Flesh, the Instrument of Our Salvation

Many religions and philosophies throughout history have sought to provide an escape from the fleshiness of human existence. Biblical revelation, in contrast, attributes an astonishing value and importance to the flesh. Indeed, God's respect for the human body has scandalized some who would prefer that God act on a purely spiritual plane.

A Great Paradox

The flesh is the physical dimension of our existence, that which we have in common with animals. In biblical thought, flesh thus stands for the fragility and weakness of what is human in contrast to what is of God. All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field (Is 40:6). But because of our common descent from one couple, the flesh is also the basis of human kinship, forming a powerful bond. Adam expresses this fact in his hymn of joy upon encountering his bride: This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! (Gen 2:23). Paul alludes to it when he expresses his affection for the Israelites, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom 9:3).

In the New Testament, the flesh becomes the bearer of a great paradox. The flesh represents all that is most ungodlike about human existence. Yet John proclaims the unfathomable truth that the Word became flesh (Jn 1:14). The Son of God took on human existence with all its weakness so as to make it a bearer of his own divine life. He came not to remove our fleshliness but to redeem and divinize it. Through his death and resurrection, his flesh becomes the very instrument of our salvation. As Paul expressed it, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, God condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3). The futility of human flesh is changed into the life-giving power of the flesh of Christ.

Source of Life

In the Gospels, Jesus shows his care for the human body by healing people of disease and disability. Often he does so in a shockingly fleshly manner. He spits, forms clay, touches people's hands or tongues or eyes or ears. His healings reveal the sacramentality of matterits ability to be a visible sign and instrument of divine grace. They also reveal that salvation involves the whole human being, soul and body.

The ultimate sign of God's care for the flesh is the Resurrection, in which Christ's flesh was not jettisoned but transformed, as ours will be on the last day (Lk 24:39; Phil 3:21). From then on, Christ's divinized flesh is the source of our life, as Jesus promised: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed (Jn 6:54-55).

In the sacraments, Christ's flesh continues to touch ours. As the early church theologian Tertullian wrote, The flesh is the hinge of salvation. . . . The flesh is washed so that the soul may be made clean. The flesh is anointed so that the soul may be consecrated. The flesh is signed so that the soul may be protected. The flesh is overshadowed by the laying on of hands so that the soul may be illumined by the Spirit.

The flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, Tertullian continues, so that the soul too may be filled with God.