THE earliest testimony in Scripture to the character of “flesh,” is from God Himself before the Flood. “And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” (Gen. 6:33And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3).) Thus early was announced that truth, which the subsequent dispensations of God have so remarkably corroborated, that whether God addresses the understanding or conscience of man, his fears, or his affections, striving to bring him back unto Himself, from whom he has revolted, it is all useless. He is “flesh,” and flesh is antagonistic to God. This God announced, and on this ground doomed it to judgment, after a respite of an hundred and twenty years.
At the close of this period of the longsuffering of God, the judgment is executed on all flesh, with the exception of a spared remnant of eight persons. A new era commences; but is “flesh” altered in its relation to God? is it improved by judgment? No; all flesh speedily falls into idolatry; but in the patience and longsuffering of God, instead of bringing another judgment upon the world of the ungodly, He calls out one person “alone” (Isa. 51:22Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. (Isaiah 51:2)), and blesses him, revealing Himself to him as “God Almighty,” and making him the depositary of most gracious promises. In process of time, it pleased God to make the posterity of Abraham a nation peculiar to Himself, for the special purpose of maintaining the truth amidst “the gods many, and lords many,” that Jehovah their God was the one only true God. In order to this, God Himself had delivered them out of Egyptian bondage, cast out the nations of Canaan before them, and gave them laws for their government, and ordinances of worship, that the blessedness of the people which had Jehovah for their God might be made manifest to all other nations. But this highly favored nation, after but a brief possession of the land of Canaan, instead of faithfully witnessing to the One Jehovah, copied the manners and worship of the nations whom God had cast out before them, and fell into idolatry. Many indeed were the strivings of God with them to reclaim them; the severity of servitude, the mercy of deliverance, their own experience that it went well with them when they served Jehovah, and brought misery on themselves when they departed from Him. But all these things failed to win this highly favored portion of man to God. He was flesh, and every fresh striving of God with him, only tended to bring more strongly out that flesh was incorrigible. This was remarkably shown by “the ministry of the prophets,” whom God raised up from time to time. “But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man, or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; He gave them all into his hand.” (2 Chron. 36:16, 1716But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. 17Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. (2 Chronicles 36:16‑17).) The prophetic ministry brought out from “the ungodly nation” a remnant, which feared the Lord, and received His gracious promises. The prophets were as “God’s month,” to “take forth the precious from the vile,” and to lead those who were separated unto God by their ministry, to put no confidence in themselves, but to trust in the living God.” “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” (Jer. 17:55Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. (Jeremiah 17:5).)
The prophet Isaiah testifies against the nation of Israel, but comforts an elect remnant, the” little one that becomes a thousand, and the small one that becomes a strong nation. “The Book of the Prophet Isaiah may be divided into three parts. First, chapters 1-35; then, what may be called the historical episode, 36-39; and then, the truly evangelical strain, 40 to the end. In the first division, how have our hearts delighted to linger over the blessed strain of the birth and acting’s of Immanuel comprised in chap. 7-12. Then there is the doom of Babylon, and of sundry nations, interspersed with the deliverance and joy of the oppressed remnant, till we come to the glowing strain of millennial blessedness. (ch. 35) What a triumphant close! But we are turned to other things, and learn the evil height of rebellion and blasphemy, to which “flesh” has reached in the person of Sennacherib. In him we have flesh unrestrained, showing its willful “rage” against God and His people; taking the proud place of an equal with God, instead of the place of a creature entirely dependent on His will. The righteous judgment of God falls upon him and his followers, in their full rampancy of rebellion against God-true picture of the yet future manifestation of unbridled flesh in the Beast and his armies, met with direct judgment by the wrath of the Lamb. (Isa. 36, 37; Rev. 19) “The flesh” in the saint is restrained, but is it therefore better in itself? Let the restraint be removed, and the flesh in the saint instantly shows itself in exaltation against God. This is plainly manifested in the history of Hezekiah, recorded Isaiah 38, 39. “Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that A. might know all that was in his heart.” (2 Chron. 32:3131Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. (2 Chronicles 32:31).)
It is after this manifestation of the evil of the flesh in the open rebel and in the saint, that the prophet commences that most blessed strain, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.” But what is the ground of the comfort? it is that God is acting in the richest grace, after the evil of the flesh has been fully demonstrated. It is not now as He had announced before the flood, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is flesh,” but, after respite, judgment. This still holds true. But on the ground of what “flesh” is, and has been proved to be, God now announces the most solid comfort. Let the “cry” go forth to the ends of the earth, “All flesh is grass.” It is no longer a question to be proved, but one already settled, and to be received as an axiom. The prophet raises the cry, in connection with the revelation of the glory of the Lord. Let that shine forth, and “flesh” must needs wither up before it. And the cry itself, “All flesh is grass,” is contrasted with “The word of our God shall stand forever.” “The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever.” (Isa. 40:6-86The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: 7The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 8The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (Isaiah 40:6‑8).)
John the Baptist identifies himself with this “voice,” and makes “the cry” his own. If he be sent before the Lord to prepare His way, his “cry” is, “All flesh is grass.” Flesh must not show itself. It cannot stand in the presence of the Lord. Religious flesh, Scribes and Pharisees, must flee from the wrath to come. The language of the Evangelist differs from that of the Prophet in one particular. In Isaiah it is written, “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” In the Evangelist, “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” His glory is His salvation, blessed be His name; that glory which, on its manifestation, shall blow upon all flesh, is now testified to by the word of God as His salvation, to all who truly acknowledge the utter worthlessness of the flesh. John specially went “before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins.” (Luke 1:76, 7776And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, (Luke 1:76‑77).) But the same John who cried, “All flesh is grass,” had another “cry” of the most opposite character. “John bare witness of Him, and cried, saying, This was He of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.” And when John sees Jesus coming unto him, he says, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He, of whom I said, After me cometh a Man which is preferred before me; for He was before me.” Ha is not grass. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” And He is declared to be this in His person and His work, that there might be solid comfort in Him, and from Him, to those who know that “All flesh is grass.” It is upon this ground that salvation is of grace through faith in Jesus, the Son of God and Lamb of God. It is indeed “an hard saying,” “who can hear it?” that “All flesh is grass.” And a large portion of the trials of saints arises from disappointed expectations of the flesh, either in themselves, or in others. It was “a hard saying” for the disciples to hear Jesus presenting Himself to them as “living bread,” “meat,” and “drink,” with the solemn declaration, “Verily, verily I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.” (John 6:5353Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. (John 6:53).) They had not then realized that “All flesh is grass.” Its thoughts, judgments, feelings, alike fretted against the doctrine of the cross, as thus propounded by the Lord. But the Lord closes this wonderful discourse concerning His own person and His work on the cross by confirming the cry of the Prophet and of the Baptist as to what “flesh” really is. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:6363It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63).) The true doctrine of the cross, and the profit lessness of the flesh must stand together if the flesh, intellectually, morally, or religiously, “profiteth” in bringing man unto God, “then Christ has died in vain.” If the flesh profiteth to the understanding the things of God, then is there no need that a man should be born again. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” How much inward conflict there is, in “casting down reasonings, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” let each saint answer for himself. It is indeed a hard saying, that “the flesh profiteth nothing;” but what deliverance, what peace, what comfort, pervade the soul, when all expectation from the flesh is given up, and we learn to glory only in the Lord.
The apostle Peter takes up the cry of the prophet, confirming it, and connecting his own testimony with it, blessedly enlarging the scope of the declaration, “The word of the Lord endureth for ever.” “Seeing ye hare purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is Me word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” (1 Pet. 1:22, 28.) If the prophet testified, “the word of our God shall stand forever;” the apostle adds, “it liveth and abideth forever.” There was life in the word, when conveyed to the heart by the Spirit, and that word was by the gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It was not only the word of God in its enduringness set in strong contrast with flesh in its transistorizes, but it is Jesus in the glory of His person, in His cross, in His resurrection, in His ascension into heaven, “angels, and principalities, and powers, being made subject unto Him,” who is in the gospel set in strong contrast with all that man is or can be. He abideth forever, and whatever man covets, whether righteousness, wisdom, or strength, or even life, is only found abidingly in Him.
But although the preaching of the gospel proceeds forth from God to man on the ground that “All flesh is grass,” it finds men, in their individual thoughts, and in their associations together, still trying to contradict the axiom, that “All flesh is grass.” The very “goodness of God,” as proclaimed in the gospel, is taken occasion of by man, as an opportunity for exalting himself. And if the confession be extorted from man, by the stern fact of the uncertainty of life, that a man is a poor frail being―in a word, that he is “grass”―still “the glory of man” is regarded by him as something more permanent than himself. But what says our oracle? “All the glory of man is as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.” The glory of man, on which he prides himself as that which survives him, is here presented as even more perishable than grass. When the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be actually revealed, then will all human glory not only be obscured, but also will be righteously judged by God, as being set up in opposition to Christ.” How can ye believe, says Jesus, who receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” There is no abidingness in human glory, it is “as the flower of the field;” but the glory of Christ in the salvation of a sinner abideth forever. That which the word preached by the gospel now testifies unto, the day of the Lord will clearly manifest. (Isa. 2:1717And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. (Isaiah 2:17).)
There are many restraints on the flesh now; for example, civil government, and the preaching of the gospel. Civil government is hardly regarded as an ordinance of God, but rather as an institution for the convenience of man. Neither is the preaching of the gospel regarded as God’s grand ordinance, but it is rather superseded by an extended profession of the Christian religion, which has not sprung from the gospel at all. The effort of man is to throw off every restraint. “Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?” is virtually the language of the day. But what if God should again no longer “strive with man!” what if He allow the restraints of government to be relaxed according to man’s willfulness! what if the testimony to the gospel of His grace be closed! what if God Himself, restraining man’s willfulness by so many secret means, should, in righteous judgment, send on man a strong delusion to believe a lie! It is to this that man is now tending. “The wicked or lawless one” shall be revealed, and the full energy of “the flesh” will then be displayed in blasphemy against God and His Christ, to be met with direct judgment from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
What a safeguard therefore is it to know that “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass”―that judgment is its necessary doom, for the flesh, and “the minding the things of the flesh,” is enmity against God―that the gospel preached is the judgment of the flesh already in the cross of Christ. “Our old man is crucified with Him.” And whosoever acquiesces in that judgment passed by God there, shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. He becomes “armed with the same mind,” gives up all expectation from the flesh, because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. And to him the cry, that “All flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of the grass,” is the basis of the most solid comfort, because he is led to expect nothing from it, but his expectation is from the Lord. “Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:13, 1413Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? 14For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:13‑14).)