The Christian's Mind; Spiritual, Heavenly

Paul is describing in Romans 8 especially Romans 8:5-13, two opposite kinds of people. Notice Romans 8:6, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Now connect that with Romans 8:9, "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." To be spiritually minded is life and peace; to be carnally minded is death, enmity with God.

Now, what does it mean to be spiritually minded? Well, he’s not talking here about some kind of higher Christian life. There are those Christians who are worldly minded and those who are spiritually minded. No, he’s contrasting here believers and unbelievers. He’s telling us, don’t think the way the unsaved people think. He’s encouraging us in the Lord to allow the Holy Spirit of God to transform our minds. Now we can understand better what it means to be spiritually minded if we’ll notice the contrasts between the spiritually minded person, that is the believer, and the carnally minded person, that is the unbeliever. 

Contrast number one, in Romans 8:5 there’s a contrast of positions. The unsaved person is in the flesh, the saved person is in the Spirit. Romans 8:5, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."

Now he’s talking here about two different positions. When you are unsaved, you are in the flesh, and therefore you think about taking care of the things of the flesh. Now by the flesh, he does not mean the human body. Saved people have bodies, unsaved people have bodies. No, he’s talking about that human nature, fallen, depraved human nature that wants to control the body and the mind and the will.

Now when you are born again, you change positions. The Spirit is in you, and you are in the Spirit. There are two births and two realms of experience. There is the realm of the flesh that caters to the old nature; there is the realm of the Spirit that caters to the new nature. Now occasionally Christians do sin. Sometimes our minds descend from heaven and get into the gutter and we sin, and we shouldn’t do this. But the general drift, the general trend, the general growth of the Christian’s life is in the Spirit. That’s contrast number one.

Contrast number two, not only in the flesh contrasted with in the Spirit, but death contrasted with life. You’ll notice that? "For to be carnally minded," says Romans 8:6, "is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Now the unsaved person lives in the realm of death. Paul has mentioned death so many times in Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8. Romans 5:15, "For if by the one man's offense many died." Who’s that one man? Adam. Who are the many that died? Well, you and I. In Adam, we died. Romans 5:17, "For if by the one man's offense, trespass, death reigned through the one." Death became king and death reigned. Romans 5:21, "So that as sin reigned in death." Now it's not a very pretty picture. Adam sinned and we sinned in him. We have inherited a fallen nature. Had we been there, we would have done the same thing. Now death is reigning, sin is reigning because the old nature is reigning. 

Now our own sins are also to blame. Romans 6:16, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?" The unsaved person is living in the realm of death. He’s alive physically but dead spiritually. It’s interesting to note that our Lord Jesus Christ raised three different people from the dead as far as the record in the Gospels is concerned.

Now He raised many more than these three, but these three we have the details given. He raised Jairus’ daughter, a little girl who had just died. He raised the son of the widow at Nain, and he’d been dead perhaps twelve, fifteen hours—the Jews buried the same day. And then He raised Lazarus who had been in the grave for four days, and Martha said to Jesus, "By now he smells." Now here are three different people: little girl who just died, the son who had been dead perhaps a day, Lazarus who had been in the grave for four days. Which of these three is the most dead? Well, you laugh at that statement, because if you’re dead, you’re dead. There are no degrees of death, but there are degrees of decay. Now the only difference between the moral religious church member who’s unsaved and the immoral person living in skid row is the degree of decay. Both are dead. 

Now we are moved into the sphere of life when we trust Jesus Christ as our Savior. The Spirit of God gives us life. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life. Ephesians 2:1, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." So, if you are a saved person, you have been moved out of the flesh into the realm of the Spirit, out of the realm of death into the realm of life.

Now there’s a third contrast: contrast in attitudes, war versus peace. You’ll notice he says to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind, Romans 8:7, "is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." Here’s a contrast between war and peace. Now the unsaved person is hostile toward God. He may be religious, he may sing hymns, he may go to church, pray, but if he’s unsaved, if he does not trust Jesus as his Savior, he is at enmity with God. Romans 5:10, "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." When Jesus died for me, I was God’s enemy. Colossians 1:21, this is a key verse, Colossians 1:21, "And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled." Now why did we do wicked works? Because we were at war with God in our minds. The unsaved person cannot think peaceably about God; he’s at war with God. 

Now the saved person has peace. We’ve been moved out of the battlefield into the feasting room, the banqueting room. There’s no condemnation and we have peace with God. There’s a contrast between war and peace. And there’s a contrast in motives: pleasing yourself or pleasing God. Romans 8:8, "So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Doesn’t say they occasionally please God, says they cannot. They cannot please God. Unsaved people fundamentally are selfish.

Now that hurts some people, but Ephesians 2:1 makes this very clear. Let me read it to you. Ephesians 2:1, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked," here’s walking dead people, "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air," there’s the world and the devil, "the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh," there’s the flesh—the world, the flesh, the devil—"fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." Whatever we thought we wanted to do, we did. We were selfish, living for the world, the flesh, and the devil, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. 

Now when you get saved, something happens to you. You put away that stubborn will that says "I will, I will, I will." That’s what the devil said in Isaiah 14. We don’t try to please ourselves, we want to please God because a new motive moves in. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God given to us. And now we want to live to please God. Romans 8:4, "that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us."

Now it doesn't say we fulfill them, it says they are fulfilled in us. How? How is that done? "That might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh," that’s the carnal mind, "but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." We are now obeying God’s law, not in order to be saved, but because we have been saved. We want to do God’s will and please God’s heart. Therefore, we are walking to please the Lord.

Now here are the four characteristics of the spiritual mind: number one, that person is in the Spirit, saved, and the Spirit is in him or her. Two, there is life. Three, there is peace. Four, there is a desire to please God. And it means that the Spirit of God works in the mind of the believer, and our ambitions, our appetites, our aims, our outlook—all of this is controlled by the Holy Spirit of God through the word. Therefore, let’s let our minds be controlled by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. 

The American evangelist D.L. Moody used to say that some Christians were so heavenly minded they were no earthly good. He was referring, of course, to the impractical visionaries, the starry-eyed dreamers who have their heads in the clouds and both feet firmly planted in the air. Moody had no time for people like that; he was a doer. He was busy about the Master’s business. Now D.L. Moody knew, as you and I know, that there is a heavenly mindedness that is needed in the church today. Paul writes about this in Colossians 3, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Paul is talking here about a heavenly mindedness that is very practical.

You’ll notice in Colossians 3:18, this heavenly mindedness shows up in marriage. He talks to the wives. Colossians 3:19, to the husbands. It has an application in the family. He talks to the children and fathers in Colossians 3:20-21. If we are heavenly minded, it should show up in the workplace, in the marketplace. He talks to the servants in Colossians 3:22-25. Then Colossians 4:1 to the masters. And then he talks to the church and tells them how to speak and how to pray. Heavenly mindedness is not being a dreamer, it’s being a doer. We have our mind in the heavens, but our hands and our feet are busy here on earth obeying the Lord. To be a heavenly minded Christian simply means to see life from heaven’s point of view. Heavenly mindedness is not an escape from the realities of life, rather it is a perspective about the realities of life, and it’s very practical. Live with your mind in heaven. That means looking at earth from heaven’s point of view. How do we go about cultivating a heavenly mind? I have three suggestions to make. 

Suggestion number one, we must make Jesus Christ preeminent in our lives. Now did you notice that four times our Lord is mentioned in these four verses? "Since therefore," the if is not a conjecture, he knows that they have been saved, "since therefore you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God." Colossians 3:3, "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

The center of all of our affection and attention is Jesus Christ. Now that’s the theme of Colossians, isn't it? Colossians 1:18, "that in all things He," Jesus Christ, "may have the preeminence." And as you read this book you see that He is preeminent. He’s the preeminent one. He’s preeminent in the Gospel message. Colossians 1:5, Paul talks in chapter one about the word of the truth of the Gospel. Jesus is preeminent in the Gospel. Take away Jesus Christ, there is no Gospel message. He is preeminent in redemption. Colossians 1:13-14, "in whom we have redemption through His blood." He’s preeminent in creation. Colossians 1:15, "the firstborn over all creation." He made all things; all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, in Him all things consist. He’s preeminent in the church. Colossians 1:18, He’s the head of the body, the church.

So wherever you look, it is Jesus Christ who is the preeminent one. Now this means we can’t be double minded. Nobody can serve two masters. We either love the one and hate the other, cling to the one, despise the other. You can’t serve two masters. A double minded man or woman is unstable in all his or her ways. We must make Jesus Christ preeminent. 

Secondly, we must realize our wonderful position in Christ. Now notice in Colossians 2:20, "Therefore, if you died with Christ." Let me just stop right there. When Jesus died on the cross, He died for us, but we died with Him. Substitution is there. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He loved me and gave Himself for me. That’s substitution. But Colossians 2:20 is talking about identification. The same thing Paul talks about in Romans 6: we died with Christ. So, our position in Christ is we died with Christ. Colossians 3:1, "Since then you have been raised with Christ." Co-resurrection. And being raised with Jesus Christ is a beautiful thing in itself.

Just think of our Lord’s resurrection. He left the grave clothes behind in the grave. And we should do the same thing: walking in newness of life, "like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." So we died with Christ. That takes care of the old life. We were raised with Christ. That gives us the new life. We have been ascended and enthroned in Christ. "Seek those things which are above." Why? "Where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God." We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We belong on the throne. Colossians 3:3, "You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." That means security, safety; we’re hidden with Him. In fact, Christ is our life. "When Christ who is our life appears." Christ is our life. Life is what you are alive to. 

Suggestion number one, we must make Jesus Christ preeminent in our lives. Suggestion number two, we must realize our wonderful position in Christ.

Now suggestion number three, we must deliberately focus on things above. The angels won’t do this for us; we have to do it ourselves. He gives us two commandments. Colossians 3:1, "seek." Colossians 3:2, "set." Seek. Seek those things which are above. This is an act of will, and the Greek verb says keep on seeking. When you wake up in the morning, seek those things which are above. Look at earth from heaven’s point of view. During the day when a crisis comes, a problem, a burden, a blessing—look at it from heaven’s point of view. At the close of the day, look back over the day and evaluate it from heaven’s point of view. Seek those things which are above. That means that our affection, our ambition, all about us is wrapped up in that which is heavenly. I set my mind on that which is above. That’s what he says in Colossians 3:2, "Set your mind." It’s a commandment. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

All right, what are the things on the earth? Well, Colossians talks about these things. Earthly philosophies. Colossians 2:8, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." Watch out for philosophies; they’ll bring your mind down to earth, not up to heaven. And of course, there is religious activity, all kinds of religious systems. Colossians 2:20, "Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations?" Here’s the legalist: "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle." Here’s somebody who has all kinds of rules and regulations and thinks he’s going to be holy because of that. Certainly, he is not. The things on earth: earthly philosophies, earthly religious traditions that bind us. Earthly sin. Colossians 3:5, "Therefore put to death your members," that means the members of your body, "which are on the earth," and he starts naming these things: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Then he says in Colossians 3:8, "put off these things: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another."

Then he says after you’ve put away these things and put them off, put on the new man. This means a mind filled with the Word of God. Saturate yourself with the Word of God so that your mind is in heaven. Does this make you impractical? Of course not, it makes you more practical. I have found that when my mind is dwelling upon the things that belong to God, I am better able to do my work. My motives are right, my actions are better because God is in control. The heavenly minded Christian leads the highest life possible, the holiest life possible, and the result is the happiest life possible. Let’s get our minds off of the things of the earth. Doesn’t mean we ignore them or neglect them; it means we look at them from the perspective of heaven. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.