Sin Does Not Originate in the Shell of Flesh

Sin Does Not Originate in the Shell of Flesh

You may have spent years trying to avoid sin by managing your flesh — by disciplining your body, abstaining from alcohol, avoiding certain places, dressing modestly, fasting regularly, or following routines that seem spiritual and safe. You may have believed that if you could just control your physical actions, you would be free from sin’s grip. But despite your efforts, you still find yourself wrestling with thoughts you didn’t invite, desires you didn’t want, and reactions that seem to rise from somewhere deeper than your skin and bone. And that’s because sin does not originate in the shell of your flesh. It is not in the skin or muscle or bone. The flesh is weak, yes, and under the curse, but it cannot sin without the soul’s consent.

Your body is not the source of rebellion. It is the instrument. The flesh carries out what the soul commands. And when you try to train the flesh without renewing the soul, you are polishing the surface while the root remains untouched. The truth is that sin begins in the soul — in the mind, the will, and the heart — and it manifests through the body only after the inner man has chosen to rebel, to ignore, or to disobey the truth of God’s Word.

Scripture confirms this clearly. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19). “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). These verses do not point to the body as the source of sin. They point to the soul — the place where knowledge is either received or rejected, where obedience is either chosen or refused.

Paul understood this clearly. He said, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Romans 7:22), showing that the true battle is not in the limbs but in the inner man. And when he cried out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24), he was not blaming his flesh for sin, but acknowledging that without the Spirit, the Word of God, the soul remains captive to the law of sin and death.

To overcome this, you must begin with the mind. You must renew it daily by the Word of God, not by memorising verses for ritual’s sake, but by understanding what they mean and allowing them to reshape your thoughts, your attitudes, your intentions, and your responses. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Romans 12:2). This transformation does not come by force or fear, but by love — love for God, love for truth, and a desire to please Him in all things. As your mind is renewed, your soul begins to yield, not to the impulses of the flesh, but to the leading of the Spirit. And this yielding is not a one-time act, but a daily decision to obey the Word, to submit to its instruction, and to walk in the righteousness it produces.

You do not overcome sin by suppressing the body. You overcome by submitting the soul. And as you grow in knowledge, as you yield in obedience, as you walk in obedience to the influences of the written Spirit of God, you will find that your thoughts begin to change, your desires begin to align with truth, and your actions begin to bear fruit unto righteousness. This is the progressive process of sanctification — not instant, not effortless, but real and lasting.