In this post we continue examining the implications of the example of the Sons of Issachar (1 Chr 12:32) for Christian artists today (e.g., understanding the times and knowing what we should do).  Last week, we saw that the attitude that rejects the senses and the body (and thus rejects God’s Creation as evil), and consequently refuses to embrace the ways that such human experiences as sexuality, sensuality, and violence are presented in Scripture (Prov 5:18-19; Ezek 23:19-21; Judg 3:21-22; 1 Sam 15:32-33; etc.) is largely due to a pagan system of thought known as Platonism.  Platonism teaches that only non-physical things (like the human spirit) are good, and that all physical things (our bodies, the earth, and all matter) are infected with evil and are to be devalued.

This system of thought crept into the Church early on, as many men educated in Platonic thought (as all educated men of the time were) converted to Christ, but inadvertently carried this unbiblical view into the Church.  Please remember that these men of the Early Church were truly men of God who lived exceptionally holy lives and who were frequently brilliant thinkers.  The early Church Fathers are the ones who, in the early centuries of the New Covenant Church, amidst great conflict with heretics and frequent social unrest, fought to hammer out in uncompromising forms the clear Truth of the basic teachings of Scripture on such subjects as the Nature of the Holy Trinity, the Mystery of the Incarnation, and the Deity of the Holy Ghost (all of which were hotly contested by the heretics and pagans of the period), what we think of now as basic Christianity, the Creedal Truths that define orthodox Christian belief.

They were frequently persecuted, martyred, exiled, etc., for fighting for and holding these Truths.  The fact that the orthodox Church continued, the Reformation happened, and we are Christians today, is largely due to their efforts in handing on to godly men the unvarnished, clearly articulated Truth of the Bible.  These men were giants in the Faith, and we all stand on their shoulders (not the other way around).

How did this happen? How could the greatest Christian men of their time have made such a mistake (and they were truly great men and great minds—remember that we all are made of dust)?  Recall that they were educated in Platonic thought, which was the dominant philosophical thought-grid of their time.  The problem was that some of the basic aspects of Platonism seemed to be in accord with Holy Writ (though they were actually not, as we shall see).  This produced a confusion of terms, and thus a confusion concerning the nature of holiness.  The biblical terms in question: the “world” and the “flesh.”  Consider these passages:

“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.” (Gal 5:17)

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells. . .So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Rom 7:18, 25)

“For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Rom 8:13)

Whoa.  Maybe Plato was right.  NOT.

The word “flesh” is used at least three ways in Scripture: (1) The most general way is a simple reference to humanness; (2) It is also used to refer to the physical body; (3) Its narrowest use, the way it is used in the passage we looked at, is in contrast to “Spirit” and refers to the sinful human nature which includes the mind and soul.  

Let us look a bit more closely to see if the Platonic view assumed by many of the Fathers is applicable here.

Galatians 5:19-21 tells us what the shape of the work of the flesh (its practice and patterns) looks like: “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

All of these things listed are clearly designated as sinful behavior in Scripture.  There is, please note, no mention of sensual enjoyment or physical pleasure in a godly context (such as sex in marriage, say) or of physically as such.  Only sinful activity in condemned.

Romans 7:13-8:14 tells us even more about the principle of the flesh (go and look this up, oh lazy one, that you may learn; the passage is too long to replicate here).  Verses 17-20 of this passage point out that what prevents the Christian from doing the good that he wants to do is “sin, that dwells in” him, the principle of sin, elsewhere called “the old man.”  Verses 21-25 of chapter 7 speak of the struggle between “the inward man” who delights in God’s law against the “evil that is present in me.”  Verse 23 speaks of “the law of sin in my members” that wars against the inward man of verse 22, e.g., the principle of sin that makes use of bodily desires to manifest itself.

Romans 8, verse 9 says that you are not in the flesh if the Spirit dwells in you, because, according to verses 10 and 11, the body is dead because of sin, but it will (for the Christian) receive life through the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.  Verse 13 says we are to put the deeds of the body that realize the leadings of the flesh-nature (the sin nature, the old man) to death by the Holy Spirit’s power.

St. Paul teaches in Romans 6:5-23 that, on the basis of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, we are able to share in the Spirit’s power to put the flesh-nature’s deeds to death.  For what purpose?  Verses 12 and 13 tell us: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”  We are not to present our bodies to sin (the old man, the flesh-nature), but to God to be instruments of righteousness instead of instruments of unrighteousness.

Did you get that?  Yielding our bodies to God is the way of spirituality.  Romans 12:1 commands us: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

If God commands us to present our bodies as acceptable and hold sacrifices to Himself, He must not hate them after all.  1 Corinthians 6:13b underscores this when it says: “Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”  Pretty straight ahead.

The opposite of spiritual is not physical.  The opposite of spiritual is sinful.  Our bodies (including the senses) are the arena of our spiritually.  We are not spirits trapped or housed in bodies, but are spirits in bodily state.  Physicality is integrally bound up with spirituality (1 Cor 6:13-15; Phil 3:20-21: 1 Cor 15:12-15, 6:18-20; etc.).  Our bodies will be changed to an unfallen state at the Resurrection (1 Cor 15:12-58; 1 John 1), as the Lord Jesus is physical in His Glorified Body forever.

Christ’s Incarnation not only redeemed us from our sin, but also renewed God’s Image in man, sanctifying the full range of human experience and existence (John 1:25; Rom 5:11-19; 1 Cor 15; etc.) including the senses.  The senses are not evil; only the idolatry of the senses is evil.  The senses are good, like all created things, when used as God intended.  The bodily experience is necessary for spiritually and life.  This is good news for artists, but bad news for Plato and his ancient and modern followers who think that any category of human experience, even the sensual, is off-limits for a proper biblical expression.  We still, however, have not addressed the biblical concept of the world.  Next post, God willing, we shall.