March 3 Click on verses for Full Scripture

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Today's Pathway: Romans 8:4-8 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

In today's passage Paul contrasts the "spirit" and the "flesh". There are actually four contrasts listed here. In verse 4 here there is "after the flesh" and "after the spirit". In verse 6 there is "death" and "life". In verses 6-7 there is "enmity against God" and "peace". In verse 8 there is "can not please God" and an implied "pleasing God". One is characteristic of the unbeliever, and one should be characteristic of the Christian.

In verse 4 Paul established that the believer should be following the Spirit in his walk. In verse 5 he shows that people who are in the flesh care about fleshly things, and spiritual people care about spiritual things. The word "mind" in verse 5 refers to the "basic orientation, bent, and thought patterns of the mind. It includes a person’s affections and will as well as his reasoning, and also the direction and purpose of his heart." So, not only do the unsaved think about fleshly things, they desire them. The end result of this, according to verse 6, is death. Not only are they dead, but according to verse 7 they are enemies of God. "Enmity" means "hostility". Unsaved people are hostile towards God. Interestingly, James warns believers about this in James 4:4 when he writes,

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

"Fallen man’s fierce hostility to God is the response of his egotism (which is the essence of his fallenness) to God’s claim to his allegiance. Determined to assert himself, to assert his independence, to be the centre of his own life, to be his own god, he cannot help but hate the real God whose very existence gives the lie to all his self-assertion. His hatred of God and his rebellion against God’s claim upon him expressed in God’s law are inseparable from each other. As a rebel against God he hates God, and as one who hates God he rebels against Him. That mind of our fallen nature (its assumptions, desires, outlook, etc.) which is enmity toward God is also unsubmissive to His law, and indeed by its very nature is incapable of submitting to it."

Finally, in verse 8, Paul says that it is impossible for those in the flesh to please God. We will conclude today with thoughts and a challenge from J. Vernon McGee.

"Anything that the flesh produces is not acceptable to God. The so-called good work, the civilization, the culture, and man’s vaunted progress are all a stench in the nostrils of God. The religious works of church people done in the lukewarmness of the flesh make Christ sick to His stomach (Rev 3:15). I wonder if we are willing to accept God’s estimation of our human boasting. This is a terrible picture of man; but it is accurate. Yet there is deliverance in the Spirit of God. Are you willing, my friend, to turn it over to the Holy Spirit and quit trusting that weak, sinful nature that you have? That is the question."