Romans 8 builds directly on the foundation of Romans 6 and 7. The most complete explanation of the struggle between flesh and spirit—and the victory over it—is found in Romans 7 and 8. Unfortunately, many today confuse the work of the Holy Spirit with the inner mindset of a child of God. To walk according to the spirit, as those who are in Christ Jesus do, describes the sincere intent and desire of the heart. Just as true worship flows from the heart rather than merely from outward expressions, serving God “with the mind” reflects the heart’s genuine priorities and purpose. If we belong to Him, then we are set apart for this purpose.

The condition of the heart will indeed produce certain actions, but actions alone do not prove the heart’s condition. Good fruit must be present—because the absence of fruit reveals a heart problem—but outward behaviors can sometimes be the result of external pressure or superficial conformity, rather than true transformation. This passage focuses on this ongoing battle so that a person may avoid sinning outwardly and produce no visible evil fruit as the result of no testing. If we are sheltered and the opportunity is not present or the temptation not particularly strong, we may be lulled to sleep and drop our guard. This is paramount to losing our focus.

A heart set on satisfying the flesh cannot please God, even if it avoids indulging in obvious sinful behaviors. On the other hand, a heart set on pleasing God is accepted by Him and is not condemned—even though it may still stumble and sin in the flesh. These are ultimately conditions of the heart, and only God can truly know and judge them.

If we care more about how others perceive us than about pleasing God, we may fall into the trap of maintaining good appearances—seeking approval and praise from people—while inwardly our hearts remain set on the flesh. This is a choice we each must make. But whether we are truly walking according to the Spirit or according to the flesh, God knows the truth.

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And good morning to you this morning.

Hopefully we'll study chapter 8, the first 17 or so verses.

The first part of chapter 8.

Anyway.

I have been struggling to find out just how I will proceed with chapter eight of Roman Letter, and I've decided to just, I guess you'd say, wing it.

So I'm just going to read the text with you and explain it as we go.

That might be the best approach.

And I'm hopeful that you will remember chapter five, six and seven, especially six and seven as we come into chapter eight, because it will benefit you tremendously and will not jump ship and start redefining terms and phrases because they've already been addressed or introduced anyway in the book, or at least many of them have been already.

Paul does introduce a few things in the chapter eight that he doesn't deal with anywhere else.

But there's a lot said about the Spirit.

And in some cases the Spirit is not the Holy Spirit, it's just the mind.

The Spirit, the mind of God or Christ, or the Spirit of man.

In some cases we find that in chapter 16, obviously where he uses the phrase our Spirit.

So we want to define that as we go along.

But let's start out with verse one.

Paul says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

This idea of the flesh and spirit.

I think it's important for us to just establish that early on, because it comes up quite often.

You've got people who the expression.

Let's look at some of these phrases.

They walk not after or according to the flesh, but after or according to the Spirit.

He talks about what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh.

In other words, there was nothing wrong with the law.

Chapter seven, Paul says the law is good, holy.

Nothing wrong with the law.

Don't put the blame there.

But I am carnal, sold under sin.

So because I'm in the flesh, because I'm carnal, I mean, in this sin condition.

And that was Paul, Paul trying to be justified by the law under which he lived.

It was weak.

What was weak?

The law.

Not inherently, but with what it had to work with.

In other words, through the flesh, that is sinful man.

Then there's also it says he condemned sin in the flesh, which means because Christ came in the flesh, he lived life perfectly.

He kept the law sinlessly so that he could make a perfect atonement for sin.

So he condemned sin in the flesh by the way he lived his life in a sinless way, and then putting to death, taking care of the sin problem by being the taking on the penalty that should have been yours and mine.

And then he says again verse 4.

He talks about the law being fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh.

There it is again.

But according to the Spirit.

So there's a walk.

One's according to the flesh, the other's according to the Spirit.

Now notice verse five for those who live according to the flesh.

Keep in mind, we're defining our terms here, and I want to spend some time into the chapter looking at this idea of flesh and spirit.

And we'll go back earlier into the chapter, but I just want to note with you how many times we find this term.

We can go back to chapter five and six, pick it up in chapter six where he talks about killing the old man, crucifying the old man, that the body of sin might be done away so that we should no longer serve sin.

So this old man, this we'll pick that up in chapter five of Galatians here in just a minute.

But keep stay with me as we try to establish some meaning.

The way he uses flesh and Spirit in this context, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, and those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Let's keep in mind that even this we're dealing with a period of time in which brethren saints had spiritual gifts and they had the gifted men, like apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, which is referenced over in Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 11, where Paul goes on to tell us why they were given and for how long until a certain end was reached.

That passage, by the way, is very similar to 1 Corinthians 13, when he talks about that which is perfect is come that which is in part will be done away.

And he had identified things that were in part as being tongues in prophecy.

Whether they be tongues, they shall cease, right?

We know in part, we prophesy in part so these are things that were in the immature, incomplete stage.

But then when that which is perfect has come, he says, that which was in part will be done away.

So it's very similar to the chapter four, as I said, beginning in verse 12 and 13, where he gives us the purpose and, and the duration of these gifted men during this period of time.

Now, I've said more than I intended, but that is the context, the overall context of all the books.

But let's talk a little bit about this idea of one who's walking after the Spirit.

He certainly couldn't be talking about spiritual gifts directly or miraculous spiritual indwelling in the sense of having revelation miraculously just given to us.

Like it was Paul when he said, I wrote it by Revelation chapter three of Ephesians.

But rather, and this is the reason, let me try to confirm this, you remember over in First Corinthians 1.

Let me just go back there and read it to you.

I'm in First Corinthians 1.

And when Paul starts this out, he says in verse five that you were enriched in everything by him, in all utterance and all, all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, talking about the Lord's appearing in that sense, it's referred to as his revelation.

And he goes on and said, but what I want to point out to you is that in Corinth, the saints there, Paul says that they had come short in no gift.

They were behind, I think the King James has it, in no gift.

So they had every gift.

They had everything to their disposal, had really no excuses insofar as gifts are concerned and the information and the resources from the Spirit, they had that.

And yet Corinth was full of problems.

He starts off identifying their carnality.

They were divisive.

They weren't loving one another, they were sending brethren or going to law against one another.

They were eating their supper without caring for one another.

Others, some were drunk and others were hungry.

And.

And so there was a huge problem with carnality.

They had a man that was living with his father's wife that was apparently just kind of overlooked, as if they can condoned it.

And yet the whole community hall, the society and the culture of that day would have recognized it as being distasteful, to say the least.

And yet there were saints.

There's a man that was living with his father's wife.

Now, if spiritual gifts had anything to do with their lifestyle and living by the Spirit, they should have had that.

But the fact that they had the spiritual gifts and the fact that they were fleshly and carnal meant that the spiritual gifts had very little influence on the way they chose to live.

So when Paul talks about the flesh and Spirit in these contexts.

He's not talking about spiritual gifts, even though that is a larger, broader context that we find throughout the New Testament.

But rather, Paul is talking about a mindset.

He's talking about our attitude, our priorities and our intent.

It's critical, I think, that we understand that when Paul is writing in chapter seven and I let's not get there quite yet.

I don't want to ramble too much.

I'm going to come back now to chapter eight and pick up on this thought of the flesh and Spirit.

Again, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, those who live according to Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

So their mind or their spirit is set on the things of the spirit.

That is spiritual things.

Paul said in Colossians 3, Set your affections on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, not on things below.

Right.

For you've died, your life is hid with God in Christ, so there's a new life.

Again, I want to emphasize the old man of sin, though, in Romans chapter 6 that Paul says they put to death and crucified.

Another passage.

We're not through here with chapter 8, but another comparative text is over in Galatians 5, where Paul says, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

He's not talking about being guided by the Holy Spirit and some miraculous measure.

Again, if that was the case, then why would the Corinthians have fulfilled the lust of the flesh?

If walking after the Spirit had to do with them being miraculously led by the Spirit, then they wouldn't be doing that.

But they were very carnally minded in spite of the fact that they had spiritual gifts.

So there's no guarantee that having these gifts assisted them in their walk with the Lord.

Well, I say that's not true.

Assisted, yes.

But it was no guarantee that they would follow in the steps of what the Spirit had guided and led them in.

In other words, they had a choice.

So walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of flesh.

Set your mind on things above.

Set your mind on things of the Spirit, not on things of the flesh.

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

These are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Now that goes back to chapter seven.

When Paul talks about this, he gives this sort of riddle that things that I would, I do not, and things that I do, I would not.

I find then that in me that is, in my Flesh.

See, in my flesh dwells no good thing to will is present with me.

But how to perform that which is good, I find not.

He says, there's another law or a law principle in my members warring against the law of my mind.

There you go.

Here, I'm trying to identify and nail this down.

There's a law in his members and a law of his mind.

And the mind says, I want to serve God.

I want to.

I don't want to sin.

I don't want to violate.

That's his mindset.

That's his attitude.

And when he does fail, he's remorseful, he's repentant.

He didn't want to do it.

He's in the flesh and he failed.

And he's sorrowful for that.

But he has victory in Christ.

There's no need to cower and walk away like a beaten dog who puts his tail between his legs and walks off defeated.

But in Christ, there's victory.

In chapter seven, he ends with this notable positive statement when he cries out in light of the fact that keeping the law brought him under bondage and there was no way to be justified by it.

He said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

That sin principle brought death.

And he says, what's going?

Who's my deliverer?

And here's his answer.

Now listen carefully.

So then, with the mind, I serve the law of God, and with the flesh, the law of sin.

He's not in any way condoning sin.

He's just simply saying that in Christ, the reason there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ is I'm not under law, but under grace.

And what that means is it doesn't give me license to sin.

What it does is it frees me from the bondage of.

Or the.

I guess you'd say the.

It is a bondage.

It is a bondage that says I have to keep the law perfectly, all of it.

I can't fail in any point.

As James says, if I do.

If I fail in one point, I've become guilty of all.

There is no scale here.

You're either guilty or you're not guilty.

If you're guilty of only one sin, you're still guilty and you're liable to death.

That's the consequence of lawbreakers.

So there's no condemnation.

Why?

Because I serve the law of God in the mind.

With my mind, I serve the law of God.

Paul is talking about one's mindset.

Where is it?

Is it set on doing the things of God?

Is it set on pleasing him?

Is it set on conforming our lives to his character?

Is it set on that renewing of the mind that we may prove?

What is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God?

Is that the attitude?

Is it the mind of Christ that would say repeatedly, John records Jesus saying, I came not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me repeatedly, even in Gethsemane before the cross, father, not my will, but thine be done.

The mind of Christ and the mind of those not under condemnation are those who've set their mind on the Spirit.

That's their attitude.

And to set your mind on the Spirit is just a reference to having the mind of God, the Deity putting, the having the mind of pleasing God and doing his will and not ours.

And so now I think we've identified it, but let me just go back to Galatians, chapter five.

Let me finish it up, please.

If you are led by the Spirit, and you're going to be led by the Spirit, if that's where your mind is, you're going to be listening to the Spirit, you're going to be following his leading.

If you have that mind, you will even Jesus, you know, we've got so many examples where if we can control the heart, we can control the actions.

He says, the works of the flesh are evident.

Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissension, heresies, envy, murders.

Now, there's not a problem with saints in this time, at this period, knowing what's right and wrong.

The fact that they didn't always do it is obvious, but the reason they didn't keep it and do it is because they had their heart set on fulfilling it.

They had their focus set on these things that gratify the flesh.

And so, just like James describes this process of sin, once we are enticed and we see a temptation and go after it, we've set our mind on fulfilling the desires of the flesh that's walking after the flesh.

And so with that mindset, what are we going to do?

We're going to produce the works of the flesh, which he says are murders and drunkenness and revelries and so forth.

See, where your heart is there will your treasure be also where your mind is focused.

And what will follow is the fruit, what is being produced, what kind of fruit will be born?

Well, then he goes ahead and says, the fruit of the Spirit that's those who walk after the Spirit.

This is what we can expect.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.

Against such there is no law.

Now listen carefully now.

And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh.

This goes back to chapter six of the Roman Letter.

Crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

That doesn't mean that we're never going to sin, but we're not going to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, that we should obey the lust thereof.

Why we've set our mind on the things of the Spirit.

Friends, this is a choice.

It is a determined choice that individuals have that you need to make in whether you're going to serve God or not.

It's absolutely a choice.

And so if we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.

Let us become not conceited, provoking one another and envying one another.

And then he talks about the individual relationship that we have with brothers and sisters in Christ in chapter six and the responsibility that we have toward one another individually.

Now back to chapter eight, please.

So going to chapter seven, verse 25, the very last verse now before chapter eight begins.

So then, with the mind I serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin.

And that's the beauty of the cross, that's the beauty of the gospel, is now it doesn't condone sin.

Please don't misunderstand this.

But the person that's crucified, the old man with its desires, that's the flesh.

He's not going to let sin and the flesh reign.

That doesn't mean to say he's not going to sin.

But it won't rain.

He'll take care of it immediately.

He doesn't want to do it.

And when he does, he's remorseful.

But his desire and his intent is to follow Jesus Christ.

Paul would say to the Philippians, I'm not yet perfect or not attained, but I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God.

It's the pressing on, it's the keep on keeping on attitude that says, I want to serve my God, I don't want to sin, I abhor it with as much hatred as did my Lord, have no intention of doing it, even though I still fail.

Now, that's the attitude, that's the mindset.

Now since we've established that, let's go a little further.

The law of the Spirit, of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death, the law of spirit of life and the law of sin and death, what are they?

Well, it's certain that the law of sin and not, you know, the law of sin is this law, principle of sin, this principle of sin that we looked at in chapter seven.

Remember, there is in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing.

There's another law in my members warring against the law of my mind.

There's the Spirit and the law and contrast, right?

So there's this war going on.

One says, I don't want to do it.

I want to serve God.

But the flesh seems to fall short of it.

So that's the law of sin.

And so that's already been identified.

We don't have to figure that out.

Paul's already told us in chapter seven, the law of sin is that which made the apostle cry, oh, wretched man that I am.

But since the apostle was considering this law of sin in relation to the law of Moses, it's possible that he had both laws in mind when he wrote that phrase.

I'm inclined to think he's talking about the law of sin.

But the fact is Christ frees us from both the law of sin and the law of Moses.

Because the law of Moses was a law system of works that required the man to keep them.

Those who kept them could theoretically be righteous.

But again, any violation of law made them law breakers and brought them under the penalty of death.

They were in bondage to sin.

Now, the law of the Spirit of life that's made me free from this law of sin, what is that?

The law of the spirit is the very opposite of the law of sin and the law of the flesh.

This I think, I think that much seems very, very certain.

If the law of Moses forms part of this antithesis, it is on the ground that we just talked about whatever Paul had in mind by the law of the Spirit, it is the opposite of this law of sin and this, this flesh that is in my members, that that in me, that is in my flesh that wars against the law of my mind.

The difference, as we shall see later on as we go a little further, is that in having the Spirit indwell us is the result of that mindset that we've allowed the Spirit to lead us and influences.

And when he comes to chapter 14 and talks about being led by the Spirit, it's because we've set our mind on the things of the Spirit.

Don't you see?

Read the text carefully.

Put it all together.

Don't isolate these verses and pick out what you want and make an interpretation that doesn't fit the context.

Please don't do that.

So what the law could not do.

Obviously, Paul refers to the law of Moses.

And it was, you know, this law could not do what was necessary in order to free man from both the guilt and bondage of sin.

But wherein the law failed, God succeeded in sending his own son to be an offering for sin.

And under Christ.

There is a ruling force in the life of the Christian, and it's the attitude and the mind of God.

Christ.

It's the Spirit that seeks to serve the living God, even though the flesh fails and falls short of it.

And so those who are in Christ are those who walk not after the flesh.

Such people are not under condemnation, even though they may fail.

They're not under condemnation.

They're in Christ Jesus.

Sinners are described as they that are after the flesh, the saved, those that are not condemned, or those that walk after the Spirit.

The mind of the flesh, Paul would tell us, is death.

Mind of the Spirit is life and peace.

Okay, so that's why the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.

The mind of flesh is death because it is enmity against God.

And since the law of God is the transcript of his character, this mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God.

That's what he says here.

It is not subject to the law of God.

Such an attitude does not have a willingness to yield to God's will.

It's all about self and satisfying self, whether it's pride or whether it's some desire of the flesh and of the mind, it makes little difference.

Paul would then say in verse seven, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Now, he's not talking about in the flesh from the standpoint of being in this fleshly body.

Paul did use the word flesh that way in Romans 7.

But in this particular immediate context, he's not using it that way.

He's talking about the flesh from the standpoint of that old man that's been crucified.

He's been put to death.

In other words, in Romans 6, he says that the body of sin might be done away.

So it's crucified and it's buried.

It died.

It was buried.

And what was raised when it was raised in the waters of baptism, when it was raised, it was raised a New creature in Christ.

Old things are passed away.

Paul would tell the Corinthians, behold, all things are new.

A new relationship, forgiveness, a new, new means of hope.

I mean, everything is new.

And so a new covenant, actually, obviously.

And so when Paul picks up this thought again, he says that, that you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

Why you put to death that old body of sin.

That's why, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you again.

Now, please, we're not changing the topic if you're going to stay with it.

The Spirit of God dwells in us and leads us as we set and fix our mind on the things of the Spirit.

It has to be coincide with our choice to do the will of God to put to death the old man and to live for him who died for us.

And so it's a continual thing.

Chapter 12.

Paul would identify this better, this, this mind that we've been emphasizing when he says, beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

How do you do that?

Well, it starts by minding the things of the Spirit.

It starts by having that attitude, that mindset on things of the Spirit.

And when it does, it will produce things of the Spirit.

It will produce love, joy, peace, long suffering, and so forth.

And the fruits that are mentioned again, though the idea of crucifying the old man has to do with the intent and where our mind is set, where our focus, what it is on.

And so as we look further, he says, and if Christ is in you.

Now, we've got several things here in this same context.

We've got Christ in us, we've got the Spirit dwelling in us, and we've got the Father, he who raised his Son from the dead, the same Spirit.

So all three are mentioned in this context.

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, not because sin exists, but because sin was absolved, sin was taken away, it was killed and put to death and buried.

But the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, if you have that mindset, then he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies.

See, that's the hope and the anticipation of the resurrection is as a result of the kind of mind and the kind of attitude with which one lives his life, where he sets his focus and his goals, where his heart is.

And that's why, my friend, of course God's going to judge the works that we do.

But we're also told that he judges and he knows the minds.

And he alone is able to do that because he's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

So God and God only.

That's the reason.

He only can be the judge.

We can certainly be.

We can know a person by their fruit.

Jesus says, ye shall know them by their fruit.

Fruits.

We can determine by the fruits that are born as to whether one is following the Spirit or one is following the flesh.

It describes as.

John also uses the term walk several times.

John uses the word walk to describe a way of life, a manner of living.

What kind of life and manner of living are we describing here in the eighth chapter, starting in six and seven?

Well, it's a way of life or a mindset where one puts his heart, his affections and his thoughts on heavenly things, spiritual things, and what's produced.

The fruits of the Spirit are produced.

We're not talking neighbor about something external out there outside of us that comes upon us and, you know, God reaches down into our heart and changes us.

Outside of the choice that we make to give him our heart in our life, it's got to start with that heart of submission, the same heart that existed in Jesus Christ.

That's the spirit or the mind of Christ.

We need to have that same spirit.

We need to have that same mind so that even though we may fail and falter because we're in the flesh with the mind.

Paul said, I serve the law of God and that's the victory.

Because he says, oh, wretched man that I am.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The victory is that it's not dependent on perfect law keeping.

The victory is that even while I may sin, trying to do my very best to do differently, there is victory in Christ Jesus, not condemnation.

That's the beauty, my friends, of the Gospel of Christ.

That's the beauty of being in Christ, where there is no condemnation.

That takes us down through verse 11.

So we'll start right here for next time.

Thank you so much for joining us and pray that you have a good day and a pleasant week ahead.