The heart starts out bad but can end up very good.

The heart starts out bad but can end up very good.

ROM 7:5-6

“In the flesh” - the condition and realm of the unsaved, the unbeliever.

Verse 5 - when we were unbelievers
Verse 6 - but now we are believers

ROM 8:8-9

“in the flesh” - This is talking about the UNBELIEVER.

“in the Spirit” - This is talking about the BELIEVER.

Every human being is either “in the flesh” - an unbeliever,
 
Or “in the Spirit” - a believer.

“in the flesh” = the opposite of being
“in the Spirit”

“in the flesh” describes a realm of bondage, with things absent….

-absence of life, absence of the Holy Spirit, absence of Christ, …

…under the domination of sin, under the bondage of the Law, under condemnation, under death.

“in the flesh” talks about something distinct from the word “flesh” alone.

“flesh”, sarx in the Greek, is used in several different ways in the New Testament.

1. Sometimes the word “flesh” simply means mankind. The whole human race.

ISA 40:5
ROM 3:19-20

2. Other places the word “flesh” means the body.

GAL 2:19-21
PHI 1:21-22

3. “flesh” is used to mean the manifestation of sin in the members of our as-yet unredeemed body.

EPH 2:3
ROM 7:18-20

Our bodies are not the root of sin, but do not yet share, as do our spirits, the redemption that is in Christ.

Our souls are being renewed by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

But the flesh, sin entrenched in the body, is unchangeably evil, and will wage its war until Christ comes.

ROM 13:14
GAL 5:13

Only the Holy Spirit has power over “the flesh”.

GAL 5:16-24

We must not confuse the flesh with the heart.

In the Bible we find bad hearts, but also good hearts.

EZE 36:26
ROM 1:21
EPH 4:17-18
LUK 6:43-45

The flesh is unchangeably evil, but the heart can be changed for the better!

PSA 51:10
MAT 5:8

Nothing good dwells in our flesh, but plenty of good things can dwell in our heart.

ROM 5:5
2CO 1:21-22
EPH 3:14-17