P115_031325 Rom. 8:5-7 The Spiritual Way Of Life And Peace

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So Paul is about to launch into his subject fully in chapter 8, which is life in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some people describe it as life in the Holy Spirit. It’s life in the resurrection of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. That’s what Paul is talking about. But just to recall a little bit yesterday— So Paul says that the righteous requirement of the law is now fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. And I made clear—I hope I did anyway, and that’s why I want to repeat it— what that meant. It doesn’t mean that now, by the aid of Jesus Christ, we fully obey the law and are able to obey the law. That’s not the meaning of it, because he has spoken for a whole chapter on being dead to the law and being delivered from the law. So don’t suddenly misinterpret this and then find yourself having had so much hope of good news in Romans 7 that we are dead and delivered from the law, now brought back into the law, but by the help of Jesus we keep it. That’s not what it’s talking about. It’s talking about the fact that faith in Jesus… who is counted as our righteousness, that is the fulfillment of the law. Because what the law is speaking about is not itself. That is, the law is not directing us to itself, but to Christ. The law is revealing our utter incapacity. It is revealing our deadness. It is revealing our sin and brokenness, not so that we might get up and brush ourselves off and become wonderful law keepers, but rather that we might flee to Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness, our peace, and our acceptance before God, our reconciliation to his heart. So, Paul has, with that, virtually closed his subject on the issue of being dead to the law, and he now says, in verse 5, “…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, the things of the Spirit.” For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now again, if you are struggling with legalism and if you’re struggling with perfectionism, you will see these verses as a threat. As if Paul says, now you’d better watch out, because if you set your mind on the flesh, you will die. He says, for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, and to do that is death, in verse 6. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s not saying it as a threat. He’s simply explaining the nature of things. That’s how it is, because we are fallen, broken human beings. You see, the Christian realizes something that the world does not. The world has all the confidence in the flesh that you can imagine. The world sees us as making progress, looks at us as socially evolving, getting better, improving. The world sets up laws that improve society in one way, by keeping us all in order, of course, and assumes by that that we can do anything that we choose to do and set our minds to do. But we Christians have been taught something, not only by our own sins, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ is the man for all men. He is the man for all men and women. He is the man who has lived a holy life before God, and it is truly, truly beautiful. It has attracted the world for 2,000 years. Who is this man? No one ever spoke like him. Such beauty in his heart, such love for the world, such compassion towards the needy. This is Jesus. And he was never selfish. He went out of his way to serve other people. But by the very revelation of Jesus, we are unclothed. We are revealed to be sinners. It becomes very obvious to us that we are not the ideal men or women at all. And this is what Paul is pointing to. You see, he thought that he was sinless. He says, as touching the law, blameless. That is, before he was converted. But then he heard about Jesus Christ. And then he saw… how Jesus died for the sins of the world. He saw Jesus sacrifice himself, and he heard all the news about this through Peter, and then Jesus revealed himself as well to Paul. And when he saw the glory of Jesus Christ and the life that he lived, he realized that his life of law-keeping was sheer rubbish. Garbage. Cow dung, as a matter of fact, I believe the original translation is, And so, this is what leads Paul to tell us, if you set your mind on the things of the flesh, you will die. That is, you will perish in the way. Not simply that you will die eternally because God will bring mercy to the whole of humanity, but that mercy is because mankind has chosen a path of death in its pure folly and stupidity. When we live by the resources of human nature, we are on a path to death. And thus, we need to wake up in the morning and welcome the Lord Jesus into our hearts, or rather thank him that he is in our hearts and with us. When we wake up in the morning, we want to thank God for the strength that he gives us. God is the one who brings strength to the weak. To the ones who have no power, he increases strength. Even the youth shall be weary, it says in Isaiah 40, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with eagles.” They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. This strength is not the strength of human nature. Youth and young people confuse the two because they’ve got this innate energy and they think that it will last forever. It will last for only a very short time, won’t it? And then we realize how frail we are. But what we are doing here is learning how we live by faith in the Spirit. So it’s not a threat, it’s simply the natural order of things. To put our confidence in the flesh is death. 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, the things of the Spirit. Now don’t get screwed up with this. Don’t think that people who set their minds on the things of the Spirit don’t take responsibility for the things on earth. like paying the bills and working in order to bring the money in for the family and taking care of the health of their children and the well-being of their schooling and so on. Let’s not be so spiritually minded that we’re no earthly good, as someone, I think, put it once. You see, to set your mind on the Spirit is to do the things necessary on earth in the Spirit. not in the flesh. Remember the flesh, the word flesh here doesn’t simply mean the skin you’re held together in, it means the fallen human nature. We don’t do our business and our work and our responsibilities for family and the world in the flesh, in the carnal nature, which ultimately, though it sparks and flourishes for a while, goes out like a Roman candle after a bit, don’t put your life there. Put it in Christ, because those things in Christ are eternal. So, here we have it then. For to be carnally minded is death. but to be spiritually minded as life and peace. And thus we look at all that goes on in our life, the troubles, the disappointments, the ill health, the loss of income, all the things that trouble us, and we experience them now by faith in the Spirit. Now remember what the Spirit is. It’s in Christ who is our righteousness and our resurrection. And we can say, Lord God, I thank you that you are here with me in my troubles. And Lord, I thank you that these troubles are not unto death, but to life and peace. I thank you that through my troubles I know you. For you have gone through troubles in this earth too, Lord Jesus. And you knew your Father through those troubles, and I can know my Father through my troubles. Even better, I can know you in my troubles, who bring me to my Father. This is how it is, you see. Now, why is this even more important? Well, verse 7 comes along. Because the carnal mind is enmity towards God. That is the mind of the human nature, the fallen mind. It’s full of irritation, anger, resentment, frustration, jealousy, selfishness. It’s constantly on the road of self-preservation. It cannot concentrate on Christ. It hasn’t met him yet, and therefore the only concentration available is on the self. Now that is all enmity. It is enmity towards God. It is a war state. That can never please you, and it certainly can’t please God, can it? But when we look at it in this way, that this carnal nature of ours is counted as dead. That’s Romans 6, remember? It is counted as dead. The law cannot speak to it and condemn it, because we are dead, that carnal nature, to the law, in the sense that Jesus Christ took our judgment for us on the cross. And therefore, the carnal nature does not define us anymore. What defines us is the resurrected life of Jesus. And we thank him for all that we go through, which is, we understand by faith, part of our resurrected life in Christ. Now, we have that resurrected life only incipiently, only in little drops, as it were, right now. But we know by those little drops, that sort of gentle spring rain, that this trouble that we go through is preparing us for eternity. You know, our eternal home, let’s not forget it. It is the beginning of our life. The end of our life is but the beginning. And all should understand that, no matter how young they are, whether they’re 10-year-olds or 15-year-olds, that your life now is just a beginning. Not a beginning to this world, but a beginning to eternity. This is the hope we have in Jesus, our Savior. Thank you for joining me today. You’ve been listening to Colin Cook and my program, How It Happens, which you can hear, by the way, any time of the day or night by downloading a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and keying in How It Happens when you get there. How It Happens with Colin Cook. That’s what you key in. please consider a donation. The donations are short at the moment, and we need your help. It’s listener-supported radio, so please send your donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thanks so much. See you next time. Cheerio, and God bless.