To NIV or not to NIV

     I can not figure out why the NIV translates the Greek word  "σαρκί"  into "sinful nature" in  Romans 7:18. I think it would better be rendered plainly as "flesh" in the same way it is used throughout the rest of the New Testament.
     Duke University's Mark Goodacre says that the mistranslation of σαρκί by the NIV may make it unusable for the study of Paul's letters. That is a big statement, and I may agree with him. I know that I feel without clarification the phrase "sinful nature" may lead people to what I feel are erroneous theological conclusions.
     Doug Moo is now the Chairman of the Committe on Bible Translation for the NIV says the following regarding the "sinful nature" debate: 
"The decision of the original New International Version (NIV) translators to render the Greek sarx, when it had its distinctively negative connotation in Paul, with the phrase sinful nature has been widely criticized. I was one of those critics. Every time I taught on passages in which the phrase occured, I insisted that students heed the marginal note indicating the alternate rendering "the flesh" and criticized the translators for their decision. Along with many others, I worried that the introduction of "nature" would further encourage the questionably biblical focus on contrasting "natures" as a framework for conceptualizing the contrast between pre-Christian and Christian experience. Then, in 1995, I was asked to join the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT), the group charged with the oversight of the NIV text. As we comprehensively reviewed the NIV text with a view to needed revisions, we came to Romans--and I was asked to serve on a subcommittee that would recommend alternatives to the existing NIV rendering of sarx in Paul. As we did our work--based on a comprehensive review of the translation alternatives by my colleague Walter Liefeld--it quickly became apparent to me that the translator had to consider factors that the exegete and teacher did not."
     Jason Staples make a good argument against the use of "sinful nature" in the NIV that can be found here.