0807-20P 1
TRUE SPIRITUAL WARFARE
(Romans 8:9-17)
TEXT:
SUBJECT:
F.C.F.:
PROPOSITION:
OBJECTIVE:
INTRODUCTION:
A. Our subject is the mortification of sin, putting to death sinful deeds and motives. This is in the category of sanctification, growing in holiness. It is the negative side of killing off, draining the life out of sinful passions and desires that continually prompt us to do evil. The positive side, which we will not look at so closely in this study, is called vivification, that is becoming more and more alive to God.
B. If we would use another precise term, however, it would be spiritual warfare. This is to the heart of true spiritual warfare, killing the enemy which happens to be a traitor residing within. When some people talk about spiritual warfare, they get a bit spooky. They think it refers to casting out demons of obesity or binding territorial spirits, for which there is no real biblical evidence. But this is more bizarre and creepy and a lot more entertaining than resisting temptation. Yet this is the true war. Many professing Christians are unaware that there is a war, and very few understand this to be the true war.
REVIEW
We began looking at our key text in this biblical study of the mortification of sin. It is from Romans 8:13b: “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” We concluded that without true repentance there is no life or salvation. Without sorrow for sin, grief and hatred for sin, and an earnest endeavor to put away sin, there is no life. Repentance is not a meritorious work that earns salvation, but is merely the means by which God’s salvation in Christ is received.
And we noted from Romans 8 that there are two groups of people in the world, those who live according to the flesh leading to death, and those who by the spirit are putting to death the deeds of the body which results in life. We noted with dismay the sobering fact that many professing Christians today have no desire for holiness and who in fact live according to the flesh. We concluded that these professing Christians are largely pretending Christians. And we also noted that while we do the mortifying or putting to death or resisting, it must always be within the power of the Holy Spirit apart from which we stand no chance.
Now we’re going to consider the warfare itself, what it means to “put to death the deeds of the body.” And we will conclude by exploring the meaning of the promise, “you will live.” Let’s get right to it.
IV. ‘PUT TO DEATH THE DEEDS OF THE BODY’: WINNING THE BATTLE FOR THE BODY.
It’s at this point that we need to define some basic terms so that we can thoroughly understand our situation. The goal is that we may be able to fight most effectively, most strategically, but to do so we must know the enemy, know our vulnerability, and know our circumstances up to the moment.
A. The first term we need to examine carefully is found in the first half of our text, “flesh.” The word translated “flesh” in the New Testament can refer to the material that covers the human skeleton, literal flesh. A person’s body is sometimes referred to as “flesh and blood.” But the Apostle Paul often uses the term to describe a person’s sinful nature. And we must be careful, because Paul is by no means saying that the non-physical part of a person, spirit, is good, while the physical part, flesh, is bad. This idea comes from pagan Greek philosophy, certainly not from the Bible, and we’ll say more about that in a bit.
Flesh is fallen human nature. It is the same as the “old self” or “old man” which Paul mentions in Romans 6:6.
1) The “flesh” is the unregenerate person, the person who has not been born again. The “flesh” is unredeemed human nature utterly dominated by sin. Everyone is born “in the flesh,” again, not referring to their physical body, but born with a fallen, corrupted human nature that is only responsive to sin. We have seen a picture of this typical, fallen human nature in Genesis 6:5 where we read that “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The unredeemed person really wants to do evil all the time. That is not to say that there are no restraints put on the unregenerate. There may be some residual childhood guilt, some force of societal pressure, some fear of law or the reprisals of others. But the old man or the flesh always responds to temptation with, “I’m up for it, count me in!”
2) In the believer, the old man or flesh has been crucified, that is, put to death. In Romans 6:6 Paul writes: “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” And so the old man or flesh has died in the believer so that he or she is no longer “in the flesh,” that is under the dominion, control, or slavery to the flesh, as Paul writes in Romans 8:9: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
3) But even though the believer is no longer “in the flesh,” the old man still seeks to influence. Paul writes of his personal struggle as a believer in Romans 7. On the one hand he knows what is right and truly desires from the heart to do what is right, yet the flesh still rises up and leads him to do evil. “18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
B. A second term we must understand clearly is “sin.” Sin can refer to “sinful actions.” But in our context it refers to a vigorous, active, law or principle, that almost seems alive and having a will of its own. It seeks to dominate and control a person so producing sinful deeds. Sin is actually stirred up by the Law, that is, God’s commands, even though God’s Law is good and holy. The Law gives sin ideas. Sin has never seen a law that it didn’t want to break. And so when God gave the Law, Paul writes in Romans 7, sin only found new ways of expressing itself. If the sign on the door says, “Do not open this door,” most all of those who see it want to open it, and several try. If the sign had not been there, nobody would have thought twice about it. I recall the story of the circus promoter, P.T. Barnum. In one of his attractions he had a door marked in bold letters, “Do Not Enter.” The door was to a one-way passage leading out of the paid exhibit. Many people sneaked through the door, only to find themselves eventually outside in the daylight. In fact, this provides evidence to the truthfulness of the doctrine of original sin, that we are natural born sinners. Say to a little toddler, “No, don’t touch this object.” And when you do, everything in that seemingly innocent child wants to touch it. The desire to touch it becomes irresistible. But if you had said nothing, the child would have ignored it.
Of course the flesh, the old man, was completely dominated, controlled and enslaved by sin. So Paul writes in Romans 7:5: “For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.” Sin is the same as “sinful passions.”
When we come to faith in Christ, sin has lost its dominion, and we are no longer its slaves. But the sinful passions linger, and if we allow them to gain strength, they will their bear wicked fruit in us.
C. A third idea we must grasp is that of the “spirit” or “mind” or “heart.” This is the control center of the personality. Before coming to Christ, before regeneration, the unrenewed spirit, mind, or heart is virtually identical to the “flesh.” According to Romans 8:5, “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.” The spirit is dead, the mind is darkened, the heart is solid stone in the sense of being dead and unresponsive to God, even actively resistant and hostile to God, responsive only to and completely controlled by sin.
But in regeneration or becoming born again by God’s Holy Spirit, we die with Christ to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. In Romans 6, Paul answers the oft-repeated conclusion that if grace for sin is a good thing, perhaps we should sin more so that we could experience more grace. “1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
So the renewed spirit, mind, or heart is now the new man who hates sin and delights to do God’s will. So as we’ve seen in Romans 7:22-23, “22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”
This is spiritual warfare. The new principle of the renewed inner being (spirit, mind, or heart) is plunged into a continual and irreconcilable war with the remaining “law of sin” that still dwells in our members. Sin still demands to rule; but the mind is now ruled by God. And this is the battle line. Here is where the fight is engaged, where sin must be met and put to death, the mortification of sin. It would be so much easier if sin were continually weakened and silenced, de-fanged and de-clawed, so that its influence was minimal. This is to the heart of our subject.
D. The last biblical term we must understand is that of the body, which is the objective of the battle itself. When two armies meet, they fight in order to gain mastery of a disputed territory. The body is that disputed territory. Sin may be conceived in the heart, but it is brought to life through the body. Sinful words and deeds are expressed through the body. We can certainly sin with our minds, but to bring that sin out into the world, we must use our bodies, our lips, eyes, hands, ears, and feet, sometimes called our “members.”
In the fall from grace in the Garden, the body also fell. Like the human spirit or soul or mind or heart, the body, the physical nature became wholly corrupted by sin and must be rescued from sin.
1) Paul writes in Romans 8:10 that the body is dead because of sin. “10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Now in what ways is the body dead because of sin? Well, of course the body is physically dead, that is mortal or subject to death, and, aging and failing and will eventually expire. But it also means that the body has become corrupted and enslaved to sin, and this is what is almost universally ignored. Most people today are obsessed with the body, eager to spend hundreds of dollars for the latest breakthrough that will cheat the aging process or at least offer the appearance of doing so.
But far worse than the aging and eventual death of the body is the corruption of the body which has been given over as the instrument of sin. Before coming to Christ, the unregenerate offered their bodies for sin: (Romans 6:13, 19)“13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. …19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” In fact, before Christ, the body was so devoted over to sin that it could be called a “body of sin” (Romans 6:6) and a “body of death” (Romans 7:24).
2) But God has plans for the body in salvation. The indwelling Holy Spirit of life who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies. (Romans 8:10-11)“10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
Now this means life also in two ways. It means the resurrection of the body in the last day, and that is very encouraging. But it also means that the body is set free from its bondage to sin and to be put into use for the purpose of righteousness. So just as the sinful spirit, soul, mind, or heart must be born again, regenerated, made new, so the mortal body which was being used solely for evil, must be born again, regenerated, or made new. Ultimately this will happen in the resurrection. But intermediately, the body must be redirected. No longer are the members of the body to be used for sin, but are to become the slaves of righteousness.
3) Who is going to rule or control this disputed very strategic territory of the body? Will it be sin or will it be righteousness? Well, it all depends upon who wins the battle. And the battle is won for righteousness if we put to death or mortify sin, that is, so weaken it, deprive it, and drain its life and strength and vigor out of it that it has no fight left in it. Death will bring about the ultimate renewal, where the body will be completely renewed and the sin principle will be completely excised and expunged. But until then, it is a continual and irreconcilable war.
This explains why Romans 12:1 refers only to our presenting our bodies and not our bodies and souls to God as a living sacrifice. “1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” The body is the disputed territory. It was once dead in sin; now the body is to be a living sacrifice, wholly devoted to God. And it is offered as that living sacrifice only as we are continually transformed by the renewal of the mind according to the Word of God: “2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The renewed mind is able to rule over and control the body, and so the body serves only the cause of righteousness.
So the body matters, both in this life and in the life to come. Jesus did not come simply to “save our souls.” That’s only half of it according to the Apostle Paul.
D. It was a later Greek philosophy called “gnosticism” that made a radical distinction between the good spirit and the evil body. Gnosticism taught that there were two gods. One god made only the spirit world which was good. The other god, the evil god, came along and created the physical world which was bad. He created bodies and trapped those good spirits in those bad bodies. For the Gnostics, only the spirit is good, the body is irrelevant. So the goal for Gnostics was to attain to a spiritual breakthrough of enlightenment through secret knowledge, to come to the realization, the experience of knowing yourself to be a spiritual being. And what about the body? The body was irrelevant. So, on the one hand, some taught that the body should be systematically punished and neglected as evil, which was not a lot of fun, or, on the other hand, others taught that since the body was unimportant, it could be indulged with pleasure because it did not matter. I would think that the second group became more popular.
In fact, it seems as though both of those kinds of Gnosticism have infected the church today, the emphasis on “spirituality.” Several decades ago, body-denying gnosticism cropped up in American Fundamentalism. Fundamentalists talked a lot about “saving souls,” but they didn’t care much for the physical creation. Fundamentalism saw the body as basically evil, a threat to spirituality, and so its religion was largely moralistic and external, avoiding sensual pleasures, smoking, drinking, stressing the importance of styles of clothing, hair styles and so forth. What mattered was the spirit; saving souls.