5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
This whole chapter, really, talks about how the Holy Spirit confirms that there is no condemnation for those who are justified through faith in Jesus Christ.
We saw yesterday that the Holy Spirit has freed us from the bondage of sin and death. He is the agent of our salvation. He has set us free. The Holy Spirit also enables us to fulfill God's law. The Spirit residing in us produces holiness, righteousness, obedience in the life of a believer. True believers will have the Spirit of God living in them and the Spirit will produce fruit, obedience, a bent towards the fulfillment the law.
And that brings us to our passage today where we see that the Holy Spirit changes our nature.
There are only two kinds of people - those that are after the flesh and those that are after the Spirit.
Basically, our very nature determines our thinking which determines our behaviour.
Those who have a fleshly nature, those who are dominated by sin and things of the flesh will have a bent towards depravity. They will think about and desire thing of the flesh which is basically all the garbage of this world that Satan has disguised as being desirable.
But those who are redeemed now have a bent towards the Spirit and the deep things of God.
MacArthur points out....
Now I want you to notice something very, very carefully. It does not say in verse 6 that to be fleshly minded leads to death. It says to be fleshly minded is death. It doesn't say to be spiritually minded leads to life. It says to be spiritually minded is life. It is an equation, not a consequence. And the point is this, that a person who does not know God, who does not know Christ, who is bent toward the flesh lives in a state of death. That's the point. They're dead. It's the same as Ephesians 2:1 and it says it just as clearly as it can possibly say it: "And you who were dead in trespasses and sins." To be without God, to be living in the flesh, after the flesh, bent toward the flesh, chasing the things of the flesh, walking in the flesh is to be dead. To be dead! And everything you do, the Bible says,, is dead works. And the Scripture also very clearly says: "She that lives in pleasure is ... what?...dead while she lives." So it is a spiritual kind of deadness, estrangement from God, the absence of the life of God in the soul. You have physical life but you don't have spiritual life. The life of God is not there...people who are living in the flesh are dead. 'They cannot sense God. They are not alive to God...
Now look at the other side of it in verse 6. "But to be spiritually minded equals life." Equals life. Now, beloved, listen. When we say the Spirit of God has changed our nature, He's taken us from being dead to being what? To being alive. Alive to what? Alive to God, alive to spiritual truth, alive to spiritual reality, to understand the things that the natural man could not understand...
So the Spirit of God has made us alive to God and all of a sudden God's world is sensitized to us and we can feel His love and we can sense His power and we can understand His Word and He moves and we understand His movement. We sense Him there because we have life.
And not only does he say we have life but we have peace. Not only are we aware, that God is there but we also have a relationship with Him of peace whereas before He was our enemy, now He's our friend. Before we were at war with God and now He is our constant companion. Oh, what a thought it is. We have life. And in that life is sweet communion with God. His grace is bestowed upon us. His love is shed abroad in our hearts. We have joy forever. And we are at peace with Him for eternity.....
the contrast very clear. We're not in the flesh, we're in the Spirit. We don't mind the things of the flesh; we are bent toward the things of the Spirit. And so, we pursue the things of the Spirit and we walkin the Spirit.
Now you say, "But do we do that all the time?" No. No, but you see, before we never did it...never...
We have been given the Spirit; we've been given new life. We're no longer bent toward the flesh. But is the flesh still there? Yes it is. We are not ... remember what I said...in the flesh but the flesh is in us. And when are we going to lose that? When we're glorified. But until then, we have a battle.
Now does an unsaved person have a battle? No battle. Why? Only one bent, only going one way. But now that we have the Spirit of God, the flesh lusts against the Spirit. And so, we have this struggle....So, we acknowledge that there will be a struggle because of our bodies, because of our humanness....
So a believer, then, really has two parts, doesn't he? He has that new creation bent toward the things of the Spirit, but he's also got to deal with the flesh that remains in his humanness which will not be eliminated until he leaves this mortal body. And Paul's terms are absolutely consistent. He always puts the sin in the mortal body, in the flesh, in the humanness--never in the new creation. So that when we go to be with the Lord, it is not a question of transformation, it is a question really of subtraction. We lose the flesh which frees the new creation bent toward the Spirit to serve the Spirit and only the Spirit forever.
V7 gives us the reason why the fleshly mind is dead and can't serve God - it's because the sinful mind is hostile to God who is the Source of all life. If you oppose God, who is the only Source of life, you are dead. And because you're dead you cannot be subject to the law of God. You cannot follow it. You cannot do anything good. It's an inward rebellion that is demonstrated by outward disobedience. Yes they can do things that seem to be good and humanitarian, but if they're not done for the glory of God and out of a loving response to His law, they're not good.
Those who are in the flesh simply cannot please God. It is impossible.
Pleasing God is what everyone was created for that we should please God that we should be to the praise of His glory. I mean, that's the reason for being. And if we can't please God, then we have forfeited the reason for our being and that's how it is to be without Jesus Christ, you see.
It is to be in the flesh, after the flesh, minding the things of the flesh, walking in the flesh, unable to subject yourself to the law of God in, rebellion against God, enable to do nothing to please Him. And then comes the sweet Spirit of God and by the gospel of Jesus Christ puts in us a new nature. And because we have received that new nature, that incorruptible seed, that divine nature as Peter calls it, that new life principle, that new resurrection life, now we can please God.
And we, out of that new nature, can keep His law. And so we're not only saved from future deliverance...rather from future judgment, but we are also saved in a present sense from the power of sin over us, thanks to the marvelous ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 8:9-11
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