Your war of flesh and Spirit
In Romans, Paul uses the Greek term sarx (translated variously as ‘flesh’, ‘sinful nature’ or ‘human nature’) on several occasions but in different ways, the difference in use being particularly notable in chapter 8. Sometimes, it refers to the characteristic of being human (Rom. 1:3; 4:1; 8:3; 9:5, 8), and human effort (Gal. 3:3).
However, on other occasions, it is clear that he is using flesh, not to refer to the physical body and mortality, but to describe something much more malevolent and malignant that militates against God in a way that makes it inseparable from sin; indeed, the term ‘sin’ is often synonymous with ‘the flesh’ (8:4–9, 12–13; 13:14).
In this respect, to live a life dominated by sin is equivalent to living a life controlled by the flesh. It is as if flesh and sin gang up on the believer and make it difficult to live as a follower of Jesus—so difficult that one wonders how it can be achieved.
It is in this context that the Spirit, who was mentioned just four times in chapters 1–7 (only eight times in chapters 9–16), is now presented pervasively throughout this section (twenty-one times in 8:1–27)3 as the one who provides the force that not only rescues believers but enables them to take territory previously held by the flesh and sin in their lives.
In Romans 8:5–13, Paul contrasts the Spirit with the flesh, identifying the incompatibility of the two and the tension that causes. A life influenced by the Spirit is focused on those aspects of life that are important to the Spirit, while it also has a different destiny to a life focused on a sinful agenda (8:6).
Paul identifies his readers as people of the Spirit and not of the flesh (8:9). As such, a lifestyle characterised by the word ‘flesh’ is inappropriate for them, for it describes a way of life that is not influenced by the Spirit.
Such a life may be grossly immoral or mildly displeasing, but the depth of decadence is not the issue; it is a life that is devoid of the Spirit and thus cannot please God (8:8), however moral the person concerned may be.
Indeed, whether they realise it or not, such people are in a state of enmity with God (8:7), for their lives are devoid of the presence, influence and power of the Spirit.
3 Cranfield (Romans Vol. 1, p. 371) identifies these references to the Spirit in chapter 8 as being, ‘much more often than in any other single chapter in the whole NT’.
Warrington, K. (2009). The Message of the Holy Spirit: The Spirit of Encounter (D. Tidball, Ed.; pp. 157–158). Inter-Varsity Press.
