As the Totality of our Fallen old man, the Flesh is Enmity against God and Cannot Please God

In the eyes of God and according to the Bible, the flesh denotes the totality of the fallen old man, our entire fallen being; it is the living out and expression of the old man, and the flesh is enmity against God, not being subject to God’s law nor being able to please God.

In our crystallization study of the books of 1 and 2 Samuel we see 1 Sam. 15 where God charges Saul to utterly destroy Amalek, for they were the first enemy who attacked the children of Israel as they were journeying toward the good land.

Amalek, or the Amalekites, were descendants of Esau, who was Jacob’s twin; Jacob and Esau were brothers, but their descendants became enemies.

Even more, it seems that God really hates Amalek, for there’s no other nation under the sun that He said of that He wants to blot them out, even that there would be no memory of it. Wow.

Amalek is a type of the flesh, for the flesh is so close to our being – the flesh is of the first man, even as Esau was the firstborn and Jacob was the second, and the flesh seems not to be too bad.

Humanly speaking, if you look at the situation in 1 Sam. 15 we may not understand why was God so upset with Saul for allowing the king of Amalek and all their best sheep and ox and cattle to survive since they wanted to offer them to God as sacrifices.

What God desires is to utterly destroy the flesh, but we may think that the good aspects of our flesh are not that bad, so we may spare them; we may compromise in dealing with the flesh.

But God wants to utterly destroy the flesh, completely blot it out, so that even the memory of it is erased; this will happen in the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem.

Though unprovoked, Amalek attacked the people of Israel; though unprovoked, as we see in Rom. 7, the flesh rises up and attacks us, hindering us from fulfilling God’s purpose.

The flesh is the leading enemy in frustrating the believers in Christ from advancing with the Lord, and the flesh will never improve.

We may grow in life, advance with the Lord very much, and be useful in His hands and in His service, but if we don’t deal with the flesh, the flesh will have a way to ruin us and cause us to lose the kingship. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May we see that the flesh is the greatest destroyer of our Christian life, and may we run to the Lord to enjoy Him and exercise our spirit to receive Him!

We need to see what the flesh is, and we need to cling to the Lord, enjoy and experience Him, and focus only on Him; then, He in us will expose the flesh and deal with it, and we will say Amen to His dealing.

Seeing that the Flesh is the Totality of the fallen old man, the Living out and Expression of the Old Man

What is the flesh? When we speak of the flesh we don’t merely refer to our physical body which became fallen and is now the flesh; rather, according to the Bible, the flesh denotes the totality of the fallen old man, our entire fallen being (Gen. 6:3; Rom. 7:18a; Gal. 2:16).

Man fell to the uttermost and became flesh; everything that man does, everything that comes out of the natural man, the unregenerated being of a person, is the flesh.

There are at least three definitions of the flesh in the Bible.

First, in Rom. 6:6 and 7:24 we see that we have the body of sin and the body of this death; this refers to our physical body, which God created in Genesis, but later on, was transmuted to become the flesh.

Second, as seen in Gen. 6, before the flood came, in Noah’s time, mankind became flesh in God’s eyes; the flesh is the totality of the fallen man.

The flesh is not just the body, the outer body part that became flesh, but the entire fallen man is flesh.

Finally, the third definition of the flesh is that the flesh is the good aspect of man, as seen in Phil. 3:3-6; there Paul talks about him serving God in the flesh.

There are some good aspects of the flesh that desire to serve God and do something for God.

Of course, God doesn’t accept the efforts of the flesh, for the flesh is enmity with God and cannot please God, but there are some good aspects of the flesh which desire to serve God.

The flesh is not entirely bad, there are some aspects of the flesh that desire to be religious, even spiritual, to serve God, and to do things for God.

The flesh is the living out and the expression of the old man (Rom. 6:6). The old man is just our fallen, natural man; the fallen man is called the old man.

Rom. 6:6 tells us that our old man has been crucified with Christ; our old person has been crucified with Him.

There are some other words in the New Testament that many may mix up together and consider to be about the same.

There is the old man, the self, the flesh, and the “I” (Gal. 2:20); they may seem similar, but they are not the same.

The old man refers to our person, to our fallen person, our fallen being.

The name of this person is “I”, which is me. The “I” has been crucified. This “I” has a soul-life, of which the Lord says in Matt. 16 that, anyone who follows Him must deny the self and lose the soul-life.

The soul-life is the life of the fallen man. The old man, who is called “I”, has a life called soul-life.

And when this soul-life expresses itself in opinions, as Peter did in Matt. 16, that is the self.

When the soul-life acts in expressing its viewpoints, its opinions, that is called the self. And the self needs to be denied.

What is the flesh? The flesh is the living out of the old man, the person; whenever this old person moves, speaks, acts, and does things, that is the flesh.

The flesh includes the self when it is expressing its opinions.

The flesh is the totality of the fallen human being in expression, in action. It is just the old man being lived out.

May the Lord shine on the flesh and expose it, and may we turn to Him in spirit to contact Him and live in spirit, so that we may not live according to the flesh but according to the spirit!

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see that the flesh denotes the totality of our fallen old man, our entire fallen being. Oh Lord, we open to You again and again; may Your living light scatter all our night and make everything bright. Save us from serving God in our flesh. Save us from trying to do things for God in the flesh and according to the desire of the flesh. Keep us turning to our spirit. We want to live in spirit and walk according to the spirit so that we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Amen, Lord, we want to follow You by taking up our cross, denying our self, and losing our soul life, so that You may live in us and we may live Christ!

The Flesh is Enmity against God and Cannot Please God, for the Flesh is the Camp of God’s Enemy in us

Rom. 8:7 is a strong verse telling us that the mind set on the flesh is enmity against God, for the flesh is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be. Wow!

We do not want to be God’s enemy, but whenever our mind is set on the flesh, we’re at enmity with God. We are sinners – we committed sins; we transgressed against God’s righteousness and holiness.

This causes God to be displeased with us. But for us to be an enemy of God is something else, for an enemy of God opposes God; this is who we are when we set our mind on the flesh.

The flesh is not subject to the law of God and neither can it be, for it is not able to obey God.

This is the case with Saul; he thought he is doing the will of God, but actually, he was a rebellious person who, though he won a victory outwardly, was God’s enemy inwardly.

Wow, we may have a great accomplishment and obtain a wonderful victory, but we may be at enmity with God!

Saul raised up his own monument to remember himself; he had no interest for God but rather, he was using God to do something for himself.

He was outwardly doing something that was seemingly for God, but he was actually God’s enemy.

The flesh is impotent in the things related to God; the flesh cannot please God, and nor is it capable to obey God’s law.

If we do not deal with the flesh for the sake of the church life, there cannot be the kingdom of God in us and through us.

Without the kingship of Christ, without His headship, there’s no way for us to build up the Body.

This is the reason that throughout history until now, there has been very little building up of the church, for there’s so much confusion and division among Christians primarily due to the flesh, especially the good aspects of the flesh, which cannot please God.

When Samuel rebuked Saul, he seemed to repent, asking for forgiveness, but there was no change; he just could not submit to God.

God and Satan are irreconcilable, and so are the flesh and God – there’s no reconciliation, for the flesh is enmity against God and cannot please God.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:8); they may do many things for God and in God’s name, but none of this pleases God.

The flesh is not subject to the law of God, the flesh cannot be subject to the law of God, and the flesh cannot please God; in God’s eyes, there’s no place for the flesh – it must be terminated.

According to Gal. 5:19-21, the flesh is the camp of God’s enemy and the largest base for his work.

Satan’s work needs a base and a camp to do his things; this is the flesh.

Satan encamps in our flesh; sin, the world, and satan are three-in-one encamped in the flesh to carry out Satan’s operation in us.

If our flesh is dealt with, the sin will be annulled, the world will be ineffective, and Satan will be powerless.

If we remove the base of Satan’s operations, Satan cannot act and has no power, sin will be over, and the world will have no hold on us.

In the entire universe God’s unique enemy, in a practical sense, is not Satan but the flesh (Rom. 8:7).

Yes, the enemy of God is Satan, but in a practical way, it is us – it is the flesh, for Satan’s camp and base of operations is in the flesh.

When the fallen man is lived out, that’s God’s enemy, for the flesh is enmity with God.

The flesh, the fallen man, is absolutely one with Satan and is used by Satan to fight against God (Matt. 16:23; Gal. 5:17).

When Peter expressed his concern for the Lord not to go to die, when he expressed his sympathy for the Lord and tried to stop Him from going to the cross, the Lord said, Get behind me, Satan.

It was Peter who spoke, but at that time Satan was expressed through his good flesh, his good self, and Peter was one with Satan. Wow.

May we realize that, as long as we remain in the flesh and our mind is set on the flesh, we are an enemy of God and enmity against God.

May we realize that in the church life all the troubles come from the flesh, and may we choose to turn to the Lord in our spirit and remain one spirit with Him day by day and even moment by moment.

Lord Jesus, save us from setting our mind on the flesh; we choose to set our mind on the spirit so that we may enjoy life and peace. Amen, Lord, shine on us and expose the enemy’s camp and largest base, our flesh. Save us from living in the flesh. Save us from being enmity against God by setting our mind on the flesh. May we realize that our flesh is not subject to God’s law and is not able to fulfill God’s law. May we be clear that the flesh cannot please God. Oh Lord, we turn to You in spirit right now. We desperately run to our mingled spirit. Keep us contacting You in spirit and keep us walking according to the spirit today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus (pp. 533-543), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of 1 and 2 Samuel (2021 winter training), week 5, entitled, War with the Amalekites.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – There is a foe whose hidden pow’r / The Christian well may fear, / More subtle far than inbred sin, / And to the heart more dear. / It is the pow’r of selfishness, / It is the wilful I, / And ere my Lord can live in me, / My very self must die. (Hymns #415)
  – When I am in Adam, though I may not sin, / Unto death, a sinner, sentenced I have been; / When in Christ I need not righteously to act, / I’m already righteous, justified in fact. / In the flesh I need no effort to express / Marks of Adam’s nature and its sinfulness; / In the spirit I need not to strive or strain, / I can live as He is and in spirit reign. (Hymns #593)
  – Lord, teach us to discern the spirit / That we may never set our mind / Upon the flesh but on the spirit, / That sin and self no more may bind. (Hymns #746)