Exchanging Life Email Service | JULY 31, 2019
FACTS ABOUT FLESH
Greetings!

The flesh is sin's ground zero!

Flesh is sin’s ground zero. Flesh is the platform from which sin is launched. In flesh, sin finds a welcoming environment where it can root and flourish. Sin is an active component that is fueled by flesh.

However I describe it, it means the same thing. Flesh and sin work in tandem. Flesh expresses itself through sin. So, if we want to understand flesh, then we have to bring sin into focus. Let’s establish some vocabulary for discussing these concepts. Over the years of my study and search for answers, I’ve boiled down a few definitions that work for me. In Scripture, the wording will depend on which translation you use, but it seems to me that context clarifies the meaning of these words.

Flesh. We’ve been defining flesh all along. Let me add one thing here. In the first human, flesh was neutral until the act of sin corrupted flesh by cutting it off from the life of God. Since Adam, humans have been born with corrupted flesh predisposed to sin. All flesh sins and falls short of the glory of God. Jesus, born as a human, had uncorrupted flesh which remained uncorrupted through every testing. He operated in a sinless body.

Sin and sins. Often the use of the word sin will reference the principle of sin, the operating power of sin in the unredeemed human nature. The word sins (or the singular sin when referring to a behavior) most often refers to sinful actions and behaviors. Because of the power of sin, we
commit sins. Sin produces sins. We are all born members of Adam’s race with a sin nature, and therefore we all sin.

Born again. At the moment that we enter into relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ, a transaction occurs that is so complete and so utterly transformational that Jesus referred to it as being born again. That little phrase is replete with all the elements of our transforming salvation. He is not suggesting that a second you is born, but that a new you is born. the old you is gone — dead and buried — and a new you — a freshly minted, brand-new you — has been born. For a new you to be born, the old you has to die. Paul put in these words: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
We’ll keep adding to that concept as we go along.

Flesh’s Folly

In the beginning, God created mankind to be the image of Himself. He created our human personality. It is His wonderful, ingenious, amazing design. The human personality — thinking, willing, creating, desiring, reasoning, relating — is not evil or wrong in itself. In fact, God is restoring the human personality to be what He intended it to be: the vehicle through which He expresses Himself in the world.

The Creator designed us to have needs. He built needs into the blueprint so that those needs would be His entry points into our lives. He configured our needs so that they would be an exact match to His provision, as if the two were interlocking parts, fitting together hand-in-glove.

Flesh takes those God-designed needs and tries to find their fulfillment on its own, from something or someone other than God. To see this in operation, let’s examine the beginnings of corrupted flesh.

The First Flesh

The creation account is all about freedom. It’s odd that we often focus on the one single restriction rather than the amazing freedom. Imagine being Adam and Eve. A whole world just for you. Enjoy! Learn! You can do anything you desire, anything you see is yours. Just one caveat: If you eat the fruit of this one tree — just one tree out of the whole creation — you will die, for sure. You can enjoy your extravagant freedom — a freedom that is protected by the one lone constraint.

Genesis 3:1–24 tells the story we call the Fall. This is when flesh (human nature) became corrupted. Until this incident, the man and the woman had what we are calling flesh, but it was in its right alignment — looking to God and responding to His voice and obeying His protective decree. Let’s revisit the familiar story and see what it tells us about flesh.

Facts About Flesh

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

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 some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:1–6).

I am taken by the tempter’s approach. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” He takes a kernel of the truth and grows a lie from it. Framing the question so that it suggests that God is all about restraint and limitations; hinting that if God has His way, the woman will be denied something that would make her happy and fulfilled. Planting the germ of an idea that there might be some source outside of God.

Flesh falls for the misdirection. Don’t look at the freedom, look at the prohibition. Dissatisfaction, once introduced, finds that flesh is fertile ground. The text seems to say that though she had looked at the tree many times before and knew exactly where it was, she had never seen it as an object of desire. She had never considered disobeying God. On that pivotal day, instead of seeing the tree a God saw it — protection, she saw the tree as the tempter defined it — restriction.

I think it is here, even before the act, that flesh was corrupted. Right here, when the woman considered the possibility that something other than God might meet her needs and fulfill her desires, flesh fell. Sin took advantage and sins followed.

Jennifer Kennedy Dean

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Jennifer Kennedy Dean 2019 ©
IM EXCHANGED LIFE DICTIONARY

Flesh and Fleshly Self-life
There are two primary forms of flesh: the human body, which is where sin houses itself (Romans 7:17) and flesh or fleshly self-life, which is the trash left behind by the old nature. Indwelt Christians have had their flesh (selfish passions) crucified (Galatians 5:24). But since sin remains in our human flesh (not the old nature), we are positioned to reckon ourselves dead to it (Romans 6:11). We are called by our Savior not to continue presenting our bodies to sin as if we are slaves to it, for it will produce unrighteousness (Romans 6:13). 
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