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God created man with a spirit, a soul, and a body so man could contain God and express Him. Every part of man was pure, including his body. But when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge, of good and evil, something terrible happened; they took in the sinful nature of the devil. This deadened their spirit, damaged their soul, and corrupted their pure body, changing it into sinful flesh.

We can see the Apostle Paul’s awareness concerning the flesh in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells.” Paul’s words are emphatic- Nothing good dwells in our flesh. Why is that?

“The flesh here is the fallen and corrupted human body with all its lusts. This flesh was not created by God but is a mixture of God’s creature and sin, which is the life of Satan, the evil one. God created man’s body as a pure vessel but this vessel was corrupted and transmuted into the flesh by Satan injecting himself into it at the time of the fall. Now Satan as sin personified is in man’s flesh, making his home there and ruling as an illegal master, overruling man and forcing him to do things that he dislikes. It is this indwelling sin, which is the unchangeable evil nature that constitutes all men sinners.”

When we receive Christ as our Savior, our sins are forgiven and we are cleansed and saved. But what about our flesh? Is it repaired? Are we free from the lusts of the flesh once we’re born again? The answer to these questions is hugely important to our Christian lives. After we’re saved, our flesh is exactly the same as it was before – it is still sinful and full of lust. This is because when we received the Lord as our Savior, we were born again in our human spirit with the divine Spirit of God but our flesh remains the flesh.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6)

For as long as we live in this physical life, our flesh remains the same, It never improves and it never changes no matter how long we’re saved or how much we’ve grown in the Lord. Only when the Lord Jesus returns will we be rid of the flesh by God’s resurrecting and transfiguring our fallen body, as Philippians 3:20-21 tells us: “We eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to His operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.”

God’s full salvation promised in this word includes our fallen body. But for now, our flesh remains the sinful flesh.

Having the proper knowledge that even as believers our sinful flesh remains unchanged is essential because it alerts us to the danger which our flesh poses to us. Whether or not we know this can seriously affect us. Let’s say we don’t know a particular substance is extremely toxic, because we don’t know it’s so dangerous, we might be very casual, even careless with it and hurt ourselves as a result. But once we find out its true nature, we’ll be quite careful how we handle it in order to protect ourselves.

This illustrates how having proper knowledge of our flesh can help us believers, and how not having it can harm us. The danger to our spiritual life from our flesh is real. And unlike the toxic substance in the illustration, our flesh isn’t something apart from us that we can simply ignore; it’s part of us, ever-present.

Seeing the danger of our flesh is the important first step in not letting sin reign. Our fallen, sinful flesh is like a wild animal that can never be tamed. Giving it the smallest amount of leeway can allow it to break free and cause great damage. Even things we see and hear can stir up our flesh. We really need to ask the Lord to show us the seriousness of our flesh and how to guard against it! If we give an inch to the flesh because we think we’re strong and can overcome it, or because we think we’re no longer subject to the lusts of the flesh, sin will be the outcome.

In conclusion, the book of Romans 8:5-8 says "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enemity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God"