Romans 8.5-Preoccupation With The Desires Of The Sin Nature Versus Preoccupation With The Desires Of The Spirit
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 22, 2008
Romans: Romans 8:5-Preoccupation With The Desires Of The Sin Nature Versus Preoccupation With The Desires Of The Spirit
Lesson # 246
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:1.
This evening we will study Romans 8:5 in which Paul gives the first of several explanations as to what it means to be in submission to the sin nature versus in submission to the Spirit.
In Romans 8:1, Paul assured his Christian readers in Rome that there is never any condemnation, none whatsoever for them because of their union with Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Next, in Roman 8:2, he taught the Christians in Rome that the life-giving Spirit’s authoritative power, by means of Christ Jesus, has set them free from the authoritative power of the sin nature as well as spiritual death’s.
Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
Then, in Romans 8:3, Paul “explains how” or presents the “reason why” the life-giving Spirit’s authoritative power, by means of (the death and resurrection of) Christ Jesus has set them free from the sin nature’s authoritative power as well as spiritual death’s.
We noted the first statement in this passage where Paul teaches that the Law was unable to deliver sinful humanity from the sin nature and real spiritual death.
Then, we read in this verse where the Spirit was able to set the Christian free from the sin nature and real spiritual death because the Father executed the sin nature through Christ’s physical death.
Romans 8:3, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.”
Romans 8:4 teaches that the Father’s purpose for sacrificing His Son on the Cross was so that the righteous requirement of the Law would be fulfilled in an experiential sense in those Christians who are not conducting their lives in submission to the sin nature but are conducting their lives in submission to the Spirit.
Romans 8:4, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Now, in Romans 8:5-8, Paul describes or explains what it means to be in submission to the sin nature and in submission to the Spirit.
Romans 8:5, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
“For” is the “explanatory” use of the conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces a first in a series of statements contained in Romans 8:5-8 that “explain” the appositional clause at the end of Romans 8:4, “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
“Those who are according to the flesh” refers to those Christians who at any time exist in the state of being in submission to the sin nature.
“Set their minds on” is the verb phroneo (fronevw) (fron-eh-o), which means, “to be preoccupied with” the desires of the sin nature in the sense of concentrating and having one’s thought patterns focused upon the desires of the sin nature to the exclusion of the will of God or what God desires.
To be “preoccupied” means to be “completely engrossed in thought, absorbed.”
In Romans 8:5, the verb phroneo is used in relation to both the sin nature and the Spirit.
In relation to the sin nature, it means to be “preoccupied with” the desires of the sin nature to the exclusion of the will of God.
In Romans 8:5, when used in relation to the Spirit, phroneo means to be “preoccupied with” the desires of the Spirit.
Paul used it in a similar fashion in Colossians 3:2 where he commanded the Colossian believers to be “preoccupied with” the things above and not on the things that are on the earth meaning be occupied with your position in Christ where you are seated at the right hand of God (cf. Colossians 3:1).
Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
Therefore, in Romans 8:5, the verb phroneo means, “to be preoccupied with” and is used in relation to both the desires of the sin nature and the desires of the Spirit.
Romans 8:5, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
“The things” is the definite article ho (o() (ho), which refers to the “desires” or in other words, the various lust patterns of the flesh, i.e. the indwelling Adamic sin nature.
It refers not only to sexual lust but also power lust, approbation lust, social lust, monetary lust, materialism lust, inordinate ambition resulting in inordinate competition, revenge lust, criminal lust, chemical lust, crusader lust, and pleasure lust.
At the heart of such lusts is the desire to live independently of the will of God.
Paul could have used the word epithumia as he did in Romans 1:24 and 6:12 to denote these various lust patterns or desires of the sin nature.
Instead, he simply employs the substantive use of the definite article since he wants the reader to focus on the conflict that takes place in them between the sin nature and the Spirit rather these various lust patterns or desires.
Galatians 5:24, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
“Of the flesh” is the noun sarx (savrc) (sarx), which refers to the sin nature from the perspective of its location in the Christian.
The noun sarx functions as a “genitive of production” meaning that these “things,” i.e. “desires,” or “various lust patterns” are “produced” by the sin nature.
So Paul is saying in Romans 8:5 that those Christians who are submitting to the sin nature are preoccupied with the desires “produced by” the sin nature and which wage war against the Christian’s soul and new nature.
Romans 8:5, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
“Those who are according to the Spirit” refers to those Christians who at any time exist in the state of being in submission to the Spirit.
A Christian who is living in submission to the Spirit is submitting to the desires of the Spirit and is appropriating by faith through the power of the Spirit the teaching in Romans 6 that he has been crucified with Christ, died with Christ and has been raised with Christ.
A Christian who is preoccupied with his position in Christ will be preoccupied with the desires of the Spirit.
Paul is teaching an absolute in Romans 8:5 in the sense that the Christian who is preoccupied with his position in Christ, will not sin but if he is preoccupied with the desires of the sin nature, he will sin.
Romans 8:5, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
“The things of the Spirit” is the definite article ho (o() (ho), which refers to the Spirit producing in the believer the desire to minister to the body of Christ, to experience fellowship, to learn and apply the Word of God, to pray, to worship God, to witness and grow to spiritual maturity and become like Christ.
So Paul is saying in Romans 8:5 that those Christians who are submitting to the Spirit are preoccupied with the desires produced by the Spirit.
The Spirit desires that the Christian take part in ministering to the body of Christ, experience fellowship, learn and apply the Word of God, pray, worship God, witness and grow to spiritual maturity and become like Christ.
The Holy Spirit “produces” these desires in the believer.
Therefore, He “produces” in the believer the desire to minister to the body of Christ, to experience fellowship, to learn and apply the Word of God, to pray, to worship God, to witness and grow to spiritual maturity and become like Christ.
After the Christian has been declared justified through faith in Christ, the Spirit not only produces these desires in the Christian but He also empowers the Christian to fulfill these godly desires through various ministries on their behalf that are designed to conform him into the image of Christ.