In my last post, I explained what a body is and how it differs from the flesh. The Modern understanding is there is no difference between the two and they are synonymous. But if we take that view, then we can misread the meaning of some Scriptural texts.
In the New Testament, we find the Greek word sarx is translated as flesh and the word soma is translated body. These both have separate and connected meanings. Like how spirit and soul are sometimes interchangeable in Scripture and the early Christian writings.
Marriage and Flesh
Numerous times in the New Testament, we are told that when a man and woman marry, they become one flesh.
Married people do not become one body, meaning a ‘single point of activity’ (see the last post in the Body). But they become one flesh. They are connected together in a purely physical sense.
Commentators have suggested this relates to the act of sexual union or producing children. But I think it goes beyond this. We all need to look after our mortal fleshy bodies, making sure we are clean, well-fed and safe. In the same way, we need to look after the flesh of the person we are married to.
Marriage is an act of sacrificial love, not just sex or about having children. It is also about looking after the needs of our spouse. We are to care about ourselves, and deeply care about the one we are married to.
Word Became Flesh
In the first chapter of the Gospel according to John, we read:
John 1 v 14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
This is at the heart of the Good News. God took on human flesh (sarx). Christ did not take on a body, but specifically flesh.
Christ already had a spiritual pre-incarnate body, but at His conception, He took on human flesh. He fully and physically entered into Creation as a human.
By taking on flesh, Christ shares in our mortal weaknesses, temptations and earthly passions. But even in this state, He did not sin or ‘miss the mark’. Even in human flesh, He remained God. He is the God-Man.
The Incarnation causes a theological issue for the Pro-Choice argument. Their view is a baby is not fully human until it can exist independently from its mother, i.e. born. This would then argue, Christ was not fully human at His conception. So within this framework, Christ was pre-incarnate, fully incarnate as a human and incarnate as another physical non-human entity.
This not-fully human incarnation of Christ is not in Scripture or in the early writings of the Church. In fact, it could suggest that Christ has three natures, fully human, fully God and not-fully human. Which, in my opinion, veers into a very novel heresy.
Garments of Skin
In the story of Adam and Eve, we read that after they ate the fruit of Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were ashamed by their nakedness.
Genesis 3 v 7
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
They covered their nakedness with fig leaves. God then makes them ‘garments of skin’.
Genesis 3 v 21
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
One interpretation is to say that God killed an animal in front of them. He used its skin to clothe them. This showed the seriousness of sin and how a blood sacrifice was required to cover it.
But another way of reading this, is to say that the ‘garments of skin’ refers to flesh. In their original state, Adam and Eve were fleshless bodies. Having physical activity without physical flesh.
I’m not even sure how to conceive this, but it could be possible.
After they sinned, God gave them flesh (garments of skin) to hide their ‘naked bodies’. Nakedness in this context was not nudity, but existing outside God’s will and protection. So in this explanation, flesh is a consequence of the Fall.
The Fleshly Passions
When Paul writes about the flesh, he normally frames it in opposition to the Spirit.
Galatians 5 v 16-16
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
The flesh desires to gratify its own passions. The more we live by the Holy Spirit, the more we control these fleshly passions. As we deny ourselves these desires, the more we see the Spirit bear fruit in our lives.
Paul continues to comment on how the flesh cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. How we can’t please God if we live in the realm of the flesh and how the fruits of the flesh leads to death.
Romans 7 v 5
For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
Romans 8 v 8
Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
1 Corinthians 15 v 50
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Salvation Through the Flesh
So we can see that the flesh gets a pretty bad press in the New Testament, but even with that, the flesh is an important part of how we are saved as Christians.
Romans 10 v 8
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The verse shows that to be saved, we not only need to believe in our heart, but we need our flesh (mouth) and our body (the act of speaking) too.
We aren’t saved by just believing, but also through the physical action of our flesh and body.
Christianity doesn’t see the flesh as inherently sinful, but something to be mastered. But sin comes, when it masters us.
In our Modern culture, most people believe the flesh as just a shell which holds our true essence. It is not really us. When we die, the flesh decays, but our essence lives on in the minds of our family, friends and even in the Mind of God.
This is an antithesis to what Christians hold to be true. We believe the flesh is an essential part of what it means to be human. At death, the whole person goes to the Underworld, awaiting the Final Judgement. Christians, however, find their flesh and body is in the grave, but the rest of the person is ‘hidden in Christ’ in Heaven.
Thank you for reading this article. Below is a paywall. Beyond this, I normally address more sensitive issues, which I wouldn’t want to discuss openly on the Internet.
This time I look at the Modern Gnostic movements and how Capitalism exploits our fleshy desires.
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