Romans 8:5–8 says, “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. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Paul has opened Romans 8 with the great no-condemnation declaration for those who are in Christ Jesus. He has shown that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made the believer free from the law of sin and death. He has shown what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, and what God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemning sin in the flesh. Now he contrasts two realms, two minds, two directions, two outcomes, and two conditions: the flesh and the Spirit. This is not a polite comparison between two personality types. This is life and death, peace and enmity, God and Adam, Spirit and flesh, Christ and natural man.
The carnal mind is not merely immature, uninformed, emotionally unhealthy, culturally conditioned, or in need of a seminar. Paul says it is “enmity against God.” That is war language. Enmity is hostility, opposition, settled resistance. Fallen flesh is not a neutral student waiting for enough religious information to become agreeable to God. It is hostile to God at the root. The flesh may become religious, educated, disciplined, artistic, sentimental, charitable, patriotic, philosophical, or ceremonially decorated, but it remains flesh. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” You cannot educate flesh into Spirit. You cannot baptize flesh into new birth. You cannot polish flesh into holiness. You cannot preach enough law at flesh to make it love God. Flesh does not need improvement. It needs death at Calvary and replacement by life in Christ.
Romans 8:5–8 therefore exposes the great fraud of fleshly religion. Men think if they can make the flesh impressive enough, God will be pleased. They give it robes, degrees, incense, sacraments, altar calls, emotional music, moral reforms, devotional language, denominational titles, and a respectable haircut. But God says, “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Not might not. Not usually do not. Cannot. Fallen flesh cannot please God no matter how religious, educated, emotional, disciplined, sincere, or socially respectable it becomes. The issue is not merely what the flesh does. The issue is what the flesh is. A corpse in a clean suit is still dead. A rebel with a hymnbook is still a rebel. A carnal mind wearing theological cologne is still enmity against God.
Chapter One: They That Are After the Flesh
Paul begins, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.” To be “after the flesh” means to be characterized by the flesh, governed by the flesh, belonging to the fleshly realm, and moving according to fallen Adam’s nature. This is not merely a bad mood, a temporary weakness, or a lapse in judgment. Paul is contrasting the fundamental direction of those in the flesh with those after the Spirit. The flesh is man as he is by natural birth: fallen, self-centered, God-resistant, sin-inclined, and unable to please God. He may be openly wicked or outwardly religious, but he is still after the flesh if he has not been born of the Spirit.
Those after the flesh “do mind the things of the flesh.” The mind follows the nature. The flesh thinks fleshly, values fleshly, desires fleshly, measures fleshly, reasons fleshly, worships fleshly, and plans fleshly. It minds what belongs to its own realm. Some flesh minds filth in a gutter. Other flesh minds religion in a cathedral. Some flesh minds lust. Other flesh minds reputation. Some flesh minds drunkenness. Other flesh minds self-righteousness. Some flesh minds rebellion with tattoos and noise. Other flesh minds rebellion with robes and Latin. Do not be fooled by the uniform. The flesh can be vulgar or polished, but it remains flesh.
The phrase “do mind” shows the inward orientation. A man’s mind reveals his master. What occupies the mind, feeds the imagination, directs the affections, shapes the priorities, and governs the choices tells the truth about the life inside. A lost man may occasionally think about God when danger, death, guilt, or crisis forces him to, but his settled mind returns to the things of the flesh because that is his native country. The pig may be washed for the fair, but his heart remembers the mud. The flesh may sit through a sermon, but its appetite still belongs to Adam’s pantry.
Chapter Two: They That Are After the Spirit
Paul continues, “but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” Here is the opposite realm. Those after the Spirit are those who belong to the Spirit’s life and direction. Romans 8:9 will say, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” The saved man is no longer in the flesh as his standing before God. He still has flesh, and he must still refuse its reign, reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, and yield his members unto God, but his realm has changed. He is in Christ, indwelt by the Spirit, and called to walk after the Spirit.
Those after the Spirit mind “the things of the Spirit.” This does not mean the believer becomes sinlessly perfect in thought the moment he is saved. Romans 7 already showed the war in the members. It means the new life has a new direction, a new appetite, a new authority, and a new inward orientation toward God. The things of the Spirit include the word of God, the glory of Christ, holiness, truth, prayer, obedience, doctrine, righteousness, heavenly hope, spiritual fruit, and the will of God. The Spirit does not lead a man into vanity and call it liberty. He leads him toward Christ and truth.
This is why the Christian must feed the right mind. A believer cannot spend all week minding the world, feeding the flesh, entertaining sin, absorbing vanity, drinking from the sewer pipes of modern culture, and then expect to walk in the freshness of the Spirit because he gave God an hour and a half on Sunday. Whatever a man minds shapes his walk. Galatians 6:8 says, “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” The field does not care about your excuses. It grows what you sow. If you plant thistles all week, do not act shocked when your garden does not smell like Eden.
Chapter Three: To Be Carnally Minded Is Death
Romans 8:6 says, “For to be carnally minded is death.” That statement is not soft. The carnal mind is tied to death because it belongs to the realm of flesh, sin, and Adam. Romans 5 said death entered by sin. Romans 6 said the wages of sin is death. Romans 7 showed sin working death in the flesh. Now Romans 8 says the carnal mind is death. The flesh does not merely produce bad habits. It carries the smell of the grave. A man may have a brilliant carnal mind, a cultured carnal mind, a successful carnal mind, a religious carnal mind, or an entertained carnal mind, but God says the thing is death.
A carnal mind can build civilizations, invent machines, write music, organize governments, publish books, construct temples, argue philosophy, and hold religious councils. None of that changes its nature. The tower of Babel was a masterpiece of human cooperation and a monument of rebellion. Cain built a city after murdering his brother. Pharisees preserved religious form while rejecting the Lord of glory. Carnality does not always drool in an alley. Sometimes it wears a scholar’s robe and corrects the Bible. Sometimes it smiles from a pulpit and preaches morality without regeneration. Sometimes it speaks of God while rejecting the gospel of Christ. Death can be very well dressed.
For the believer, carnality in the walk brings deadness into practical fellowship and testimony. A saved man is not condemned to hell by a carnal thought or act, for there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, but if he minds the flesh, he will reap corruption in his daily life. Carnality deadens prayer, dulls Scripture, poisons discernment, weakens witness, feeds sin, and grieves the Spirit. The saved man who lives carnally is not enjoying liberty. He is visiting the old graveyard and wondering why the air feels heavy. The flesh never produces life. It only decorates death.
Chapter Four: To Be Spiritually Minded Is Life and Peace
Paul gives the contrast: “but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” The spiritual mind is not mystical fog, religious daydreaming, emotionalism, or pious vocabulary. It is the mind governed by the Spirit of God in agreement with the word of God and centered in Jesus Christ. The Spirit does not create spiritual minds by emptying them. He fills them with truth. Romans 12:2 says, “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The renewed mind is not a blank slate waiting for impressions. It is a Bible-shaped mind brought under the authority of God.
To be spiritually minded is “life” because the Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. He applies the life of the risen Christ to the believer. He leads away from the death-works of the flesh and into fellowship with God. He produces fruit that the law could command but never create: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” That is not flesh doing its best. That is the Spirit producing what Adam cannot manufacture. The flesh can imitate manners, but it cannot produce spiritual life. It can paint fruit on a dead tree, but it cannot make sap rise from the roots.
To be spiritually minded is also “peace.” This does not mean the absence of conflict, sorrow, temptation, or trouble. Romans 8 itself will speak of suffering, groaning, and waiting for the redemption of the body. The peace here belongs to the life of the Spirit in harmony with God’s truth. The carnal mind is war against God; the spiritual mind is brought into agreement with God. A believer walking after the Spirit may still be in a storm, but he is not at war with the Captain. The world calls peace the silence after it has ignored God long enough to stop hearing conviction. The Bible calls peace the life of the soul brought under the rule of God by the Spirit through Christ.
Chapter Five: The Carnal Mind Is Enmity Against God
Paul says, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.” This is the root statement. The carnal mind is not merely weak toward God, confused about God, uneducated concerning God, or underdeveloped spiritually. It is enmity against God. It is hostile in its very orientation. This is why salvation must be supernatural. You are not dealing with a neutral mind that simply needs better information. You are dealing with a mind hostile to God’s authority, God’s holiness, God’s word, God’s Christ, and God’s righteousness. The sinner’s problem is not that heaven failed to explain itself clearly enough. The sinner’s problem is that his natural mind does not want God to rule.
This enmity may express itself in open blasphemy or polite religion. Do not miss that. A drunk cursing God from a barstool and a religious professor correcting God’s words from a lectern are both operating from carnal enmity if they are outside Christ. One is honest enough to look rebellious; the other is polished enough to fool a congregation. The carnal mind can oppose God by denying His existence, changing His words, rejecting His Son, trusting its own righteousness, worshipping idols, pursuing lust, or inventing religion that avoids the cross. The method changes, but the enmity remains.
This is also why the gospel offends the natural man. The gospel tells him he is guilty, helpless, ungodly, without strength, unable to save himself, and in need of Christ’s blood. The carnal mind hates that diagnosis. It wants to be admired, negotiated with, improved, congratulated, educated, or religiously promoted. God tells it to bow to the crucified and risen Son. That is where the fight begins. The carnal mind does not merely dislike certain doctrines. It resents the God who has the authority to declare them. A rebel may accept religion as long as religion leaves him on the throne. The gospel removes the throne.
Chapter Six: Not Subject to the Law of God
Paul continues, “for it is not subject to the law of God.” The carnal mind does not submit. It may discuss God’s law, quote God’s law, admire parts of God’s law, use God’s law to condemn others, or turn God’s law into a ladder for self-righteousness, but it does not submit to God’s law. Submission means bowing under God’s authority. The flesh refuses. It wants to be judge, editor, interpreter, exception, and final authority. It wants God’s word beneath human review, not above human obedience.
This explains why religious flesh is so dangerous. It can handle the Bible without submitting to the Bible. It can use Scripture like a tool while refusing Scripture as a sword against itself. Pharisees searched the Scriptures and missed the One of whom they testified. Satan quoted Scripture in the wilderness while tempting Christ. A man can know verses and still not be subject to God. He can have doctrine in his mouth while rebellion runs the control room. Bible knowledge without submission becomes ammunition for pride. The issue is not merely whether the mind contains religious information. The issue is whether it bows to God.
The believer must guard against practical carnality in the mind. Though he is no longer in the flesh as his standing, he can still think carnally if he feeds the flesh and refuses the Spirit’s leading. When a Christian resists clear Scripture, excuses sin, defends pride, clings to bitterness, justifies worldliness, or demands his own way against God’s word, he is not walking spiritually. He is letting the flesh talk. The saved man must bring his thoughts under obedience to Christ. Second Corinthians 10:5 speaks of “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” A mind not submitted will become a rebel base before the body ever acts.
Chapter Seven: Neither Indeed Can Be
Paul adds, “neither indeed can be.” There is the deathblow to all flesh-improvement religion. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, and indeed it cannot be. It does not merely need encouragement. It needs a new birth. It does not need polishing. It needs crucifixion. It does not need a motivational coach. It needs resurrection life in Christ. The inability is absolute. Fallen flesh cannot submit itself to God’s law in a way that pleases God. It can be restrained, educated, disciplined, religiously trained, emotionally stirred, and socially improved, but it cannot become spiritual by natural effort.
This is why every system of salvation by works is doomed. It asks the flesh to do what God says it cannot do. It asks the carnal mind to submit itself into acceptability. It asks Adam to climb into Christ by ladder, ritual, sacrament, merit, commandment, reform, or perseverance. But God says the carnal mind cannot be subject to His law. The lost man needs regeneration, not renovation. Titus 3:5 says salvation is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” God does not save the flesh by congratulating its effort. He saves sinners by mercy through Jesus Christ.
This also destroys the notion that sanctification comes by placing confidence in the flesh under law. Galatians 3:3 asks, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” The answer should be obvious. No. The flesh that could not justify the sinner cannot perfect the saint. Christian growth does not come by trusting the carnal mind to behave under pressure. It comes by walking after the Spirit, reckoning the old man dead, yielding unto God, and living from the life of Christ. The flesh is not God’s raw material for holiness. It is the condemned thing from which grace delivers us.
Conclusion
Romans 8:5–8 draws the line between the flesh and the Spirit. They that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit. The carnal mind is death. The spiritual mind is life and peace. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, and indeed cannot be. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Paul leaves no room for flattering Adam. The flesh is not misunderstood goodness waiting for encouragement. It is hostile, dead, unsubmissive, and unable.
This passage should crush every confidence in fleshly religion. Fallen flesh cannot please God no matter how religious, educated, emotional, disciplined, cultured, baptized, ordained, moral, or sincere it becomes. The issue is deeper than conduct. It is nature. The carnal mind can sit in church, sing hymns, debate doctrine, perform rituals, and speak softly about spiritual things, but unless a man is born of the Spirit and placed in Christ, he remains in the flesh. A religious corpse is still a corpse. A well-behaved rebel is still at war with God. Only the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can make a man free from the law of sin and death.
For the believer, the passage is both warning and direction. Do not mind the things of the flesh and expect life and peace. Do not feed carnality and call it liberty. Do not trust the old nature to produce what only the Spirit can give. The saved man is in the Spirit, and therefore he must walk after the Spirit. The mind must be renewed by Scripture, governed by truth, yielded to Christ, and guarded against the old fleshly pull. The flesh minds death. The Spirit gives life and peace. Choose carefully what you mind, because the mind is not a harmless room—it is the command center of the walk.
Romans 8:5–8 Commentary – Carnally Minded or Spiritually Minded
Carnally Minded or Spiritually Minded
Key Passage: Romans 8:5–8
Romans VerseQuest Commentary
Essay 49: Carnally Minded or Spiritually Minded
Text: Romans 8:5–8
Introduction
Romans 8:5–8 says, “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. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Paul has opened Romans 8 with the great no-condemnation declaration for those who are in Christ Jesus. He has shown that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made the believer free from the law of sin and death. He has shown what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, and what God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemning sin in the flesh. Now he contrasts two realms, two minds, two directions, two outcomes, and two conditions: the flesh and the Spirit. This is not a polite comparison between two personality types. This is life and death, peace and enmity, God and Adam, Spirit and flesh, Christ and natural man.
The carnal mind is not merely immature, uninformed, emotionally unhealthy, culturally conditioned, or in need of a seminar. Paul says it is “enmity against God.” That is war language. Enmity is hostility, opposition, settled resistance. Fallen flesh is not a neutral student waiting for enough religious information to become agreeable to God. It is hostile to God at the root. The flesh may become religious, educated, disciplined, artistic, sentimental, charitable, patriotic, philosophical, or ceremonially decorated, but it remains flesh. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” You cannot educate flesh into Spirit. You cannot baptize flesh into new birth. You cannot polish flesh into holiness. You cannot preach enough law at flesh to make it love God. Flesh does not need improvement. It needs death at Calvary and replacement by life in Christ.
Romans 8:5–8 therefore exposes the great fraud of fleshly religion. Men think if they can make the flesh impressive enough, God will be pleased. They give it robes, degrees, incense, sacraments, altar calls, emotional music, moral reforms, devotional language, denominational titles, and a respectable haircut. But God says, “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Not might not. Not usually do not. Cannot. Fallen flesh cannot please God no matter how religious, educated, emotional, disciplined, sincere, or socially respectable it becomes. The issue is not merely what the flesh does. The issue is what the flesh is. A corpse in a clean suit is still dead. A rebel with a hymnbook is still a rebel. A carnal mind wearing theological cologne is still enmity against God.
Chapter One: They That Are After the Flesh
Paul begins, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.” To be “after the flesh” means to be characterized by the flesh, governed by the flesh, belonging to the fleshly realm, and moving according to fallen Adam’s nature. This is not merely a bad mood, a temporary weakness, or a lapse in judgment. Paul is contrasting the fundamental direction of those in the flesh with those after the Spirit. The flesh is man as he is by natural birth: fallen, self-centered, God-resistant, sin-inclined, and unable to please God. He may be openly wicked or outwardly religious, but he is still after the flesh if he has not been born of the Spirit.
Those after the flesh “do mind the things of the flesh.” The mind follows the nature. The flesh thinks fleshly, values fleshly, desires fleshly, measures fleshly, reasons fleshly, worships fleshly, and plans fleshly. It minds what belongs to its own realm. Some flesh minds filth in a gutter. Other flesh minds religion in a cathedral. Some flesh minds lust. Other flesh minds reputation. Some flesh minds drunkenness. Other flesh minds self-righteousness. Some flesh minds rebellion with tattoos and noise. Other flesh minds rebellion with robes and Latin. Do not be fooled by the uniform. The flesh can be vulgar or polished, but it remains flesh.
The phrase “do mind” shows the inward orientation. A man’s mind reveals his master. What occupies the mind, feeds the imagination, directs the affections, shapes the priorities, and governs the choices tells the truth about the life inside. A lost man may occasionally think about God when danger, death, guilt, or crisis forces him to, but his settled mind returns to the things of the flesh because that is his native country. The pig may be washed for the fair, but his heart remembers the mud. The flesh may sit through a sermon, but its appetite still belongs to Adam’s pantry.
Chapter Two: They That Are After the Spirit
Paul continues, “but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” Here is the opposite realm. Those after the Spirit are those who belong to the Spirit’s life and direction. Romans 8:9 will say, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” The saved man is no longer in the flesh as his standing before God. He still has flesh, and he must still refuse its reign, reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, and yield his members unto God, but his realm has changed. He is in Christ, indwelt by the Spirit, and called to walk after the Spirit.
Those after the Spirit mind “the things of the Spirit.” This does not mean the believer becomes sinlessly perfect in thought the moment he is saved. Romans 7 already showed the war in the members. It means the new life has a new direction, a new appetite, a new authority, and a new inward orientation toward God. The things of the Spirit include the word of God, the glory of Christ, holiness, truth, prayer, obedience, doctrine, righteousness, heavenly hope, spiritual fruit, and the will of God. The Spirit does not lead a man into vanity and call it liberty. He leads him toward Christ and truth.
This is why the Christian must feed the right mind. A believer cannot spend all week minding the world, feeding the flesh, entertaining sin, absorbing vanity, drinking from the sewer pipes of modern culture, and then expect to walk in the freshness of the Spirit because he gave God an hour and a half on Sunday. Whatever a man minds shapes his walk. Galatians 6:8 says, “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” The field does not care about your excuses. It grows what you sow. If you plant thistles all week, do not act shocked when your garden does not smell like Eden.
Chapter Three: To Be Carnally Minded Is Death
Romans 8:6 says, “For to be carnally minded is death.” That statement is not soft. The carnal mind is tied to death because it belongs to the realm of flesh, sin, and Adam. Romans 5 said death entered by sin. Romans 6 said the wages of sin is death. Romans 7 showed sin working death in the flesh. Now Romans 8 says the carnal mind is death. The flesh does not merely produce bad habits. It carries the smell of the grave. A man may have a brilliant carnal mind, a cultured carnal mind, a successful carnal mind, a religious carnal mind, or an entertained carnal mind, but God says the thing is death.
A carnal mind can build civilizations, invent machines, write music, organize governments, publish books, construct temples, argue philosophy, and hold religious councils. None of that changes its nature. The tower of Babel was a masterpiece of human cooperation and a monument of rebellion. Cain built a city after murdering his brother. Pharisees preserved religious form while rejecting the Lord of glory. Carnality does not always drool in an alley. Sometimes it wears a scholar’s robe and corrects the Bible. Sometimes it smiles from a pulpit and preaches morality without regeneration. Sometimes it speaks of God while rejecting the gospel of Christ. Death can be very well dressed.
For the believer, carnality in the walk brings deadness into practical fellowship and testimony. A saved man is not condemned to hell by a carnal thought or act, for there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, but if he minds the flesh, he will reap corruption in his daily life. Carnality deadens prayer, dulls Scripture, poisons discernment, weakens witness, feeds sin, and grieves the Spirit. The saved man who lives carnally is not enjoying liberty. He is visiting the old graveyard and wondering why the air feels heavy. The flesh never produces life. It only decorates death.
Chapter Four: To Be Spiritually Minded Is Life and Peace
Paul gives the contrast: “but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” The spiritual mind is not mystical fog, religious daydreaming, emotionalism, or pious vocabulary. It is the mind governed by the Spirit of God in agreement with the word of God and centered in Jesus Christ. The Spirit does not create spiritual minds by emptying them. He fills them with truth. Romans 12:2 says, “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The renewed mind is not a blank slate waiting for impressions. It is a Bible-shaped mind brought under the authority of God.
To be spiritually minded is “life” because the Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. He applies the life of the risen Christ to the believer. He leads away from the death-works of the flesh and into fellowship with God. He produces fruit that the law could command but never create: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” That is not flesh doing its best. That is the Spirit producing what Adam cannot manufacture. The flesh can imitate manners, but it cannot produce spiritual life. It can paint fruit on a dead tree, but it cannot make sap rise from the roots.
To be spiritually minded is also “peace.” This does not mean the absence of conflict, sorrow, temptation, or trouble. Romans 8 itself will speak of suffering, groaning, and waiting for the redemption of the body. The peace here belongs to the life of the Spirit in harmony with God’s truth. The carnal mind is war against God; the spiritual mind is brought into agreement with God. A believer walking after the Spirit may still be in a storm, but he is not at war with the Captain. The world calls peace the silence after it has ignored God long enough to stop hearing conviction. The Bible calls peace the life of the soul brought under the rule of God by the Spirit through Christ.
Chapter Five: The Carnal Mind Is Enmity Against God
Paul says, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.” This is the root statement. The carnal mind is not merely weak toward God, confused about God, uneducated concerning God, or underdeveloped spiritually. It is enmity against God. It is hostile in its very orientation. This is why salvation must be supernatural. You are not dealing with a neutral mind that simply needs better information. You are dealing with a mind hostile to God’s authority, God’s holiness, God’s word, God’s Christ, and God’s righteousness. The sinner’s problem is not that heaven failed to explain itself clearly enough. The sinner’s problem is that his natural mind does not want God to rule.
This enmity may express itself in open blasphemy or polite religion. Do not miss that. A drunk cursing God from a barstool and a religious professor correcting God’s words from a lectern are both operating from carnal enmity if they are outside Christ. One is honest enough to look rebellious; the other is polished enough to fool a congregation. The carnal mind can oppose God by denying His existence, changing His words, rejecting His Son, trusting its own righteousness, worshipping idols, pursuing lust, or inventing religion that avoids the cross. The method changes, but the enmity remains.
This is also why the gospel offends the natural man. The gospel tells him he is guilty, helpless, ungodly, without strength, unable to save himself, and in need of Christ’s blood. The carnal mind hates that diagnosis. It wants to be admired, negotiated with, improved, congratulated, educated, or religiously promoted. God tells it to bow to the crucified and risen Son. That is where the fight begins. The carnal mind does not merely dislike certain doctrines. It resents the God who has the authority to declare them. A rebel may accept religion as long as religion leaves him on the throne. The gospel removes the throne.
Chapter Six: Not Subject to the Law of God
Paul continues, “for it is not subject to the law of God.” The carnal mind does not submit. It may discuss God’s law, quote God’s law, admire parts of God’s law, use God’s law to condemn others, or turn God’s law into a ladder for self-righteousness, but it does not submit to God’s law. Submission means bowing under God’s authority. The flesh refuses. It wants to be judge, editor, interpreter, exception, and final authority. It wants God’s word beneath human review, not above human obedience.
This explains why religious flesh is so dangerous. It can handle the Bible without submitting to the Bible. It can use Scripture like a tool while refusing Scripture as a sword against itself. Pharisees searched the Scriptures and missed the One of whom they testified. Satan quoted Scripture in the wilderness while tempting Christ. A man can know verses and still not be subject to God. He can have doctrine in his mouth while rebellion runs the control room. Bible knowledge without submission becomes ammunition for pride. The issue is not merely whether the mind contains religious information. The issue is whether it bows to God.
The believer must guard against practical carnality in the mind. Though he is no longer in the flesh as his standing, he can still think carnally if he feeds the flesh and refuses the Spirit’s leading. When a Christian resists clear Scripture, excuses sin, defends pride, clings to bitterness, justifies worldliness, or demands his own way against God’s word, he is not walking spiritually. He is letting the flesh talk. The saved man must bring his thoughts under obedience to Christ. Second Corinthians 10:5 speaks of “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” A mind not submitted will become a rebel base before the body ever acts.
Chapter Seven: Neither Indeed Can Be
Paul adds, “neither indeed can be.” There is the deathblow to all flesh-improvement religion. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, and indeed it cannot be. It does not merely need encouragement. It needs a new birth. It does not need polishing. It needs crucifixion. It does not need a motivational coach. It needs resurrection life in Christ. The inability is absolute. Fallen flesh cannot submit itself to God’s law in a way that pleases God. It can be restrained, educated, disciplined, religiously trained, emotionally stirred, and socially improved, but it cannot become spiritual by natural effort.
This is why every system of salvation by works is doomed. It asks the flesh to do what God says it cannot do. It asks the carnal mind to submit itself into acceptability. It asks Adam to climb into Christ by ladder, ritual, sacrament, merit, commandment, reform, or perseverance. But God says the carnal mind cannot be subject to His law. The lost man needs regeneration, not renovation. Titus 3:5 says salvation is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” God does not save the flesh by congratulating its effort. He saves sinners by mercy through Jesus Christ.
This also destroys the notion that sanctification comes by placing confidence in the flesh under law. Galatians 3:3 asks, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” The answer should be obvious. No. The flesh that could not justify the sinner cannot perfect the saint. Christian growth does not come by trusting the carnal mind to behave under pressure. It comes by walking after the Spirit, reckoning the old man dead, yielding unto God, and living from the life of Christ. The flesh is not God’s raw material for holiness. It is the condemned thing from which grace delivers us.
Conclusion
Romans 8:5–8 draws the line between the flesh and the Spirit. They that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit. The carnal mind is death. The spiritual mind is life and peace. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, and indeed cannot be. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Paul leaves no room for flattering Adam. The flesh is not misunderstood goodness waiting for encouragement. It is hostile, dead, unsubmissive, and unable.
This passage should crush every confidence in fleshly religion. Fallen flesh cannot please God no matter how religious, educated, emotional, disciplined, cultured, baptized, ordained, moral, or sincere it becomes. The issue is deeper than conduct. It is nature. The carnal mind can sit in church, sing hymns, debate doctrine, perform rituals, and speak softly about spiritual things, but unless a man is born of the Spirit and placed in Christ, he remains in the flesh. A religious corpse is still a corpse. A well-behaved rebel is still at war with God. Only the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can make a man free from the law of sin and death.
For the believer, the passage is both warning and direction. Do not mind the things of the flesh and expect life and peace. Do not feed carnality and call it liberty. Do not trust the old nature to produce what only the Spirit can give. The saved man is in the Spirit, and therefore he must walk after the Spirit. The mind must be renewed by Scripture, governed by truth, yielded to Christ, and guarded against the old fleshly pull. The flesh minds death. The Spirit gives life and peace. Choose carefully what you mind, because the mind is not a harmless room—it is the command center of the walk.
Romans Verse-by-Verse Commentary
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Romans 1:1 Commentary – Paul, a Servant of Jesus Christ
Romans 1:2-4 Commentary – The Gospel Promised Beforehand
Romans 1:5–7 Commentary – Grace, Apostleship, and Obedience to the Faith