Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
5For those being according to flesh mind the things of the flesh, but those according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit, 6for the mind of the flesh [is] death, but the mind of the Spirit [is] life and peace, 7because the mind of the flesh [is] an enemy into God, for it is not being obedient to the law of God, for it is not even able, 8but the one being in flesh is not being able to please God, 9but you (pl.) are not in flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God is dwelling in you (pl.), but if someone is not having the Spirit of Christ, that person is not His, 10but, if Christ is in you (pl.), the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because of righteousness, 11but if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus out of dead ones is dwelling in you (pl.), the One who raised Christ out of dead ones will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you (pl.).
After studying this passage for some time, I believe it is far more profound than I have ever realized before. It is easy to read these words and then either 1) find them almost cliché (thinking, “Of course I know that!”), or 2) being threatened by the “ifs,” and perhaps secretly glad to just read on. Instead, I believe these words ought to blast like a cannon through our natural thoughts and lead us into those thoughts of God which He describes when He says, “For, as the heavens are high above the earth, so are My thoughts above your thoughts and My ways above your ways” (Isa. 55:9).
What do I mean? We humans seem to automatically assume any discussion about God or religion comes down to a basic question of whether or not you keep the laws. Good people try to keep the Ten Commandments and bad people don’t. Good Christians keep the Law, but others don’t. If you want God to like you, you have to follow the rules. God loves people who keep the Law and everyone else is in big trouble. That’s what a relationship with God is all about – being a good rule-keeper. And it’s not just Christians. Basically, that’s what every religion in the world is about; they just each have their own variety of rules to keep.
Look again at this passage. Is that the issue this passage presents? Please read it in your own Bible, then ask yourself, “What is this passage teaching us is the essential question? What is it that makes the difference whether I have a relationship with God or not?” Is worship a matter of whether or not we do a good job of keeping whatever is our group’s set of rules? What does it say?
The real question comes down to this business of flesh vs. the Spirit. Do you or do you not have the Spirit of God living in you? If you do not, then you are “in the flesh” and, as it says in vv. 6-8, “The mind of the flesh is death…the mind of the flesh is enmity with God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.” If that is true of someone, what is the solution? They need the Holy Spirit. The solution is not that they need to be better rule-keepers.
I think what this all comes down to is that this business of “religion” or, more specifically, of knowing God is spiritual business. It is not the external, observable business of exactly what rules you keep and how well you keep them. I would even suggest that, in itself, is a religion of the flesh, even if it calls itself Christianity and is the true religion of entire church groups. No. Jesus didn’t say it for nothing: “God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth…the Father seeks such to worship Him.”
“They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
A relationship with God is something infinitely deeper than our petty rule-keeping. It is something that goes on first of all inside of us, in our hearts, and there we must confront the truth of who we really are and who God is to us. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of God, he is none of His” (v.9). Then do we or don’t we?
I will wander so far as to say we also have to apply these things to those around us who claim to be Christians. It is not our place to judge other people, but Jesus was the one who said, “By their fruits you shall know them.” I can’t say how many million times over the years I have known and dealt with people whom I was supposed to believe were Christians, yet there was absolutely nothing spiritual or Christlike about them. They may have been champion rule-keepers but there was nothing of the spirit of Christ about them.
That has been very confusing and very discouraging to me. However, I believe Romans 8 would free us from that confusion and discouragement. It tells us that no matter what great rule-keepers they are, no matter how high they may have risen (even to be pastors and missionaries and deacons and Sunday School teachers), if they don’t have the spirit of Christ about them, “they are none of His.” Those who are truly born-again are those who “walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (v.4). When someone’s walk possesses nothing of the fruit of the Spirit, the real truth is, “they are none of His.” I can still love them. I don’t need to be judgmental or critical. I just don’t have to be telling myself, “They just need to grow.” No. They need to be saved. For real. They need the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and that hasn’t happened yet. Yet.
All of this so far, I would suggest, is utterly profound and would transform Christianity overnight if we all actually believed and recognized it. However, going back to the passage, I think there is far more to be gleaned.
Given everything I’ve observed so far, it would be nice if we could simply conclude that people “in the flesh” are the unsaved and those “with the Spirit” are the saved. It would be nice if, the minute I received the Spirit, I could be done with sin, done with the flesh. Positionally it is true – if I am in Christ, I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, the 3rd Person of the Trinity. Positionally, that is true. The problem is that practically I still have the battle to fight. My flesh is still quite alive. As Paul says in Galatians, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (5:17). Paul has just, in Romans 7, related the struggle he himself faced, “O wretched man that I am!”
So, even those who have definitely received Christ, who have embraced a very real and personal relationship with God, though they are literally “in the Spirit,” yet the Spirit/flesh battle goes on. The battle goes on but, and this is so important to recognize, I must aggressively refuse to reduce it all once again to a question of rule-keeping. My salvation was first and foremost a spiritual business, an inward change in my heart of hearts. The changes it wrought in the externals of my life, in my behaviors and attitudes, were very real, but they grew out of those inward, spiritual changes. It was Spirit business. Now, as I would live my life, I must see that it is still Spirit business. What matters most is still not what goes on externally, but what is going on inside of me. It still needs to be “spirit and truth.”
I can’t help but remember once again Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to His teaching. Her busy sister Martha was put out that Mary didn’t join her in her busy-ness, but Jesus told her, “Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.” What was going on? Mary understood what really mattered, and I believe we can say without a doubt, when Mary finally did stand up and get back to whatever it was she needed to do, she would never be the same. She was changed from the inside out. She tended to the Spirit business and we can all be quite sure the fruit of the Spirit blossomed in her life.
As Paul relates in v.11, “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who dwells in you.” As we read back in v.2, “…through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” It is the Spirit’s business to give life and that is exactly what He does do for you and me. In Him, we can rise above our flesh, above our sins, and above the death that is sin’s portion.
But we must realize – it is Spirit business.
