Galatians 5:17 (NKJV)
"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish".
The flesh always wants gratification. The flesh is what is contrary to the spirit and the flesh and the spirit are two opposing forces that exist within a believer. The spirit is the Holy Spirit. The flesh is the part of a believer that disagrees with the spirit. The makeup of a believer is different from that of an unbeliever, in that the unbeliever does not have the spirit of God indwelling within them. In the case of an unbeliever, the flesh is in agreement with the spirit of that unbeliever.
God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and forbid them to eat fruit from the "tree of knowledge" good and evil. Everything was good until Satan the fallen angel entered into the picture. Consider God's statement here: "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17) The Scriptures say: "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it." (Gen. 3:6) After they sinned in Genesis 3, God sentenced them to die as per Genesis 2:17 (Genesis 3:19), and that was in part why they were forbidden to take from the "Tree of Life". Because of their rebellion, they were removed from the Garden of Eden and the world fell into a fallen state and suffered the degrading and deadly consequences of sinfulness. Now, because of the fall of man, and because of this act of disobedience, all mankind has a sinful nature. Romans 5:12
We all possess a sinful nature that we inherited from Adam. Whether we like it or not, that is the way it is! We are all born sinners and must die because we come from Adam. The first man who disobeyed God's commandment is our forefather and we are just like him. Who among us can say he has never disobeyed the commandments of God? Not a single one of us! Like a horrible contagious disease, the sin that was in Adam has spread to us all just as an epidemic is not confined to the one from whom it originates.
The flesh exists in the body and also in the brain--- that is why it’s so difficult at times for believers to break old habits and patterns of sin. One of the biggest criticisms of the Christian church precedes from unbelievers is that of hypocrisy. This hypocrisy is real indemnity and they are right to criticize it. Like the Galatians we are deserting the grace of God and turning to another gospel Galatians 1:6 "deceived by the flesh we tried to be good, moral, friendly, nice, loving, and faithful people, but we forget that the law was not made to save us, it was designed to aggravate the flesh and show us our imperfection so that we will turn to Christ."
The sin nature will always be there to try and stop us from doing the things God has for us.
The fallen human nature is inherently rebellious against God. We inherited this nature from Adam and, unfortunately, it was not eradicated when we became Christians. It is still within us, but we are no longer forced to follow its dictates. As we will see in Romans 8, we now have the Spirit within us who is strong enough to keep the flesh from getting the upper hand. What kinds of things does the flesh cause us to do?
"The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like." (Galatians 5:19-21)
The flesh motivates the selfishness we sometimes feel, the whining about our circumstances, the petty jealousies, the jockeying for power in the office and in our marriages, the lure of pornography, the desire for money and possessions, and all the rest. In 7:14-25 we'll explore our struggle with the flesh. In 8:9-14 we can see how the spirit can enable us to live free from the sinful nature of the flesh.
