The flesh is the corrupted human body. When God created man, man had only the physical body, not the flesh. At that time, neither sin nor lust was in the human body; it was simply a created body. However, when Satan tempted man to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Satan and his sinful life, which were signified by the fruit, entered into the human body, causing the human body to be transmuted and corrupted and thus to become the flesh. In the Bible this flesh is called “the body of sin” (Rom. 6:6) and “the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24). Although such a fallen flesh is utterly powerless in doing good, it is exceedingly active in committing sin. Hence, the flesh is a great bondage and entanglement to man, and it is something which man cannot rid himself of. After we have believed in Christ, we are transferred into Christ. In Him we are circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ (Col. 2:11). The circumcision of Christ refers to the proper baptism, which puts off the body of the flesh by the effectual virtue of the death of Christ, thus terminating our flesh. Hence, we are no longer in the entanglement of the flesh; rather, we have been freed from the flesh.
The fallen man has not only the problem of the flesh but also the problem of the old man. In fact, the two—the flesh and the old man—are one. In the old creation we are the old man. When the old man is lived out and expressed, it is the flesh. Therefore, both the old man and the flesh refer to our very being. As to the objective fact, we are the old man; as to the subjective experience, we are the flesh. The flesh is the living out and the expression of the old man; that is, the flesh is our experience of the old man. When we are baptized, we put off not only the flesh but also the old man (Col. 3:9). Our old man was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6) and was buried in baptism (Rom. 6:4a). We experience this putting off by the life of Christ, who has passed through death and resurrection. Hence, we are no longer entangled with the flesh nor encumbered with the old man.
People in the world today have been captured by the devil and have fallen into his snare (2 Tim. 2:26). They have lost their freedom and they have no way to rescue themselves. Satan utilizes many things, such as sin, money, and pleasure, to deceive and capture man. Moreover, he uses sickness and affliction to bind man (Luke 13:16) and to oppress man (Acts 10:38), thus depriving man of his freedom. However, the Lord Jesus came to set the captives free and to release those who are oppressed. Christ destroyed Satan through His death in the flesh on the cross (Heb. 2:14), thus setting us free, releasing us, from Satan’s hand.
Christ has set us free not only from Satan’s oppression but also from his authority of darkness (Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18). Satan’s authority of darkness is his kingdom. People are controlled and held by Satan in his kingdom. When we were sinners, we were held in Satan’s kingdom of darkness, controlled and cruelly treated under his authority. However, since we have received God’s salvation, we have been delivered out of Satan’s kingdom of darkness, Satan’s authority, by Christ through His death in the flesh and His resurrection life, and we also have been transferred into the kingdom of His own light (Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18), that we may enjoy freedom in the light.
Because man is born into the world, which is degraded and which renounces and even resists God, man is trapped in its snare and dominion. Man simply cannot free himself from the usurpation and enslavement of the world’s temptations, such as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of the present life (1 John 2:15-16). Neither can he free himself from the world’s course (Eph. 2:2) and from the world’s fashion, the world’s current (Rom. 12:2). When we are joined to the Lord organically by our believing and being baptized, through our co-death and co-resurrection with Him we are set free from the world’s power, or we may say from its charm, and are brought into a new realm to live the life of the new man in God’s new creation.