How Did All Humans Become Fleshly? — The Spiritual Man

How Did All Humans Become Fleshly?

The Lord Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). Here, we see the Lord Jesus reveals three things to us: First, what is the flesh? Second, how do people become flesh? Third, what is the nature of the flesh?

What is the flesh?“That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Who is born of the flesh? Man. Therefore, man is flesh. Every person in the world, from the moment he is born of his parents, all that he is by nature and all that he inherently possesses, belongs to the flesh. No matter how good a person may be, how moral, how talented, how kind, or how intelligent he is—he is of the flesh. And no matter how evil, how unholy, how foolish, how useless, or how cruel he may be—he is still of the flesh. That man is flesh means that everything he possesses from birth—whether good or bad—belongs to the flesh; it is all within the realm of the flesh. All that is present from birth, whether already mature or only in embryonic form awaiting later growth and development, belongs to the flesh.

How does man become flesh?“That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Man does not become flesh through learning to do evil, nor does he become fleshly only after prolonged contact with corrupt environments. Man does not become flesh because he gradually sins. A person is not considered fleshly only after indulging his lusts, following the desires of his heart, and becoming entirely dominated, oppressed, and conquered by the evil cravings of the body. No. The Lord Jesus said that the moment a person is born, he is already flesh. Whether a person is fleshly is not determined by his behavior or personality—it is determined by one thing alone: Who was he born from?Every person in the world is born of parents, born of human beings. There is not a single person who came into being apart from natural human birth; every person is born of man. Therefore, in God’s eyes, there is not one person in the world who is not of the flesh (cf. Genesis 6:3). This is why Scripture repeatedly does not refer to people as “men,” but rather calls all people “all flesh” or “all living flesh” (see the concordance for this book). Since all are born of the flesh, how could there be a single one who is not flesh? So, according to the Lord’s words, whether a person is of the flesh is not determined by anything else—it is determined solely by whether he was born of the flesh. The reason a person becomes flesh is that he was “born of blood, of the will of the flesh, and of the will of man”—not because of what he himself has done. The condition of his parents already defines what kind of being he is.

What then is the nature of the flesh?“That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Everything that is born of the flesh is flesh—no matter what. Educate it, improve it, nurture it, restrain it with morality and religion—none of these will cause it to cease being flesh. For that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Since it is born of the flesh, it is flesh. No amount of effort, strength, or strategy will make it anything other than flesh. The only way for someone not to be flesh is not to be born of the flesh in the first place. But once a person is born of the flesh, he can never cease to be flesh. If a person were not born of the flesh, this conversation would be unnecessary. But since he was born of the flesh, then no matter what methods the world uses, no matter what power or miracle God might display, he can never be changed into something that is not flesh. The Lord Jesus has said it, and that is the final word.Whether a person is of the flesh does not depend on the person himself, but on what was said earlier—who gave him birth? From what was he born? If he was born of the flesh, then all plans to transform him are utterly in vain. He might change from one kind of person to another, even change every day, but no matter what outward changes occur, or how drastically he appears transformed, he is still flesh.