No images? Click here LIFE IN THE SPIRIT (PT. II)Romans 8:1-17 January 29th, 2023 Anyone who keeps abreast of news easily recognizes the chaos that is rampant throughout the world. The Gospel can speak light into this present darkness but too often “churches” are not faithfully proclaiming the gospel: God is holy, righteous and just, man is inherently sinful and hates God, but in love, God gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him has eternal life (John 3:16) and has passed from death to life (John 5:24).
Indeed, this is good news for sinful man; this is the gospel. Galatians 3:13 proclaims that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” The first result of our being redeemed is that we are no longer under condemnation. This is the message of the first verse of Romans Chapter 8. The second verse tells us that we are freed from the law of sin and death, forgiven of our sin and become spiritually aligned with God. This new status, explained in verses three and four, results from God sending His Son to condemn sin in the flesh, in order that the righteousness requirements of the Law might be fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit.
The outline for this series of messages is:
The first message focused on spiritual alignment, the message today focuses on spiritually minded and the next message will focus on being spiritually led.
In the first message, we saw a sharp division in the world because of spiritual alignment. Since we lack the clear vision that God possesses, we see various shades of gray regarding moral issues rather than as either black or white as God see them. We see people who we think are closer to salvation than others, but God see them as either being in Christ or not. There are only two types of people and both are spiritually minded but one is influenced by the Holy Spirit and the other by the spirit of darkness, one is a believer and the other a non-believer, one belongs to the kingdom of heaven and the other the kingdom of the world, one is a child of God and the other a child of the devil, one loves God and the other hates God. There are only two ways - the wide path that leads to destruction and the path of righteousness with its narrow gate.
Just there is no partial death, there are no partial Christians; we are either in Christ or we are not. God divides everyone into either one of these two categories – either the person is in a spiritual relationship with Him, or he is not. Every person is either aligned with Christ or with the world. If we are aligned with Christ we have a spiritual mindset, we are spiritually minded. We have new desires and a new orientation. So ask yourself - what influences me, what decisions do I make, what fruit do I see, what are my passions, where is my love?
Are my passions aligned with the things of God or the things of the world? Everyone influenced by the Spirit of Life will begin to be increasingly aligned with the life of Christ. This is sanctification; this is God recreating new life in us; we have new passions, new desires, and new loves. These new characteristics of our life are not perfected instantly but there is movement toward our being conformed into the image of Christ.
John Calvin said “The goal of God’s work in us is to bring our lives into harmony and agreement with His own righteousness, and so to manifest to ourselves and to others our identity as His adopted children. We discover in God’s law a picture of God’s own image, to which we are being progressively conformed.” (Institutes of the Christian Religion) Why is this such an arduous process? Why so confusing? Calvin says the basic reason is that we are lazy, we need prodding. We need admonishment, and we need encouragement. Romans 8 helps us understand who the Holy Spirit is, what difference He makes in our life, and how we use the power of the Holy Spirit to bring us into holy living.
II. Spiritually Minded (vv. 5-8)
When Paul speaks of being spiritually minded, he is speaking about the things that influence us, the things that orient us in a particular direction.
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” The first direction is the one set on the flesh, being fleshly minded. The New Testament Lexicon helps us understand what Paul had in mind. The flesh is, “The physical body as a functioning entity and in Paul’s thoughts especially all parts of the body constitute a totality known as flesh which is dominated by sin to such a degree that wherever flesh is all forms of sin are likewise present.” This orientation is such that this person is focused on, consumed by, absorbed by, captivated by the things of the flesh. This is not the occasional fleshly thoughts described in Romans 7 where believers battle with sins of the flesh. Paul is speaking of the person whose mind is continually focused on the things of the flesh. All of their time, resources and energy are in pursuit of the things of the world. Their spiritual compass is pointing to worldly things.
Sometimes blinders are put on horses to keep them from being distracted by the things around them. The fleshly person wears blinders so that the things of God do not distract him from his primary pursuit of material things, wealth, beauty, image. They have no desire to die to self but are most concerned with self-preservation and self-interest, and to make life as good as possible. They hide their weaknesses and blame others for their failures. If they look at their life and see a seeking after fleshly pleasures, sensuality, lusts, etc. they minimize them. People with their minds set on fleshly desires will put up religious pretenses, trying to make themselves acceptable to others, trying to appease their conscience, but this is impossible without the Spirit of God. They experience frustration because they don’t want to crucify the world; they love the world.
Galatians 6:14 says, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” The things of the world are death to the believer. The world has been crucified to the believer because the believer has been transferred. James 4:4, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Upon belief we are transferred from one orientation to the next. One is orientation toward things of the world and the other is orientation toward the things of God. We have been changed from being an enemy of God to a friend of God. This transfer is not a process, it is instantaneous; however, sanctification is a process. We may not know the exact moment of our transformation but we do know that we now have an orientation to the things of God, we desire to know Him, we desire to please Him, we desire to obey Him. There is a stark contrast between those who have their minds set on the flesh and those who have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.
The person who has been born again has a new world view; their mind now has a divine influence. They see the world in an entirely new way; there is an entirely new orientation in their heart. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This must happen if you are a believer in Christ. We now set our minds on the things above. Colossians 3:1-3 states, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Under the influence of the Holy Spirit believers are now oriented due north, towards heaven – heavenly thoughts, a heavenly reality outside of the world. These heavenly realities become the characteristics of our life.
Colossians 3:12-15 says, “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." There is an orientation toward heavenly things; there is a death to self-interest, self-promotion, and self-preservation. These things begin to fall away in your life. You are now focused on the things of God, the glory of God, the holiness of God. You don’t try to hide your weaknesses; you confess them to God and repent. These changes don’t always occur quickly but, because you have God in you, you begin to understand what God has done for you and, as His child, you begin to model these characteristics within your life.
With the two spiritual influences and the two spiritual characteristics people end up in two different places. We have two different control points, and each person hits his mark.
Spiritual influences lead to objective realities. Hell is an objective reality. Heaven is an objective reality. These are not concepts, they are not theories, they are truths that Scripture teaches. The control point for the person whose mind is set on the flesh is death. The person whose mind is set on the flesh ends up where sinful flesh takes them, the wrath of God. Romans 8:4 tells us that the righteous requirements of the Law must be fulfilled. Payment must be made for sin, either we make the payment ourselves, an eternity in hell, or we trust Jesus to make the payment for us. People come up with creative ways to avoid the need of a payment for sin. Some may say they don’t believe in God, that’s their way out. But this does not change the objective reality of their destiny.
Romans 1 tells us that the creation confirms the existence of God and man is without excuse for failure to acknowledge Him and give thanks. Romans 2 tells us that the Law of God is written on the heart of every man. Unbelievers just suppress the facts that they know to be true. They suppress the truth because they don’t want to accept the reality of the consequences of their sin, that is, eternal spiritual death. Paul reminds us in Romans 6:16, 21 and 23: “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.” “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul continues to emphasize death because that is what unbelievers are destined for. This destiny is identified by a hostility toward God and His children; they hate God.
Death and hostility stand in stark contrast to the destiny of the person whose mind is controlled by the Spirit, who has true saving faith, those who have been born again. Rather than death and hostility, there is life and peace. This life is eternal life, the hope of glory that we have in Christ. How do we know if we have the hope of eternal life? The Spirit testifies within us. Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The peace that Paul speaks about in verse 6 is the peace described in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the peace that results when we lay down our weapons of war, when we surrender to God. This is an objective peace based on God’s promise; it does not depend on feelings. There is also the peace of God that we can have when we follow Philippians 4:6-7, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” As we submit ourselves to God in humility, He will give us peace, both types of peace.
Objective peace results from no longer being under the wrath of God. Rather we are now objects of mercy. The striving against God is over. Before coming to faith in Christ, we felt that something was wrong and we needed to make it right. We kept hearing the truth, but we didn’t agree with it, so there was angst in our heart. There was hostility when we thought about the things of God, His holiness, His righteousness and His requirements. But when we repented of our sin and turned to Him in faith, the striving was over, the enmity with God had ended. When we submit fully to God, an overwhelming peace washes over us. We are adopted as sons or daughters of God, we have an inheritance, and we have a hope. But for the unbeliever, there is no peace. The unbeliever is at war with God and God is at war with him.
We sometimes think that it is too harsh to tell unbelievers that there is actual war between themselves and God, and this war carries great consequences. We think either the person will reject us, or we think it might further turn them against God. However, if we really care about the destiny of the person, we will take the risk. It has been said “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care.” If we really care, we will share the harsh reality in a loving way, telling them where they are headed and the reality of the consequences. We will also point to the great love that God has for His children, explaining the great exchange of 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Paul’s point is there are only two control points, life and peace or death and hostility. Our compass will lead us to either one of two places. The reason we hit the control point, the reason we reach our destination is because of the inclination of our heart. Verses 7-8 declare, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” The reason people miss the control points and reach the wrong destination is that they follow their own judgments. We can get an insight into a person’s inclination by how they respond to, or judge, the truth of God. If they hate God in their heart, they will criticize everything about God. They expect God to prove Himself to them, to meet their standards. This includes passivity to the things of God. If a person doesn’t trust God, he will not want Him to control his life. Such a person will think that he is not hostile to God, just indifferent, but Scripture says otherwise. There is no neutral ground; a person either loves God or he hates Him.
Our inclination determines how we respond to everything in life. Unbelievers become critical and take everything apart. Critical thinking is important in trying to discern truth but being critical with an agenda is hostility. Their heart inclination has already concluded that God is not good, and He will have to prove His goodness to them. They look at God and His church and question everything. They think it is ridiculous that anyone would want to crucify the world or would want to please God by denying themselves and obeying Him. When you explain that you do these things because you love Christ, they will think it even more incredulous. Everything in a Christian’s life, everything in Scripture, and everything in the church, they hold suspect. This is their worldly philosophy.
These people are not necessarily pagans who have never heard the name of Jesus except as a curse word. These are sometimes people who have grown up in Christian homes, grown up in the church, who have attended Christian school, who have Christian friends, even those who have made a profession of faith and been baptized, yet are hostile toward God. A Christian who is discerning can recognize that such a person is not in unity with God, and his responsibility is to address this. Such a person sees themselves as their own source of truth, with everything in the world, everything in life being subject to their truth. This is classic Genesis 3, where Eve was deceived by Satan and led to question God’s truth.
Verses 7 & 8 explain that such people do not submit to God’s Law because they cannot. Their inclination is wrong. They see themselves as superior to the Law and superior to the Scriptures; they want the Scriptures to stand in obedience to them. They want God to operate in a way that meets their standards. If His standards don’t make sense to them, they are not true. A. W. Tozer said, “The true follower of Christ will not ask, ‘If I embrace this truth, what will it cost me?’ Rather, he will say, ‘This is truth. God help me to walk in it, let come what may’.” This is the way a believer approaches Scripture, the way a believer approaches obedience to God. We may not always understand what His Word means, we may not always understand His character, but we want to understand and we want to submit. We ask God to help us walk in obedience because His Word tells me that this is right. This applies to every aspect of life, to marriage, to parenting, our relationships within the church, our conversations, etc.
Unbelievers have a lack of humility toward God. The epistle to the Romans is so important because we see what happens to society when God is not the recognized authority. Unbelievers have a God-given conscience, but they use it wrongly. They prove that they hate God because they redefine morality, the fetus, marriage, family, gender, life and death, etc. They call into question God’s authority, His Law, His standards. They place Jesus and the suffering of the world in subjection to them because they think themselves more able to determine truth. This most clearly shows their inconsistency: they say that truth is relative, that everyone has their own truth, yet, somehow, God’s truth is not true. What hypocrisy! They will try to woo people over to their truth, but such people are already headed their way. The person who believes in Scripture has their inclination in the other direction, toward heaven.
We ask why people leave the church, why they leave us. The reason is that when they are presented with the truth of God’s Word, over and over, and they are not converted, their heart just becomes wayward and hard. This reveals the orientation of their heart, and they are simply incapable of making correct judgments. Dealing with a person we love and who claims to be a believer but who walks away from the church can be very painful. At such times we must rely on God’s Word. We love the person, and we don’t want them to be in sin. We can’t ignore the sin in their life; we must love them and hold them to account to God’s truth. Again, verse 8 explains that unbelievers cannot please God. Their very nature, their orientation, their inclination dictates what they do. Romans 6:16 says they are slaves to sin. Their only hope is that God will change their nature, that He will make them slaves to righteousness.
Slaves to righteousness describes the believer, the one who is not in the flesh. Verse 9a states, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Even though the Holy Spirit indwells believers, there remains within every believer a remnant of the flesh. However, they are not characterized as being in the flesh, they are not dominated by the flesh. Verse 9b makes clear, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” A person who does not have the Holy Spirit controlling the inclination of the heart, does not belong to Christ, he is not a Christian. If we are in Christ, our inclinations change, our orientations change, our decisions change, our judgments change because the Holy Spirit is working in our life to conform us more into the image of Jesus Christ. Romans 8 is the place to go in Scripture to understand the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life.
A snapshot of ways in which the Holy Spirit works in the life of a believer are listed below: 1. Creates new life (Titus 3:5) This is the new birth that Jesus spoke about to Nicodemus in John 3:3. 2. Confirms to the believer that he belongs to the Lord (Romans 8:15-17) Believers are an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ. 3. Grafts the new believer into Christ’s universal church (1 Corinthians 12:13) This occurs in baptism. 4. Gives spiritual gifts, God-given abilities for service (1 Corinthians 12:11) These gifts are to serve the church and glorify God. 5. Helps the believer understand and apply the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 2:12) Unbelievers can’t understand Scripture, but the believer has discernment. 6. Enriches the believer’s prayer life and intercedes for him in prayer (Romans 8:26-27) We don’t always know what to pray but the Holy Spirit prays for us. 7. Empowers the yielded believer to live for Christ to do His will (Galatians 5:16) Though it is difficult to obey sometimes, the believer desires to obey, and with help from the Spirit can obey. 8. Produces the fruit of the Spirit in the believer’s life (Galatians 5:22-23) Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control 9. Is grieved when the believer sins (Ephesians 4:30) and He convicts the believer to confess his sins to the Lord (1 John 1:9) When the Holy Spirit is grieved, He convicts us of our sin and leads us to confess. 10. Seals the believer unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14) The believer’s standing before the Lord is guaranteed; it is sealed by the Holy Spirit.
It is not arrogant or anti-intellectual to claim that we are certain of going to heaven when we die. That is what Scripture teaches and what we know inside by the testimony of the Holy Spirit in our life. When we sin, the Holy Spirit convicts us and brings us back to the correct orientation. Paul puts this contrast here because he wants the church to know that anyone not walking according to the Spirit does not belong to Christ. He wants each person to examine his life and see the direction in which he is headed. At each check point we need to ask ourself these questions: Is this a step toward God or toward the world, is it a desire of the flesh or a desire for godliness? Do we desire to do God’s will in every decision we make or do we desire to satisfy ourselves?
David, in Psalm 26:1, asked God to try him and test his heart. Job asked God to make him to know his transgression and sin (Job 13:23) and Paul said to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!? ) 2 Corinthians 13:5) We may not want God to examine us because we are afraid we will fail the test, or maybe He will reveal to us a sin that we love and thought we had hidden. Do you see tangible proof of your salvation? Do you see evidence that you are right with the Lord? Do you find yourself praising and thanking God frequently? Do you see conviction over sin? Can you read Scripture and discern its meaning? Do you even desire to read your Bible, or do you just not want to be embarrassed when someone asks you? If you find you are lacking God’s influence in your life, repent and turn to Him.
Believers also need to pay attention to what Paul is saying. We need to continually put off the flesh, understanding that there remain remnants of pride, areas of God’s Law that we don’t want to obey, times when we want to please ourself rather than God, times when we really don’t want God’s will to be done in our life. Our desire should be one of wanting to honor God from the moment we rise in the morning until we lay down at night. It is easy for the believer to see a stark contrast between himself and the unbeliever and become self-righteous and not see the temptations and sins we also deal with. Everyone is headed in either one of two directions, one leading to eternal life and peace and the other to eternal death and destruction. Examine yourself. If you find yourself being led by the flesh, the writer of Hebrews warns, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Today is the day to turn to God in faith and repentance and find the peace that only a child of God can have.
Selah:
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