In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight:
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
He, however, is not unreasonably said to walk blamelessly, not who has already reached the end of his journey but who is passing on towards the end in a blameless manner, free from damnable sins, and at the same time not neglecting to cleanse by almsgiving such sins as are venial. For the way in which we walk, that is, the road by which we reach perfection, is cleansed by clean prayer. That, however, is a clean prayer in which we say in truth, “Forgive us, as we ourselves forgive.” So that, as there is nothing censured when blame is not imputed, we may hold on our course to perfection without censure, in a word, blamelessly. On Man’s Perfection in Righteousness
Note how he says that it was “his own body” and “his own flesh” which was given up for us. We must not say, then, that the flesh and blood was that of another son apart from him, understood as separate and honored as a mere conjunction, having an alien glory, someone who did not have preeminence substantially, but only as if the name of sonship and that of Godhead which is above every name were thrown over him like a mask or a cloak. –.
The apostle, in his epistle to the Colossians, wishing to show that the body of Christ was made of flesh and was not spiritual and made of some gossamer, ethereal substance, said significantly, “And you, when you were sometime alienated from Christ and enemies of his spirit in evil works, he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death.” And again in the same epistle: “In whom you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the putting off of the body of the flesh.” If by body is meant flesh only, and the word is not ambiguous nor capable of diverse significations, it was quite superfluous to use both expressions—bodily and of flesh—as though body did not imply flesh.
But you must not on this account suppose that on every mention of His body the term is only a metaphor, instead of meaning real flesh. For he says above that we are "reconciled in His body through death; "
