When we ask the scholars about flesh and spirit, they reply with a variety of ideas. One consistent view is that Paul chose these words as metaphor for his message because ‘flesh’ refers to the mark of circumcision, the seal of the old covenant in contrast to the Spirit which is the seal of the new covenant in Christ. This makes good sense in the context of Chapter 8, after Paul's defense of both the holiness and the impossibility of the Law in Chapter 7. While Paul is also careful not to put down the value of the first covenant, he knows that Law cannot achieve what we have in Christ. Our death with Christ is wholly transforming, not just an action to mark the "flesh".

Alan Segal (Paul the Convert, 1990) sums up this connection between chapter 7 and 8 as follows: "When Paul quotes the tenth commandment, many scholars have assumed that he is speaking specifically about lust. But the term is a general term, covering all kinds of desires including religious ones. Paul is speaking about desires in general including the covetousness of depending on fleshly marks for religious justification - desiring the benefits of Torah - while ignoring the spiritual value of being made over in the image of Christ. Paul is talking about the joy and security of doing Torah, a feeling with which most New Testament scholars cannot empathize. Paul is saying he enjoys doing the ceremonial Torah, but that it is a trap for him,... he speaks of covetousness, envy of the position of religious surety presented by a life under the commandments, because he wishes to contrast the life of ceremonial Torah with the life of the Spirit." 

A second view of flesh and spirit is the common view that flesh refers to the body and spirit refers to thought or soul or whatever is not body. Paul does not think this way. He is unified in his view of the human and he does not have a negative view of the human body. He uses body positively in this and other letters. For example, "the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 6). Here in verse 10, as C. K. Barrett points out (The Epistle to the Romans 1957, second edition 1991), Paul does not say 'the body is dead,... the spirit is alive' as if we were dividable into two pieces, but he says 'the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness', in other words, as he goes on, the Spirit 'will give life to our mortal bodies' (8:11, compare the Nicene creed: the Lord, the giver of life). Again, if we ‘put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, we shall live’ (8:13). This ‘putting to death’ refers back to his description of being true to our baptism (6:3, 7, 11). Flesh, likewise, can have neutral or positive connotations for Paul. For example, this letter is the gospel ‘concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with respect to the flesh.’ (1:3).  It is into our full humanity that Jesus is born. Here, Paul joins other New Testament writers in affirming God’s love for the world. This consistent doctrine of incarnation prevents us from heretical views that devalue the goodness of the created order. It also invites us into the Age to Come now through that apocalyptic event of the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the end of time present in all times.

Many search for a “theological anthropology” in Paul. Who are we that God is interested in us? Are we made up of three parts, or two, the good, the bad, and the ugly, or are we one? Paul’s view of us as human is “in Adam” and “in Christ”. It is unitary as they are each unitary, neither dualistic nor tri-partite. It is not a condemnation of any part of us but an invitation to transformation of the whole of who we are by the Spirit. Our mind, our body, our being is to be no longer in the old man (Adam) but we are to put on the new man (Christ). Chapter 8 celebrates this commitment to us and to all creation in the inheritance we have through Christ.

So when Paul uses flesh and spirit, he is not primarily thinking of a generalized idea of evil and good, as if our flesh was evil. Instead, he addresses our limitations before the law, and the role of the first covenant in showing us these limitations. This is “the mind set on the flesh” (8:7), which “cannot please God”, nor does it please us (14:16). Paul is not condemning the body (There is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ, 8.1), but flesh as a metaphor for the 'pride of life' (1 John 2:16), the essence of the temptation faced by the first Adam as the archetypical human (5:17). It is the same temptation faced by Jesus, the second Adam (Hebrews 2:18, Matthew 4:1), and by us. Paul explains to us the power that we have been given in the new covenant.

J.S. Bach set the first verses of Chapter 8 to music in his motet, Jesu Meine Freude. Choristers are lucky in that they get to memorize much of Scripture. [Bob MacDonald and Ayla Lepine, two choristers]

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