7. Flesh

It would be easy to leave flesh out of a book about the inner being. Flesh is the outside, surely. But Scripture's word for flesh, bāśār in Hebrew and sarx in Greek, keeps turning up right beside the heart, the soul and the spirit. It responds to them, suffers with them, and, in the New Testament, becomes a way the inner person is oriented. I cannot understand the inside without it.

What flesh means

In the Old Testament, flesh is first of all the body, and the meat of sacrifice and meal. It is also:

Kin. "We are your bone and flesh" (2 Samuel 5:1). "He is our brother, our own flesh" (Genesis 37:27). "Not to hide yourself from your own flesh" (Isaiah 58:7). "They shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).
Every living thing. "All flesh had corrupted their way on the earth" (Genesis 6:12). "All flesh is grass" (Isaiah 40:6). God is "the God of all flesh" (Jeremiah 32:27) and "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 16:22).
Frailty before God. "What can flesh do to me?" (Psalm 56:4). "With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God" (2 Chronicles 32:8). "The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit" (Isaiah 31:3). "He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again" (Psalm 78:39).

In these Old Testament verses flesh is frail and passing, and the danger named is in trusting it: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord" (Jeremiah 17:5). The fault in that verse lies in the heart that turns.

Flesh answers the inner being

Again and again, flesh responds to what happens inside.

It trembles: "My flesh trembles for fear of you" (Psalm 119:120).
It gives way: Saul "fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night" (1 Samuel 28:20).
It shakes in the bones: "dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake" (Job 4:14).
It shudders: when a spirit glided past Eliphaz's face, "the hair of my flesh stood up" (Job 4:15).
It longs and sings with the soul and heart: "my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you" (Psalm 63:1). "My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God" (Psalm 84:2). "My heart is glad … my flesh also dwells secure" (Psalm 16:9).
It fails with the heart: "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart" (Psalm 73:26).
It is healed or hurt by the inner state: "A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh" (Proverbs 14:30). "There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation" (Psalm 38:3).
It is worn by the inner life: "much study is a weariness of the flesh" (Ecclesiastes 12:12).
It shudders at what is remembered: "When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh" (Job 21:6).
It shows horror in the hair and the face: "the hair of their kings bristles with horror; their faces are convulsed" (Ezekiel 27:35).
It trembles in age: "in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent" (Ecclesiastes 12:3).
It carries anger and vexation. "Cain was very angry, and his face fell" (Genesis 4:5). "My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow" (Job 17:7). Paul in Macedonia: "our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn — fighting without and fear within" (2 Corinthians 7:5).
It trembles before God's anger. "I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones … Yet I will quietly wait" (Habakkuk 3:16).

A heart of flesh

One of the most important verses about flesh is also one of the most surprising. "I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26). Here flesh is the good state of the heart: living, soft, able to respond. Stone is the problem, and flesh is the cure.

Paul keeps this in the New Testament: "written … with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Corinthians 3:3), literally hearts of flesh.

Flesh in the New Testament: one word, several values

In the New Testament, flesh can still simply mean human life in the body.

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
"In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears" (Hebrews 5:7).
"The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God" (Galatians 2:20).
"If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me" (Philippians 1:22).
"A thorn was given me in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7).

But in Paul, and in Peter and John, flesh also becomes something else: a way the inner person is set, with its own desires and its own mind.

"The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17).
"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).
"I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out" (Romans 7:18).
"I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin" (Romans 7:25).
"The passions of the flesh … wage war against your soul" (1 Peter 2:11).
"The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life" (1 John 2:16).

Here flesh is spoken of as having desires and a mind: it wants, it sets its mind, it judges "according to the flesh" (John 8:15), and it boasts "according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 11:18).

The same word can change value within a single speech. In John 6, Jesus says, "the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (6:51), and "whoever feeds on my flesh … has eternal life" (6:54). When the disciples take offence, he says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (6:63). Within a dozen verses, flesh is the gift of life and "no help at all".

The willing spirit and the weak flesh

The most human scene with flesh in it is Gethsemane. Jesus says, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me" (Matthew 26:38). He prays, "not as I will, but as you will" (26:39). He finds the disciples asleep and says, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (26:41). Then he finds them sleeping again, "for their eyes were heavy" (26:43).

Paul later writes, "the Spirit helps us in our weakness" (Romans 8:26).

What I take from flesh

The same word, flesh, names the body, kin, every living thing, frailty, the heart of flesh God gives, and, in the New Testament, desires set against the Spirit. Only the setting tells me which is meant.