Flesh is Not Sinful in Itself

Original Sin Advocates: Our bodies are made of sin and causes us to sin.

Sin is not a substance.

Sin is a violation of God’s law (1 Jn. 3:4). God’s law tells us the types of choices we should and shouldn’t make (Exo. 20:3-17), not what type of body or nature we should or shouldn’t have.

God is the author of our flesh (Exodus 4:11, Isaiah 44:2, Jer. 1:5).

Our flesh is made out of dirt (Gen. 2:7, Gen. 3:19).

It is true that our flesh is the occasion of our sin, or the source of temptation (James 1:14), but sin itself is a choice (John 5:14, John 8:11, Rom. 6:12; Rom. 6:19 Eph. 4:26). Flesh is nothing but an inanimate conglomerate of biological tissue, it has no moral quality. 

When one indulges
in sinful behavior, it is then flesh full of sin – in the Bible called, “sinful flesh.” The flesh is not sinful by nature. It is sinful by application. WE are the APPLICATORS.

It is sinful to walk according to the flesh (2 Cor. 10:2), or to be living to gratify our flesh in over indulgence, but it is not sinful to walk in the flesh (2 Cor. 10:3.)

Flesh is not sinful in itself. Jesus had flesh (Luke 24:39, John 1:14, 1 Tim. 3:16, 1 Jn. 4:3, 2 Jn. 1:7).
Jesus had the same type of flesh that we have (Heb. 2:14; Heb. 2:17).

Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3), which means Jesus was made in the likeness of men, in the flesh (Philippians 2:7). The word “flesh” at times is synonymous with men (Gen. 6:12, Matt. 16:17).

Our flesh is an INSTRUMENT which we could use for sin or for righteousness (Rom. 6:13, Rom. 6:19).

Our flesh is sanctified when we have ceased to sin, when we come to God in faith and repentance (Rom. 12:1, 2 Cor. 7:10-11; 1 Thes. 4:4, 1 Thes. 5:23, 1 Tim. 2:8).

Sarx = flesh, as in body of flesh, and nothing more. “Sinful flesh” is flesh that has been allowed to selfishly indulge. The flesh is sinful or righteous only in its application, that is, as it is used by a moral agent.

Did Jesus come in the likeness of “sinful flesh” or in the likeness of “sinful nature?”

God sent his Son in the likeness of what?  In the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3).  What does that mean?  It means all have sinned by the use of our human body.  Look around and watch people sin with their flesh.  They sin with their tongue (lying, etc.), with their hands (stealing, killing others, etc.), with their feet (walking in places where sin abounds and where they will sin), they sin with their eyes (what they watch), etc. etc. etc..

So God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Jesus came in the flesh that was weak.  He hungered, he got thirsty, he grew tired, he slept, he aged, he was tempted, he was capable of bleeding to death just like other humans.  Why?  Because Christ had mortal flesh as we have and dies the same as mortals die.

Christ did not give into the temptations of the flesh.

Jesus was faced with temptations in all points as all human beings are, but he did not sin, he walked according to the Spirit of life.  Jesus, as a human, overcame the human flesh where others had failed.

Heb 2:14 “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;”

The human race alone has the authority to deal with sin in the flesh.  This is not saying that flesh in itself is sinful, it is sinful because we have used our flesh as an instrument to sin. Jesus took part in the same flesh and blood that he might triumph in the same flesh.

Heb 10:19-20 “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;”

The Greek word “sarx” is always translated “flesh” (as in fleshly body), and nothing more.  Note in the verse above that it tells us about the nature of flesh in general.  Jesus had “flesh” like we have.  He appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh (flesh that had been indulged in sinful behavior by all others).

Was it Jesus’ nature that appeared sinful or his fleshly body?  The obvious answer is that it was his fleshly body and nothing more.  It would be heresy to say that Jesus appeared in the likeness of sinful nature, which is how the NIV translates the word “sarx” at times.

Rom. 8:13 “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

 Note how flesh has to do with the deeds of the body.   In Galatians  5 Paul talks about the “works of the flesh,” and he goes on to name the works (5:19-21).

Jesus did not, nor is any of us fighting some mysterious “other self” that co-exists, striving for supremacy.  This is pure philosophy. 

“Sarx” = “flesh” and nothing more.

We are the ones who can control our body.  What manifests in the body is what comes out of the heart.  (Matt. 12:35)  As James says,

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones. Jas_4:8