MINDSETS.
Romans 8:1-11.
I. A SET FREE MINDSET.
Romans 8:1-5.
“Then-now-no” begins the Greek of this wonderful chapter of God’s Book. This firm negation placed right at the beginning of the sentence serves to emphasise the absolute impossibility of there ever being any “condemnation” - to whom? “To those in Christ Jesus” - otherwise defined as “those who walk not according to the (sinful) flesh but according to the (Holy) Spirit” (Romans 8:1).
The “then” or “therefore” links with what has gone before: the whole question of the salvation which is ours in Christ Jesus as described in the earlier chapters. The “now” emphasises our present and continuing possession of this privilege of “no condemnation!” [It is interesting to note that the chapter also ends with a negative: ‘no separation’ from the love of God which is ‘in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (cf. Romans 8:38-39).]
The Apostle then goes on to explain why there is no condemnation: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2). This is not putting us under a ‘new law’ but under the sound of the gospel: for it is the gospel which liberates us. And receiving the Holy Spirit is equivalent to having God’s law written on our hearts (cf. Jeremiah 31:33-34; Ezekiel 11:19-20), so that we no longer live by the letter of the law, but by the Spirit who dwells within us.
This is personal: the gospel “set ME free”. Free from what? Two things: “the law of sin” and “the law of death” (Romans 8:2b). The law is not sinful, nor is it responsible for the sin within us: but it exposes sin, and it provokes sin, and it condemns sin (cf. Romans 7:7-9). Neither is the law the cause of death, but is used by sin to produce death (cf. Romans 7:13).
The law, even though it is God’s law, has proved itself inept to make us right with God. This is not a fault with the law (cf. Romans 7:12), but the law is nevertheless rendered powerless through “the flesh” i.e. our fallen sinful nature (Romans 8:3a).
But God did what the law could not (Romans 8:3b).
1. “God sent His own Son” (cf. John 3:16). Not just a messenger, or a prophet, but the Son of His right hand: His own Son. This speaks of the incarnation of the Son of God.
2. God sent His own Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (cf. Philippians 2:5-8). This is not to suggest that His was a mere “likeness” of humanity, for Jesus became man in every sense but one: that is, that He is ‘without sin’ (cf. Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22).
3. The Sinless One came “for sin”, to deal with sin, as a sin-offering. This speaks of the sacrificial death of our Saviour.
4. God “condemned (that word again!) sin in the flesh” (i.e. in our fallen sinful nature) by ‘making Him sin who knew no sin’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). There is a definite substitution here: our sins imputed to the Sinless One, His righteousness imputed to us. It is not that our sins did not merit condemnation, but that our condemnation fell on Him!
All this is done so that “the requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the (sinful) flesh, but after the (Holy) Spirit” (Romans 8:4). Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it (cf. Matthew 5:17), and in this way He fulfils it in us. In other words we are not only spared the condemnation, but equipped to live the life.
“For those who live according to the (sinful) flesh mind the things of the (sinful) flesh, but those who live according to the (Holy) Spirit mind the things of the (Holy) Spirit” (Romans 8:5). It is all about mindset, about what absorbs our interest and how we use our time.
What is our mind set upon today?
II. TWO MINDSETS, TWO ROADS, TWO DESTINIES.
Romans 8:6-11.
This short passage describes two states of mind: literally, “the mind of the flesh (which is) death”; and “the mind of the Spirit (which is) life and peace” (Romans 8:6). These are two quite distinct mindsets, which lead to two differing choices of lifestyle (cf. the exhortation of Romans 12:2). Our mindset is determined not by what we do, or what choices we make; but by who we are, and whose we are: whether we are ‘in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1), or not.
These two states of mind also determine our present circumstance, and our destiny: whether “death” or “life and peace” (Romans 8:6). Death arose from rebellion against God (Genesis 2:17), and has left man in a state of flesh-serving carnality ever since (Romans 8:7). Adam had but one law to keep, but his failure ushered in ‘the law of sin and death’ (Romans 8:2).
This is spiritual death, such that we are each born ‘dead in trespasses and sins’ (Ephesians 2:1). The carnal mind is dead to God, and totally unable to keep the law of God (Romans 8:7). Those whose mind is set in the flesh, and who therefore serve their own selfish interests, cannot please God (Romans 8:8).
Yet the Apostle Paul is writing to Christians, so he wants to reassure them here, after all this talk of fleshly carnality: “but you…” (Romans 8:9). First, negatively, you are not in (enslaved to) the flesh. Second, positively, “but in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9).
Paul casts no doubt on the status of his addressees. You are in the Spirit “if indeed” or rather “since” the Spirit of God dwells in you. It is a matter of fact, just like a clause in Jesus’ prayer: ‘Thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us’ (John 17:21).
This is an unashamedly Trinitarian verse. The language moves seamlessly from “the Spirit” to “the Spirit of God” to “the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9). The inference is, “anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ” does not belong to Him!
The present state of the believer is one of hope. The principle of our life is no longer based in the old ways of corrupted flesh in rebellion against God (Romans 8:7). We have a new principle: the life of the Spirit within us (Romans 8:10), arising from the fact that we have been made righteous in Christ Jesus (cf. Romans 3:21-22)
Peter says that it was God who raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24), with which Paul also concurs (Acts 13:30). As the good shepherd, Jesus also claimed to have the authority not only to lay down His life, but also to take it up again (John 10:18). Paul implies the involvement of ‘the Spirit of holiness’ in Jesus’ resurrection (cf. Romans 1:4), and in our own… (Romans 8:11).
If it is indeed the Spirit who raised up Jesus from the dead who dwells in you, believer - and it is - we have the assurance that our mortal bodies shall also be raised “by His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).
