The Mind-Set of the Spirit

Read: Rom. 5:12-8:39

Romans 5:12 through Romans 7:8 tells us the facts concerning how the Lord dealt with sin on the cross and the results of that dealing. Romans 7:9 to the end of chapter 8 tells us the experiences of the saints who seek to live to the Lord based on those facts.

I want to concentrate on the experience and show why so many do not attain to the living described in Romans 8 and show the way into that experience.

The reason I want to discuss experience is that many of us who have been saved for many years are able to talk about these spiritual things, but nevertheless are lacking the true experience of them. I am not only talking about others but about myself. For years I myself have spoken about these thing and given messages on Romans seven and eight, but still lived an up and down life. I would react to my wife and be upset with little things that she said, instead of experiencing the love of Christ for her. So I confessed this kind of sin any number of times. Many times I would wind up in condemnation and death. Although I sought the Lord to live Him, I still fell into myself to live me! Even though I was able to teach about these things I felt myself to be most miserable and cried out to the Lord as Paul did, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” What a wretched man I was!

Although I knew the answer Paul gave to this question, I still didn’t see and still felt frustrated and unable to enter in.

Being a person who wanted perfection and wanted to please the Lord, I lived in Romans seven and didn’t even know that that was my problem. I said to myself, “I know the spirit. I pray daily in the Word. Often, I would I experience the Lord and be filled with Him, but, also, many times I didn’t and would live a life out of the self which is so ugly. Why, I asked myself? I thought that the reason was that I just did not live in my spirit. I desired that, but it seemed as though that I often always failed.

I could not see the answer. Even though I knew the answer was Christ, I did not see. Without seeing I was just in the knowledge of the truth not in enjoyment of the reality of it. I could teach it, but still remained in the striving of the flesh. So I would, for years, cry out to the Lord for deliverance but deliverance seemed to avoid me.

Over the last two years, in our Bible study group, we have been going over Romans. As I got into the first eight verses of Romans eight I noticed something about the word translated “mind.” It is the Greek word fronhma. It means mind-set or viewpoint or the way your mind is disposed to think. You can check it out in Strongs, number 5427.

I realized that just to exercise the spirit is inadequate. We also must have the mind-set of the Spirit. But just what does that mean?

Romans 1:1 says, “There is now therefore no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.” (NKJV) Most modern translations do not include the clause, “who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” This is because it is not included in the Critical Text. However, it is included in the Textus Receptus from which the King James Version and the New King James Version are translated. It is also included in the Majority Text.

Since we are talking about the experience of condemnation, the last clause should be included. Here is why. If the verse only says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, then why are so many born again Christians condemned? Are they in Christ Jesus? Yes. Since they are in Christ Jesus, and since many experience condemnation, there is either a problem with the verse or a problem with their experience.

But if you add the last clause, the problem is solved. If a Christian walks in the Spirit he or she would not be condemned. It seems very simple, yet even the Christians who seek and experience the filling of the Spirit still fall into condemnation. If this is true there must be another problem. That problem is thoroughly discussed by Paul in Romans seven and eight. What is the problem? It is the law.

Paul used a long section to expose the problem of the law. He, being a faithful Jew, attempted to keep the law and discovered that the more he strove to keep it, the more he failed. The failure was sin and sin brought death. In 1 Cor. 15:56 Paul says that the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. So the more someone attempts to keep the law, the more sin will be strengthened and that strengthened sin will inject, by its sting, death into the law-keeper. There is no way the Lord can deliver anyone if that one continues to try to please God by keeping the law.

Therefore, since the Word says that those who walk according to the flesh are brought into condemnation, it must be that the flesh in Romans eight is the flesh that wants to do good by keeping the law. Paul is not talking about the works of the flesh that are sinful in this portion but the mind-set of the flesh that wants to perfect itself. (Gal. 3:1-3)

The self is so subtle and so prone to being deceived. We may think we are okay with the Lord but not be able to realize that we are law keepers. We may even be strong against anything legal. Not being legal may actually be an excuse to be loose and worldly. At the same time we may have many little self-invented or preacher-inflicted laws that we subconsciously attempt to keep and so are captured by the law of sin and death.

This is why in Rom. 8:6 Paul says that, “the mind-set of the flesh is death and the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.” (my translation) Here the word again for mind-set is fronhma. To live in the Spirit depends upon which mind-set you have.

The mind-set is our operating system. Just like in your computer there is an operating system. How the computer functions depends on the operating system. Equally true is the fact that our human being also operates based on our operating system. Our operating system is our vision. The vision we have governs our living. Prov. 29:18 says that where the people cast off vision they run wild. So each one of us needs the vision that is of God and not our own opinion of what is the vision of God’s way.

In many cases there is the need of a change in vision or realization. Although we may not know it, we may be still in a deep corner of our mind have the thought that we need to fix ourselves up, that we need to improve, that we need help to learn how to live a good life, have a good marriage, to stop our besetting sin, or become better in some way. This is the mind-set of the flesh. Any thought of improving self is a fleshly thought. We need a change in vision, a change in mind-set which will change our operation system.

In Gal. 4:19 Paul says, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” The word “formed” is not in the present tense but in the aorist. So he is not talking about something that is going on in a continuous was way but in this case something that happens in a point of time. The present tense in Greek looks at things that are happening over a continuous period of time. The aorist, in some cases, is the tense that indicates a point of time. Paul is talking here of a paradigm shift in a point of time.

The Galatians saw the Christian life as one in which they should believe in Jesus and then keep the Old Testament law. Paul was writing them to attempt to change their paradigm so that they would see that instead of living by the law they should live by Christ who was the life within them. His testimony was that he was crucified with Christ and it was no longer he that lived but that Christ lived in him. (Gal. 2:20) They needed a paradigm shift from having the mind-set of the flesh to having the mind-set of the Spirit.

What then is the mind-set of the Spirit? If we go back to Romans eight you’ll notice that Paul never tells us how to get into the Spirit. Romans eight is a description of a man in the spirit and the results and practices of one already in spirit. What has caused him to change from a man attempting to keep the law, a man whose mind-set was the flesh to one who experiences the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus overcoming the law of sin and death?

I would suggest that his paradigm shift came in Romans 7:25 when he answered his own question about who would deliver him from the body of death. He said, “Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The veil came off his eyes and He saw that it was Christ Himself who was his answer. That Jesus had accomplished everything that was needed to be done on the cross. There was nothing left to do. Now this Jesus would be the reality of his living and he, Paul, could rest in that.

When he realized that everything was done on the cross by and in Christ and that He was everything Paul needed to approach God, to be with God and to please God, all self effort spontaneously stopped and this Christ practically and in reality became his life.

Do you see it? The Lord does not expect us nor want us to be good or better, or to try not to do certain things or fight against sin. He wants us to look away from all that and look at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He can and will do everything we cannot do and even everything we can do. And He wants to. The problem is that we remain in the way.

May the Lord open our eyes to see the many little foxes in us that spoil the vine? That is all the little rules and regulations that we are attempting to keep which lead to sin and death. Then may He grant light and revelation to see that He is the answer to everything.

How will I know that I see this mighty revelation? When you see the Christ who is all you will be at rest. You will not work at being a Christian any longer, but will enter the joy of the Lord’s rest from your labors. You will cease living an up and down Christian life. Christ will be, as He was for Paul, your life and living. As long as you experience an up and down life you still are without adequate revelation of Christ. Seek Him. Look to Him. Tell Him how much you love Him and want to see all that He has accomplished on the cross and fully realize that now He is the Spirit to transmit that life to you.