What is the Flesh?

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-5, ESV)

Pastor Abel’s sermon on this passage is titled, “Stop Performing, Start Beholding”.

This passage uses the word “flesh” six times, indicating the importance of this concept. But what does it mean? Paul says that those who are in Christ do not walk “according to the flesh.” This doesn’t mean that Christians don’t care about their bodies at all.

John Piper describes the flesh, as it is used in this passage, as follows:

Flesh is any human action or achievement without dependence upon the Holy Spirit and without glorying, exalting in, trusting, treasuring, and valuing Jesus Christ. It might be as gross as rape and child abuse, or as moral as trying to keep the Ten Commandments. Self-reliant commandment keeping and child abuse would both be flesh because they’re not flowing from dependence on the Holy Spirit, and they’re not glorying in Christ Jesus.

Another clue is in Paul’s phrase, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh….” What are the things of the flesh? We can glean the answer to this from another passage:

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” (Galatians 5:19-21a, ESV)

In other words, someone who walks in the flesh lives a self-reliant life that does not depend on the Holy Spirit and is constantly thinking about the things in the list above. Notice that while a Christian may have days that are fleshly and sinful, this is not the dominate pattern of their life. Let us examine ourselves carefully and walk in the Spirit.

For Further Study

• Do you tend to be self-reliant on a day-to-day basis? Do you often think about the sins in the passage from Galatians above?
• Article: The relation between Original Sin and the term “flesh” in the New Testament