《The Biblical Illustrator – Romans (Ch. 6b~8a)》

(a) Our secret meditations (Proverbs 23:7).

(b) The crises of our history. There are times which compel us to show whether we love God or the world most.

(c) The practical outgrowth of our principles and disposition. We are known by our fruits (1 John 3:7; 1Jn_3:10).

2. “To be carnally minded is death.”

3. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” True, there may be no full consciousness of this, but still it is there ready to be brought out when occasion arises. A man may hate his neighbour and yet not discover his resentment for years; but at length that neighbour may confront him in some such form as shall instantly bring it out.

4. “It is not subject to His law, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” And why? Because they are still unforgiven as to past offences; and because also, in all seeming goodness, there is the total lack of a true and acceptable purpose.

II. The marks of the spiritually minded.

1. They mind the things of the Spirit.

2. He who minds the things of the Spirit shows it by making constant efforts to acquire them. He takes pleasure in meditating upon them, in conversing about them, and in listening when others describe them. Then he must needs read about them in the Word of God, and must be frequently found in closest communion with God. “To be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

The carnal and spiritual mind

I. The text divides men into two classes and only two. The test of these two classes is the bent and inclination of their minds towards carnal or spiritual things. It is important to determine to which we belong. We cannot do so by any conventional test.

II. The test is carried into the inner man.

1. It is “minding” the things of the flesh or spirit that determines character; what a man is rather than what he does. God looks at the heart, and no outward act can deceive Him.

2. “Minding the things,” etc., includes the exercise of the affections.

III. Man really is what his nature is. The prevailing instincts of the heart determine the external habits of life. Character is determined from within, not from without. A man may live in a church all his life. This will not make him a saint. You may sow wheat and barley and flax in the same soil and under the same conditions, softened by the same shower, warmed by the same sun; but these influences only lead to the development of the different species according to their own intrinsic natures. Circumstances may repress the outward manifestation of character as a man may avoid worldly amusements from a sense of impropriety, etc.; but such abstinence does not prove him to be a spiritual man.

IV. The practical application of this principle. In regard to--

1. Prayer.

2. Reading the Bible.

3. Christ.

4. The world and the things of the world.

5. The unseen world. (P. Strutt.)

Carnal and spiritual mindedness

I. The antithesis of carnal and spiritual mindedness (verse 5).

1. The contrasted classes.

(a) We need not live in profligacy. Passions may be dormant, while not provoked. Dynamite is harmless till fired. The particles of clay may temporarily subside from muddy water till the liquid is agitated again: then fresh discolorations arise.

(b) Nor indulge in every form of evil. In the mountain range of a man’s iniquity certain peaks may start sheer above the general level of the chain.

(c) Nor flagrantly wicked in any one thing. If only the mind be steeped in frivolities, forgetful of anything but self-gratification, we are in the flesh.

(d) We may even experience longings after nobler soul attainments (Matthew 19:16-22). Just as there are manifold depths of complete submersion, at six or sixty fathoms, so there are souls not far from the kingdom of heaven (Mark 12:34), others as whited sepulchres (Matthew 23:27), others “of your father the devil” (John 8:44).

(a) Such are renewed in heart. The change they have experienced is deeper than reformation. They are not like irised minerals whose surface is made gleam with all rainbow colours while the centre is lustreless, opaque.

(b) They desire unreserved consecration to God’s service.

(c) Their portrait is drawn in the Beatitudes.

2. Their different conduct.

(a) We may know our spiritual position by observing what things we mind. A bar of steel, by what it “minds,” will show whether it is magnetised or not. Our conduct, like the hands of our watches, tells out the unseen movements within.

(b) The old nature cannot be sanctified, it must be crucified (Galatians 5:24).

II. The different results of such antithetic positions (verses 6-8).

1. The consequences are--

(a) Alienation from all godliness and spiritual movements, as physical death is separation from activities of bodily existence. The heart chords of the carnally minded never respond to the Spirit’s touch, as no plays of thought or feeling flit over the pallid face of a corpse though touched by the friendliest hand. Yet the spiritually dead are neither incapacitated for, nor insensible to, sensual pleasures (Philippians 3:9; 2 Peter 2:13).

(b) Not so much negation of spiritual comforts as positive hunger of unsatisfied desires, desolations consequent on indulged passions. Cain (Genesis 4:13), Esau (Genesis 27:34), Judas (Matthew 27:3), felt it to be so.

(c) Always takes hold on eternal perdition. The tap root of the sin tree strikes into the inmost recesses of human nature (Romans 6:23). Present soul death is prophetic of future.

(a) Life, the complete opposite of death (Ezekiel 37:1-7), including delight in God, power for good, conformity to Christ’s character, holy activity, and eternal felicity. At present this life is subject to many fluctuations, dishealths, languors; but as given of the Spirit and hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3) it is deathless (Romans 5:17; John 14:19).

(b) Peace. This is not exemption from all disquietudes, but in spite of them; like a river flowing amid dark cliffs with its curves lit up, and its ripples glancing in the sunlight, the peace of the believer, luminous in the shining of God’s reconciled countenance, courses on, diffusing comforts, serenities, joys. In contrast with the wild tumult of fleshly lusts this peace signifies the harmony grace establishes between the sinner and his God, his fellow men, and the several parts of his own being. It counterworks the soul’s anxieties on the chief grounds whence they arise. It is a peace the world knows not of (Isaiah 59:8), and cannot take away (John 14:27). It is a distinct fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

2. Why the consequences are so.

(a) The primary cause of man’s indifference to gospel truth and ordinances. The dead are deaf. Scientists love to hear of inventions, social reformers of philanthropies, merchants of commerce, because they are alive to these things.

(b) Heaven would be no felicity for any unregenerate soul. Its sorest misery is in meeting with God in the glory of His holiness (Revelation 6:16).

(c) The believer’s peace will be proportionate to his minding the things of the Spirit. The growing stream floats more and larger burdens on its bosom.

(d) The unmitigated dogmatism of verse 8 should lead us to repentance. Better that a man should not be born than not please his God (Matthew 26:24).

(e) The measure of our pleasing God is the measure of our Christianity (Hebrews 11:5; John 8:29; 1 John 3:22). (James Gage, B. D.)

The carnal and the spiritual

I. The different states of mind described by the apostle.

1. To be “carnally-minded,” to “walk after the flesh,” to “live after the flesh,” to “mind the things of the flesh,” are plainly convertible terms, all meaning, not a proper care for the welfare of the body, but the practical exhibition of that evil principle of fallen man which in the following verse is said to be enmity against God--not to be subject to His law; nay, to be necessarily hostile to it. Carnal-mindedness, therefore, consists in the presiding love and pursuit of those sinful objects of time and sense which alienate the heart from God, subdue it to the powers of death, and deliver it into the snare of the enemy of mankind, to be led captive at his will.

2. But “they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.” Spiritual-mindedness is a principle decidedly opposed to that which I have described--to pass through things temporal as not to lose the things eternal--to walk by faith, not by sight--to slight and scorn the pleasures of sin, animated by that sanctified ambition which seeks, through undeserved mercy, the recompense of an eternal reward--this is spiritual-mindedness.

II. Such is the great contrast between the characters I have described; and vast as is the difference of these states of heart will also be that of the ends to which they infallibly lead.

1. To be carnally-minded is death. To live after the flesh is a present death--a moral incapacity for the pursuits and duties of a heavenly and immortal life; it is to be dead in trespasses and sins. One thus minded is an alien from the commonwealth of the true Israel, a stranger to the covenant of evangelical promise, having no Scriptural hope, and without God in the world. He may be a living treasury of knowledge, capable of many impressions from religious objects, capable of performing many external duties: he may have a form of godliness, a name to live; but holy and spiritual things, in their predominant importance, strike not his mind nor possess his heart.

2. But to be spiritually-minded is life and peace. Carnal passions are subdued and mortified, and the Spirit is life, because of righteousness; it is capable of a spiritual existence.” The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made the spiritually-minded man free from the law of sin and death. Like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so he is enabled to walk in newness of life.” He is sensible of all the privileges and delights of a spiritual life. He is passed from the death of sin to the life of grace; and the death of the body shall be but the gate and entrance of endless being, both to body and to soul.

Conclusion:

1. Learn we then from this Scripture the necessity of an entire renewal of the heart. To be carnally-minded is present death; and as well might the lifeless corpse gift itself with the powers of being and motion, as unassisted man restore himself to spiritual existence, and live by the exertion of his own energies to God and goodness.

2. Learn, also, how ill they judge, and how idly they dream of happiness, who prefer living after the flesh to living after the spirit. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.)

The contrasted characters; or, the carnally and spiritually minded

We have here depicted--

I. Those to whom the Christian liberty has not come.

1. Their moral state and character. They are in the flesh. Hence they “mind the things of the flesh,” The flesh has bound down the mind to its sole service (Philippians 3:19; Colossians 3:2; Romans 13:14). Under the dominion of this law they walk (Ephesians 2:2), What, then, is this strangely fascinating power? The term ( σάρξ) properly denotes the fleshy part of living animal bodies. It is also sometimes used for the whole human person. And it is clearly used here and elsewhere for fallen and sinful human nature (John 3:6-7; Romans 7:18; Galatians 5:17-21). But why?

(a) Sin first found its access to the human will through the medium of bodily sense.

(b) By means of this it still maintains its dominion within the soul.

(c) Man suffers his spiritual faculties, by which the animal nature ought to be governed and transformed, to be delivered over in servitude to the flesh.

2. To be in this sinful condition “is death” (Romans 7:9; Luke 15:24; 1 John 5:12; John 5:40; Joh_6:53; Ephesians 2:1-5; Romans 6:1-23; Colossians 3:1-4; Romans 7:9-13; Rom_7:24). Man’s true life is not animal, but spiritual. If he attains not to this, or by transgression forfeits it, he does not really live. And so long as he is content with earthly good, he is perpetually sinking down into the “second death.”

3. This state, with its consequent course of life, is death because it is “enmity against God”--is directly subversive of His appointment and order. The true life of intelligent beings must consist in conformity to the Creator’s purpose and arrangements. The carnal mind being of necessity the very antithesis of God’s order, it is not, it never can be, subject to God’s law.

II. The characteristics of those to whom the Christian liberty has come.

1. Their whole course of life is determined and regulated by the Spirit. The new Spirit of life, imparted to them in Christ, has set them “free from the law of sin and death.” They are, indeed, still in the body, but the flesh is but a tabernacle and organ of the spirit. For they now live in the Spirit--“mind” the things of the Spirit, and “walk” according to the Spirit. Not, indeed, that they neglect the body, or despise all earthly good, but even while occupied with mundane things they learn to make them helpful to their true spiritual interests.

2. To be thus spiritually minded--

Conclusion: Observe--

1. That there is no hope of securing the salvation of any man while he continues contented with “the things of the flesh.” The first thing needful is to work in him a living conviction that his present course of life is vain, foolish, and wicked.

2. That the new life in the Spirit can be sustained only by continued attention to its interests. “They that are after the Spirit” do mind “the things of the Spirit,” and such “minding” is “life and peace.” (W. Tyson.)

The contrast between the carnally minded and the spiritually minded

I. External. Two classes of character evident.

1. The one busied about earthly things, and governed by their corrupt inclinations.

2. The other caring for heavenly things, and therefore denying themselves that they may please God.

II. Internal. This difference is essential; in the heart.

1. The one is spiritually dead.

2. The other is alive unto God, and enjoys His unspeakable peace. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The contrast between the unconverted and the regenerate

appears--

I. Is their character.

1. The one is sensual.

2. The other spiritual.

II. Is their experience.

1. The one experiences death and misery.

2. The other life and peace.

III. Is their relation to God.

1. The one is an enemy, and cannot please God.

2. The other a friend, and enjoys communion with God.

IV. Is their prospects.

1. The one must perish, for he is none of Christ’s.

2. The other shall live forever, for he shall be quickened from the grave. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Nature and spirit

Whatever these words may mean one thing is clear--the apostle does teach a radical difference between the physical and the spiritual natures of man. Some philosophers teach that there is no difference between matter and mind; that the operations which we call mental or spiritual, and those which we recognise as physical, are all produced by the same forces, This denial of the distinction between the physical and the spiritual realms, which makes thought only a chemical function, and conscience nothing but a hereditary affection of the nervous system, Paul does not justify. Which is nearer right? Let us hear what a philosopher (Mr. W.T. Harris, of Concord) says about--

I. The law of natural things. “The world of nature, to which man is enslaved by his bodily wants and necessities, is a world of selfishness and cruelty. The means of gratification for one body are obtained and used at the expense of another.” Is not that true?

1. Every natural thing grows at the expense of something else. The sand of the beach is worn from the rocks of the shore by the action of the waves. But what the beach gains the cliffs lose. The corn grows out of the earth, but only at the expense of the soil in which it grows, and of other plants, that stand stunted under its shadow. Just so the body of the animal lives and grows at the expense of other living things.

2. The law of natural growth is the law of all movement or manifestation of physical power. Every force that is expended is borrowed. If I drive one croquet ball against another, the force imparted to the second one is lost by the first one. The fire burns, but it is only as the wood gives up the heat that was latent in it. The oxygen of the air and the carbon of the wood unite to produce the flame; and whatever force is in the flame existed before the fire was kindled.

3. The great physical law which the philosophers call the law of the correlation of forces, or the conservation of energy, governs all these changes. Every steam engine is an example of the conversion of heat into motion; every hot axle is an instance of the conversion of motion into heat; every machine belt from which the spark flies to the knuckle shows heat converted into electricity; every building set on fire by lightning shows electricity converted into heat. What is lost by one form is gained by another.

II. The law of spiritual things. “The law of spirit is harmony, and not mere contention. All spiritual struggle must have reconciliation for its object. The equal shall look in the face of equal, and through mutual recognition each shall reinforce the other. Thus each is doubly strong; strong in himself and strong in his friend. Combination is the great principle of spirit, and its forms are numerous in the practical and in the theoretical world.” This statement will also be verified by your experience.

1. You and I sit down hungry to a scanty meal. There is barely enough for one. If my needs are satisfied you get nothing; if you are filled I must go hungry. But you and I sit down with eager minds to talk about some moral or spiritual truth. It is a truth known to me, but unknown to you, and in our conversation you gain from me this truth. Have I deprived myself of anything in imparting to you this truth? On the contrary, I have gained by giving.

2. Other spiritual gifts besides knowledge follow in their growth the same law.

3. We say sometimes in our prayers that God is not impoverished by giving nor enriched by withholding. That is true of Him because He is a Spirit, and because the law of His nature and of His action is a spiritual law. But man is a spirit also; and the saying is therefore true of man. By giving man is not impoverished--by giving spiritual gifts. A man’s temporal possessions may sometimes be diminished by bestowing them, but the man’s true self is enlarged by every bounty that it disposes.

III. Have we not verified the doctrine taught by the Concord philosopher? And in doing so have we not found the strongest reason for believing with Paul that there is a radical difference between the physical and the spiritual world. Do not the body and the spirit belong to different kingdoms? Is there not a higher nature in man which is not subject to the law of the conservation of energy, and of which physical science knows absolutely nothing? And is there not, therefore, reason for believing that the death of the body, which is under physical law, is not the death of the higher nature, which is not under physical law; that the spirit of man may continue to exist after the body has ceased to exist?

1. Man is not wholly mortal, but neither is he wholly immortal. He is flesh as well as spirit. In which of these realms does he chiefly live? Is his ruling love given to the things of the flesh or to the things of the Spirit? If the former is true of him, then the law of his nature is the law of the lower realm. The things on which his heart is chiefly set are things which he can only have by depriving his fellows. The very condition of his life is warfare, and the warfare into which his ruling choice enlists him is fierce and fatal; sooner or later the devourers themselves must be devoured. The minding of the flesh is death.

2. It is a sad and bitter life that any man leads who sets his chief affections on the possessions and goods of the material world. Because he is a spiritual being his ruling choice ought to take a higher range. The gains that are most precious to him are those that fall to him while he is enriching others.

3. It is quite possible for man to carry this spiritual force down into the lower realm, there to subjugate the devourers. It is possible to substitute the principle of communion and combination for the principle of competition in the getting and the using of material things. That, indeed, is the very law of progress in civilisation. And the thousand wars of old will never cease, and the thousand years of peace will never come, till men stop putting their trust in the methods of competition and begin to build the fabric of their industrial and social life on the principle of cooperation--till they walk no longer after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That day will not be hastened by disputing or fighting or legislating, any more than the growing of the grass will be hastened by firing cannon over your lawn, or marching troops across it, or making speeches to it. But you and I, in our time, can have something of the light and glory of it in our homes and in our lives if we will only treasure the truth we have found today. (W. Gladden.)

Spiritual affinity

He that delights in God doth not much delight in anything else. The world appears in an eclipse. The astronomer saith, if it were possible for a man to be lifted up as high as the moon, the earth would seem to him as a little point. If we could be lifted to heaven in our affections, all earthly delights would seem as nothing. When the woman of Samaria had met with Christ, down goes the pitcher; she leaves that behind. He who delights in God, as having tasted the sweetness in Him, doth not much mind the pitcher--he leaves the world behind.

Verse 6

Romans 8:6

For to be carnally minded is death.

The carnal and the spiritual mind

I. The carnal mind.

1. The disposition.