Life in the Flesh

There is one guarantee I would like to offer you as you read this article. It is this: You believe your flesh is sinful.

I know you believe that because I am positive that you were taught precisely that as your spiritual mentors helped to grow your faith and knowledge of the Bible. It does not matter into which doctrinal family your faith was born. You were taught the sinfulness of flesh. If your background was Catholic, you were taught the doctrine of original sin which passes down to every human from Adam. If you come out of a Protestant background, you were taught the prevailing view of full, traditional Calvinism which lays total depravity onto every person and has them born with the family trait of a sinful nature. Every major doctrinal family in Christendom believes that man has fallen and, at the very least, his human nature draws him toward sin. You were taught that no matter where your faith began. You were taught your flesh is sinful.

Even those of you inside Churches of Christ, where neither original sin nor Calvinism are mainstream beliefs, you were still taught that man has need of a spiritual regeneration at conversion. Among ourselves, we argue over the cause of our sinfulness being either nature (we are born leaning toward sin) or nurture (the sinful world surrounding us inexorably creates a habitually sinful leaning to our nature). Yet, we still hold that man has a proclivity toward sin. And that proclivity began and worsened in the Garden. While I have heard us argue over the details, I have never heard a Gospel preacher directly deny that man has, at the least, a leaning toward sin. And the cause of it? It is his flesh.

On this, we agree with the Catholics and Calvinists from an expositional structure. The Bible is clear:

• The works of the flesh are evident, and they are full of evil (Galatians 5:17-19).
• Our flesh is at war with the Holy Spirit (Romans 7-8).
• We need the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us to overcome our sin (Galatians 5:21-22).
• To overcome sin, we need to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit in connection with our conversion (Titus 3:5-6).

We argue with them over the extent and systemic structure of the sinfulness of our flesh, but the concept we admit is transparent. How on earth could the Bible be any more expressly clear on a doctrine, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed it cannot” (Romans 8:7)? The Bible says it expressly and as succinctly as possible, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8).

From a macro view, when considering the sinful leaning of our flesh, those of us in the churches of Christ feel we must agree on this fact with the whole of Christendom. Flesh is just repeatedly connected to sin. Everyone should agree on this Bible truth.

Except there is a problem with this concept. The Bible does not teach it at all. Flesh in the Bible has zero causal connection to sin. We speak of flesh as being just that – it is the cause of sin. Yet, in the Bible, flesh has no systemic or structural desire to sin. The structural, universal problem flesh has is that the sin-ending system it created has always failed.

Flesh’s strongest desire is, and always has been, to live at all costs. Flesh’s inherent and strongest native desire is to attack its harmful enemies with the most well-defined and direct assault it knows. It seeks to end the invasion of sin by fortifying the pathways that sin uses to enter our lives.

The Bible’s rebuke of flesh is not flesh’s native desire, but on the arrogant and self-defeating method it always employs to win its battle. That method is based on flesh’s confidence of its disciplined ability to follow rules.

Understanding this concept is foundationally important to having the peace that truly passes all understanding. You see, if your flesh has an inherent tendency toward sin, then to whatever degree it is flawed is the degree that you cannot please God. And so long as you are drawing breath in this world, there is no removal of your flesh. To whatever degree you believe your flesh is drawn to sin, it is to the same degree that it will eat away at your spiritual peace if your soul is encased in flesh.

You need to see what the Bible is teaching about flesh. To begin your search on this topic, open your Bible and your mind to the writings of Paul. The recurring contrast between flesh and spirit in the Bible is centered in his writings. You need to understand his teaching on this topic to understand it across the rest of the Bible. For this article, let us start our examination of his approach to the flesh in Galatians 2:20-21:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”^[1]

The Life I Now Live

Paul wrote “…the life I now live…” So then, in Galatians 2, Paul is proclaiming an important truth about the life that he was “now” living. Immediately, as a Bible student who believes in verbal inspiration from the Holy Spirit, you should be seeking to understand why Paul and the Holy Spirit deemed it important to include the small word “now” in the sentence.

The first question that should come to mind is: “What life was Paul living before the now life?”

 The point of Paul’s message to the Galatians about his life was its credibility and superiority to those who were opposing him. So, what was different about Paul’s now than it was before?

What was BEFORE the NOW?

Fortunately, the Bible provides us a great deal of information about Paul’s life prior to his life the Galatians had seen. An examination of several verses will provide us with a proper list about his life’s quality:

• He Lived in a Pharisaical Family
  • Acts 23:6 – Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”
  • While the Pharisees rightly received harsh criticism for their hypocrisy, their ideology sought to protect God’s law at all costs. Keeping God’s law was at the heart of Paul’s life. And that seed was sown within his own family.
• He Sought to Protect God’s Law and People
  • Acts 7:58; 8:1 – Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. . . And Saul approved of his execution.
  • At the death of Steven, the first Christian martyr, Saul stood there participating and in full support of his trial. That was a heinous act by Paul. One that he remembered for the rest of his life (1Timothy 1:12-15). However, before encountering Jesus, what was Paul seeking to do? What was happening in Israel? People were leaving the law and changing all the practices of the Israelites. They were trying to change the way to observe the law. They were teaching this new system which in Jerusalem’s Mosaic realm would be a point of high hypocrisy. To Saul, Christianity would have seemed a treasonous heresy.
• He Led the Charge to Protect God’s Law and People
  • Acts 8:3 – But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
  • Given that he was a lifelong Pharisee and thought the Law was being overridden, he is credited with being a leading cause in the persecution. The Bible labels him as the cause of the scattering of the church out of Jerusalem. Both before and after becoming a Christian, Paul was a man wholly dedicated to the protection of God’s people and law.
• He Lived in All Good Conscience
  • Acts 23:1 – And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”
  • Acts 24:16 – So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.
  • Paul regretted his attacks on Jesus and the church. Yet, he was never in doubt about the sincerity of his heart. All his days, he sought to live in all good conscience.

So, there is Paul’s before life. The life of Paul in the before: Was it sexually immoral? Was it impure? Was it full of idolatry? Did it succumb to the evils of Greek and Roman polytheism? Was it what we would call “hedonistic, secular, or humanist?” What was the source of evil in his life?

Perhaps it was the native depravity of his flesh? Let’s find out.

Living in the FLESH is not Depravity

Continue reading in Galatians 2 and Paul builds upon the nature of the life that he was now living. He says, “the life I now live in the flesh…” As Paul wrote the Galatian letter, he affirms that he was living in the flesh. Well, if a life in the flesh has even a measure of native depravity in it (and certainly if it is totally depraved), then an expositional problem arises. How is Paul’s life now in the flesh and different than his life before?

If flesh is depravity, was Paul living in the flesh in the before life? Or was he living in some other manner? The problem is that even with a partial or measured doctrine of depravity built into the flesh, who you are does not matter. Adam and Eve lived in their fallen flesh. Every patriarch was a being of flesh. All of those both in and out of the ark were fallen people. Every soul under the law of Moses shared that depravity. And since Paul, as a Christian, was still in the flesh then every Christian from Pentecost till now is still living in the flesh.

Please remember that Paul states those who live in the flesh “cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). If flesh has, in any form, a propensity toward sin, it is a universal problem. That depraved leaning, in whole or in part, is based on the fact you are human. And there is nothing you can do about that.

But was Paul living a life dedicated to a sinful nature in his life both in the before and the now? We just read where he said he lived in all good conscience before God all the days of his before life. How did he accomplish that? Was his conscience just so seared by the native tendencies of his flesh that he did not recognize the scope of his evil conduct?

Read his own words concerning the value of his before life: “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:6). In his own Holy Spirit inspired account of his before life, Paul was blameless when touching the righteousness under the law of Moses. How did this man, living in the flesh, achieve a level of blameless conduct that the Holy Spirit allowed him to assert in his writings? If flesh is even marginally drawn directly to sin, how did he avoid it?

That dilemma is an expositional challenge that needs a credible explanation.

Explaining Depraved Flesh

Before moving forward to examine Paul’s own words to explain how one overcomes the flaw of flesh, a restatement of the extreme expositional and so, the doctrinal dilemma every doctrine of depraved flesh has at this point. Understand these sequential elements:

1. The fall of every man begins no later than the Garden of Eden.
   1. Every doctrinal paradigm built upon the fall of man in the Garden has the obligation of explaining the “death” of Adam and Eve according to the Genesis 2:17 command.
   2. Whether it is the impact of original sin, the total annihilation of humanity’s being made in the image of God that is required by Calvinist’s foundations, or the spiritual death by separation method prevalent in churches of Christ, they all must begin in the Garden.
2. Every sinful flesh system leans on the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome man’s fallen nature.
   
   6. Every group makes some use of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit at conversion expressed in Titus 3:5-6.
   7. The degree of the efficacy of the Spirit’s regenerative work varies to the weight of the depravity burden each doctrinal system places on man. However, to overcome humanity’s “flesh” problem, the Holy Spirit is inescapably relied upon.
3. However, under these models the regenerative work of the Spirit is an exclusive Christian blessing.
   1. This work begins with the Gospel. It is founded upon Jesus (Titus 3:4-5).
   2. It provides the identifying seal for all Christians (Ephesians 1:13-14).
   3. However, John 7:38-39 states directly prior to Jesus’ being glorified the Spirit was not given.
   4. Therefore, the regenerative work of the Spirit could not begin in the “Titus 3” manner prior to Acts 2.

So again, the question must be answered:

How did all the saints of God overcome their sinful flesh problem prior to the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit beginning in Acts 2?

And if a plausible answer could be provided, it would only raise this question:

If saints prior to Acts 2 overcame their ‘flesh’ problem, what is the need and benefit to the Spirit’s “Titus 3” work after Acts 2?

When your doctrine is based on the Garden fall of man bringing in a sinful flesh problem (in whole, by nature, or by nurture) there is no expositional model that will solve the dilemma this position faces.

The reason for that is simple. Truth is always consistent and never contradicts itself.

Almost the entire depraved flesh doctrine is established on Paul’s writings. The problem is that Paul is not discussing the Garden condemnation of being in the flesh. If native depravity cannot be the challenge he is seeking to correct about the flesh, what is it?

Let’s return to his writings to find it.

Paul and Jesus in the Flesh

Our study returns to Philippians 3. Earlier in Philippians 3:6, we noted how Paul claimed he was blamelessly righteous under the law. But that is his concluding point to the argument that he was making. Consider his line of reasoning found in Philippians 3:4:

[T]hough I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

His argument in this context is directly connected to his claim to have a fleshly confidence that rightly exceeded the claims of those who were also proclaiming the purity of their flesh. Paul had the basis for a greater claim.

The next two verses, Philippians 3:5-6, enumerate Paul’s basis for that claim:

Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

His confidence in the flesh was wholly founded upon his Israeli fidelity. From his infancy as a Benjamite, he had obeyed the law, dedicated his life to preserving its legal requirements, and not even lost his fervor for persecuting those he believed were harming God’s law and His people. Again, in all regards to the righteousness found under the law, he was blameless.

But in his writing, Paul’s evaluation of his own life in the flesh is not the only law upon which he builds his case. Paul also looked to the life of Jesus,

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer (2 Corinthians 5:16).

Notice, like Galatians 2:20, this is a now passage about the flesh. So, the question must be asked, “What is the before?” In the before period, Paul acknowledges that Jesus was regarded “according to the flesh.” But in the now, He should no longer be viewed in that manner. So, how was Jesus in the before evaluated by His flesh? Was it His depravity or lack of depravity? No. Here are the statements humanity made about Jesus and his flesh:

• Matthew 1:1 – The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
• Matthew 13:55 – Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
• John 1:46 – Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
• John 8:41 – You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.”
• John 8:48 – The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

Throughout the gospel accounts, the regard that people had about the flesh of Jesus was the level of credibility He had based upon His Jewish heritage. His flesh’s worth was not founded upon His level of depravity, but upon his physical birthright.

It is important to see that Paul’s use of flesh in his epistles is not about native sinful proclivity toward sin. It is perfectly focused on flesh’s connection to being Jewish.

Living by the Flesh is Jewish

Paul’s use of flesh being based upon a person’s Jewish origins is found throughout his use of it. Turn again to Philippians 3. We have already noted how Paul’s claim to have reason to boast about his flesh grew out of his familial Pharisaical origins. However, the use of those ties was not his only criteria in Philippians. Note how the chapter begins,

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more (Philippians 3:2-4)

In verse 2, his opponents in the flesh are those who “mutilate the flesh” as opposed to Paul and those he helped convert. Those connected to Paul were the ones truly circumcised. Paul’s opponents were those out to maim the flesh. Who were they? They were the Judaizers.

Judaizers were Pharisees

The Judaizers were seeking to mutilate the flesh of every Gentile convert. They sought to force every Gentile Christian to accept the primacy of the Mosaic structure. It was the “circumcision party” that opposed the conversion of Cornelius’ household,

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them” (Acts 11:3).

That same party was the source of the attacks on Paul’s work among the Gentiles:

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1).

They were the ones present in Galatia that moved Paul to write Galatians, “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you” (Galatians 5:1).

And just as Paul considered them “dogs” in Philippi, he wished they would be cut out of the Galatian congregations, “I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves” (Galatians 5:12).

Paul had great animosity for these Judaizers because he knew them well. Paul had grown up among the Pharisees and had in his accomplishments had surpassed his peers: “And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:14).

His achievements among the Pharisees meant that he was known by all the powerbrokers of the Pharisees and knew all of them as well. So do not read through the events council in Acts 15 lightly. Those brothers from Judea that arrived to oppose Paul’s work among the Gentiles and to seek to mutilate the flesh of the Gentile converts from Paul’s first missionary journey (which included portions of Galatia), did they have any other Jewish connections to Paul?

Yes. Acts 15:5 states it plainly, “But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

The origin of Judaizing doctrine in the church came directly from the Pharisees. The circumcision party that opposed Peter and expanded their reach to pursue tearing down Paul came expressly out of the Pharisaical traditions of Judaism. How could these newly converted Pharisees not have known the Pharisee “wonder boy” known as Saul? He had surpassed all of them. It would be interesting to know how many of them Paul knew personally.

Yet, this fleshly connection to Paul and the Pharisee Judaizers is not found only in Antioch, Jerusalem, and Galatia. His fight against the Judaizers is the major theme of nearly every epistle he wrote. Consider his tenacity against the Judaizers in Corinth. Writing to the Corinthians, he responded to the Judaizers’ assault with his rebuttal of their claim to have true righteous flesh. The crescendo of his argument starts in 2 Corinthians 11:18, “Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.”

What was his enemies’ boast about the flesh? Paul enumerates it in 2 Corinthians 11:22-23:

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.

Look back again to 2 Corinthians 5:16, which we discussed earlier. Given the opposition Paul faced in Corinth that came from a group of proud Hebrew Israelites that were now servants of Christ, who else could Paul be reminding that one should no longer regard Jesus according to the flesh other than the same Pharisaical Jews who had been doing that daily since Jesus’ birth?

Life in the Flesh is a Rule-Based System of Righteousness

If then, Paul’s addressing of flesh-based living is drawn from his experience of living a Pharisaical life, what does it mean to live in the flesh? The answer is that living in the flesh is to follow a rule-based system of righteousness.

Galatians 2:20-23 is a wonderful text to help see this truth about life in the flesh. The verses themselves and the context surrounding them announce this truth clearly. The problem the Galatian church was facing was tied to the growth of the Judaistic doctrine within it. Paul’s epistle begins highlighting the Judaizers’ teaching pulling the Galatians away from God:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:6-7).

The Judaizers were not trying to bring paganism into the Galatian congregations. Their intention was to distort the gospel of Christ to make it fit their Pharisaical ideology. Paul highlights their paradigm for living a rule-based life in the flesh in Galatians 3:1-3:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Paul reminds the Galatians that their life with Jesus began as an act of spirit. However, the Judaizers were pressing them to live a life by the flesh. That is a counterfeit gospel that would cause you to depart from God.

Wait. What Paul means is that this new life by the flesh was a lascivious life which succumbed to the influence of the Galatians’ inherent lean toward sinfulness, right?

 After all, flesh is, in whole or in measured parts, depravity. Everyone knows that. How could Paul’s rebuke address anything other than the sinful nature of flesh?

Yet, any path heading toward any form of hedonism was a foundational contradiction of Judaizing desires. Acts 15:5 states expressly the desire of the counterfeit gospel in Galatia and that which was also growing in every Gentile congregation:

 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

Galatians 3:3 is not charging the Galatians with following the converted Pharisees’ call to paganism. The verse states that the Galatians were being coerced by a calling to be made “perfect” by the flesh. Life in the flesh is not a desire to satiate sinful passions. It is a desire to live a perfect life. The influence of the Pharisees upon the nation of Israel and upon the early church was identical. It was a call to make one’s life perfect by the flesh.

Perfect in Colossae

Paul’s approach to the Galatians is repeated to the Colossians. Colossian Christians were facing the same Judaistic opponents. They were calling this congregation to follow Jewish rules on “food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath” (Colossians 2:16). Paul states abruptly that those things were limited to being a “shadow of the things to come” and that the “substance belonged to Christ” (Colossians 2:17).

The effect of the Judaizers in Colossae followed what he had done in Antioch, Jerusalem, and Galatia. It was imposing the rule-based life a of Pharisee on Gentile Christians. In the same spirit with which he rebuked the Galatians on this topic, Paul addresses the saints in Colossae:

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?

Paul reminds them they had died to the elementary principles about how to live in the world. The Pharisaical way of life was founded on that human ideology about how to live. That manner of living is a rule-based life. Paul makes that connection transparent. Those dead to the elements of the world should not be seeking to add a mountain of regulations to their lives.

The regulations rising in the Colossian church were not to handle, taste, or touch. What group of people influencing the Colossians might be concerned about what they ate and touched? It would be the Jews who had grown up under the law and governed by people like Paul – Pharisees who sat in the seat of Moses and heaped an unbearable burden of regulations upon people to keep them for sinning against God:

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger (Matthew 23:2-4).

Paul’s concluding words in Colossians 2 perfectly match Jesus’ evaluation of the Pharisees in Israel. The rules the Judaizers were adding, Paul says “indeed have an appearance of wisdom.” The Pharisees added rule upon rule to make sure no one got close to violating the Sabbath. The Judaizers brought that same mentality to the church. “Do not even touch meat offered to idols” and other such commands were undoubtedly heard in Judaizer controlled churches. And that way of living seems wise. Surely, adding rules upon rules would keep people farther away from living badly.

Yet, just as Jesus said the Pharisees’ rules were nothing more than a burden “hard to bear,” Paul concludes that the rules of the same spirit in Colossae were of “no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossians 2:23).

In everyplace this fleshly system of living appears in the Bible, the goal is not to justify hedonistic living. The fleshly life is not established upon seeking to slip unknown or newly created sins into one’s closeted life. In the Bible life in the flesh is seeking to be controlled by adding elementary rules and regulations to such a degree that surely a true disciple can train his own flesh perfectly. It is foundationally a rule-based life of righteousness.

Flesh’s underlying problem is not a propensity of sin. Flesh’s problem is that, left to the system it creates to avoid sin, that system fails and flesh sins.

Rule-Based Righteousness Always Fails

Flesh’s system of perfecting life is always a rule-based system. All rule-based systems have a design flaw. They are designed to control symptoms, not fix causal problems.

New Year’s Resolutions are Rule-Based Failures

Likely, you know this from your own life outside of spiritual matters. How many times have you made a New Year’s resolution to get fit and lose weight? And, how many times has it failed? Every time it failed, you had the same problem. You tried following rules. You created a workout schedule. You picked a new dietary system. You did something that all the experts told you would work. In truth, they were likely right. If you did perfectly sustain your exercise and diet regiment to which you submitted, you would come out fit and trim. The math and litany of your experts was not flawed. So then, why did you fail?

You failed because relying on rule-following never works. Your New Year’s resolution lasted until the first morning you decided to sleep in and skip the gym. You cheated once and that first time was hard. The second time was easier and then the third and the fourth… You know the outcome. We all do. It ends one night with you on your couch holding an open carton of ice cream. The wonderful sensation of your guilty pleasure fills your mouth, but it cannot remove the feeling of desperation and depression.

You failed again. You have tried all the gyms. You followed the lead of a dozen trainers. Over the years, you have kept every diet plan in existence. Other people succeed. You cannot. The pain is overwhelming. What do you do?

You do one or two things. You lie about it to yourself and others. You become a blatant hypocrite about it. The other option is that you just give up. You accept that you are a failure. Others are simply better at it than you are. Those are your options. They are the conclusion of rule-based systems to change your proclivity to fall into bad habits.

The foundational flaw in your lifelong problem model is that it is designed to fix the symptoms not the cause of your unhealthy habits. You are trying to fix the problem from the outside in. It never works. Your physical problem must be resolved from the inside out.

You see, your need for comfort instead of exercise and desserts instead of healthiness is not because your flesh is natively seeking to kill itself. No flesh does that. Flesh wants to live, so it eats. It wants to live, so it reproduces itself. All life does that – bacterial, animal human – all flesh lives by identical instincts. That is the way God made all life. There is nothing sinful about it. It is natural. The power that is controlling your actions is stronger than your flesh.

The power behind it all is your heart, mind, and soul. It is you. Comfort, not exercise puts a Band-Aid on an emotional, spiritual need. That third piece of pie, even though you know it is hurting your body, it is mending a broken heart. It is not your flesh that needs healing. It is you – your soul – that needs it. Quit blaming your flesh. That response to failure is an answer dipped in weakness.

Pharisaism Breeds Ruled-Based Failures

In the Bible, this is the same elemental problem facing the flesh. In the Gospel accounts, Jesus addressed Pharisees that were trying to ensure that no one ate with dirty hands by adding rule after rule:

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) (Mark 7:1-4).

Their rules sought to add reliability to obeying God’s law. Those rules attempted to make sure that no one would even come close to eating unhealthy ice cream from the couch one night. You know, just like you keep doing. Even in the days of Jesus, they were applying a rule-based system to fix you.

Did their system work any better than yours? No. It created the same hypocrisy you have known:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Matthew 23:25-28).

Their system created a person proud of following laws about washing of hands, proper fasting, and giving of alms. But it left them filled with hypocrisy and that led to a lawlessness they sought to hide by cleaning up the outer man for others to see. They were just like you with the candy bar you have hidden in your desk drawer. It is always the same.

Rule Failure Worse Than Hypocrisy

Worse still, is that some people turn away from the path of hypocrisy. They must admit that the experts are right, but they are wrong. The rules are all good. The problem is just that they are flawed. They are worthless. They are just wretched beings destined for life of slavery under rules they cannot keep.

You know, just like Paul, who tried to live a life of good conscience as a Pharisee under the law. How did he actually feel about that? He was never a hypocrite. He was blameless under the law. But was he happy? Was he satisfied or encouraged by his life?

Read his own words, about his own life:

• Romans 7:12 – So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
• Romans 7:14 – For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
• Romans 7:24 – Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Sound familiar? After every bite of ice cream, those words fill your mind:

• The experts are right.
• I know the rules are good.
• But I just cannot do them right.
• I am just a failure.
• There is no hope.
• I just wish someone could fix me.

That is how you sound.

Inside Out, Not Outside In

Your words and Paul’s mean the same thing. His flesh is not broken. He lived a righteous life in all good conscience under the law. Your flesh is not broken. You are failing in our health example, not because your flesh wants to rest and eat so much that it kills itself. The problem of our life example and the problem Paul is portraying in Romans 7 is an inward problem.

It is a problem that living flesh seeks to solve by creating such a nuanced, sophisticated set of rules that the enemy could never conquer anyone. But every rule-based system underestimates the creativity and determination of the human mind. Pharisees in the days of Jesus and unhealthy people today will always find a path around the rule – or just ignore them completely in shame. It is always the same journey down this path.

The solution is always inward. The Judaizers pushing circumcision on Gentile Christians needed to hear again the circumcision of the inner man is what mattered:

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God (Romans 2:28-29).

The Gentiles who were succumbing to a Pharisaical yoke of slavery needed to hear the same truth about the circumcision that mattered:

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, (Colossians 2:11).

You need to know the same truth. Want to get fit? Change your heart first. But if your problem is the more meaningful struggle of a spiritual magnitude, you need the same answer. Paul specifies how a circumcision of spirit is made without hands. Here is the path he provided the Colossians:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:1-2).

Your solution is the same. Set your mind right. That is the path of righteousness. Your problem is not one of flesh. Your problem is not a systemic depravity that your fallen nature cannot defeat. Your problem is a matter of your heart. Get your heart right and you can and will live for God.

Flesh is not Sinful

Your flesh is not sinful – not at all. It just wants to live. That is all that flesh wants. A lion kills an antelope because she is hungry. The antelope runs because he wants to live. Your flesh wants food and drink because it is designed to live. Your flesh finds the opposite sex attractive because God wired reproduction into its native desires. God designed all flesh to reproduce after its kind (Genesis 1:25). Flesh wants nothing more than to supply the needs God placed into its design.

Flesh just wants to live. It has no sinful proclivity. It just has needs. God created all flesh in exactly that same way. He expressly designed flesh’s enduring nature before the sins of Adam and Eve. Eve’s flesh did not see wisdom and Godlikeness in the fruit. It saw tasty food. It wanted food because it was hungry. Nothing changed in her flesh after that. Even after her sin, a few hours later, her flesh was hungry. At some point, her flesh filled Eve’s ears with the sound of an empty stomach; so she ate again. It was hungry. Her flesh was not sinful. Flesh just wants to live – just like the way God made it. It has never been sinful.

The problem is we try to control the flesh by the way we see as best. We create flesh-based rules. It is the common, elemental way humanity has lived every day since its creation. It is a quick, easy answer. Rules are communalized and enforced in groups easily. Flesh-based rules govern our entire lives. The problem is those rules do not change hearts and minds.

Our “sinful” problem is the same as Eve’s. She wanted to become wise like God. Her’s and Adam’s hearts wanted something for themselves. They took it, not because of the flesh, but because of their souls. Nothing has changed.

We want to be the gods of our lives. We love achievement. We love success. Our admiration goes out to the best rule followers among us. Be it in business, athletics, or academics, we love the achievers. Immeasurable amounts of our lives are drawn to the idea of perfection. The path we dedicate ourselves to travel is paved with the golden radiance of our intellects’ most treasured rules.

Paul called this system of rules a path of a “self-made religion” (Colossians 2:23). He told the Galatians that following all the “works of the law” codified by Pharisaical Judaizers was a desire to be made “perfect by the flesh.” The same governing system runs our lives today.

It seems wise. It is easy to implement. Judging our successes and failures is straightforward. Every moment of our lives, we know exactly where we stand. We know how to compare ourselves to others. We know if we are the Pharisee or the publican in the temple (Luke 18:10).

Knowing how we stand against the rules is transparent in marriage, parenting, schooling, work, and even religion. Rule-based living makes everything black-and-white. That is why all people and every culture is founded on rules. It is the elementary principle upon which the human world is built.

There is just one problem: It never works.

Well, there is a second problem. It is that we have applied “flesh” in the Bible not to a systemic rule failure. We have defined “flesh” as a native material problem of human existence. It has never functioned that way. It has always done exactly what God created it to do.

Conclusion

Your flesh is not sinful. Your heart is. Set it on things that are above. Transform it away from a rule-based world. Conform it to the mind of God. Your heart, your mind, and your soul can fulfill God’s call of you to be holy as He is holy. Your flesh is not blocking your path to God. Quit blaming the clump of cells in which your soul that bears the image of God resides.

Sin never comes from the outward stimuli your flesh sees. Your flesh has no desire to sin. It just wants to live. Sin always comes from within your heart. Fix your heart. Your flesh is fine. Your sin is not the product of a sin-laden or even a sin-influence flesh that you cannot control or even fully understand. Your sin is the product of your mind, your will. You control that. Sin comes from within – never from without.

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 8:20-23)

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Ga 2:20–21). (2025). Crossway Bibles.