Those who are in the realm of the flesh
Romans 8:8 - Believers gain a new and wonderful life living in the Spirit that is missing from those who focus their lives on earthly, materialistic things.
Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.
“Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:8 NIV
Chapter 8 of the Epistle to the Romans is titled differently depending on which translation of the Bible you’re reading. For the NIV translation, the chapter begins with the title “Life through the spirit”. In the New King James Version, it’s “Free from indwelling sin” , and in the NASB95 translation, it says “Deliverance from bondage”. Whatever translation is being used, the message of the chapter is the same — that believers gain a new and wonderful life living in the Spirit that is missing from those who focus their lives on earthly, materialistic things.
Paul spends the first seven verses of this chapter contrasting life “in the flesh” with life in Jesus. What does “in the flesh” or “of the flesh” mean? John Piper provided this illumination in a sermon titled “Walk by the spirit” quoted in Precept Austin, saying flesh is:
“the old ego that is self-reliant and does not delight to yield to any authority or depend on any mercy. Flesh craves the sensation of self-generated power and loves the praise of men… in its conservative form it produces legalism -- keeping rules by its own power for its own glory… (in its more liberal form) produces grossly immoral attitudes and acts (Gal 5:19ff) The flesh is the proud and unsubmissive root of depravity in every human heart which exalts itself subtly through proud, self-reliant morality, or flaunts itself blatantly through self-assertive, authority-despising immorality.”
Precept Austin also had some fascinating insight by pastor and theologian S. Lewis Johnson into today’s verse, noting that it:
is one of the clearest texts teaching that an unbelieving man cannot please God until a work of the Spirit has been performed on his inner man. In fact, it is a verse that plainly teaches that regeneration must precede faith. The reason is clear. Faith pleases God (cf. Heb 11:6-note), but they that are in the flesh, the unsaved individuals, cannot please God. Thus, they cannot exercise faith as long as they are in the flesh. They exercise faith only after the Holy Spirit in efficacious grace takes them out of the flesh and puts them, in the Spirit by giving them new life. The first activity of the new life is to believe (cf. 1John 5:1). The man dead in sins (Ep 2:1-note) is given new life, which manifests itself in saving trust through the gospel. Could anything be plainer? To affirm that the unsaved man can believe is to deny the biblical teaching on total depravity and human inability; it is to lapse into Arminian error, as Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer used to call it. (Romans 8:5-17 and Romans 8-5-17 - 2)
So let’s put that in more simple terms: the transformation from flesh and into the Spirit must come before faith. Just saying that you believe in God and His saving grace means nothing if you haven’t been truly transformed by the Spirit.
Here’s more on this verse from Precept Austin, this time from Warren Wiersbe, who:
remarks that the specific phrase in the flesh “means to be lost, outside Christ. The unsaved person lives to please himself and rarely if ever thinks about pleasing God. The root of sin is selfishness—“I will” and not “Thy will.” To be unsaved and not have the Spirit is the lowest level of life. But a person need not stay on that level. By faith in Christ he can move to the second level.
As sinners, we will always be living somewhat in the flesh. We need to pray for the continuing transformation by the Holy Spirit that leads us ever closer to the true faith that pleases God.
I’ll finish off today’s post with a relevant quote from C.S. Lewis:
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.” — C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father in Heaven, I confess my weakness and acknowledge the daily struggles of living in the flesh. I pray for Your guidance in turning away from earthly desires and seeking the Spirit in everything I do. Transform my heart and mind, and teach me to walk in the Spirit, so that my life may bear fruit that glorifies You. Strengthen me to resist temptation, to focus on what is right and good, and to know that true fulfillment in this life comes from doing Your will, not mine. AMEN.
Didn't expect this take. Your insights always resonete deeply.