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Not Subject

Jan 6, 2013 by: Viji Roberts| Series: Romans

Rom 8: 4-13

We began looking at Romans 8; last time we looked at 'Not Condemned: There is therefore no condemnation.'

Today, we want to look at 'Not Subject' – Rom 8:7 - “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

We will cover:
• Work of the Holy Spirit (Overview)
• The Example of the Continuing Work (Rom 8:4)
• The Struggle (Rom 8:5-8)
• The Victory (Rom 8:9-11)
• The Challenge (Rom 8:12-13)
• Conclusion

Work of the Holy Spirit (Overview)

Uniqueness of Romans 8: “If Holy Scripture was a ring, and the Epistle to the Romans its precious stone, chapter 8 would be the sparkling point of the jewel!” — Spenner. This becomes apparent as we study the chapter. 

We also see that Romans 8 speaks to us about the Holy Spirit. Three aspects we will look at:

1. Mention of the Holy Spirit

Till Chapter 8 of Romans, the Holy Spirit is mentioned only once (Rom 5: 5). In chapter 8, the Holy Spirit is mentioned 18- 20 times depending on the translation. That is about 60% of the time within Romans.

2. Ministry o f the Holy Spirit

i. The Indwelling Sanctifier.

In chapter 7, Paul talks about the conflict that exists in every believer.
• Ends the chapter with “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Mark the emphasis, it is a “who” not a “what”.
• Paul recognizes it is impossible for us to win the victory in our own strength.
• Realizes that deliverance would have to come from a person, and not from some principle or thing.
In chapter 8 he unfolds the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
• Holy Spirit is the answer to the question, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” 

ii. Salvation before service.

• Romans 8: Ministry of the Holy Spirit pertaining to the salvation and sanctification.
• Romans 12: Ministry of the Holy Spirit for service and ministry (spiritual gifts).
Chapter 12 follows chapter 8 and that is the God ordained sequence.

3. Mutuality of the Holy Spirit

In this chapter (Romans 8), we see:

i. What the Lord Jesus Christ acquired :
• by His death, burial and resurrection, the Holy Spirit applies:
• by His indwelling ministry in the life of the Christian.
What Christ has won for us positionally, the Holy Spirit works in us practically.

ii. Three names being used to refer to the Holy Spirit:
• Rom 8:9 - Spirit of God
• Rom 8:9 - Spirit of Christ
• Rom 8:11 - Spirit of Him (Father)

The Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and the Son and stands in intimate relationship to both the Father and to the Son and is rightly called by either name.
Let us now look at the lesson.

Example of the Continuing Work

Fulfilment of the Law - Rom 8:4 - "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit".

God doesn’t just save us and then leave us on our own. His works continues in us through the Spirit. What the Lord Jesus Christ has acquired, the Holy Spirit applies. Jesus has fulfilled the law and in Him we stand complete. In this verse though there is an implication of the future work that the Spirit is doing.

On a side note: Aren’t we glad that God fulfils the law and that He is not a God of convenience? A God who makes laws and then breaks it at His convenience is no God. We need a God who is God enough to fulfil the demands successfully. We don’t have a God, who like a professor sets a hard test paper but is unable to solve it himself. God can both completely and fully save and only God can save.

If you look at the recent US elections, you can see three things:
- There is no one party that is ideal for the job.
- They were divided along race and ethnicity rather than principle.
- Getting the work done was more important than who would stay closest to our principles. (Machiavellian)
The lesson being here that we compromise, but God never does. For Him, the ends do not justify the means.

In Christ Jesus we are a new creature (2 Cor 5:17). Yet it is the Holy Spirit who continues to change our nature through sanctification (Rom 8:3-4).

The Struggle

Flesh. Carnal. Sarx. (Rom 8:5-8)

Paul presents how the Christian life is to be lived and why a Christian cannot and should not live in the flesh. That is what we want to learn and apply as our lesson today. Why are we at enmity and constantly at war with the flesh? Hopefully, at the end of today we will realise afresh the Christian’s strong distaste for the flesh and for the things that are carnal. The line to remember throughout today is “flesh must die”.

Let us now look at why we can’t have anything to do with the flesh.
1. Mindset of the Flesh (Rom 8:5-6) 

Setting your mind - the verb here is the present participle. It denotes a lifestyle that is according to the flesh. The word used 'Phroneo' or 'to mind' is the same word used in Philippians 2:5. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Jesus had a mindset bent toward humility. And we are to have that disposition. You either have a mindset of the flesh or that of the Spirit.

There are only two kinds of people in the world: the ones that are after the flesh and the ones those are after the Spirit. The verb in v6 is “is”: There is a difference between “leads to death” and “death”. Here it says, it is death not leading to death. This is black and white with no gray area. There are no options with the flesh, just death.

Listen carefully! Being a Christian is to take sides. It means to be at war. When we become a Christian there is a change in our nature and the conflict begins. When we were in the flesh and spiritually dead, there was no conflict; but when we became a believer, we entered into a war.
This sin, however, no longer dominates us but it remains as a troublesome enemy. Armchair Christianity is like drafting to enter the army and then complaining about having to go to war.

“Men must be under the predominating influence of one or other of these two principles, and, according as one or other has the mastery, will be the complexion of their life and the character of their actions. The bent of the thoughts, affections and pursuits is the only decisive test of character.” — David Brown. Remember, the “flesh must die”.

2. Enmity of the flesh. (Rom 8:7)

The carnal mind is ENMITY against God. Present tense here means continued insubordination.
• Paul uses a NOUN, and not an adjective.
Not that it is “at enmity”, but enmity itself. For an enemy may become a friend; but enmity cannot. Spirit and the flesh cannot EVER come together.
C H Spurgeon: (Paraphrased). Hasn’t there been times when we wanted to do just what we felt like doing? When we wished there were no laws that restrained. Or that God was not watching, or even that there was no God? Just like in Ps 14: 1, say, “No God”. Now suppose a person wished another dead, is it not because he hated him? If that were so, when we wish there were no God, is that not because we in our natural self hate God. The carnal mind is hatred with God.
For this reason, the “flesh must die".

• The carnal mind is not sin as an act but in PRINCIPLE.
(Distinction between sin as an act and sin as a principle)
1 John 1:7 - “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Sin is here spoken of in the singular. This is not the act of sin, but sin as a principle.
1 John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Here, sin is given in the plural.

1 John 1:7 - Sin, the principle, must be cleansed.
1 John 1:9 - Sins, the acts, must be forgiven.

• A change in nature is required to move from the carnal to the spiritual.
Even the best among us need a change of nature. “There is none righteous, no not one.” Totally depraved? Not that we are as bad as we can be, but simply that our depravity has touched our total being –our mind, our will, our emotions.
The whole of the man is affected, not that it is wholly affected.
The wolf may sleep, but it is a wolf still. The nature must change. “Flesh must die.”

• And this change must come from outside of the man.
There is no self-recovery program. We can ruin ourselves, but we cannot deliver ourselves.
Hosea 13:9 - "Oh, Israel thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help.”
So we read: Romans 5:10 - “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

3. Impossibility of Pleasing God. (Rom 8:8)

“…cannot please God.” Self-gratification, selfish living and putting personal needs before everything and everybody may be fashionable but certainly not spiritual. We cannot live to please ourselves. We exist to please God.

• We see the best example in Jesus Christ. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”
How do we please God? We can only please God in the Spirit.
• Rom 14:18 - “For he who in this way serves Christ is pleasing to God.”
• 2 Cor 5:9 - “So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.”
• Eph 5:10 - “and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.”
• Phil 4:18 - Generosity pleases God.
• Col 3:20 -  “Children be obedient to your parents in all things, for that is well-pleasing in the Lord.”
Those that live in the flesh cannot please God. For this reason, the “flesh must die.”

The Victory

We are owned. (Rom 8:9-11)
1. The fact of Ownership.

“Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”. Rom 8:9 begins with “But you” — Paul is saying that there is something different about you. What is the difference? The Spirit is the difference. He brings us to victory.

• Being in the Spirit and the Spirit of God in you.
When the Spirit of God comes into man, the Spirit does not cease to be God. Nor does the man cease to be man. But there is a divinely produced “inner man” in the man, a newly birthed moral condition. This new birth is irreversible, just like Jesus who took on human form connects with humanity forever.
When we trust Christ as Savior, we put on Christ. We have the Spirit inside us, and because we are in him, and he in us, we are assured of the salvation that he promises. Apart from Christ we are left standing by the side of the road. No amount of good works can save us.
God lives in us. For this reason, the “flesh must die”.

• Must have the Spirit of God to be a Christian.
This is an important truth we need to learn. We cannot be a Christian and not have the Holy Spirit in us. We do not have to wait to pray for a ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’. 

Eph 1:13 - “Having believed…you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the seal. The seal represents authority, protection, identity. When God puts his seal on you, he is literally putting the mark of His ownership.

1 Cor 12:13 - “By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” It is the Spirit baptism that makes us part of the body of Christ and that happens when we become his child.

Jude 1:19 - "It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit." Unbelievers do not have the Spirit. Believers have the Spirit and belong to Christ. The Spirit takes up residence and produces that new life in us. Without the Spirit in us we can't walk in the Spirit, be spiritually minded or even please God. In fact without the Spirit we remain in the flesh as enemies of God.

Every Christian receives all of the Spirit. This happens at the time of their salvation. Nowhere do we read that we need to pray for more of the Spirit. The question then is not whether the Christian possesses the Spirit but whether the Spirit possesses the Christian. The proof that we have this indwelling Spirit is that we “mind the things of the Spirit” (Rom 8:5 ), and bear its fruit (Gal 5:22- 23 ).

2. Future Assurance (Rom 8:10-11)

The body [is] dead because of sin
• Our spirit is regenerated but not the human flesh.
The body is still dead. No wonder there is the constant battle with the body. It still needs a resurrection. And Rom 8:11 tells us that He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. The flesh is in constant battle. For this reason, the “flesh must die”.

• Watch out for the “Man of God” syndrome.
We might think there are people who are so committed to the cause of Christ like bible teachers, preachers, pastors and elders that they have reached a level of “no struggle”. That’s not true. The 'old man' is alive and kicking in each one of us and it will be till the grave and the battle goes on till the last breath. The “flesh must die”. Thankfully, the Spirit dwells in us. Not a stopover, like a hotel stay, but a permanent resident.

The Challenge (Rom 8:12-13)

1. Debtors to Who? (Rom 8:12)
“We are debtors”. Paul uses an imperfect sentence. He tells us who we are not debtors to but leaves us to figure out who we really are indebted to.

• The word used is that of an obligation. 'A feeling because of something done for us.' If it is a debt we wish to discharge, then let it be to Christ. The flesh did nothing for us. For a debt is something owed; and if we do owe, it is to Christ that we owe our everything.

• Invited to live in the Spirit: At the same time, we are no longer debtors to sin. Our debt to sin is fully paid and we are not held debtors to the Spirit but invited to live in the Spirit.

2. Mortify the deeds of the body (Rom 8:13)
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” This is the capstone verse for today. “Mortify the deeds of the body” or as we have been saying, the “flesh must die”.

“The old man, the carnal mind, will do anything to keep from being crucified. It nearly kills him to have to die.” Either you kill the flesh or it kills you. For this reason, the “flesh must die”. We see that to “live in the flesh is death, and to live we must through the Spirit kill the deeds of the flesh”.

• Death is not the loss of salvation for the Christian: For a Christian is not in the flesh. In the flesh, you die eternally. But for a Christian the question is - if flesh brings with it death. Why are we messing around, or playing around with flesh? How can we make our bed on the rotting mass of flesh? For this reason a Christian knows the flesh must die”.

• Not on our own strength: We saw that too, God has not left us alone. God assists even in our willing or choosing. The verse says we mortify through the power of the Spirit — that is through God Himself.
Phil 2:13 - “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
But God will not bypass our wills. If we choose to do wrong, He will not force us to do right. Therefore, our wills must be in complete submission to Him. For this reason we must choose daily in such a way that the “flesh must die”. God has deemed that our sanctification will be through the exercise of our new man and killing of the deeds of the flesh.

Conclusion

Deeds of the flesh hinder our worship; corrupt our relationships; threaten our pursuit of holiness. Sin is our worst enemy. For this reason, the "flesh must die”.

We put to death the flesh which has already been defeated in Jesus Christ. We live out that victory by putting to death the flesh. “Flesh must die”.

Until we believe that life is war – that the stakes are our soul – we will probably just play at Christianity with no blood earnestness and no vigilance and no passion and no wartime mindset. (John Piper)

A Christian must be a daily slayer in the Spirit. "Flesh must die”.

Christianity brings with it the daily conformity to God’s nature. God’s nature is something that God cannot give up, nor can the Christian have a communion without. In the flesh you cannot submit and a life without submission to God is death. “Flesh must die”.

To live is Christ, everything else is death. For this reason, the “flesh must die”.

If ye do not kill sin, it will kill you.” (John Owen) For this reason, the “flesh must die”.

I do not know what you are struggling with, but if the “deeds of the flesh” are evident in you:
• Bitterness, hatred
• Inability to forgive
• Lack of self-control – impatience, anger, and others such as pornography
You got some killing to do. Every time a thought rises up in rebellion, or sets it up against God and God’s people, tear it down. Destroy every self-playing arguments and pretension that is from the flesh. Have in the habit of asking, “Is this from the flesh that must be squished?” Then take action –Why? Because the "flesh must die”.

It is through constantly killing the deeds of the flesh through the power of the Spirit that we will live. John Piper quotes Ed Welch, in preparation for his book called 'A Banquet in the Grave' (Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 2001):
". . . there is a mean streak to authentic self-control. . . Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. . . . The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. . . . There is something about war that sharpens the senses . . . You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little or no sleep, war keeps us vigilant."

As our text says this morning – the "flesh must die", because it will NOT SUBMIT.

Next time we will look at “Not Received”.