For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit
By "flesh" is meant, not the carnal or literal sense of the
Scripture, which is Origen's gloss, as militating against the
spiritual sense of it; nor the sensual part of man rebelling
against his rational powers; but the corruption of nature, which
still is in regenerate persons: and is so called because it is
propagated by carnal generation; has for its object carnal
things; its lusts and works are fleshly; and though it has its
seat in the heart, it shows itself in the flesh or members of the
body, which are yielded as instruments of unrighteousness; and it
makes and denominates men carnal, even believers themselves so
far as it prevails: by "the Spirit" is meant the internal
principle of grace in a regenerate man, and is so called from the
author of it, the Spirit of God, whose name it bears, because it
is his workmanship; and from the seat and subject of it, the soul
or spirit of man; and from the nature of it, it is spiritual, a
new heart and a new Spirit; its objects are spiritual, and it
minds, savours, and delights in spiritual things: and the meaning
of the lusting of the one against the other, for it is
reciprocal, hence it follows,
and the Spirit against the flesh,
is that the one wills, chooses, desires, and affects what is
contrary to the other; so the flesh, or the old man, the carnal
I, in regenerate persons, wills, chooses, desires, and loves
carnal things, which are contrary to the Spirit or principle of
grace in the soul; and on the other hand, the Spirit or the new
man, the spiritual I, wills, chooses, desire, approves, and loves
spiritual things, such as are contrary to corrupt nature; and
this sense is strengthened by the Oriental versions. The Syriac
version reads, "for the flesh desires that" (aknd) , "which hurts", or is contrary
to "the Spirit"; and "the Spirit desires that which hurts", or is
contrary to the "flesh"; and much in the same way the Arabic
version renders it, "for the flesh desires that which militates
against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires that which militates
against the flesh"; to which the Ethiopic version agrees, reading
it thus, "for the flesh desires what the Spirit would not, and
the Spirit desires what the flesh would not"; the reason whereof
is suggested in the next clause:
and these are contrary the one to the other;
as light and darkness, fire and water, or any two opposites can
be thought to be; they are contrary in their nature, actings, and
effects; there is not only a repugnancy to each other, but a
continued war, conflict, and combat, is maintained between them;
the flesh is the law in the members or force of sin, which wars
against the spirit, the law in the mind, or the force and power
of the principle of grace; these are the company of two armies,
to be seen in the Shulamite, fighting one against the other. So
the Jews say F23 of the good imagination, and of the
evil one, by which they mean the same as here, that they are like
Abraham and Lot; and that
``though they are brethren, joined in one body, (hzl hz) (Mybywa Mh) , "they are enemies to one another";''hence it follows,
so that ye cannot do the good that ye would
which may be understood both of evil things and of good things.
The former seems to be chiefly the apostle's sense; since the
whole of this text is a reason given why those who walk
spiritually shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, because they
have a powerful governing principle in them, the Spirit, or
grace; which though the flesh lusts against, and opposes itself
unto, yet that also rises up against the flesh, and often hinders
it from doing the works and lusts of it. There is in regenerate
men a propensity and inclination to sin, a carnal I, that wills
and desires sin, and wishes for an opportunity to do it, which
when it offers, the flesh strongly solicits to it; but the
Spirit, or the internal principle of grace, opposes the motion;
and like another Joseph says, how can I commit this great
wickedness and sin against a God of so much love and grace? it is
a voice behind and even in a believer, which, when he is tempted
to turn to the right hand or the left, says, this is the way,
walk in it, and will not suffer him to go into crooked paths with
the workers of iniquity; and so sin cannot have the dominion over
him, because he is under grace as a reigning principle; and the
old man cannot do the evil things he would, being under the
restraints of mighty grace. This is the apostle's principal
sense, and best suits with his reasoning in the context; but
inasmuch as the lusting and opposition of these two principles
are mutual and reciprocal, the other sense may also be taken in;
as that oftentimes, by reason of the prevalence of corrupt
nature, and power of indwelling sin, a regenerate man does the
evil he would not, and cannot do the good he would; for he would
always do good and nothing else, and even as the angels do it in
heaven; but he cannot, because of this opposite principle, the
flesh.