Rom. 8:6 is my opening text, but for anyone desiring “context” I would suggest reading at least chapters 1-8. And then read also 1 Cor. chapters 1, 2 and 3. I would even go further to say that IF you are not studying the WHOLE Word of God, then you will seriously be lacking “context”.
Who is Paul addressing when he wrote this epistle (letter)? Unrepentant Romans? Believers? “Professing” believers? Christians? Gentiles who had been enlightened? Born-again Romans? We can know by the greeting at the beginning of each letter (book).
And so Paul here writes to “the called of Jesus Christ…to all that be at Rome (who are) beloved of God, called to be saints…(whose) faith was spoken of throughout the whole world”. He is not writing here to philosophers, debating the finer points of a new religion. He is writing to Christian saints beloved of God, and he warns that “to be carnally minded is death”, contrasting that with being spiritually minded… which is life.
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men” John 1:4.
The next several verses are very important. In verse 7, Paul explains why the carnal mind is death… “because the carnal mind is enmity (hostility: the extreme ill will or hatred that exists between enemies) against God… it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”. The flesh can not be brought into obedience to the law of God! It WILL NOT subject itself to God. This is ALL of fallen Adam within my members. This is that which lusts for everything which is against God. This is the conflict with the Spirit. “So then they that are in the flesh (that is…they which live within the dictates of the carnal mind) cannot please God” verse 8. They who live within this realm; who still cling to the love of the things of the world; who have not or do not mature into the deeper spiritual truths of the Word of God, will not and can not please God. How can they? They still have the satisfaction of self as the chief quest. By the Grace of God, they may be saved but, it is not supposed to be only a salvation from sin and its consequences, but also, we are brought into a great relationship with the Heavenly Father, the Most High God…and to Jesus Christ and the living Church. We are brought into an expectation of service. “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. Rom. 8:4
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, IF so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” Rom. 8:9.
Here is the affirmation that IF the Spirit of God dwell in you, (and He cannot if there has been no regenerating born-again experience), then “ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit”. God has now in essence, re-created me in Christ to live by the power of His Holy Spirit and not under the dominance of sin or the power of the lust of the flesh. I have been given an unbelievable Heavenly gift of Righteous Power…to BE like Christ! Paul, in verse 9, is trying to help me with my conflict. He is encouraging me to “muster up” the faith to live in the realm in which I have been placed. In verse 10 Paul writes, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”. IF Christ is in me, the body is dead… because of sin (crucified with Christ); but the Spirit is Life (eternal) because of Righteousness (His).
“But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” Rom. 8:11. Quicken… “to make alive” (Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). Oh what a word that is! The definition of that word “quicken” should make me understand...should be a revelation as to what I was BEFORE I was saved (dead in my sin)…and that understanding (the contrast of what I was to what God says I am now) should exceedingly motivate me in my faith to live in that Spirit. Romans 8:11 speaks of that Life which I live in my mortal body which has been quickened, yet not I…“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”. Gal. 2:20. I live by His faith!!!!!!!!! My body (of sin, the old man) is dead (separated from God) because of sin and crucified with Christ, but if the Spirit dwells in me then this mortal body is “quickened” from the dead (separation) to live by the Spirit unto righteousness (because He is faithful).
Let’s look at Romans 8:1-4
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
…who walk NOT after the flesh (carnal)… as opposed to spiritual. We are not spiritual because we are Christian, but we are Christian because we are (our life is) in Christ…spiritual. I use the word “Christian” here to mean more than just religiosity. It is our life…the way we live, our behavior. To live spiritually; totally and constantly dependent on the Sovereignty of God in our lives. In that person, there is no condemnation. What a declaration from God Himself. How we should contemplate; how we should meditate on what Almighty God has done for us. Because as soon as, and every time we revert to our carnal selves, we sin. Not until we repent and confess our behavior, do we resume fellowship with the Father.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Continuing my thought from above with this verse… imagine if you will, a murderer, a violent career criminal on death row; actually on the gurney in the room of execution, strapped down and hypodermics ready for lethal injection; which by all that is just in the law…he deserves. He is moments away from being executed. For all practical purposes, he is dead already. When in walks the Governor and pardons him completely. Moreover, the Governor tells him you are not only free of this judgment, but I also free you from the bondage of your past life. And, I also give you power to live righteously from now on. There is no condemnation in you. But if you do slip up, I will forgive you that also, if you come to me and sincerely confess it. Why? Because a man, a righteous man, the Governor’s own son will take the murderer’s place…because the law is righteous.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
…the law could not rehabilitate the criminal. All it could do is remind the criminal how bad he was…and condemn him. The criminal, with the lusts that motivated his behavior, had no power to obey the law. But God the Father prepared a sinless body in the likeness of sinful flesh (Adam) so that God the Son could take sin upon this righteous, holy body and condemn it in the flesh (where sin had it’s power) by the death of that flesh. No one else could possibly have done this but God Himself. I imagine God to say…“I will submit Myself to death in this body because Adam perpetuated death for man on account of his sin. But whereas this body is undeserving of that condemnation, yet though it dies, will I resurrect to perpetuate Life.”
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
…and the righteousness of the law will now be fulfilled in all who God has called, who have been born from above, who walk NOT after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
So many Christians who have read up to this point are probably wondering, “so what are you saying, Frank, that we are going to die in our carnal state (those who are carnal)? Well…you might…I might. We are all going to die if the Lord does not return first.
“Are you saying we are not saved”? Of course not. Read the text again. Paul writes to born-again believers who he cautions to not be carnal…because it is death. We can not deny the text… “to be carnally minded is death”. We can deny various interpretations, but not the text. Paul also writes to the Corinthians...
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ” 2 Cor.2:14
Paul here makes reference to a “natural” man…who can not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him. He (the natural man) can not know them because they are “SPIRITUALLY” discerned.
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 1Cor.3:1-3
And now Paul says he cannot speak to them as spiritual men, of spiritual things but he must speak to them as being still “carnal”…babes, BUT nevertheless IN CHRIST. He says he has fed them “milk” and not “meat” (the substantial, deep truths of the Word of God) because they were not able to comprehend… because they are YET (still) carnal. A carnal state, or condition, prevents spiritual growth.
I am convinced Paul (and our opening text) means “separation” here.
(Death never denotes nonexistence. As spiritual life is "conscious existence in communion with God," so spiritual "death" is "conscious existence in separation from God." ~Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words)
But it is a separation that the beloved believer should not want to contemplate.
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” Gen.2:16-17
Did Adam die the very day he ate of that tree? He surely did. The same way lucifer "died" (spiritual separation) the day he sinned against God.
“So He (God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” Gen.3:24
Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden so as not to partake of the Tree of Life (eternal) in their now sinful state.
Moreover, they could no longer walk with God in the garden. Consequently, the intimate fellowship with God was broken because of sin (disobedience). Adam relinquished his “birthright” as the son of God and became a mortal, carnal sinner. The spiritual life was interrupted; separated by a carnal act. The difference for us (grace) is that we enjoy immediate restoration of that fellowship because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. We see in Ch. 3 verse 7 that Adam and Eve themselves tried to hide the “shame of their nakedness” but it required God to sacrifice (a lamb?) and make “coats of skins” to clothe them.
Scofield says, “…a divinely provided garment that the first sinners might be made fit for God's presence”.
And then we also see in chapter 4 the account of Cain and Abel. Cain is a “type” of the “natural” man. Again… Scofield says,
“His religion was destitute of any adequate sense of sin, or need of atonement. This religious type is described in 2 Pet. 2... Seven things are said of him: (1) he worships in self-will (2) is angry with God (3) refuses to bring a sin offering (4) murders his brother (5) lies to God (6) becomes a vagabond (7) is, nevertheless, the object of the divine solicitude”.
In contrast, Abel is a “type” of “spiritual” man… of which Scofield says,
“His sacrifice, in which atoning blood was shed (Hebrews 9:22), was therefore at once his confession of sin and the expression of his faith in the interposition of a substitute (Hebrews 11:4).
The cry of the carnal Christian should express the same darkness and void as Jesus’ words on the cross when He said, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”. But God does not forsake us. Our cry should be a realization that we forsake Him. We must recognize a same dread in our own lives if we experience a separation, because of sin, from full communion with God, our Father. It was man who chose death, it was not God.
[J.N. Darby writes… One other point remains to be noticed here. In verse 2, we have the new life in its power in Christ, which sets us free from the law of sin and death. In verse 3, we have the old nature, sin in the flesh, dealt with, condemned, but in the sacrifice for sin in which Christ suffered and died, so that it is done with for faith. This completes the deliverance and the knowledge of it. The key to all this doctrine of the apostle's, and that which unites holy practice, the Christian life, with absolute grace and eternal deliverance from condemnation, is the new position entirely apart from sin, which death gives to us, being alive in Christ now before God. The power of God, the glory of the Father, the operation of the Spirit, are found acting in the resurrection of Christ, and placing Him, who had borne our sins and been made sin for us, in a new position beyond sin and death before God. And by faith I have part in His death, I participate in this life. ~J.N. Darby]
If one reads that paragraph methodically and deliberately, one will find the summation that “Christ is all in all” Col.3:11. Christ has made everything, has fixed everything, maintains everything, fulfills everything, perpetuates everything… everything that is Good and Righteous, according to the Will of the Father.
And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. 1Cor.15:28
"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Luke 9:23
The question, though, that individually begs to be asked is, “What is a carnal Christian”?
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