In our study of Romans 7 over the last couple of weeks, we learned that Paul describes an inner struggle that is going on in our life as a Christian. He summarized that struggle in chapter 7 vs 25, “So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” This is the summary of the struggle that Paul describes in chapter 7. He said there are two laws or principles at work in him. And this is the personal experience of Paul. Notice the redundant use of “I myself.” I think Paul wants us to know that this is not just theoretical postulation. But it’s the actual experience of someone whom we would all agree was probably one of the most godly people that ever lived.
And Paul makes himself an example so that we might have encouragement, as we are also beset with trials and temptations, and we often find ourselves falling back into the sin of the old man which we thought we were delivered from. But like Paul, we must realize that there are two natures or principles at work in us, what he calls the law of sin in the flesh or body, and the law of the Spirit in the mind. He says in [Rom 7:21 “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.”
This struggle in the life of Paul caused him to cry out in a sense of frustration, “Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death?” The answer he gives is that thank God, Christ Jesus has set us free from the body of death. What that means is that God has declared us free forensically in the court of divine judgment. Another person has died for our transgressions so that we are pardoned and set free. But though we have been declared free and given new life in our spirit, the flesh is a creature of habit. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The flesh has not been made new. The spirit in us has been reborn and is new but it must now exercise dominion over the old nature. The flesh still exists, but we are no longer obligated to it. We are set free to serve the Spirit by the spirit, through a renewed mind, which takes dominion over the flesh.
Now having understood that law of the two natures, and the new dominion over the flesh which we have in Christ, Paul goes on to add a really important principle that underscores this new life in the Spirit. And the principle is this: Rom 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation means freedom not only from the guilt of sin, but freedom from the enslaving power of sin. Those who have trusted in Christ have been justified, that is freed from the condemnation of sin. And those who have trusted in Christ have are being sanctified, the mind and the flesh are being set free from the condemning power of sin as a process of the Spirit of God working in us.
Justification is accomplished for the believer when he comes to Jesus in faith, and the penalty of sin which is due to us is transferred to Jesus Christ. He paid the penalty for our sin. He was condemned to death for what we did. That is what “no condemnation” means for those who are in Christ. We are not condemned because He was condemned in our place. He died in our place. And God is not so unjust as to still hold us accountable when someone else has paid the penalty. So therefore there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.
Sanctification happens when the justified believer receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who gives us life, who gives us power, who gives us a new heart, so that the life which we live in the flesh is now accomplished through the power of the Spirit within us, so that we have new desires, and that new desire is to please God. The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is in dominion over our lives so that we no longer live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Listen carefully to Gal. 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Notice, the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” The Spirit of God in me gives me the power to live in the flesh.
And that’s exactly the point that Paul states in vs2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” So through Christ, the working principle of the Spirit has set us free from the working principle of sin and death. Notice Paul speaks about the “law (or principle) of the Spirit of life.” In other words, the Spirit is life and He imparts life, both spiritual life and physical life. He makes that point more explicit in vs 11, which says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Notice; “your mortal bodies.” That is your flesh has been given life through the Spirit.
The point should be clear, that the Holy Spirit is given to us that we might have the power to live the life that God has given us. Before our salvation we lived according to the power of the flesh. We were enslaved to sin, and thus incurred the condemnation of death. But upon justification, we are given the Spirit of God that we might have new life according to the Spirit and by His power we have the power of the risen life, so that we do not live under the dominion of sin, but under the dominion of the Spirit of God.
So on the one hand in my flesh I am still enslaved to sin, so I find it difficult to do the things which I ought to do. But on the other hand, the Holy Spirit has set me free so that I am no longer obligated to the flesh and by the Spirit working in me I exercise control over the fleshly nature. There are two natures in my being. Though I am still a prisoner in the flesh, I am literally in the same old body, yet I have been set free in my spirit. Since I am free in the spirit, Satan cannot make me do the things that I know are wrong anymore. Sin has no power over me. There may still be a weakness in my flesh, a propensity to do wrong, but there is a greater power working in my spirit through the Spirit of God that enables me to be free from my weaknesses.
As I quoted the ex slave trader turned preacher John Newton a couple of weeks ago as saying, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.” So I might add; I am a work in progress. I have been justified, declared righteous in the sight of God, and by the Spirit of God at work in me I am being sanctified, that is being made holy in my body by conformity to the image of Jesus Christ through the Spirit working in me.
This sanctification is accomplished not by any strength of my flesh, but by what Jesus has done for me. vs.3,4: “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, 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.”
Trying to keep the law in the strength of my flesh, says Paul, could never accomplish my deliverance from sin, because my flesh was too weak. It wasn’t the laws fault, it was my fault. I can do my best to try to keep the law, but sooner or later I fail miserably because of the weakness of my flesh. But God did for me what I could not do for myself.
God sent Jesus to take our condemnation. We are going to be singing the song, “Hallelujah, What a Savior” in a few minutes. And there is a line in that song which speaks of this. It says of Christ, the Man of Sorrows, “bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood, sealed my pardon with His blood, Hallelujah, what a Savior!”
In Christ’s incarnation, He took on human nature. I want you to think of this for a moment. Joe and Nick and I were talking about it on Friday morning in my backyard. Jesus, who was equal with God in all respects, the exact representation of the nature of God, who was one with God, took on human nature in addition to His divine nature so that He might be like us. We were made to be like Him, created in His image, in His likeness. But in sin we fell from that spiritual state, so that in order to save us, and because of His great love for us, Christ lowered Himself, and took on human form, that He might be one of us, that we might be made one with God. He took on two natures even as we have two natures. And the Bible teaches that He ascended into heaven in that same human body and is thus ever with the Lord and will come again in that same manner. And so Christ remains the God Man forever so that He might redeem us from the curse of the law. What a Savior indeed!
We find that same principle stated in Phil. 2:5-8 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Notice there the phrase “being made in the likeness of men.” That’s similar to the thought here in Romans 8:3, “God sending His own Son the the likeness of sinful flesh.” And God condemned His own Son for our sake, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. The requirement of the law for sin was death. And it was in Christ’s flesh that God condemned and punished sinful man. It was in our place that Jesus stood condemned and bore the wrath of God’s punishment for sin. We cannot comprehend the horror that the Holy One of God had to bear as He became sin for us in order to be our substitute. And yet He did it for us so that we might be set free and receive life. Our response should be that of gratitude for what He did for us, we might respond by striving to fulfill His standard of righteousness.
Vs. 4 says, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” And we strive to fulfill that standard of righteousness according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. So that according to the last part of the verse, we “do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Righteousness then is the fruit of the Spirit. On Wednesday nights we are studying 1 Corinthians, and we are looking right now at the gifts of the Spirit. And I made the point then, which I hope you remember, which is that the gifts of the Spirit are given to produce the fruits of the Spirit. What are the fruits of the Spirit? The short answer is righteousness.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” To walk in the flesh is to walk according to my sinful nature, which results in selfishness and greed and anger and so forth. But the opposite way of life is to be led by the Spirit to produce works of righteousness, which are the fruits of the Spirit.
A few verses earlier in Gal 5:16-18, Paul says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” He says if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law, that is under the condemnation of the law.
Back in Romans 8, Paul tells us how we can accomplish this by saying in vs 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. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 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,] and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Those who live according to the flesh allow themselves to be governed by the lusts, the passions, the desires of the flesh. That’s what they are attuned to. That’s what they live for; physical things. And the sinful nature takes opportunity through the desires of their flesh to enslave them to serve the flesh. They live for things that they think will satisfy the flesh. That’s what defines their life.
But the opposite attitude should be that of the believer, who now live according to the Spirit. And Paul says in vs5 we do that by setting our mind on the things of the Spirit. Therefore, we are controlled by the Spirit, so we focus on the things of the Spirit. And I would suggest that such things of the Spirit are found in the word of God. The Spirit wrote the word of God. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. Not the Spirit of emotion, or the Spirit of feelings. So the way to set your mind on things of God is to read scripture. That is how the Spirit speaks to us. It’s not through suggestion in the mind. I would warn against listening for a still small voice in your head. There are a lot of crazy people running around claiming that they have heard God tell them something. God speaks to us through His word and the preaching of His word. Every thing that claims it is God speaking must be reconciled to His word.
So there are two natures, and men must take sides with one nature above another. On the one side are those who live according to the flesh, and the other side those who live according to the Spirit. And there are two outcomes for those lives. The life lived according to the flesh is death, but the life lived according to the Spirit is life and peace. If a person is focused on the flesh, then Paul says that the end of that person is death. But if you are focused on the Spirit, then you will have life, as opposed to death, and then the added benefit, which is peace.
What is peace? That subject came up the other day as well, in my backyard discussion with Joe and Nick. Jesus said, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives. So the peace from God is not the same as the peace we often think of in human terms. I believe that the peace Paul is talking about is the assurance that your sins are forgiven, that your circumstances are being used for God’s good purposes, and that nothing will ever separate you from the love of God.
But there is another aspect of peace that Paul indicates here by the statement he makes in vs 7, where he says, “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,] and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” He speaks of a hostility towards God by the one who is focused on the flesh. Hostility is the opposite of peace. Hostility means they are at war with God. And the basis of that war with God is they do not submit to the law of God. God says such and such is sin. And they say, no such and such is fun. I like it. It seems good to me. It feels good so I’m going to do it. That’s insubordination towards God.
But peace with God is found by walking according to the Spirit. It’s a peace of contentment, a lack of striving, a sense of security. But those, Paul says in vs 8 who are living according to the flesh cannot please God. I can picture a mother with a small child who she is holding by the hand, trying to steer this child through a supermarket, and he is struggling, trying to grab things, trying to resist his mother’s guidance. That’s a picture of living in the flesh in hostility against God. But the opposite is peace, allowing the Spirit to lead you, being obedient to His will, and being content with His direction.
Now Paul is writing to believers. And so the difficulty comes in knowing is this person who is living according to the flesh a believer or an unbeliever? It’s tempting to say it is an unbeliever. But the context should remind us of chapter 7 vs 22, when Paul said “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” Paul, the epitome of a Christian said he has a war going on in his body, so that he ended up doing the very thing that he hated.
So then we must concede that even for believers there is a struggle going on between our two natures, with the result of our life being see sawed between discontent and peace. Isaiah 26:3 says “you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.” The problem is that we don’t always keep our mind fixed on the Lord. Our mind is not always steadfast. We let our minds start to covet, to think about what others seem to be enjoying in this life, we think about things that appeal to our flesh. And like Peter who tried to walk on water, when we take our eyes off of Jesus we end up sinking fast. Peter was a believer. But his experience is evidence that it’s possible to live in the flesh even still.
However, the assurance that we are in Christ comes from the Spirit of Christ living in you. If you don’t have that, then certainly you are an unbeliever, living according to the flesh and as such under the law of condemnation. Paul says in vs 9 that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. We can know that we are Christians by the confirmation within of the Holy Spirit. That confirmation is a new heart, new desires, a mind that is focused on the things of God. I can tell you from experience that conversion results in a hunger for God, a hunger to read His word, to know Him, and a desire to please Him. And this doesn’t come from the flesh, it can only come from the Spirit. Paul says in vs7 that the fleshly mind is not able to please God. So a desire for God can only come from the Spirit who is in you.
So in vs9 Paul says “you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, seeing that the Spirit of God dwells in you.” “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Let me try to summarize this then so that we can bring this to a close. The point that Paul is making is that if you have the evidence of the Spirit of Christ in you, then even though the body is sinful, yet your spirit is alive because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. He justified you, made you righteous by His death. But the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, who also dwells in you, will also give life to your mortal body, that is your flesh.
The point is, we can have victory over sin. That’s what sanctification means; power over sin. We are not under obligation to the flesh anymore. Oh, the old nature is still there. There is still an inherent weakness in our flesh that we have to struggle with. But as we yield to the Spirit, He will give life to our flesh, that we might please the Lord even while in our flesh. That we might do the works of righteousness even while in our flesh. Because the Spirit rules over the mind, and the mind rules over the flesh. And by the Spirit of God the dominion of righteousness can prevail over our sinful nature so that we do not have to succumb to it, but we can live for God.
Sanctification then is being conformed in our bodies to the image of Jesus Christ. As Romans 12:1,2 says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
We present our bodies, our flesh to God, yielding it in submission to the Holy Spirit, and at the same time fix our minds on things of God, no longer fixing our minds on this world, on the things of this world, and in fixing our minds on the Lord, our minds are transformed, and then in the flesh we can do the will of God, we can do the works of righteousness, that which is good and acceptable and pleasing to God.
Our Christianity may be marked by two natures that are struggling. But we do not have to live two different lives. We don’t live one way on Sunday morning and another way on Monday morning. But by the working of the Spirit of God and by fixing our minds on Him, we can walk with the Spirit day by day, and do the things that are pleasing to God. We can have the peace which comes from being in fellowship with God.
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