“The Flesh”—Physical Body and “The Flesh”—Sinful Nature

[veteran]

What then of the spiritual body?

How shall it be fashioned?

We have to revert to the Biblical examples to understand that.

Christ said those of the resurrection are as the angels of God in Heaven (Matt.22:30). Genesis 18 and 19 give us more clues, as two of the three men that appeared at Abraham's tent door were the two angels that went to rescue Lot and his.

Hebrews 13:2 tells us to remember to be hospitable to strangers, because some have entertained angels and weren't aware that's what they were.

Paul called the spiritual body the "image of the heavenly" in 1 Cor.15. He said as we have borne the "image of the earthy" we shall also bear the "image of the heavenly".

In all Bible cases, angels appeared to flesh man with the image of man.

Early Christian art supplied the idea of angels with literal wings on their backs to make sure the viewer knew the difference between the characters in the painting. Common sense of Hebrews 13:2 reveals that if we can host an angel at table and not know they are an angel, it means they don't really have literal wings on their backs, at least not within our dimension on this earth.

To understand this better one must begin to understand God's Word about two different dimensions of existence, this earthy and the heavenly.


The following verse explains the first law of Thermodynamics, i.e., that material matter can neither be created nor destroyed...

Heb 11:3
3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
(KJV)

Our Heavenly Father is a separate Entity from His creation (thus Pantheism which believes the creation = God is false). Per the above verse material matter did not create itself, nor can it be created or destroyed by anyone except The Creator Himself, revealing He is not made up of material matter. This also reveals that this earthy dimension, which includes all that is seen in our dimension, is really a subset in God's reality, and not the original dimension of existence (what some philosophers call 'the first cause').

So why did God create this earthy dimension and the earth (i.e., universe)? For His pleasure all things were created (Rev.4:11).

Per Isaiah 45:18, God created this earth to be lived upon, to be inhabited. In final, that's exactly how it will be. He is going to live with us upon this earth (a cleansed earth) and we will be changed to the spiritual body which is OF... the dimension of first origin, His dimension of existence. That is 'how' we will no longer be subject to the earthly elements of heat, cold, etc., simply because the "spiritual body" is of a different dimension, although it can live upon a material earth.

 

[face2face]

The Old Testament uses the word “flesh” to mean only one thing—the physical body, because it was not until Christ that the “flesh”—sinful nature—was addressed with the application of being finally “condemned” (Rom 8:3).

For example, the phrase in the above reference, “sinful flesh,” does not mean the physical body, this would conflict with “you are not in the flesh” (Rom 8:9), meaning you are no longer living for or after the dominion of the sinful nature, but rather for or after “the Holy Spirit.”

The concept that the physical body is sinful or evil is a misunderstanding, and reasonably so when considering the often obscurity of Scripture. It is the nature which determines good or evil of a spirit (person), the body just manifests what the spirit is, thus the body is subject to the person, whether it will be used for good or evil.

Examples:

“In the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3); “Which expresses the reality of His incarnation, of His having a true real human nature; for flesh is not to be taken strictly for a part of the body, nor for the whole body only, but for the whole human nature, soul and body; which though it looked like a sinful nature, yet was not sinful.

“The likeness of it denotes the outward appearance of Christ in it; who was born of a sinful woman (Rom 3:23); was subject to the infirmities of human nature, which though not sinful, are the effects of sin; was reckoned among transgressors, was traduced as one Himself by men, and treated as such by the justice of God; He having all the sins of His people on him, for which He was answerable.” JG

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Rom 6:12). “The ye should obey it” (I believe “it” is in reference, not to the body but to sin). I believe “the lusts thereof” is “the body of sin” (Rom 6:6), which pertains to the sinful nature, thus these are “your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).

Reference: “Flesh,” Strong’s G4561, sarx, IV. The flesh, denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God.

Hi Netchaplin

Do you recall this post and OP?

F2F