Two Types of People (Romans 8:1-8)

Psalm 127:1 ESV

1 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Madison Bravo

Children’s workers and Children are dismissed

Two Types of People Romans 8:1-8

This morning we continue our journey through what is considered to be the greatest chapter in the bible. Romans 8

When I was a child in the 1960’s there was a man by the name of George Plimpton who fascinated me. He was in born in 1927 and died in 2003. In 1963 he was 36 years old.

Simon Albaugh 10/23/2019

George Plimpton, The Story of the Detroit Lions’ Famous Last-String 1960’s Quarterback To Say George Plimpton Was the Worst Professional Football Player is an Understatement. But He Never Gave Up on the Dream

George Plimpton was a writer. He wanted to show people how difficult it was to be a professional athlete. He did this by trying various sports and then writing about his experiences.

George Plimpton was a professional amateur. You might recognize his work from the time he blew up half a Long Island park working as a fireworks technician. Or maybe when he was punched in the face by professional boxer Archie Moore. Aside from his writing, his entire career was defined by showing how difficult it is to do amazing feats of athleticism in the fields of Football, Baseball, and beyond. Especially when you’re an average Joe like – well, like George Plimpton.

Plimpton’s goal was to throw one pass for an NFL game. That’s all. He hopped from team manager to team manager looking for that lucky break that could define a lanky kid’s football career. First the New York Giants. Then the New York Jets, then the Baltimore Colts. Until someone suggested that most teams were just too serious about their game. He simply wasn’t the right fit.

As the date for the ’63 preseason practice was fast approaching, one of the team managers suggested he try the Detroit Lions. Among the National teams, the Lions didn’t have such a serious streak to their franchise. So, head coach George Wilson took him in for the preseason practices.

As the season approached and the first game started making the players nervous, Plimpton was working with everyone he could to guarantee his professional football debut. But when he finally sat on the bench and put on his helmet, the commissioner of the league cut Plimpton’s chance to throw a pass. He never got to throw a pass in a professional game.

In the 1966 book Paper Lion, Plimpton wrote all about that disappointment. But throughout the story, he recounts the arduous journey of all football players, whether they’re veterans hostile to the threat of someone cutting their name from the roster, or a rookie prospect who never got to perform in the National League. George Plimpton got to see all of it.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to throw a pass in an NFL game. It was that he was physically incapable.

Our scripture reading this morning talks about our spiritual inability. Our inability to seek God, please God, follow God. The bible describes us as spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins. The passage we are going t read tells us that we are spiritually dead but because of his mercy God has made us spiritually alive. He does this through the Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of faith so that we might then by faith come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ who was our substitute, dying on the cross as our sinless substitute in order to fulfill the righteous requirements of our holy God. Even though God loves us, the punishment that our sinful rebellion deserved needed to paid for. This is why when Jesus said his final words, it is finished, what he literally said was “paid in full.” The debt had been paid. This is why Jesus died for you.

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

(1) Life in the Spirit

Romans 8:1–4 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Therefore, now that you have been justified, there is absolutely no punishment for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the power of the Spirit of life has released you from the power of sin and death.

v2 The following paragraphs are an attempt to draw out the meaning of Paul’s ‘has set free’ and, in so doing, to sketch a rough outline of his teaching on sanctification as set out in Romans.

1. First of all it must be said that this ‘has set free’ refers to the beginning of an action, not to its completion. What was called above the ‘first liberation’, that effected by Christ in his death and resurrection, is indeed complete, his finished work; but the liberation which the Spirit works has not been completed for any one, so long as that person’s earthly life lasts.

C. E. B. Cranfield, On Romans: And Other New Testament Essays (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998), 38.

For while the Mosaic law was incapable of doing this due to the weakness of our sinful nature, God sent his son in the form of sinful flesh and for sin to eliminate the reign of sin in our mortal bodies.

v3 What the law could not do”, as conceived of in this case, is to be interpreted in the light of what God did; he condemned sin in the flesh, something which the law could not do

v3 the governing thought of this passage is concerned with deliverance from the law of sin and death and, therefore, from sin as a ruling and regulating power.

v3 since the term “condemnation” is used here respecting the work of Christ, there is warrant for the conclusion that the condemning of sin in the flesh refers to the judicial judgment which was executed upon the power of sin in the cross of Christ. God executed this judgment and overthrew the power of sin; he not only declared sin to be what it was but pronounced and executed judgment upon it.

v3 In the barely declarative sense the law could condemn sin; this is one of its chief functions. But the law cannot execute judgment upon sin so as to destroy its power. As the apostle had shown repeatedly in the preceding chapter, the law, rather than depriving sin of its power, only provides the occasion for the more violent exercise of its power.

John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, vol. 1, The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1968), 277-278.

God did this in order that the righteous requirements of the Mosaic law might begin to be fulfilled in us who are not living according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

For while the Mosaic law was incapable of doing this due to the weakness of our sinful nature, God sent his son in the form of sinful flesh and for sin to eliminate the reign of sin in our mortal bodies.

God did this in order that the righteous requirements of the Mosaic law might begin to be fulfilled in us who are not living according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

(2) Only two kinds of people

People who are spiritually dead and under the power of the sinful nature and those who have been delivered by the Spirit and

There is no such thing as the carnal Christian - a person who shows absolutely no desire for the things of God who who openly lives in defiance and rebellion and claims to be a Christian.

Paul wants to be crystal clear that if you have been justified by faith, you will be sanctified. There is no one who is justified by faith whose life is not dramatically changed. Everyone who has escaped the condemnation of God has undergone a radical work of God in their personal life. Paul lays out a clear contrast so that there is no confusion for his readers. There is a back and forth in these verses between the two classes. There is clearly not a third or fourth class, but only two.

For those who live according to the sinful nature (flesh) are singularly focused on the sinful nature (flesh) but those who are according to the Spirit on the Spirit.

Romans 8:5 ESV

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.

The “flesh” refers to their carnal appetites, sinful desires, worldly pursuits, material pleasures, secular beliefs, self-interest, and self-promotion. Their minds are set on these things. They have a worldly mindset.

Isaiah 59:2 ESV

2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

That is because the mind of the sinful nature (flesh) is dead but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. with God.

Romans 8:6 ESV

6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

The phrase “set their minds” (phroneo) is one word in the Greek. It means to be absorbed with something, to focus sharply on something. It is not just occasionally glancing at fleshly things, but living life with their mind set on the things of the flesh. Their whole life revolves around living for the things of the world. This describes every unconverted person in the world. They live according to the flesh. Their mind is set on the things of the flesh. This mindset is impossible for a true believer and the complete opposite of a Christian. - Steve Lawson

We who are “according to the Spirit” have a totally different mindset than those who are of the flesh. We see the world different and have different affections and desires. The contrast could not be any greater. Previously, we desired the things of the flesh, now we desire the things of the Spirit.

When Paul says, “the mind set on the flesh is death,” he is really referring to the outcome of this life, which is eternal death, the second death.

This is not the peace of God but peace with God (Rom 5:1)

And that is because the mind of the flesh is a hostile enemy to God, for the mind of flesh is unwilling to obey the law of God for it is not able to.

Romans 8:7 ESV

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

God is not initiating the hostility, God is love, YOU ARE!

“Hostile” means hatred, enmity, and bitter opposition against God. This is clearly not a neutral state. This person is not sitting on the fence with one arm around the flesh and one arm around God. Rather, their whole life is hostile toward God.

James 4:4 ESV

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

And that is why those in flesh are not able to please God.

Romans 8:8 ESV

8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

There are four things to note about the unbeliever in verses 7-8.

First, we see their hostility toward God.

Second, we see the mindset of superiority within the unbeliever. They are arrogant, self-elevating, and prideful. Paul continues, “for it does not subject itself to the law of God.” “It” refers to the mind set on the flesh. There is no humility, submission, or surrender within them. They refuse to come under the authority of the word of God… The unbelieving world refuses to be tied down by the moral constraints of God’s word. They want to redefine the family, gender, marriage, ethics, and the terms of coming to God. They want to throw off all moral restraints given by God. Romans 8:7 shows the very same picture. They will not subject themselves to the law of God because sin is ruling their life.

Third, we see the moral inability of the unregenerate flesh. It is incapable of submitting to the word of God. Paul continues, “For it” referring to the mind set on the flesh, “is not even able to do so” (verse 7).

Fourth, we see that it is impossible for the unbeliever to please God. Paul continues, “And those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (verse 8)… The very first step to pleasing God is to believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.