Romans 8:1 – Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
This passage of Holy Scripture is simply astounding in its directness of how it shows us the nature of the unbelieving world. What has happened to the believer? The believer has no condemnation in Christ for the Spirit of life in Christ has set the believer free from the law of sin and death. The Law was utterly weak because the flesh of human beings is weak. Christ was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin and so condemned sin in the flesh. Why did He do that? He did this so that the requirement of the Law would be fulfilled in those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Why is it that the Law can only be fulfilled by those who are not living according to the flesh? It is because their minds are set on the things of the flesh and the mind that is set on the flesh is death. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. The mind set on the flesh is death, is hostile toward God, cannot please God, and has no ability to subject itself to the law of God.
The believer has life because s/he is free from the law of sin and death. The unbeliever has death because s/he is under the law of sin and death. The believer has life while the unbeliever has death. The believer has the Spirit of life while the unbeliever has death. The believer has life and peace with God, but the unbeliever has death and hostility toward God. The text tells us that the reason that the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God is because it does not and cannot subject itself to the law of God. Those in the flesh not only cannot please God, but in not being subject to the law of God they cannot please God. A human being that has a mind set on the flesh or the sinful nature (even if very religious and outwardly devout) is a person that lives apart from life and love and so lives in a manner that is hostile to God. Living in hostility toward God is hatred for God.
It is vital to notice something in this text. Verse 6 tells us that “the mind set on the flesh is death.” If we go past the next phrase and go to the “because” at the start of verse 7, we can catch with more clarity what the text is saying. The mind set on the flesh is death “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.” How can we know that the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God? Because the mind set on the flesh cannot be subject to the law of God and cannot please God. There are so many that deny that they hate God, yet by their aversion to the law of God and their not striving to love and please God their hatred is still there. We must not look upon the ways of the world as simply light things, but instead the ways of the world are contrary to the Law of God and are open acts of hostility toward Him. Those who live good lives and yet are not subject to the Law of God are not good in the eyes of God, but even their goodness is a display of their hostility toward Him. Those who are very religious can do many religious things and yet hate God.
The Pharisees did many outward things in religion. They knew their “Bibles” and they prayed. They gave alms and traveled across land and sea to make converts. They set out many laws in order to keep the Word of God. Yet their laws demonstrated hatred to the true Law of God in that by their external rigidness they had virtually annulled the inward strictness of the true Law. All of their religious actions were acts of hatred toward God because they demonstrated a true hostility toward the Law of God. The mind set on the flesh is a mind that can do many things with the Bible and in the things of religion. However, it is still a mind set on the flesh. In our day there has been a resurgence of Reformed theology in some ways. Some of the resurgence is limited to an external doctrine, but it does not reach the heart. It is possible for many to believe all the points of Calvinism or all or some of the points of Arminianism and still live in hostility to God. One can love doctrine and the externals of religion and yet hate the Law of God in truth. Religion and perfect doctrine do not guarantee that a person has grace and those things are not saving grace in and of themselves. If we do not love God in truth, we don’t love Him at all.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment