Romans - Part 4: SPIRITSample

What Is Your Mind Set On?

The way a person thinks is an excellent indicator of the heart. If I love money, I will always think about it and do whatever I can to get more. In this section of scripture, Paul makes it clear that a person's mindset is an indicator of their heart and the spiritual path they're headed down.

Here are a few points to take away from these verses:

1. THE MIND SET ON THE FLESH IS SPIRITUALLY DEAD AND HEADED TOWARD ETERNAL SPIRITUAL DEATH (8:6A).

Romans 8:6a: “For the mind set on the flesh is death ….” The death spoken here is not just a physical death but also a spiritual one. To be spiritually dead means to be separated from God and eternal life given by Jesus. In Ephesians (2:1, 5), Paul says that we all were dead in our sins before God graciously gave new life to us. And if we die in that state of spiritual death, we enter into what the Bible calls “the second death,” eternal separation from God (Revelation 20:14, 15).

2. THE MINDSET ON THE FLESH IS NOT SPIRITUALLY NEUTRAL BUT IS AN ENEMY OF GOD (8:7A)

Romans 8:7a: “Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.” Paul uses the same word (“hostile”) to describe a deed of the flesh (Galatians 5:20) and the constant hostility between Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14, 16). This hostility is the opposite of love. Unbelievers do not love God; they hate Him. He is their enemy.

3. THE MIND SET ON THE FLESH DOES NOT SUBMIT TO GOD (8:7b).

Romans 8:7b: “for it does not subject itself to the law of God.” God’s law reveals who He is and how He commands us to live. While we’re not under the law of Moses (Romans. 6:14), we are under the law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21). We are subject to the two great commandments, to love God with our entire being and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 3:9). The New Testament gives many specific commands about how we are to live as believers in Christ. But the unbelieving mind does not subject itself to God’s Word. Its mindset is, “I love myself and its will first and most” (H. C. G. Moule, The Epistle to the Romans [Christian Literature Crusade], pp. 213-214).

4. THE MIND SET ON THE FLESH CANNOT SUBMIT TO GOD OR PLEASE HIM (8:7c-8).

Paul does not stop by saying that those in the flesh do not submit to God’s law. He further says that they are not even able to do so, adding (8:8), “and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Cannot is a word of inability. It goes back to the matter of a sinner’s fallen nature in Adam, incapable of obeying God or pleasing Him. Just as a pig is free to act in line with its pig nature but not with human nature, so fallen sinners are free to act in line with the flesh but not with the Holy Spirit, whom they do not possess.

So what is your mind set on, God or the flesh?

Steven J. Cole, 2011Lesson 44: Understanding the Unbelieving Mind

Bible.org,https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-44-understanding-unbelieving-mind-romans-86-8

-Justin Lopes