Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:7-14, 23
Prayer: We need You desperately. Oh, do cleanse us with Your precious blood. Lord, we trust in Your anointing. Lord, again open up Your Word to us. We like to get into the depths of Your Word. Lord, anoint every section of this meeting. Especially, Lord, anoint all the testimonies. Thank You. Amen.
Romans 8:7 says, “Because the mind set on the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be.” We realize, of course, that this portion of the Word is not an ordinary, common, human talk. This is not a mere human word; no human mentality could speak or write such a word. Not many translations have rendered this verse in such a way. This kind of speaking or utterance is altogether strange to the human mentality. We may understand what the mind is, but what does it mean to set the mind on the flesh? We have to find out what is the flesh. The flesh must be something solid, because you can set something upon it. You can put your mind upon it. It is not just the air, and it is not something vain or empty. It can bear something.
Verse 7 says, “The mind set on the flesh is enmity against God.” We know a little about enmity because we were born in it. The verse goes on to say, “For it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be.” This means that it does not have the intention or the desire or the will to be subject to the law of God. Even if it did have, it could not. The hard point in this verse to understand is the flesh. We need to see that the flesh in verse 7 is the same as the practices of the body in verse 13. When your body practices, when it moves and acts, that practicing body is the flesh. This can be proved by verse 13, which shows that the flesh is a synonym to the practicing body.
When our body acts and moves without the Spirit of God, that is flesh. The entire human race today, whether gentlemen or bank robbers, whether moral or immoral, as long as they practice and act, behave and move, they are flesh. The entire human race is flesh because they act without the Spirit. They move without the Spirit. Sometimes they practice the best things, and sometimes they practice the worst things, but as long as they practice by their body, that practicing body is the flesh.
Even if I serve you a cup of tea in my home, and I serve it by myself and without the Spirit, this is flesh. Some versions of the Bible render practices of the body as “evil doings of the body.” Many Christians understand Romans 8:13 in this way. They think that the practices of the body are the sinful deeds and the sinful doings of the body. Because gambling and drinking and stealing and striking others are sinful things, you should put them to death. But to love others, to serve others with a cup of tea, is not a sinful doing. This would be considered wonderful because this is loving others. But Paul does not use the term sinful deeds. Rather, he uses the term practices.
The following verse says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (v. 14). It is not a matter of being sinful or not sinful, nor is it a matter of being moral or immoral. God cares for one thing: Are you behaving as His son? When you serve tea to people, are you serving people as a son of God? Whether your practicing body is the flesh or not does not depend upon whether the things you practice are evil or moral. It depends upon whether you are acting by the Spirit of God as a son of God or you are just acting by yourself as an ordinary fallen human being. Whenever your body acts without the Spirit or apart from the Spirit, that is flesh. When your body dies and is put into a coffin, that surely is not flesh. That is a dead body. The flesh is just the acting body. The body that acts is the flesh. You have to realize that the light at this point is very intensive. If you do not breathe by the Spirit, even your breathing body is the flesh. What is it to set your mind on the flesh? It is to set your thinking on your acting body. When your body is active, and you set your mind on this acting body, that is, you put your thinking, you concentrate your thinking, upon this acting body, that is to put your mind on the flesh. And that is enmity against God.
In the last chapter we saw that our body must be for His Body. We can only present to the Lord a body that is free from all the practices. Once the practices of our body have been put to death, our body is free for us to present it to the Lord. We can only present such a freed body, an unemployed body, to the Lord. Then we will realize His Body. Our body is for the Lord’s Body. But first our body must be freed from all practices. It can be freed only by the Spirit. The Spirit has to kill every practice of our body. If your body with all its practices has not been killed, the practices make your body the flesh. But when the practices of the body have been killed, the body remains as the body. Then it is good to present to God for the Body of Christ. But if your body practices something apart from the Spirit, it makes your body the flesh. Practically speaking, the flesh is such a practicing body. Some have said that the flesh is something carnal, that it is related to carnality. Even the King James Version translates 8:6 as, “To be carnally minded is death.” This kind of translation and understanding brings you into a thick forest. Hardly anyone can tell you what it means to be carnally minded. I think most of us just took for granted the meaning of the word flesh. We never investigated; we never checked; we never questioned.
Now we need to read verse 8: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Now we know how to interpret this verse. To be in the flesh is to remain in the active body. If we remain in our acting body, that is to be in the flesh, and that causes us to be unable to please God.
Let us also read verse 9: “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” This is a very difficult verse to understand. There are four points that have to be made clear; otherwise, you cannot understand this verse. First, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If you do not realize that you have a human spirit, this is the greatest weakness. This is a shortcoming of most Christians. Not many Christians realize that they have a spirit. So first of all you have to understand that you have a human spirit. You are not in the flesh means that you are not remaining in the practicing, acting body. Rather, you are remaining in your spirit. This is not only a deep word but also a heavy word. When you serve people a cup of tea, are you in your spirit? If not, you are in the flesh. This is serious. We may have read such words in the Bible and taken them for granted. We did not check into them. This word means that you have to remain in your spirit all the time. If not, right away you are in the flesh. Even if you serve a cup of tea, you must do it in your spirit. You must be a person who is in the spirit. This verse does not mean that when you become a believer, you are no more in the flesh but in the spirit. No. Many real believers are fully in the flesh; they are not one bit in the spirit. Even they do not know that they have a spirit. Not only while they are exchanging words in their married life but even when they are talking about things in the Bible, they are not in the spirit. Rather, they are in the flesh—in their acting body.
Second, the next part of the verse says, “If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” The word dwells is different from the word abides or remains. To abide, or to remain, is a very light expression; it is not so heavy. The word dwell has as its root the word house. You may say that this is the verbal form of the noun. It may be translated as “to house in you.” In Ephesians 3:17 the same root word is translated into “make His home.” Housing yourself means to make a home for yourself. To dwell is not just to abide. If I stay in your home as a guest, I may abide there and remain there, but I am not dwelling there. I am not making my home there, because it is not my home. This is a strong word. The words if indeed indicate that you may have the Spirit of God in you, but He is not dwelling in you. You have Him in you, but He is not making His home in you. Many times, although we have the Spirit within us, the Spirit does not reside in us and does not have His home in us. We make our body our home, and we make the Spirit within us a guest. There is a big difference between staying in a house and residing in a house. When you indeed have the Spirit of God residing in you, making His home in you, it is then that you are in the spirit and not in the flesh.
The last part of Romans 8:9 says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” To be of Christ is one thing, and to have the Spirit residing in you is another thing.
Finally, there is a hidden point in this verse. This verse shows us three kinds of persons. The first kind of person is an unsaved person. This is implied in the last sentence: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” This he refers to an unbeliever, to one who is not saved. Then in the first sentence there are two kinds of persons. One kind is saved but only has the Spirit of God in him; he does not have the Spirit of God residing in him. He is a saved person, but he is not in the spirit. Then there is the third kind of person, that is, a saved one who is also in the spirit, having the Spirit of God residing in him. If Christ is not in you, you are the first kind of person, an unbeliever, an unsaved one. Verse 10 refers to the second kind of person, because although his spirit is alive, his body is still dead. He has the divine life only in his spirit, not in his body. The third kind of person is also enlivened in his body. Verse 11 says, “And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” This means that the third kind of person also has life given to his mortal body. Some have used this verse when talking about divine healing. However, I have seen some very spiritual persons who were the third kind of person, yet they were sick in their physical body. At the same time the Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead was giving them life. In a physical sense they were sick, but in a spiritual sense their body was very living.
You have been saved, and you have Christ in your spirit making your spirit life, but your body remains dead. Why? Because the divine life has not saturated your body. The divine life remains in your spirit and has not spread to saturate your body. But then verse 11 indicates that the very God of the Spirit of resurrection will give life to your mortal body through the Spirit of resurrection. A brother may be sick and yet have the Spirit of God in him, even residing in his entire body and in his entire being. When you contact him, you could realize that the divine life is saturating even his mortal body. At that time his body is not the flesh, because all the practices of his body have been put to death.
I do not mean that to apply Romans 8:11 to divine healing is wrong, but to apply it to divine healing first is wrong. It must be second. When you would let the Spirit of God make His home in your entire being, the divine life will saturate your body, making your body spiritual and making your body no more the flesh. If this is the case, this situation will heal you. Suppose you are sick and ask the Lord to heal you. The Lord might say that He cannot heal you, because your body still is too active. Your body is sick, but your body is too active apart from the Spirit. His Spirit in you has no chance to saturate your sick body. You must put the practices of your sick body to death. If you kill all the practices of your sick body, then He will saturate your body with His divine life. That will heal you, but that must first make you spiritual. Then it will heal you. If you mean business with the Lord for Him to heal you, you must kill all the practices of your body. Although your body may be sick, at the same time it is a strong flesh. Your body is so active in your sickness.
The divine life in your spirit is one thing; the divine life spreading into your body is another thing. These are two stages. The divine life remaining in you makes you a saved person, a believer. But it is not until this divine life in your spirit spreads into your body, saturating your body with the divine life, that you become not only a saved believer but also one saturated with God. It is such a person with a released, unemployed body who can present his body to God for the Body of Christ.
Verse 12 says, “So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.” We are not debtors to the acting body to live according to the acting body. If you live according to the flesh, that is, according to the acting body, you are about to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (v. 14). These verses show us what it means to be led by the Spirit. It is to set your mind on the spirit and kill the practices of the acting body by the Spirit. Then you are practically the sons of God. Strictly speaking, verse 14 does not refer to the leading of the Spirit to go to a department store or to fly to New York or to go to the mission field or to know whom you should marry. It means that every minute in the day you set your mind on the spirit and you kill, putting to death, every activity and every practice of your body by the Spirit of God. If you set your mind on the spirit to kill every practice of your body, that is to be led by the Spirit. And that is to live the life of a son of God. How could you prove to people that you are a son of God? By setting your mind on the spirit and by putting to death all the activities of your body. Even if you serve a cup of tea to someone, you would not do it apart from the Spirit. You do it through the Spirit.
My burden is to point out to you that until you live in this way—setting your mind on the spirit and putting to death all the activities of your body—you are not adequate for the Body of Christ. It is at that point that you become a really spiritual person. You are not only spiritual in your spirit and not only spiritual in your mind but also spiritual in your body. You become a person entirely spiritual. At that point you are adequate to realize the Body life of Christ.
