Romans 8:5-8

Now we come to one of the passages where the importance of understanding what Paul means by flesh ("sinful nature" in NIV etc) is vital.

Paul says that there are two ways of living. We can live according to the flesh and have our minds set on what that the flesh desires, or we can have our minds set on what the Spirit desires. If our mind is controlled by the flesh then it is death, but if our mind is controlled by the Spirit, then it is life and peace. If our mind is controlled by the flesh then we are hostile to God, do not and cannot submit to His law, cannot please God.

Now Paul is not merely saying that if we desire sinful things and let sinful desires rule our lives we cannot please God, true though this is. For the flesh, or our human nature, has desires other than overtly sinful ones. Our human nature does not like being vulnerable, we do not like being rejected, we do not like having to depend totally on God, we do not like suffering. Many of these things are not necessarily sinful in themselves, but if we let these things rule our lives then we will not and cannot live a life that is pleasing to God. For if we are led by the Spirit then there will be times when we are rejected, when we are vulnerable, when we have to depend totally on God, when we will suffer. To see that this is so just consider the life of Jesus, all these things happened to Him.

If we let the desire to avoid being vulnerable dictate our life, then we will fail to follow God. This is an example of having our mind set on the flesh. Moreover, a mind is then death, for it results in a life dominated by fear, a life that is not free, for we are always trying to avoid being hurt.

If we seek to follow God out of our own strength then we will not just fail, we will end up doing the exact opposite. For at some point our flesh, our human nature, will rise up and stop us doing what God wants.

One of the roots of man's rebellion is saying that we can live life on our own without God. Sometimes we even fool ourselves in to thinking we can live up to God's standards without God's help. All this is destined for disaster.

So living out of our own strength and resources, even with the best of intentions, is a recipe for disaster. In the next section we will start to discover an alternative.