Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

When we hear the word “flesh,” we tend to think of the physical body. However, it’s far more than that. When the apostle Paul uses the concept of flesh, he is not just talking about your physical body but also about your deepest nature, your strongest desires, and your inner person. We sometimes use phrases such as “Seeing someone’s heart” or “Getting to the soul of the matter.” That is what Paul is describing—that part of your being that affects all the decisions you make, all the desires you have, and all the thoughts you conceive. Your flesh totally impacts who you are and how you live.

Until we meet Jesus, all we have is the flesh, also called the “old nature” or the “old man.” It is a seed of rebellion passed down to us from our first father, Adam. Even in secular psychology, there is an understanding of the flesh. Counselors, psychologists, and therapists who don’t even know the Lord or believe the Bible will talk about our “shadow side”—the dark, deadly, and destructive part of us. This is the part we are a bit scared of because we fear other people will see who we really are. So, we try to control it. Counselors, psychologists, and therapists talk about an unconscious part of our being—we didn’t choose it, but it chose us.

The difference between the Bible and behavioral sciences is that the behavioral sciences can diagnose our problems, but they can’t provide a solution. They can tell you what’s wrong, but they can’t make it right. We have needs only God can meet and changes only God can make. Social sciences tell us our only hopes are medication and management to keep our shadow side from destroying us. Now, I’m not saying that management through good habits is a bad thing. I’m not saying that on certain occasions, the problem could not be, at least in part, medical, hormonal, physical, or chemical. When we love somebody, we want to see them whole in their mind and thoughts, in their heart with their emotions, in their deeds with their actions, and their body with their physical health.

Only God can provide the solution. We don’t want people just to be better; we want them to be new. We don’t want them merely to avoid pain in this life; we want them to avoid the pain of eternal life. We need not just manage or medicate the old nature; we need the Spirit of God to remove that old nature and replace it with a new one.

The greatest gift we can give is to tell people about Jesus. Then God gives them the Holy Spirit and a new nature, desires, and power. They no longer live in the shadow side; they live in the Spirit side.

Today’s Reflection

What aspect of your shadow side scares you the most?