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Galatians

  1. Lesson One
    Epistles (First Few Verses Of Each Pauline Epistle)
    25 Activities
  2. Lesson Two
    Overview of Galatians
    19 Activities
  3. Lesson Three
    Works-Righteousness as Slavery
    19 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  4. Lesson Four
    Faith, Life, and the Spirit
    13 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  5. Lesson Five
    Author and Audience
    17 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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Galatians Faith, Life, and the Spirit In | Flesh: A Baseline Understanding
Lesson 4, Activity 7

In | Flesh: A Baseline Understanding

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This term flesh may sound like a synonym for “sin” or “immorality” in the passages we just looked at, but it has a broader meaning we need to be aware of. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for flesh referred to “humans (or other animals) in their limited creatureliness, including their mortality.” Similarly, the Greek word Paul used for “flesh,” sarx, is the same word used in the Greek Old Testament to describe diagnosing people for skin blemishes. 

So this word, flesh, was not simply another word for sin. This is why Paul can say at the beginning of Romans that Jesus had “descended from David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3). He wasn’t saying that Jesus was sinful, only that the Savior had fully taken up our fallen and mortal humanity.

Source: Craig S. Keener, Romans, 2009, p. 96.

While connected to our mortality and our sinful inclinations, flesh, as Paul uses the word, describes our situation—not our bodies, or our spiritual constitution. The flesh is a state of alienation and opposition to God. It represents not an aspect of human personality, but a relational crisis.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 
Galatians 5:17 (ESV)

 

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 (ESV)

And as we know from the Gospels and the Old Testament, this relational failure is a failure of life itself:

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 
Romans 8:6 (ESV)

Paul’s use of flesh is not new. The concept goes back to Genesis 3, when humanity began to die and found itself alienated from the life-giving presence of God. The flesh is the situation we find ourselves in; it’s the problem Paul’s message addresses. The solution, as we’ve seen, is participation in Christ and life in the Spirit.

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