Flesh and Spirit (Romans 8:5-11)

How many kinds of people are there? Depending on the point of the question, one can give different answers. The answer that Paul gives here is two kinds – those dominated by the flesh and those controlled by the Holy Spirit. We could call the two groups the unconverted and the converted. Paul is concerned about the difference between the unrighteous and the righteous.

 

What does Paul mean when he speaks of the flesh? He is not referring only to one’s body, although it is true that he includes the body within its meaning. By the flesh he means the sinful power that controls and guides unregenerate people and dominates their outlook. The way that the flesh works in an unbeliever is parallel to how the Spirit works in a believer. Both affect the mind (their thinking) and then both have actions that follow.

 

We know that Paul is concerned about the fact that although he loves the law of God he still sins even although he does not want to do so. He finds those personal failings unbearable, and they distress him. He also knows that this is a normal Christian experience. So one of his roles as an apostle is to explain to Christians how they should live with such a contradiction.

 

Already in 8:1-4, he has explained how the Holy Spirit enables them to know by experience that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled by them. Most commentators regard the righteous requirement as a reference to love, of loving God and neighbour, rather than of perfect obedience (which would be impossible in this life for Christians).

 

Now he brings a second way of considering the spiritual life of believers and it is the contrast that exists between them and those who are not unbelievers. Both a believer and an unbeliever sin, but the reasons for their sinning are different, and believers do not only sin for they also make spiritual progress.

 

The mind of the flesh

Paul mentions four details about the flesh that dominates unconverted people. First, there are the things of the flesh; second, the flesh brings death; third, the flesh is hostile to God and does not obey his law; and fourth, those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. There is an ongoing connection between those four details that lead to a continuous inevitable outcome. So we can consider each detail briefly.

 

What are the things of the flesh? Paul gives a list of them in Galatians 5:19-21: ‘Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.’

 

As we can see from the list, the works express themselves physically although they also express inward desires. The things of the flesh are the decisions and actions of the natural man. In the list we can see sexual immorality, sacrilege, collapse of social cohesion and lack of self-control. There will be a diverse range of behaviours among them. Some will be religious like some of the Jews. Others will be irreligious and lovers of pleasure. The point is that they have no interest in serving the Lord in the ways that he has revealed. They do not live for the glory of God.

 

Second, the activity of the flesh brings death. Paul means here both spiritual and eternal death. Death in the Bible is more than the cessation of spiritual life. It is increasing deterioration, getting worse, ungodlier with the passing of time. It is not static, staying unchanged despite the desires and actions that are engaged in. Such sinners are getting worse, says Paul. And they will continue in that outlook in the world to come, which is a frightening thought.

 

Paul contrasts the state of death that marks the ungodly with the state that marks believers. Instead of death, they have and are heading towards a state of life and peace. Again, as with his description of death, he is referring to their experience in this life and in the next. Believers, because they have the Holy Spirit, are alive. They already have eternal life, but their experience of it will increase in the world to come. Currently they are at peace with God, already they know something of the peace of God, and in the world to come they will know fullness of peace increasingly forever.

 

The third matter connected to those dominated by the flesh is hostility towards the throne of God. They do not acknowledge his authority and reveal their antagonism by refusing to obey his commandments. They oppose his revealed will constantly. Paul has already described this outlook in the early chapters of this book. What is more, they cannot do anything else but oppose God’s will. It is their automatic reaction to his commandments.

 

Fourth, the obvious conclusion is that those who live in this way cannot please God. They may be legalistic like the Jews were, making more rules of their own to add to his law, but each one they added only increased the displeasure of God. This is an awful state to be in, under the displeasure of God.

 

Paul, guided by the Spirit, provides a true and distressing assessment of fallen man. Humans have many abilities and engage in activities that can bring about change, but they are not neutral in their motives. Life without God is life without God and only expresses what Paul here calls the flesh.

 

The indwelling of the Spirit

Paul’s response to the reality of the flesh is both straightforward and profound. He says that an imperfect Christian living today does not exist ‘in the flesh’ because the Holy Spirit indwells him. The holy God is present with him, despite him being imperfect. But he has become a new creature, made spiritually alive by the Spirit. It was the presence of the indwelling Spirit that caused Paul to say simultaneously that he loves the law of God and confesses he is a wretched man. His twofold assessment is not a sign of confusion, not a sign of backsliding, but is a sign of realism and a sign of devotion to the Lord. This is a reminder that a huge change occurs whenever a sinner repents of his sins and believes in Jesus. Instead of ignoring or despising God’s law, he loves it, but he also sees how appalling imperfection is and he longs to be free of it.

 

Paul also says that this is a common Christian experience because the Holy Spirit indwells every believer. In verse 9, he refers to the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ and says that means Christ is in them. This means that the Holy Spirit comes as the representative of Christ into the lives of his people, even as Jesus indicated when he said in the upper room that if he went away he would send another Comforter to his disciples to reveal to them the things of Christ. The only people who have the Spirit as the representative of Jesus are Christians, which is a great blessing for them, even when the Spirit is teaching them about their sinfulness.

 

Paul also mentions a third consequence for believers. Although their body has the signs of death, they also have signs of life because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Where do people sin? They don’t sin away from their bodies as if they were detached from their bodies. Even their thoughts occur within their brains, a specific part of their bodies. Yet where do they have the signs of life? They have it in the same place where sin occurs, in themselves. Paul’s experience detailed in Romans 7 reveals that twofold reality – he loved the law of God because he was a renewed man, yet he also confessed that sin affected him.

 

Then Paul mentions a fourth consequence, which is also another comforting detail connected to the wonderful indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is that at the future resurrection he will give us special life like the life that Jesus received at his resurrection. In his prayer in Ephesians 1, Paul says that the resurrection life of Jesus is at work in the present as far as believers are concerned as he enables them to live for God in this life even although they still are sinners. The resurrection of the saints is the day of complete personal perfection.

 

Lessons

The obvious lesson from Paul’s words here is that Christians will be sinners while on earth. Even although they have the Holy Spirit within them, they remain sinners, although they are now pardoned. We need to remind ourselves of this when sin bothers us, as it must.

 

A second lesson is to remind ourselves that there are no shortcuts to perfection. Perfection, as far as the bodies of believers are concerned, will not occur until the resurrection. At the same time, we should take comfort from the certainty of perfection. We should also treat our bodies with respect for they will yet be perfect.

 

A third lesson is the wonder that the third person of the glorious Trinity dwells within us. He is not in us in the way a glass of water is inside us after we drink it. The Spirit is everywhere within us, even as sin is. This presence makes sanctification effective.