Greetings!
See and taste that it is good!
The nature of corrupted flesh comes into clear focus. Flesh flowers into full bloom as the woman considers the forbidden tree from a new perspective. Before, she had looked at it and said to herself, “That will harm me.” This day she looked at it and said to herself, “That will enhance me.” We don’t know how long Adam and Eve lived in the garden before this fateful day, but for all the days preceding they had chosen time and again to obey. They saw the tree, but they did not eat from it. On this day, though, the need and desire that had always driven them to God was turned away from God and toward another source.
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good
for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took and ate it” (Genesis 3:6). Keep those words in mind. Here is how the Scripture describes all the trees that God made for Adam and Eve to enjoy: “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:8–9). Do you see the echo of the phrases?
The deceiver appealed to her legitimate desires (a delight to the eyes) and played on her God-given needs (good for food) to lead her to believe that she could find a way to satisfy those needs and desires on her own (desirable for gaining wisdom). She could be wise herself instead of looking to wisdom Himself (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30). She could be her own source.
Ultimately the temptation to which the first Adam fell was this
: You can be your own source. You can do for yourself that which God has promised to do for you. You can obtain for yourself that which God has promised to give you. You can be like God.
Do you see how flesh works? Flesh tries to get its needs met outside of God. “If I can make this relationship be what I want it to be; if I can make people respond to me like I want them to respond; if I can prove my worth by owning enough stuff, or acquiring a high enough position, or having a sterling reputation. . . .” On and on with no end to the list. Flesh has to work hard because managing and controlling your life and the lives of those around you is more than a full-time job. Flesh never rests.
The garden God had designed for humans
to inhabit was a place of rest. The work was already done; all that needed was tending. Later, we’ll talk about how God restores that rest to His people. For now, realize that when flesh fell for the deception, flesh’s promise proved false, as it always will. Flesh doesn’t know the word enough. Whatever it is that your flesh has fastened its hope on, you will never get there. You won’t ever have enough, or be enough. The people you are trying to squeeze love from will never give you enough. The accomplishment you thought would finally prove your value, after a momentary high, is soon passé — yesterday’s news. Life is tiring, stressful, draining. Just when you think you’re almost there — there moves.
Flesh Is Powered by Death
Remember that death is a force. It is the “not life.” Consider that when God told Adam and Eve that when (“as soon as”) they ate from the forbidden tree they would surely (without question, definitely) die, they had no experiential knowledge of what death was. Death had never occurred in their experience. They had no concrete concept of death.
The first death occurred when
, to cover their sinful state, God killed an animal and used its skin as a covering. So when you think about this account, do not imagine that they had a clear idea of the “death” they were admitting into their experience. This is one of the reasons that they fell so easily into sin. They did not know what death was.
At the moment that flesh flowered into sinful action, the power of death took the place of life. Adam and Eve — archetype of all humanity until the end of time — were designed to be life containers, but became death containers. Where life was meant to flow, death flowed instead. Death began. Physical death is the ultimate expression of the power of death, but not the whole picture.
In the material realm, scientists divide things into classifications
—organic or inorganic; living or nonliving. Organisms cannot change classifications. The law of biogenesis says life comes from life. A non-living organism cannot produce a living organism. A rock, for example, will never produce a flower. What is nonliving — lifeless — cannot become living.
That which is born inorganic is inorganic; that which is born organic is organic. An organism cannot pass from death to life. An organism cannot change its essential nature and become what it is not. In the spiritual realm, only Jesus is life.
“In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself” (John 5:26). “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). “So that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19). “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it” (1 John 1:2). “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12).
Everything else is flesh
— progressive death. In the spiritual realm, the two classifications are flesh or Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Life is only in the Son, so only the Son can impart life. Life must come from life — spiritual biogenesis. Only the person who has the Son has life. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son has “not life.” A person without the indwelling present Jesus is described in the
Word as dead.
"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved..." (Ephesians 2:1-5)
"When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions..." (Colossians 2:13)
Flesh can only produce more flesh.
Flesh is powered by death. “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!” (Romans 6:20–21).
Just as the Spirit produces fruit in the life of those in whom He lives, so death produces fruit in the lives of those in whom it lives.
“For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death." (Romans 7:5)
The power of flesh and death produces “dead work
s.”
Jennifer Kennedy Dean
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Jennifer Kennedy Dean 2019
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