...continued.
Romans 7:23-8:3 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (24) O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (25) I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (8:1) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (3) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
The law of Paul’s mind in 7:23 was the Law of Moses that he willed in his mind and agreed to perform. But there was another law of sin and death in the bodily members of his flesh – his literal arms and legs, etc. And this other law warred against the Law of his mind.
At this point in the reading, we must understand what Paul meant by having written that a law in his members warred against the law of his mind.
When Paul wrote of a law warring against another law, he wrote of the word “law,” describing a series of events that could be predicted if the same conditions were present in each case. For this same reason, the law of gravity is called a law.
When you are in the condition of being on the earth, and you release an object into the air, it falls to the ground. It doesn’t matter where on earth you are, so long as you are on the earth and hold something and then release it, it falls every time, unless the conditions change for the object that you release.
If you held a kite with string, and released the kite with the wind blowing around you, it would not fall but it would be carried by the wind up into the air. That is because another condition is involved, and it's actually part of another law called the law of aerodynamics. If the object has the conditions that are favourable to allow wind to carry the object into the air, it will not fall.
But we are speaking about an object such as a ball, rock or apple. It has no qualities that categorize it under something which is aerodynamic to cause it to not fall to the ground when released.
Because the release of such an object always causes it to fall to the ground when all of the same conditions are met, it is called a law. It happens every time, and you can predict it. That is somewhat of a different use of the word law than what is intended to be understood when Paul wrote of the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses is not a manner that explains why the physics of an object that is met with certain conditions causes the object to react in the same way every time. The Law of Moses is a Law of codified jurisdictions where a judge has set certain precedents in order that must be carried out. And if the conditions of violating those commandments exists, the penalties that the same law outlines will be carried out every time.
This means that Paul wrote about a war that ensues when we agree with God’s Law that commands us to obey its precedents, and seek to carry them out with our flesh. He said that this war is one that we cannot win. We will inevitably fail if we seek to obey the Law of Moses with our flesh. It happens every time. Instead of fulfilling the Law of Moses with our flesh, we will fulfill the law of sin and death with our flesh.
Therefore, Paul said that we must not walk after that flesh. It must be recognized that
Romans 7:25-8:1 connects the thought of the flesh being used to serve God with the act of walking after the flesh as the cause for condemnation to come upon us. Because we wind up serving the law of sin and death with the flesh, then we can avoid that condemnation by not walking after that flesh. This shows us that the condemnation is not the penalty of going to hell, although people who do sin will suffer hell, but it is saying that it’s the condemnation of suffering the misery of being unable to fulfil the law of God with our bodies and, instead, fulfilling the law of sin and death.
This can only mean that we cannot take the futile route that Paul described as holding a willingness to obey the Law of God in our minds, but being unable to perform that Law with our flesh.
The description that Paul provided about the failure to serve God, was not only called the oldness of the letter, but also walking after the flesh. So, serving God in the old-ness of the letter is walking after the flesh. Walking after the Spirit is something entirely different. We must take what Paul described as the means of failure in Romans Chapter 7 and realize that there is another means of serving God that won’t fail and is called newness of the Spirit.
After having described the method of Paul’s failure as a life of walking after the flesh, he then stated that we should walk after the Spirit, and proceeded to outline the following points.
Romans 8:1-5 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (3) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (4) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (5) For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Notice that Paul not only wrote that there is no condemnation to those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, but he also said the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. So, the walk after the Spirit achieves something that the oldness of the letter is unable to cause us to achieve. That something is the law’s righteousness. This informs us that a walk after the Spirit that sees us delivered from the Law is not deliverance from the need for us to obtain the righteousness of the Law. What same righteousness that oldness of the letter required was the righteousness that the newness of Spirit fulfills in our lives.
Paul explained that the Law could not fulfill that righteousness in us. We are then told that God accomplished something in order to see that righteousness fulfilled in us. He did it by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh. In other words, because sin was in our flesh and condemned us to defeat, Jesus would take the sin in his flesh to condemn it!
He condemned the condemner!
Paul continued to explain that people who are after the flesh and people who mind and focus their thoughts on the things of the flesh. This gives us a further clue as to how walking after the flesh is struggling in the method to serve God by the oldness of the letter. The struggle that Paul wrote about in Chapter 7 involved minding the things of the flesh. Instead, the walk after the Spirit that we must engage in is defined as minding the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Because verse 5 begins with the word “for”, we must see how that the facts stated in this verse are the reasons for what we read before this verse. Read them together now.
Romans 8:3-5 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (4) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (5) For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
The reason that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in people who don’t walk after the flesh but after the Spirit is that people who are in the flesh mind the things of the flesh. The success in dealing with sin and being righteous before God has to do with what we mind, or think about. He then explains why that is the case.
Romans 8:6-7 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rather than suffer condemnation, we can experience peace. Paul compares the results that exist in our hearts when we walk after the flesh and fail, or what after the flesh and succeed – condemnation versus peace. The fleshly mind leads to death
Paul described his failure to keep the laws of God as an experience of death. The Law was ordained to life but he found that it led to his death. That death was inflicted on him by the power of sin that used Law like a killing weapon. He did not mean a natural, physical death, obviously, but a form of spiritual death. The reason that it kills is due to the fact that the fleshly-thinking mind can never be subject to the Law of God.
He alluded to this earlier in Chapter 7 as follows:
Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
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