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According to God’s intention, man should live by his spirit, which is to live by God. However, by exercising his will to receive Satan’s suggestion, man became fallen, began to live by his soul, and became independent of God. As a result, man fell further to live by the flesh; and he came under its bondage and thus became flesh (Gen. 6:3, 12). Man’s self and natural life reside in the flesh and are expressed through the flesh. Hence, to live by the flesh is to live by the self and by the natural life. Our flesh cannot be separated from the self or from our natural life. Our flesh expresses our self and our natural life.
The nature of the flesh is not only evil but also independent of God. Whatever the flesh does, whether evil or good, is independent of God. Even in serving God, the flesh is independent of God. The Bible reveals that the flesh likes to do not only evil but also good, and it even likes to serve God (Rom. 7:18-19). Although the flesh likes to serve God, it is independent of God, because it cannot depend on God. The greatest evil of the flesh is that it causes man to be independent of God, that is, to not rely on God. Hence, God hates the flesh that does evil, and He rejects the flesh that does good in order to serve Him. God rejects whatever the flesh does.
The flesh is evil, yet it delights in doing good. The flesh is independent of God, yet it delights in serving God. Hence, the flesh causes man to do evil and to do good; it causes man to oppose God and to serve God. A person who lives by the flesh wants to do evil and to do good. A person who lives by the flesh can oppose God, or he can serve God. However, regardless of whether the flesh does evil or good and whether it opposes God or serves God, the flesh is at enmity with God and cannot please Him (8:7-8).
Actually, the flesh can neither do good nor serve God. However, man does not know the flesh; that is, he does not know the self, because the flesh and the self are one. Since man does not know that he is unable to do good or to serve God, he wants to do good and to serve God. For this reason God gave the law. The law exposes and proves the impotence of man’s self, the flesh, in doing good and in serving God. When God gave the law, He did not expect man to keep the law. God was prepared for man to break the law so that man’s self, his flesh, would be exposed in its weakness and impotence in doing good and in serving God (7:7-24; 3:20; 8:3). However, because man does not know himself, he endeavors to keep the law and to fulfill the requirements of God’s law. Man does not expect his efforts to be a failure. The more man fails at keeping the law, the more he struggles to keep it, and the more he struggles, the more he fails. This cycle continues until man realizes what he is and sees the impotence of his flesh.
The law was given because of man’s flesh and is related to man’s flesh. Man’s desire to keep the law is according to the flesh. When man lives by the flesh, he wants to keep the law. The law requires that the flesh do good, and the flesh wants to fulfill this requirement of the law. The flesh always responds to the law. However, although the flesh wants to fulfill the requirement of the law, it is unable to do so. In requiring the flesh to do certain things, the law exposes the inability of the flesh to fulfill its requirement (3:20). The more the flesh tries to fulfill the requirement of the law, the more it breaks the commandments of the law. The more a man tries to keep the law by his flesh, the more he breaks the law. God’s way of salvation is that man die to the law (7:4; Gal. 2:19). In order to die to the law, we must put the flesh to death. When we are delivered from the flesh, we will be delivered from the law (Rom. 7:4-6), because the flesh is related to the law.
