Romans 8:2-11: Setting Your Mind on the Spirit

Romans 8:3.. "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do."

Romans 8:8.. "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

Oh! The great glories of Romans 8. This blog can only graze the tip of the iceburg of the worlderful truths that are contained in this great chapter. Praise the Lord, who is so mighty and glorious to us, even in His Word!

Romans 6:12-8:39 are truly all about a Christian's sanctification, that is his spiritual process of being made more like Christ. In chapter six, the foundation of sanctification is seen, that is that we have been regenerated in Christ so that now we have the power to obey the law. However, Romans 7 showed us that even though we are free from the law's consequences, there is still a great desire in us to disobey the law. Chapter seven ends with Paul praising the Lord that he has provided a way out of this quandary, and in Romans 8 we see that deliverance explained.

How do we obey the law? Surely that is a great question. We have seen in Romans 1-3 that there is indeed nothing good within us, so surely we need something outside of us to help us obey God. That "something else" is called God's Holy Spirit, which we see in Romans 8:1-11. We cannot obey the law on our own, and therefore the law could not be fulfilled by humankind. However, the law could be fulfilled by Christ, and it was (Romans 8:3). Because the law has been fulfilled by Christ, that fulfillment of the law, by God's grace, has the opportunity to be granted unto us in salvation (Romans 8:4). Not only this, but by God's salvation we also can obey the law, not because of anything in us, but because we not have God's Spirit. How do we obey God's law, then? By setting our mind on things of the Spirit, not on things of the flesh (Romans 8:6). For as we have already seen, there is a great conflict for the Christian to obey the law because there is a chain of the flesh that is holding him back from doing so. However, God has provided a way out through his Spirit. Surely we ought to praise him for this!

So, the above paragraph is the typical "Matthew Rant"...but here is the application:

I do not doubt that many of you are able to tell that there is a great conflict between hearing God's commands and doing them, as we see Paul talk about in Romans 7. Here's my question for you: what are you doing about it? Surely you realize your own sin (and if you don't, try reading the Bible, and if you still don't, then there's something seriously wrong with you, so you should ask God to show you your sin...for we cannot grow in Christikeness without conviction of worldlikeness), but what are you doing about it? Are you sitting in bed every night praying that God would take away your sin and then immediately forsaking him with your thoughts and actions, or are you fighting the battle? Don't get me wrong...we ought to pray that God may give us the power to fight our sin. But we also must realize that God has already given us the power to fight sin by the Holy Spirit. We must pray that God would deliver us from temptation, but we also must be intentional about setting our minds on the Spirit. To pray for sin to go away and not read our Bibles, intentionally focus on God, and "fight the good fight of faith" is to be illigitimate and hypocritical. Therefore, set your mind on the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. Don't sit on your butt having a pity part about yourself for your sin, set your mind on the Spirit!!