The word flesh in the Bible is seen often and used vaious ways. The word flesh is "basor" in Hebrew and
"sorx" in Greek.
The most significant use of the word flesh is made by paul when he refers to the unregenrated person. He says in romans 7:14 " I am fleshly." It is not just a part of his being that is fleshly, but his whole being is fleshly. He says" but I am carnal, sold under sin."
" For I know that " in me ( that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not."
Romans 7:18
Pual uses the term flesh in a variety of ways. Sometimes he simply refers to the physical body in Ephesians 2:15; sometimes he refers to the physical desent in romans 1:3, 9:3). But in verse 18 the term flesh is used in an ethical sense to refer to a condition of being dominated by sin and sinful pursuits.
As began to study the "flesh", we must remember that in the beginning man was constituted spirit, soul and body. Just as the soul is the site of man’s personality and consciousness, the soul is also connected to the spiritual world through man’s spirit.
The soul must make a decision! The soul must decide whether it is to obey the spirit and therefore be united with God and His will or will the flesh yeild to the body and all the temptations of the material world.
In the beginning, when man fell, the soul resisted the spirit’s(God is a spirit) authority and became enslaved
to the body and it’s passions. Thus man became fleshly, not spiritual. In other words, man’s sprit was denied it’s noble position and was reduced to a prisioner of the flesh.
So now that the soul is under the power of the flesh, the Bible desinates man as being fleshly or carnal. Whatever is soulical has become fleshly. The term flesh is used to designate all that an unregenrated person is.
Sometimes the term flesh is written to denote the following:
a. The soft part of the human body as distinct form flesh and bones
b. The human body
c. It may signify the totality of mankind
Yet these four meanings are closely related. The first term for "flesh" is applied to the soft par tof the body. We know that the human body is composed of flesh, ones and blood. Flesh is that part of the body trhoughw hich we sense the world around us. Therefore, a fleshly person is one who follows the world. Beyond simply having flesh, he walks after the sense of his flesh.
The second term for flesh as applied to the human body, broadly speaking, mean the body, living or dead. According to the latter part of Romans 7, sin of the flesh is related to the human body: "I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members." vs. 23.
The Apostle continues in chapter 8 by explaining that if we would overcome the flesh we must "put to death the deeds of the body"! Adn how do we do that? By the Spirit!In is up to you to get your soul and your body in agreement with your regenerated spirit.. In this verse the word flesh is translated from the Greek word sarx, which indicates not only the psyhclical flesh (mental, emotional, soulish), but the physical flesh as well.
The third term for flesh is pplied to the totality of mankind. All men(includes women) in this world are born of the flesh; they are therefore fleshly. The Bible views all men to be flesh, there are no exceptions. Every man is controlled by that composite of soul and body called the flesh, following both the sins of the body and the self of his soul. When the Bible speaks of men, it is characteristic of " all flesh".
How does man become flesh? In John 3:6, Jesus aid "That which is born of the flesh is flesh..". Man is flesh and everything we inherit from our parents is flesh. In this particular passage there is no distinction made as to whether man is bad, good, clever, useless or cruel. He is just considered FLESH. All with which we are born or developed in us later is life is included in the flesh.
How does man become fleah? " That which is born of the flesh is flesh!" Man does not become fleshly learning to be bad through gradual sinning. Nor does he become fleshly by being greedy to follow the desire of his body and mind until he is controlled by the evil passions of his body. Jesus said as oon as a man is born he is fleshly. Man is not determined by his conduct nor by his character.
On things decides the issue: through whom you were born. Your parents are flesh, you are born of your parents and is thereby judged by God to be of the flesh. Gen.6:3. According to John 1:13, a man is flesh because he is born of blood, of the will of the flesh, and of the will of man, not because of how he lives or how his parents live!
God looks upon the flesh as utterly corrupt. Although God has great power, He cannot transform this flesh unless we are BORN AGAIN! And regenerated through the power of the Holy Ghost. God knows the actual condition of the flesh and He says it is unchangeable. We cannot repair it ourselves. So being that God recognized the impossibility of the flesh to be changed, improved or bettered, God does not try to alter man’s flesh. He instead gives man a NEW LIFE in order to help put the flesh to death. The flesh must die. This is SALVATION!
