Romans 8:6-8

 

 

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8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, (NASB: Lockman)
Greek: to gar phronema tes sarkos thanatos, to de phronema tou pneumatos zoe kai eirene; 
More literally: For the thinking of the flesh -- death, the thinking of the Spirit -- life and peace.
Amplified Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever]. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Barclay: To be absorbed in worldly human things is death; but to be absorbed in the things of the Spirit is life and peace (Westminster Press)
KJV: For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
NLT: If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. (
NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips:  The former attitude means, bluntly, death: the latter means life and inward peace.  (
Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: For to have the mind dominated by the sinful nature is death, but to have the mind dominated by the Spirit is life and peace (
Erdmans
Young's Literal: for the mind of the flesh is death, and the mind of the Spirit -- life and peace;

REFERENCES

Albert Barnes
Wayne Barber
Albert Barnes
John Calvin
Thomas Constable
Bob Deffinbaugh
Bob Deffinbaugh
David Guzik
S Lewis Johnson
John MacArthur
Middletown
William Newell
John Piper
Ray Pritchard
A T Robertson
C H Spurgeon
Ray Stedman
Ray Stedman
Marvin Vincent
Precept Ministries

Romans 8
Romans 8:5-11: Free to Be What God Wants Us to Be
Romans 8: Notes
Romans 8: Commentary
Romans 8: Notes
Romans 8 From Agony to Ecstasy
Romans 8:1-17 Siding With the Spirit
Romans 8: Well Done Brief Notes
Romans 8:5-17
Romans 8:1-11: Spirit Takes Us from Sin to Righteousness
Romans 8
Romans 8: Expository Notes Verse by Verse
Romans 8:5-9 Ro 8:7-11 Ro 8:9-11
Romans 8:5-17: Life in the Spirit
Romans 8: Greek Word Studies Entire Chap at Once
Romans 8:7: The Carnal Mind Enmity Against God
Romans 8:5-14: In the Arena
Romans 8:5-13: Why Not Live?
Romans 8: Greek Word Studies
Romans Inductive Bible Study

ROMANS ROAD
to RIGHTEOUSNESS
Romans
1
:18-3:20
Romans
3:21-5:21
Romans
6:1-8:39
Romans
9:1-11:36
Romans
12:1-16:27
SIN SALVATION SANCTIFICATION SOVEREIGNTY SERVICE
NEED
FOR
SALVATION
WAY
OF
SALVATION
LIFE
OF
SALVATION
SCOPE
OF
SALVATION
SERVICE
OF
SALVATION
God's Holiness
In
Condemning
Sin
God's Grace
In
Justifying
Sinners
God's Power
In
Sanctifying
Believers
God's Sovereignty
In
Saving
Jew and Gentile
Gods Glory
The
Object of
Service
Deadliness
of Sin
Design
of Grace
Demonstration of Salvation
Power Given Promises Fulfilled Paths Pursued
Righteousness
Needed
Righteousness
Credited
Righteousness
Demonstrated
Righteousness
Restored to Israel
Righteousness
Applied
God's Righteousness
IN LAW
God's Righteousness
IMPUTED
God's Righteousness
OBEYED
God's Righteousness
IN ELECTION
God's Righteousness
DISPLAYED
Slaves to Sin Slaves to God Slaves Serving God
Doctrine Duty
Life by Faith Service by Faith

Modified from Irving L. Jensen's excellent work "Jensen's Survey of the NT"

FOR THE MIND SET ON THE FLESH IS DEATH: to gar phronema tes sarkos thanatos: (Ro 8:7,13; 6:21,23; 7:5,11; 13:14; Gal 6:8; Js 1:14,15)  

Someone has said "As to one's state of mind (natural or unregenerate versus regenerate), so is its tendency; as its tendency, so is its conduct."

Godet writes that "For"

explains the moral necessity with which this motion constantly proceeds, from the inward moral state to aspiration, and from aspiration to action.  There is on both sides, as it were, a fated end to be reached (death or life and peace), which acts at a distance on the will by an attraction like that which is exercised by a precipice on the current of a river as it approaches it. This goal is death on the one hand, life on the other. The flesh tends to the former; for to gain the complete liberty after which it aspires, it needs a more and more complete separation from God; and this is death. The Spirit, on the contrary, thirsts for life in God, which is its element, and sacrifices everything to succeed in enjoying it perfectly. Neither of these two powers leaves a man at rest till it has brought him to its goal, whether to that state of death in which not a spark of life remains, or to that perfect life from which the last vestige of death has disappeared (Godet, F L: The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans) (Bolding added)

Mind set (5427) (phronema from phroneo = think, have a mind set) is the what one has in mind. It is the inclination of the mind which includes the acts of understanding and of will. Phronema like the verb, phroneo, refers to the content or thought patterns of the mind rather than to the mind itself. It describes the faculty of fixing one's mind on something and thus is a way of thinking.

The four uses of phronema in the Bible are all found in Romans 8 -- 2 in Romans 8:6; one in Romans 8:8 and one in Romans 8:27.

Phronema refers to one's "way of thinking". The direction or orientation of human thought is warped by sin. Human beings without the Spirit are both unable and unwilling to grasp spiritual realities, and so they rebel against God.

What Paul is saying is that the direction or orientation of human thought is warped by sin. Human beings without the Spirit are both unable and unwilling to grasp spiritual realities, and so they rebel against God.

Robert Haldane notes that...

In the preceding verse the Apostle contrasts the dispositions and practices of believers and unbelievers; here he contrasts their opposite states and conditions. These two states of carnal and spiritual mindedness include and divide the whole world. All men belong either to the one or the other. They are either in the flesh or in the Spirit; in a state of nature or in a state of grace.

For to be carnally minded is death.—This is the awful state of the carnal mind—the mind of the flesh without faith in Christ, and renovation of the Spirit of God. It is death spiritual and eternal. All the works of those who are in this state are “dead works,” Hebrews 9:14. “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,” although the Lord commanded to offer sacrifices, which therefore was in itself a good work. “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” All by nature being in this carnal state, are “dead in trespasses and sins.” Let those whose minds are set on the things of the world consider this fearful saying, that to be carnally minded is death, and let them look to Jesus the Savior of the guilty, through whom alone they can escape condemnation. (Haldane, R. An Exposition on the Epistle to the Roman. Ages Classic Commentaries)

Charles Hodge writes that "mind set"...

expresses a state of mind. The idea is not just that seeking the things of the flesh leads to death, but that an unspiritual mind, which reveals itself in the desire and pursuit of unspiritual objectives, is death. Death, of course, means spiritual death, the absence and the opposite of spiritual life. It includes alienation from God, unholiness, and misery.

On the other hand, the “mind controlled by the Spirit” is that state of mind which is produced by the Spirit and which reveals itself in the desire and pursuit of the things of the Spirit. This state of mind is life and peace. This is where the true life and blessedness of the soul lies. As this is the case, there can be no such thing as salvation in sin, no possibility of justification without sanctification. If we share the spiritual benefits from Christ’s death, we also share in His life. If we died with Him, we live with Him. This is pertinent to the apostle’s main purpose in this chapter, which is to show that believers can never be condemned. They are not only delivered from the law and justified by the blood of Christ, but they participate in His life. They have the mind controlled by the Spirit [which] is life and peace. (Hodge, Charles: Commentary on Romans. 1835 Ages Classic Commentaries)

Flesh (4561) (sarx) (Click word study on sarx) in the context of this verse refers to the evil nature present in those in Adam (and still present even in regenerate man). The picture is of the mind possessed by and thus controlled or dominated by the flesh, which is a description of the unsaved person.  It means to have one’s life determined and directed by the values of this evil world system in total rebellion against God. This is the only way an unsaved person is able to walk - according to the flesh. That person is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1), dead in the sense that he is separated from God and His life, for death is separation, and is on his way to a final and everlasting state of death in eternity (Rev 20:11-15).

Death (2288) (thanatos) refers to the termination of physical life or as death viewed transcendently in contrast to a living relationship with God. As used in the NT thanatos is treated primarily as a destroying power related to sin and its consequences. Death is separation from God which ultimately terminates through physical death in eternal perdition and eternal separation.

In short, if one's mind is not Christ-centered and his or her interest is constantly being place upon carnal or fleshly things, the results are the symptoms of spiritual death!

Newell comments that...

It is terrible to contemplate a mind, disposition, purpose, so set on death (which is its end) that it can be said to be death. It is a most solemn contemplation that we who are in Christ were once in the flesh, the mind and disposition of which we could not and would not change, and which was death itself! (Romans:  Verse by Verse)

Notice that Paul does not say that the mind set on the flesh leads to death, but that it is death. (in the original Greek there is no verb for "is" so literally the text reads even more dramatically "the mind set on the flesh - death").  The unsaved person is already dead spiritually.

As John MacArthur puts it Paul is

stating a spiritual equation, not a spiritual consequence. The consequence involved in this relationship is the reverse: that is, because unredeemed men are already spiritually dead, their minds are inevitably set on the flesh. Paul reminded the Ephesian believers that, before salvation, they were all once “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1)...The unsaved person is a spiritual corpse and consequently is completely unable, in himself, to respond to the things of God. Unless the Holy Spirit intervenes by convicting him of sin and enabling him to respond to God by faith and thus being made alive, the unsaved person is insensitive to the things of God (MacArthur, J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press)

Kenneth Wuest explains flesh (sarx) in this verse as...

"...the evil nature. It is the genitive of possession. The mind is possessed by, thus controlled or dominated by the evil nature, a description of the unsaved person. That person is dead in trespasses and sins, dead in the sense that he is separated from God and His life, for death is separation, and is on his way to a final and everlasting state of death in eternity." (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Studies in the Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament: Grand Rapids: Eerdmans)

BUT THE MIND SET ON THE SPIRIT IS LIFE AND PEACE: to de phronema tou pneumatos zoe kai eirene: (Ro 5:1,10; 14:17; Jn 14:6,27; 17:5; Gal 5:22)

"The mind set on the Spirit" is literally, “the mind possessed by the Spirit,” thus a mind controlled or dominated by the Holy Spirit ("do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with [controlled by] the Spirit" Ephesians 5:18). Such a person possesses the life that God is, and peace.

Life (2198) (zoe) means the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which alone belongs to God the Giver of life. This is life as God originally intended it to be lived.

Godet adds that...

Life, in Scripture, denotes a fully satisfied existence, in which all the faculties find their full exercise and their true occupation. Man's spirit, become the abode and organ of the Divine Spirit, realizes this life with a growing perfection to eternal life.

Peace is the inward feeling of tranquillity which accompanies such an existence; it shows itself particularly in the absence of all fear in regard to death and judgment (see note Romans 8:1). There is no changing the nature of these two states and walks (see note Romans 8:5), and no arresting the latter in its onward march (ver. 6). The way of salvation is to pass from the first to the second, and not to relapse thereafter from the second to the first. (Ibid)

Peace (1515) (eirene) in its verb form means “to bind together that which has been separated” thus in the present context describes the believing sinner, bound together with God and His life after having been separated by sin. It is that inward harmony and tranquillity that results from yielding to God. Did you present yourself to Him this morning as a living (yielded) sacrifice? (cf note Romans 12:1) If the interests of one's mind are placed on the things of the Spirit of God, there is a peace in this life that passes all understanding!

Vine comments that...

Peace is not here the act of reconciliation, accomplished through the death of Christ, as in Ro 5:1 (cf note Romans 5:1), but the enjoyment of the condition of reconciliation itself. (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson )

William Newell writes that...

The KJV rendering in this verse is hopelessly obscure. God does not say that "to be carnally minded" is death, but that the mind of the flesh, in which they are, is death. Further, He does not say, "to be spiritually minded is life and peace, " as if it were a state into which the believer came; but He does say, the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. In neither case does God speak of people, but of the flesh and of the Spirit. If you are according to Spirit, having been born of God, there is indwelling you a mighty One, the Comforter, whose whole mind, disposition, and manner of being and ruling within you, is life and peace. This "life" is the life of the Risen Christ, which the Spirit, as "the Spirit of grace, " supplies (Heb 10:29 Gal 3:5); and this "peace" is that of Christ as spoken of in Isaiah: "Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end."  (Ibid)

The mind set on the Spirit is also synonymous with spiritual peace, that is, peace with God. The unsaved person, no matter how much he may claim to honor, worship, and love God, is God’s enemy, a truth Paul has already pointed out in this epistle. Before we were saved, Paul states, "we were all enemies" of God (see note Romans 5:10). Only the person who has new life in God has peace with God.

The obvious corollary of that truth is that it is impossible to have a mind set on the Spirit, which includes having spiritual life and peace, and yet remain dead to the things of God.

As Paul has illustrated from his own life in Romans 7 (although not everyone agrees this describes a born again believer), a true Christian battles with the flesh because his mortal body still hangs on and tries to lure him back into the old sinful ways. But he is no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit. He may act like he is "in the flesh" at times but that is no longer his position for he is now in Christ.

It is important to note that, when Paul speaks of sin in a Christian's life, he is always careful to identify sin with the outer, corrupted body, not with the new, inner nature. A believer’s flesh is not redeemed when he trusts in Christ. If that were so, all Christians would immediately become perfect when they are saved, which even apart from the testimony of Scripture is obviously not true. The sinful vestige of unredeemed humanness will not fall away until the Christian goes to be with the Lord. It is for that reason that the New Testament sometimes speaks of a Christian’s salvation in the future tense (click here). Referring to those who were already saved, Paul says later in this chapter,

“Having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (see note Romans 8:23).

Robert Haldane explains that life and peace...

These are the effects of being enlightened and guided by the Spirit of God, and so having the mind turned from earthly things to the things of the Spirit. To be spiritually minded is life, even eternal life. This life is already enjoyed by the believer. “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life;” and with his Redeemer he has risen from the death of sin to walk in this new life. It is also peace, both here and hereafter. This peace is the harmony of all the faculties of the soul with God, and with His will, and is altogether the opposite of that enmity against God, which in the following verse is affirmed concerning the carnal mind. While there is nothing so miserable for man as war with his Creator, there is nothing so blessed as peace and communion with God. It is peace in the conscience, in opposition to doubt, for which the Church of Rome contends, as if the effect of being spiritually minded, instead of peace and confidence in God, was servile fear and harassing distrust. That church maintains that the man who is regenerated should doubt of his salvation, and be uncertain of God’s love to him. What, then, becomes of this peace that flows from being spiritually minded—which passeth all understanding, keeping the heart and mind through Christ Jesus—this peace, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and a characteristic of the kingdom of God? Romans 14:17. The peace here spoken of is opposed to the terrors of conscience which the unregenerate experience, and to the opposition in their hearts to God, as well as to every species of false peace by which they may be deluded. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” And again it is said, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.” (Hodge, Charles: Commentary on Romans. Ages Classic Commentaries)

Wayne Barber reminds us that Paul

"does not say that the mind set on the flesh ends in death but "is death" (in the original Greek there is no verb for "is" so literally it reads even more dramatically "the mind set on the flesh - death").

All of the aspects of death are reflected in the mind of a lost person. In other words, there is absolutely no possibly of partaking of that which pertains to life. He knows nothing about the life that God offers. He thinks he is living life but is actually living in death and doesn't know it because he is deceived. And this describes the way we all were in Adam. All we knew was death. So everything a lost person is thinking, doing, looking for, etc is DEATH compared to the LIFE that God can offer to him. There is no possibility of experiencing anything of the LIFE that God offers to those who love Him. But those in Christ have their mind set on the Spirit and the result is life and peace. Life is the Greek word "zoe" which means the essence of life. He's not talking about how busy you are…about what you get to do, but what you know on the inside. In Philippians 1:21 (see note) Paul says "for me to live (zoe) is Christ, to die is gain."

The very essence of everything Paul was was found in Christ. And that's Who we have now that we are IN HIM. You receive a sense of fulfillment you've never know in your life. And you also get PEACE, the beautiful word that pictures two things coming together and absolutely cohering with nothing in between that would cause friction. The world interprets peace as solitude, etc, but unless Christ gives you His peace, you don't have peace. So now that we have the Spirit of God in us, our "course" is fixed toward God (the "Godward" life). When you stray off course, you know it and you realize that you are back up under the Law and under the Flesh. But you can return to life and peace, whereas the person in Adam has their course fixed on hell and is in a downward spiral for all he knows is death."

 

8:7  because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, (NASB: Lockman)

Greek: dioti to phronema tes sarkon echthra eis theon, to gar nomo tou theou ouch hupotassetai, (3SPPI) oude gar dunatai; (3SPPI
Amplified [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Barclay: because absorption in the things which fascinate our sinful human nature is hostility to God, for it does not obey the law of God, nor, indeed, can it do so. (Westminster Press)
KJV: Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
NLT: For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. (
NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips:  And this is only to be expected, for the carnal attitude is inevitably opposed to the purpose of God, and neither can nor will follow his laws for living.  (
Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: because the mind dominated by the sinful nature is hostile to God, for it does not marshal itself under the command of the law of God, neither is it able to. Moreover, those who are in the sphere of the sinful nature are not able to please God. (
Erdmans
Young's Literal:  because the mind of the flesh is enmity to God, for to the law of God it doth not subject itself,

BECAUSE THE MIND SET ON THE FLESH IS HOSTILE TOWARD GOD: dioti to phronema tes sarkos ecthra eis theon: (Ro 1:28,30; 5:10; Ex 20:5; 2Chr 19:2; Ps 53:1; Jn 7:7; 15:23,24; Eph 4:18,19; Col 1:21; 2Ti 3:4; Ja 4:4; 1Jn 2:15,16)

Because (1063) (dioti) means on account of this or that or  for this reason. Here dioti introduces the explanation as to why the mind of the flesh has death for its fruit, stating that it is because it is essentially at