“The spirit gives life;” contrast this with the Rabbinic view that the Law gives life: “Great is the Law, for it gives life to them that practice it both in this world and in the world to come” (qt’d in Morris 384).

“the flesh counts for nothing” = is a principle which applies to their interpretation of what Jesus has said and also to us today. Their eating of His physical body would do them no good; and all of our good works produced by an act of our flesh will also be worthless.

“The words…” = the words of Jesus are creative; they bring life much as the words of God, as recorded in Genesis, brought into existence all things.

John 5:24  “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Jesus had just instructed them that all He had said should be interpreted in the spiritual and not the physical. His words are spirit and they apply to the spiritual realm as does the life of which he has been speaking.

There is an incredibly important principle here that we dare not miss. If we live our lives in the spirit, they will be full of life and vitality. If we live them in the flesh, all that we do will be worthless.

Biblically, flesh speaks of our human nature. It is literally the soft part of our bodies that surrounds our bones. We are beings composed of spirit, soul, and body. Our spirits are the part of us which is connected to the spirit world. God’s intention is that our souls (composed of our mind, will, and emotions) should choose to follow Him and not to give in to the lusts of the flesh. However, when man fell, man’s soul chose to give into the body and its passions instead of obeying God, and as a consequence, we are now fleshly beings.

We are fleshly because we are born that way. It has been handed down from Adam and is even more certain than our genetic code. We take on flesh because our parents were flesh, and the only way we can be spiritual is for us to be born that way. Thus God’s plan is for us to die to our flesh and be reborn as a spiritual person. This can only be done through the sacrifice of Jesus and this process is called “salvation.”

Our flesh can never please God because it is corrupt through and through. This is true both of those who are sinners and those who have accepted the salvation freely given by Christ. The flesh is completely opposed to God and it is impossible for it to submit to His will (Rom 8:6-8). There is no possibility for peaceful co-existence. God is not pleased with what we do, but by the source with which we do it. We can do the most righteous things, but if they are done out of our self and our own strength, it does not make God happy. The most excellent deeds, if done in the flesh, bring as much displeasure from God as the most wicked ones would. Our deeds must spring from a trust in and reliance upon the Holy Spirit, or else they are carnal and rejected by God. God’s verdict is that the flesh counts for nothing and it must die.

Rom 8:6-8  The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

When God saved us, He made us brand new, but it was our spirits that He made new, and not our flesh. By making our spirits new He gives us the power to choose to follow Him. Our flesh is still the same, but now we have the ability to choose to die to it and live for Christ. This comes simply by believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

God never intended to make our flesh better. He just made it possible for us to choose to let the Holy Spirit do His work in and through us. If we have accepted His salvation, then we have killed the power sin has over us (Rom 6:6, Gal 5:24), but we still must walk by the Spirit so we won’t gratify the flesh’s desires (Gal 5:16-17). Jesus delivers us from the power of sin and enables us to live daily for Him by his Holy Spirit living within us, but it is still up to us to choose.

Rom 6:6  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

Gal 5:24  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

Gal 5:16-17  So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

We are made brand new in the deepest part of our beings, but it takes time to work its way out from in there. It is not natural for a Christian to be fleshly, unless he is a new Christian 1 Cor 3:1-3.

1 Cor 3:1-3  Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?The church is without the power it should have today and the reason is that its members live weak, fleshly lives. Individually, we are miserable, weak, and pathetic. We keep falling into the same sins and there is no power in our lives. Why? Because we are not making right choices. We are choosing the things that satisfy our bodies and our flesh instead of the things of God. Jesus said that the flesh accounts for nothing. Only the Spirit gives life. Which will you choose to live your life by?