You Are What You Think

Romans 8 speaks about the absolute certainty of the final salvation of those in whom the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled (i.e., those who live according to the Holy Spirit, not according to the flesh). This assurance of salvation belongs only to God’s holy people. Only they shall see God.

In The Great Divorce C. S. Lewis says, “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.'”¹ People either do the will of God gladly in response to God’s great salvation, or they do their own will and go to hell. There is no other choice.

Romans 8:5-8 contrasts these two classes of people: those who are self-centered against those who are God-centered; flesh-directed people against Holy Spirit-controlled people; unbelievers versus believers; pagans versus Christians. No one is neutral. We either love God or hate him. There is radical difference between the two classes of people.

In this passage, Paul contrasts the mind of an unbeliever with the mind of a Christian. As we study it, I hope you will examine yourself and see to which category you belong. It is my prayer that you belong in the class of God’s holy people, those who have experienced a supernatural change in their lives. A bad tree must become a good tree to bear good fruit. Wolves must become sheep. Only God is able to change our natures. He does so by saving sinners and making them saints of God. If you determine that you are still an unbeliever, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Surrender to Christ and be saved.

The Mind of An Unbeliever

We want to look at seven aspects of the mind of the unbeliever. When Paul uses the words “mind” or “think,” he is not just talking about intellectual activity. Rather, he is speaking about the whole attitude of the heart. Such thinking involves not just the intellect but also the will and affections.

1. THE NATURE OF AN UNBELIEVER

The nature of unbelievers is described here as kata sarka– “according to the flesh” (v. 5). They follow the promptings of the flesh and surrender to its control.

What is flesh? It is human nature, under sin’s total control, untouched by the mighty Holy Spirit. Unbelievers are slaves of sin. They live in sin. They are corrupted, directed, and controlled by sin and Satan. They are bad trees. They are wolves. They are dead toward God.

Quoting C.E. B. Cranfield, Dr. John Stott says that flesh is “our fallen, egocentric human nature.”² Unbelievers are in the sphere of the flesh, living according to the dictates of this fallen human nature. Therefore, they are against God and everything he is for- against their parents, against the church leaders, and against the Bible. Paul describes them as helpless, sinners, ungodly, and enemies of God (Rom. 5:6-10).

2. THEY THINK THE THINGS OF THE FLESH

Second, unbelievers think the things of the flesh. The Greek word (phronousin) indicates that they do so continually (v. 5). Our mindset reveals our basic nature. What are we continually focused on, devoted to, striving for, and thinking about?

When Paul says unbelievers continually think the things of the flesh, he is not speaking of merely their intellectual activity. Remember, thinking here encompasses all one’s faculties-mind, will, and affections. Unbelievers are engrossed with sin. They may come to church, but as they meet with people, their minds are thinking, “How can I find someone to commit sexual immorality with?” Sexual predators come very nicely to church, but they have only one thing in their minds.

Unbelievers pursue the things of this world. They are taken up with buying and selling, planting and harvesting, building, marrying and giving in marriage. They are like the people of Noah’s days, who had no time to listen to God’s warning about the coming destruction. They are like the people of Sodom. They hate God and do not think about their salvation. Their thinking is characterized by godlessness. They say, “Let us eat, drink, and fornicate, for tomorrow we die.” They are narcissistic, atheistic, hedonistic, and Satan-directed automatons.

They are what they think. “For as he thinketh in his heart; so is he” (Prov. 23:7. KJV). Our thinking defines who we are. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34, author’s translation). The unbeliever does not think of truth, God, eternal life, righteousness, love, everlasting joy, or eternal judgment. Like Mrs. Lot, he gives himself to worldliness.

The apostle John describes the unbelieving man of the world: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its lusts pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

Thinking the things of the flesh also means taking the side of Satan, not of righteousness. The unbeliever stands against God and is on the side of sin and Satan. He is single-minded in his devotion to sin and the service of Satan. He wholeheartedly seeks first the kingdom of Satan, sinning against God for his own illicit pleasure.

Such people are idolaters who worship and serve creation and hate the Creator. They are materialistic and do not understand spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14). They can be philosophers, politicians, preachers, scientists, and followers of various religions. They can be rich people or poor people, simple people or sophisticated people. They can also be nominal Christians or just very moral people. But their mind is on earthly things. They are enemies of the cross of Christ. “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things” (Phil. 3:19).

Their minds are focused only on the things of the flesh. With their minds, they exchange the truth for a lie (Rom. 1:28-32; 3:9-18). Their minds are fixed on earthly things, on the works of the flesh. Paul lists these works: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips . . . The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Col. 3:5-8; Gal. 5:19-21).

They are like the fool of Luke 12 whose field brought such abundant crops. He boasted, “I will build a bigger barn and store everything in it. I will live for a long time.” His mind was focused only on the things of this earth-a bigger house, a bigger barn, a bigger everything. They are like the rich man of Luke 16, who lived all his life in a sumptuous manner, dressed in purple. Never in his life did he think about God or heaven. When he wound up in hell, he finally thought about heaven. But it was too late.

What are you thinking? What are you devoted to? What is filling your heart? What are you planning? What are you spending your time, money, and energies on? We are what we think. Based on our thinking, we go either to heaven or to hell.

3. THE MIND OF THE FLESH IS DEATH

The unbeliever’s mind is death (v. 6). It permeates his mentality, outlook, and philosophy. His last name is death. An unbeliever is death walking, death driving, death laughing, death eating, death working, death celebrating. It is a scary and sorry sight. If your parents, siblings, children, and friends are not true believers, they are death. The wages of sin is death. If you are a believer, and your spouse is an unbeliever, you are living with death. The dead person cannot make himself alive. He does not want to. He loves death, hell, and this world.

Look at the heart of the dead man: “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly” (Mark 7:21-22). Jeremiah states, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). Moses writes, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5).

The unregenerate man is under sin, death, Satan, and condemnation. He is Mr. Death, looking forward to death eternal. Oh, he may dress nicely and do many things to impress people. But he is a dead man walking. No Bible-believer will be impressed by Death walking in a $5000 suit. It is just a shroud enveloping the dead.

When we speak to such a person about his soul, eternal life, Jesus Christ, the Bible, he does not understand anything because he is dead. He may come to church, but he will be bored to death. He will yawn and sleep, and then be restless, looking this direction and that.

Paul tells us: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:1-3). The unbeliever lives in the midst of death, looking forward to death eternal. His entire life direction is death. Everything he does is against God. A fool, he says every day in his heart, “There is no God,” and goes about sinning.

4. THE MIND OF THE FLESH IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD

“For the mind of the flesh is enmity against God” (v. 7, author’s translation). An unbeliever is not neutral to God. He is an enemy of God. That kind, very moral person is without God and without hope. When you speak to him about his true condition and declare that he must trust in Christ and his atonement, all of a sudden, such a nice, moral man begins to fume and reveal his true nature. He is an enemy of God and of the saints of God. All nominal Christians are enemies of God. They are against God and against those who preach the Bible. They are like those who stoned the prophets, killed the apostles, and crucified Christ. Religious people who are not true believers are the most dangerous people in the world.

Nominalists vehemently oppose those who preach the Bible way of life. They are like Ahab, who hated the prophet Micaiah because he never said anything good about him. They are like Jezebel, who hated Elijah. The unbeliever’s mind is hostile to God, the Bible, and God’s holy church. Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned to death because he spoke about the true God and his Son, Jesus Christ.

Paul says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (Col. 1:21). Enmity against God reveals their total depravity. But God is against them. The wrath of God is revealed against them. The essence of sin is enmity against God. When we sin, we show our enmity to God by violating his holy laws. David confessed, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned” (Ps. 51).

5. AN UNBELIEVER DOES NOT SUBMIT TO GOD’S LAW

The word hupotassô (submit) has to do with a soldier submitting to the orders of his commanding officer. The soldier is under the superior officer. A subordinate always salutes the person over him in the army. But a sinner refuses to acknowledge the rights of his Creator God. Being an enemy at heart, he daily transgresses God’s law and receives great delight in doing so. When God says, “Thou shalt not,” the sinner says, “I shall do what I want, when I want, how I want, and who are you to tell me how I should live?” He is under sin’s control and enlisted in Satan’s army. He refuses to take orders from God.

6. HE IS NOT ABLE TO SUBMIT TO GOD’S LAW

The unbeliever does not submit to God’s law because he is not able (ou dunatai) to do so (v. 7). Total depravity produces total moral inability. They go hand in hand. As an enemy of God, the sinner does not obey God. He is unable to do so because he is dead. All unbelievers, whether one’s spouse or parents or children or friends, are wholly in the grip of sin, death, and Satan. They are slaves who can only sin.

7. HE CANNOT PLEASE GOD

An unbeliever cannot please God (v. 8). The purpose of human life is to please God. How do we please God? By knowing and doing God’s will, which we discover by reading the Bible, the very word of God. The sinful man, the dead man, the enemy of God, the disobedient man, the morally incompetent man, cannot please God. He can only make God angry every day unless he has been set free by the Holy Spirit from the law of sin and death. The sinner remains at enmity with God, disobedient and morally powerless to please God. The sinner can only please himself by pleasing Satan, whose orders he perfectly obeys.

The Mind of a Christian

1. HIS NATURE IS “ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT”

The nature of the believer is described as kata pneuma, according to the Spirit (v. 5). That means he is under the authority of the Holy Spirit, lives in the Spirit, and behaves according to Holy Spirit’s direction. His life is conditioned and patterned after the Holy Spirit. He is habitually dominated by the Holy Spirit. A believer is daily led by the Spirit because the law of the Spirit of life has set him free from the law of sin and death.

Before, he was in the flesh, walking kata sarka, dead and an enemy of God. He was disobedient and totally depraved. He was morally incompetent. But all that changed, as Paul describes:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:4-10)

Now he is regenerated. He is a new creation, indwelt, empowered, and taught by the Holy Spirit. This is true of every true Christian, not just some super-Christians. A true Christian surrenders to the control of the Spirit, who resides in him as boss.

2. HE THINKS THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT

The true Christian meditates on God’s word, in which he delights. Like Jesus, his food is to do the will of God and to finish it (John 4:34). His eyes are fixed on Christ, his commanding officer. He walks in step with his Lord, who said to him, “Deny yourself, take up the cross daily, and follow me.” He is a disciple of Jesus. He thinks the things of the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit reveals to him the glorious Christ in the pages of the Bible. Paul declares, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16). He also says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things” (Phil. 4:8).

The true Christian focuses his mind on Jesus Christ. Paul exhorts, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). He deliberately and freely sets his mind on what the Holy Spirit desires, and sets his face like flint to do God’s will. He sees the one thing needful and does it with an undivided heart. He follows Jesus, who was always minding the things of God, resisting the devil and obeying his Father. His authority is “what is written.” The mind of Christ was focused on the mind of God, for he came to fulfill God’s law and please him only. In the same way, our mind should be focused on the mind of God. (PGM) We should be like the early believers, who devoted themselves daily to the apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2:42).

What are you thinking? Your thinking defines you. Listen to what Paul says about his life: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12-14). Paul wanted to know Christ. Christ should fill our minds.

3. THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT IS LIFE AND PEACE

The mind of the Spirit is life and peace (v. 6). First, let us consider life. The majority of “Christians” are unregenerate, dead pagans. They are like plastic flowers that look good from a distance. These nominalists are good at simulation. But true Christians, born of the Spirit, enjoy eternal life, which is knowing God through Jesus Christ. We cannot receive eternal life and go away from God. Eternal life is relational. It exists in union and communion with God. It is like love. We have to have at least one other person to practice love. God is love because the three Persons of the Godhead love one another. Eternal life cannot exist except in union and communion with God and his holy people. Adam killed us, but Christ gives us life eternal. He came to give us life, abundant life.

Moreover, the mind of Spirit is also peace. God in Christ forgives our sins and reconciles us to himself. We were his enemies, but now, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Forgiveness that does not lead to reconciliation and peace is a false forgiveness. Thank God, we have peace with God, and God is at peace with us. Therefore, we may come into his presence. The prodigal son was forgiven, so he did not remain outside as a hired hand but came inside as the father’s son. He could do so because he was at peace with his father.

This peace is the antithesis of the misery that sin created in our life. No more hiding, no more fear, no more guilt, no more punishment. We have perfect peace with God. Isaiah compares the wicked to the restless sea: “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked'” (Is. 57:20-21).

Now we can approach the throne of grace with boldness. Jesus Christ calls the restless and weary and heavy-laden to himself. He alone can give us rest. Dr. Lloyd-Jones remarks that at the center of a hurricane “there is a point of complete rest.”³When we live in Christ, we experience such peace which passes all human reasoning-even when troubles of every kind rage against us. The doctor may say you have cancer and only one month remains. But in the center of this hurricane, the child of God can rest in Christ. So Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7). Nothing in all creation, neither death nor life, nothing in all creation is “able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). Philip Doddridge writes:

Now rest, my long-divided heart;

fixed on this blissful center, rest;

with ashes who would grudge to part,

when called on angels’ bread to feast?

We have peace with God and with God’s people. Therefore we also enjoy great peace within. No division, no anxiety, no fear.

4. THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT LOVES GOD

If we are Christians, God is no longer our enemy and we are no longer his. God loved us and loves us. He proved his love when he spared us by not sparing his own Son but giving him over to the death of the cross on our behalf. Spirit-filled people will love God and his people.

5. WE SUBMIT TO GOD’S LAW

Paul received apostleship to call the Gentiles to the obedience of faith (Rom. 1:5). The man who says one can receive Jesus as Savior and not as Lord is from the pit. He has nothing to do with biblical understanding. Paul tells us, “You have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching to which you have been entrusted” (Rom. 6:17, author’s translation). Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” The proof of our life and love is that we delight in God’s law and eagerly obey it. If we do not obey God’s moral law, we are pagans and enemies of God. Our profession is false, and Jesus is not our Lord. In fact, he will say to us on the last day, “Depart, I do not know you. Depart, you lawless ones!” (Matt. 7:23, author’s translation).

John proclaims, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus walked” (1 John 2:6). He later adds, “This is love for God: to obey his commandments. And his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3, author’s translation). For God’s people, God’s commandments are not grievous but a delight. We are to walk in Christ’s path of obedience, as Peter declares, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his [footsteps]” (1 Pet. 2:21).

If we willfully, deliberately disobey God’s law, we are not Christians. John Gerstner told a story about an old woman in a hospital who refused to forgive someone, even though she was dying. She claimed to be a Christian, but Gerstner said she could not be. It is clearly God’s will that we forgive any person who asks forgiveness of us. If we refuse, we are simply not Christians.

6. WE HAVE MORAL ABILITY TO OBEY

We have moral ability to obey God’s commandments because we have a new nature and a new power. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. We are now good trees. We are no longer wolves but sheep.

7. WE PLEASE GOD

The passion and purpose of a true Christian is to please God. We do so by knowing and doing his will: “The righteous requirement of law is fulfilled in us because we walk after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4). Enoch walked with God and so pleased God.

How do we please God? We learn from Jesus, who obeyed God actively and passively. He knew the will of God and always did it. Listen to what his Father said: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him.” When we fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, we also please and honor God. When a worker obeys his boss, he pleases not only the boss but God. When a child obeys his parents, he pleases not only the parents but also God. So Paul writes, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases God.”

Conclusion

We are what we think. No one can say he does not think. We are always thinking. Either we will think God’s thoughts or the thoughts of Satan. Either we are dead or alive. Either we obey God or sin. Either we are depraved and morally incompetent, or we are godly and morally able to obey God and please him. Our hearts are deceitful and wicked, and by nature dead toward God. But thank God, he raises the dead because of his great love and rich mercy for wicked sinners like us. May we therefore pray for a new outpouring of the Spirit, that he would raise the spiritually dead to think God’s thoughts and delightfully do his holy will. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

¹ C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York: Harper-Collins/Zondervan, 2001), 75.

² John Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994), 222.

³ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: The Sons of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975), 48.