Romans 8:9-11, Being in the Spirit Part II (the mind)

As we read these verses (9-11), we see that Christian living doesn’t just happen. It takes what we call “mental effort,” a concentrated exercise of the mind to focus on God’s way of being human. That is all right here in summary in verse 8:5  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. What we learn, by regular and disciplined practice, to think about will show up in our outward behavior: For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace (v. 6). Here is the great either/or from Deuteronomy and Joshua, coming into sharp focus: choose life, not death! Here, specifically, Paul urges his readers to choose the mindset of the spirit, rather than the mindset of the flesh.

This is not easy. It requires the effort of choice, a choice to be made again and again. Your mindset, is a deeply engrained habit. Christian virtue includes retraining the habits of heart and mind. It requires the thousand regular and difficult choices of focusing on kindness, gentleness, love, peace, rather than envy, malice, a factional spirit or bodily licentiousness. We have to go on making those choices until they become, our “second nature,” being well-formed and spirit-led. Even then there will be challenges. The reward for climbing one moral mountain is to be given a steeper one next time!

Paul tells us that the mindset of the flesh is hostile to God. God is the God of life. Death is an affront, a slap in the face, for God the good creator. And the flesh, heading for death, is thus a small version of that affront. That’s why the whole sacrificial system in Leviticus and elsewhere is designed to keep the holy place clean of any reminder of death, so that God may dwell there. Torah, however, promised life, as we saw from 7:10 and 8:4: the right and proper verdict of the law is fulfilled in the spirit-people. So the flesh-mind cannot submit to Torah! That was the point of 7:7-25. This is the last mention of Torah in the present long argument. Its work is done. It has handed on the baton to the Messiah and his spirit, and they are giving the life that Torah could not.

Part III comes tomorrow.