-Christians) is more influenced by secular psychology than by the Bible.

How often I have read or heard Christian speakers say that non-Christians are "wounded", or "broken", and how seldom I hear Christian preachers say that non-Christians are sinners.

Also, how often I hear preachers use the word "sin" as a synonym for "a deed I do", and seldom in the sense of, "Something fundamentally wrong with me on a deep level." The evangelical diagnosis of humanity's troubles seems stuck on a very shallow level.

The Bible takes us much deeper than woundedness or brokenness. It takes us all the way down deep to what it calls the "flesh."

The word translated flesh, sarx, can refer to the physical body (Mt. 19:15), bloodline (Ro. 1:3), or worldly human thinking (2 Co. 5:16). But when the apostle Paul gets ahold of it, he uses it to unfold the tragic troubles of the unsaved man, and also the internal battles of the Christian.

"Flesh" is a synonym for sin, in Romans 7:8. You can see this in Ro. 13:14, and Galatians 5:16-17. The flesh produces evil desires -- Ro. 7:8. Notice that the flesh isn't the same thing as the evil desires. It produces the evil desires, like a thistle-root produces a thistle.

The flesh deceives the lost person (perhaps into thinking that there will be no bad consequences to sinning, just as Satan deceived Eve in the garden), and it destroys the person by bringing down God's righteous judgment. Ro. 7:11.

In this portion of Romans 7, Paul is testifying to his spiritual experience as a dedicated but lost Pharisee. In spite of his high dedication, he was entirely without the Holy Spirit and enslaved by his evil flesh (7:14).

Paul called himself "carnal", which meant he did not have the Holy Spirit of God. Even though he was keeping the Jewish law outwardly, he knew that inside his heart sin reigned. 

Paul was controlled by the flesh. Even though his mind was well-taught in the Bible, and he, on one level of awareness, heartily approved of Moses' holy law, sin controlled him.

Paul was powerless. He committed sins that he knew he should not do, and his conscience made him feel condemned. He also did not do that which he knew he should, and that also made him feel condemned. Ro. 7:15-23. He was a man under the Holy Spirit's conviction, he felt his own crippled condition, and he felt helpless and wretched.

Then he goes on in Romans 8 to say with joy that we are freed from slavery to the flesh/sin by new life in Christ (Ro. 8:1-2). Christ by dying did what we could not do: satisfy God's standards.

This is why there is no condemnation from God for those who are in Christ Jesus -- Jesus Christ received God's condemnation in our place!  And when we receive Him as Savior, God gives us the Holy Spirit, who causes us to become born-again. We are weak compared to the evil flesh/sin living within us, but the Holy Spirit is infinitely more powerful than sin. His power can undo the damage sin does to our thinking and desires, and He can lead us step-by-step to victory.

I am not dismissing life's formative influences. How we are raised has a powerful effect on our outlook on life. Whether we are taught the good words of God's book makes a huge difference.

But: the Bible says there is an evil force dwelling inside each one of us, and we are all born with it. It cannot be re-educated by teachers, or reformed by counselors. It hates God by its very nature. It cannot obey Him (Rom. 8:7), any more than a rattlesnake can drink milk from a cow. The "flesh" is a deeper thing than just being broken, or just being wounded, and it takes the Gospel, the death of Christ, and the Holy Spirit to cure it.