For many years, I have spent considerable time with this text. I have heard many refer to verse 14 and their application of being led by the Spirit. As they explain it, they may place their hand over their heart as if the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was something “better felt than told” or something that you would just know if it were true. This text and a number of other supporting passages will demonstrate that reference to the “the Spirit” or “the spirit” has as much to do with Jesus and the Father as it does with the Holy Spirit. God is a spirit (John 4:24) and Romans 8 references “the spirit of God and Christ in verse 9, Christ in verse 10, and the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead (verse 11). We are also told that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. There is also a reference to the spirit of life in Christ and the spirit of adoption. What, then, is the spirit that is said to lead us and bears witness with our spirit?
To explain this leading, we must begin at the beginning, which brings us back to Romans 6. Here, we learn that we are to die to sin, be buried with Christ by baptism into His death, and be resurrected as new men. Since the old man is crucified and buried in the same way as “burying the hatchet,” that man is dead, never to live again. What makes this so is the intent to live for Him who died for all mankind. Sin should not reign in our mortal bodies for we are servants of righteousness because we have submitted to Jesus as our king. We are servants to whomever we obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
This is made possible because of the gospel, which includes not only the atoning sacrifice of Christ (Romans 8:1-3) but the purpose of our hearts (a “renewing of our minds”, Rm. 12:2). Chapter 7-8 identifies the problem with the flesh and the solution of the spirit. The flesh and spirit contrast is found repeatedly in the New Testament, the most notable being Galatians 5. Once we have put to death the old man, we are intent on not yielding our members as instruments of sin. Putting to death the old man doesn’t just end when we “obey from the heart that form of doctrine” and bury the old man to resurrect a new man. In other words, it’s not automatic guidance from the Holy Spirit whom we expect to indwell us (our mortal bodies). We replaced the flesh, which Paul describes as being “in me,” with the spirit or the mind. It’s the spirit that gives us new identity. The flesh profits nothing. It is in this sense that Peter speaks of saints becoming partakers of His divine image, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lusts (2 Peter 1:3-4). While in the flesh, the war continues to fight the “law of my mind” and bring me into captivity to the law of sin and death. Apart from the gospel, it would make little difference how well-intentioned I am in pleasing God. Justification would be based on whether I could keep from sin. Even though the inner man (mind or spirit) delights in God and His word, the law of sin which requires death for its violation causes that souls to cry, “O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death.” The solution which chapter 8 opens up with is Jesus Christ “who condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” This is the same thought expressed in chapter 7:25 that reads, “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.” Serving the law of God with the mind is the same as “walking according to the spirit.” It is a spirit of life that sets us free from the law of sin and death. If we will quit relating “spirit” to the Holy Spirit in our reading, we would understand this text better. God is a spirit and while we have begun in the spirit, we are still in the flesh only from the standpoint of being in this mortal body. Thus, the war is waging between the flesh and spirit. My mind delights in God and His will. On occasion, I will fail but as long as I set my mind on the spirit, I am led by the spirit. This spirit is known and recognized by the Spirit of God who bears witness with our spirit that we are His children.
Condemnation is not the verdict for those in Christ for two reasons. First, Christ died for us. Second, we walk after the spirit, not the flesh. Some teach that all we need to do is accept Christ, believe in Him and confess our sin. Others teach that all we must do is be baptized. While the scriptures teach the necessity of baptism as an act of faith, if it is not begun in the spirit but as an act of the flesh, the Spirit can not bear witness with ours that we are children of God. One can be baptized and still be in the flesh and one can confess sin and Christ and still be in a state of condemnation. The key is where our heart or mind is placed. Making the initial confession of faith and obedience must be the result of fixing our minds on the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5). This spiritual mind provides life and peace. Thus, it is called the “spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
The carnal mind is the same mind that is set on the flesh. It produces the same list referenced in Galatians 5 as the “works of the flesh.” That mind or spirit is death because it is enmity against God because it is not subject to the law of God. This reminds us of 1 Corinthians 2:12-14. It reads, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Â Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Â But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. I used to quickly respond to the question about why there is so much religious division and rebellion with 2 Thessalonians 2:10 which tells us that a lack of love for truth is why people perish. Yet, this passage must added to the answer. The carnal mind cannot understand the things of the spirit of God. It is the cause of so much religious confusion, division, and controversy. It is arrogant, selfish, competitive, argumentative, divisive, full of envy and gossip. Such a mind is not set on doing the will of God from the heart. It may appear interested in His will, but only as it suits the carnal mind. The mind dwells on things of this life, including our family, treasures, and future plans for physical betterment. The conversations and things that excite us the most are focused on things of this life, rather than the things above where our citizenship is supposed to be located (cf. Col. 3:1).
For this to occur means that even the initial response to the gospel was either carnally driven or short-lived. Crucifixion of the old self must reflect an ongoing self-denial and renewing of the mind. Too many appear to begin that walk after the spirit but soon reveal that their walk is according to the flesh, not the spirit. Until that change, they cannot please God (8:7-8). True identity as His children is determined by His spirit that indwells us. Its absence proves that we are not His (v. 9). But, if He is in us, i.e., in our heart or mind, the body or the deeds of the body (v. 13) is dead, but the spirit is life, and the spirit of God will give life to our mortal bodies. That spirit of God will bear witness with our spirit that we are His. Now, instead of crying, “O wretched man that I am,” we cry, “Abba, Father,” because we have the spirit of adoption, and are heirs of God along with Jesus Christ. What a wonderful hope for those in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.