Summary
Before we turn to today’s passage, perhaps I should remind you of what Paul has been teaching us in this wonderful letter.
He began with the bad news that, in our natural state, we’re all sinners who are justly liable to God’s condemnation and wrath. There is no difference between us, he said, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of being like God. We’re all sinners. We have all done wrong. We have all fallen short of doing God’s will. We are all under God’s condemnation. That’s the bad news.
But then Paul introduced us to the good news of the gospel and how we’re justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Because of God’s abounding love for sinners, he sent his Son into the world as one of us to redeem us, or to set us free, from God’s condemnation. And because of what Christ has done for us, all who believe in him as the only Saviour of the world are justified. And to be justified means that God forgives us for what we have done wrong and he regards us as if we’ve done everything right even though we may have done everything wrong. And God regards us as if we’ve done everything right because Christ’s record of perfect obedience is given to us.
And Paul went on to make clear that God justifies sinners through faith in the Saviour and not in any other way. So, we become right with God, not by trying to keep his law and not by trying to be good and not by trying to live a good life. We become right with God through faith in the Saviour. And this is the way it’s always been, because this is how Abraham was justified way back in the book of Genesis and this is how King David was justified. God justifies sinners through faith in the Saviour and in no other way.
And since we’re justified through faith in the Saviour, then we have peace with God and we rejoice in the hope that one day we’ll be perfectly restored to the way we were always meant to be and we’ll perfectly reflect God’s glory for ever. And we need not fear the wrath of God because we’ve been reconciled to God through faith in his Son.
And Paul went on to explain that sin and death came into the world through Adam, who disobeyed God in the beginning. Sin and death came into the world through Adam, but righteousness and life have come to God’s people through Jesus Christ, who gave up his life on the cross in obedience to his Father’s will to pay for all our sins. Because of Adam we deserve to be condemned, but because of Christ there’s forgiveness and peace with God for everyone who believes. And because of Christ we have a new relationship to sin. Before we believed, sin was our master. It bossed us around and it made us do evil. But now, because of Christ, we are not only forgiven and accepted, but we also died with him to sin so that sin is no longer our master. We died with Christ to sin and we were raised with Christ to live a new life of loving obedience to God. Instead of offering ourselves to sin as instruments of wickedness, we should offer ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness so that with his help we will do what is right and good.
And in chapter 7 Paul described the life of an unbeliever who wants to do good, but who continually does evil because of indwelling sin. And it’s a wretched, frustrating existence. So, here’s someone who wants to do good, but his desire to do good is continually frustrated by sin living inside him. And he doesn’t understand why he’s like this. He’s wretched. He’s frustrated. Who will deliver him? Well, God will deliver him through Jesus Christ our Lord. And for those who are in Christ Jesus, trusting in him for salvation, there is now no condemnation. Though we deserve to be condemned for a lifetime of sin and disobedience, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, because Christ was condemned in our place.
Introduction
And so, that’s a quick summary of what Paul has been teaching us in this wonderful letter. And at the end of verse 4 of chapter 8 which we were thinking about the last time, he contrasts those who live according to the sinful nature and those who live according to the Spirit. At least, that’s how the NIV translates Paul’s words, but really the contrast is between those who are according to the flesh and those who are according to the Spirit. And Paul has much more to say about the flesh and the Spirit in today’s passage. In fact, if you look down through verses 5 to 13 you’ll see that nearly every phrase he writes is either about the flesh or it’s about the Spirit. Throughout the whole of today’s passage, Paul is contrasting life in the flesh and life in the Spirit.
And I’ve explained before that when Paul refers to life in the flesh, he’s thinking about a kingdom or a realm which we all belong to by birth. When we’re born, we belong to the realm of the flesh. Or we can think of it very simply as life outside of Christ. And life outside of Christ, as we’ve seen before, is a life which is dominated by sin. For those who still belong to the realm of the flesh, sin is their master. It bosses them around and it makes them do evil. And sin leads ultimately to death and to condemnation and to everlasting punishment away from the presence of God. That’s life in the flesh and it’s life outside of Christ and it leads to death.
But when we believe in the Saviour, we are removed from the realm of the flesh and we are brought into the realm of the Spirit. When we begin a new life with Christ, we are no longer according to the flesh, but we’re according to the Spirit. And that’s because the Lord Jesus gives us his Spirit who takes up residence in our lives. And the Holy Spirit enables us more and more to resist sin and to do God’s will.
And so, there’s life outside of Christ which is life in the flesh. For such people, sin is their master and it bosses them around and makes them do evil. And it’s the life of the unbeliever. And then there’s life in Christ, which is also life in the Spirit. And it’s the life of the believer. And they have the help of the Spirit to do what is right and good and pleasing to God.
And in these verses, Paul is contrasting the life of the unbeliever and the life of the believer. And we can divide the passage into three parts: verses 5 to 8; verses 9 to 11; and verses 12 and 13.
Verses 5 to 8
And Paul says in verse 5 that those who are according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of flesh, whereas those who are according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. And so, here’s the first contrast between these two groups of people: between unbelievers who all live according to the flesh and believers who all live according to the Spirit.
And the contrast between them concerns their mind or we might say their mindset. It’s about what they think about and it’s about what governs their thoughts and their attitudes and their desires. Those who still belong to the realm of the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh. And that means their mindset and what they think about is dominated by sin, because sin is what characterises life in the flesh. We all know how we associate certain characteristics with certain nationalities. Very often they’re only stereotypes which may not be true. But we do it anyway. English people are like this and Scottish people are like this and Welsh people are like this and Irish people are like this while Americans are like this and so on. And the one characteristic which is true of everyone who belongs to the realm of the flesh is that their life is dominated by sin.
A while ago, when I was preaching on John’s gospel one Sunday evening, I spoke about the four states of humanity. The idea of the four states of humanity goes back a long way and so the four states are in Latin. The first one is posse peccare, posse non peccare. That means ‘able to sin, able not to sin.’ That’s the way Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden before the fall. They were able to sin, but they were also able not to sin. And we know what happened. They freely chose to sin against God.
And the second state is non posse non peccare and that’s the state of unbelievers. It’s the state of those who belong to the realm of the flesh. Non posse non peccare means ‘not able not to sin’. Not able not to sin. And so, unbelieving men and women and children are not able not to sin. In other words, they sin all the time and even their best deeds are spoiled by sin, because even when they do something good, they’re not doing it out of love for God. And when they sin, they sin freely. No one is forcing them. And they’re always sinning against God.
And then there’s the third state which is state of the believer. It’s the state of those who are according to the Spirit and whose minds are on the things of the Spirit. And because the Holy Spirit guides and directs their thoughts and their will, then they are in a state of posse non peccare, which means ‘able not to sin’. Believers are still sinners and we still sin against God in this life. But with the help of the Spirit of God, we’re able not to sin.
And for the sake of completion, I should mention the fourth and final state which is non posse peccare which means ‘not able to sin’ and this is the way we’ll be in the life to come when God’s people are made perfect in the presence of God.
So, those who are according to the flesh have their minds on the things of the flesh and they’re unable not to sin. But those who are according to the Spirit have their minds on the things of the Spirit and they’re able not to sin. And with the help of the Spirit, who guides and directs their thoughts and will, they’re able to do what is good and right.
And the mind of the person who is according to the flesh, and whose thoughts are still dominated by sin, is death. That’s what Paul says in verse 6 and he means that kind of life leads to death. It leads to death and condemnation and to everlasting punishment away from the presence of God. But the mind of the person who is according to the Spirit, and whose thoughts are shaped by the Holy Spirit, is life and peace, because people like that are heading for everlasting life and to peace and joy and happiness in the presence of God.
And so, there’s another contrast between life in the flesh and life in the Spirit. Life in the flesh, or life outside of Christ, leads ultimately to death and condemnation, whereas life in the Spirit, or the life of the believer, leads ultimately to everlasting life.
And look now at verse 7 where Paul tells us that the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God and it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it cannot submit to God’s law. So, the unbeliever’s hostility to God manifests itself in an inability to do what God commands. Because this person lives according to the flesh, or because this person’s whole life is dominated by sin, then this person is unable to obey God’s good commands. And so, those who are still in the flesh, living outside of Christ, cannot please God. They cannot please God. They’re unable to please God, because their whole outlook on life, their whole mindset, is affected by sin. And it leads ultimately to death and condemnation.
Verses 9 to 11
And so, life in the flesh is a terrible life. But according to verses 9 to 11, Paul is confident that his readers in Rome are not in the flesh. He’s sure that they are in the realm of the Spirit.
And I hope it’s clear that we’re either one or the other. It’s possible for people to hold dual citizenship so that they’re citizens of two countries at once. But when it comes to what Paul is talking about, we’re either in the flesh or we’re in the Spirit. We either belong to the realm of the flesh or we belong to the realm of the Spirit. It’s one or the other. When we’re born, we belong to the realm of the flesh. But through faith in Christ, we’re transferred out of the realm of the flesh into the realm of the Spirit.
And Paul is confident about his readers in Rome that they belong, not to the flesh but to the Spirit, if — he says — the Spirit of God lives in you. And you see, it’s the Holy Spirit who makes all the difference. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he fills us with his Spirit so that we no longer belong to the realm of the flesh but to the realm of the Spirit. And that means our thoughts and our wills are no longer dominated by sin, but by the Spirit.
And this is true of every believer. As Paul says in verse 9, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, then he does not belong to Christ. He’s not a Christian, she’s not a Christian, if they don’t have the Holy Spirit. You can’t be a Christian without the Spirit. It’s not that there are some Christians who possess the Spirit and there are other who don’t. To be a Christian means that you have the Spirit, because Christ gives his Spirit to everyone who believes to renew us in his image and to bring us to perfection in the life to come.
And verse 10 is very interesting. In verse 9 Paul wrote about having the Holy Spirit in us. And he then refers to the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. So, we have the Spirit of Christ in us. But then in verse 10 he talks about having Christ in us. So, which is it? Do we have Christ in us or do we have his Spirit in us? Which is it? Well, it’s both. On the Sunday evening before I went on holiday I was talking about what is called perichoresis, which is a Greek word which means ‘go around’. And it refers to the way the three Persons of the Trinity go around one another. They encircle one another or they indwell one another so that the Father is in the Son and the Spirit; and the Son is in the Father and the Spirit; and the Spirit is in the Father and the Son. They indwell one another because all three persons of the Trinity possess one and the same divine being and they exist in one another eternally. And so, the Son is in the Spirit and the Spirit is in the Son. And when we have the Holy Spirit inside us, then we have Christ inside us too. He is in us by his Spirit.
And if Christ is in us by his Spirit, then while our body will one day die because of sin, nevertheless — and I’m changing what the NIV says, because its translation isn’t great — the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Our bodies will one day die. However, the Holy Spirit inside us is life. And that means that just as God the Father raised the Lord Jesus from the dead by his Spirit, so he will raise us from the dead by his Spirit.
One day we’ll die and our bodies will be buried in the ground. But God will not leave our bodies in the ground, because the day will come when he will raise us up to resurrection life by his Spirit who lives within every believer.
Verses 12 and 13
And so, we either belong to the realm of the flesh or we belong to the realm of the Spirit. Those who belong to the realm of the flesh live lives dominated by sin. Those who belong to the realm of the Spirit live lives dominated by the Spirit. And life in the flesh leads to death and condemnation, whereas life in the Spirit leads to everlasting life and peace. And Paul is really contrasting the life of the unbeliever and the life of the believer.
And to those who believe, to those who belong to the realm of the Spirit, he says in verse 12 that we have an obligation. But it’s not an obligation to the flesh to live according to it. You know what life is like. From time to time you have to go somewhere you don’t really want to go to, but you feel you have to. You feel under obligation to go. Someone might be offended or would feel let down if you didn’t go. And so, because you’re obligated to go, you go.
But no Christian should ever feel that way about the flesh. None of us should ever think that we have to live according to the flesh the way we once did before we believed. If you’re a Christian, you don’t have to live that way any longer. So, when someone moves from one country to another, they have to give up certain behaviours which were normal where they once lived but which are not normal now. When they lived in the United States, it was normal to drive on the right hand side of the road. But a person who moves here from the States must give that up and must now drive on the left hand side of the road. And now that we have moved from the realm of the flesh to the realm of the Spirit by trusting in Christ, we must give up our old sinful behaviour. We must give up our old sinful behaviour because that way of life leads ultimately to death and condemnation.
And so, we’re to put to death the misdeeds of the body. And Paul refers to the body in verse 13 because we sin with our bodies: our actions and the things we do to others; our speech and the things we say to others; even our thoughts and the things we think about others. It’s all starts in the body. And as those who belong to Christ and who belong therefore to the realm of the Spirit, we should put to death those sinful behaviours which start in our bodies. These things are not right for those who belong to Christ. Instead of giving in to temptation, we should resist it. Instead of following our own evil desires, we should say ‘no’ to them. Instead of living unholy lives of disobedience, we should live holy lives of loving obedience to our great God who loved us and who sent his Son to save us from sin.
But how do we put to death the misdeeds of the body? How do we resist temptation and our sinful desires? What’s the key to living the holy life? Well, every one of us who is a believer already possesses the key to living the holy life. You already have what you need to live a holy life. What’s the key to living the holy life? It’s the Holy Spirit. And you already have the Holy Spirit, because he lives inside every believer. As Paul says in verse 13, the way to put to death the misdeeds of the body is by the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit uses the things we do on Sundays — when we meet together to hear God’s word and to pray to God and to receive the sacraments — and he uses the troubles and trials of life to sanctify us and to make us more and more willing and able to obey God and to live a holy life.
Do you remember how I began this sermon? I began by summarising what Paul has been teaching us in this wonderful letter. And it began with the bad news that there’s no difference between us, because what? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of being like God. But thanks be to God, because he sent his Son to save us from the condemnation we deserve for all that we have done wrong. And not only has he sent his Son, but he has sent his Spirit into our lives to enable us not to sin and to enable us to live holy lives of loving obedience. And so, every day you should ask your Heavenly Father for the help of his Spirit to enable you to live a holy life of loving obedience. And it’s all to the praise of his glorious grace.
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