The Life of the Mind: A Meditation on Romans 8

There is therefore now no condemnation

to them which are in Christ Jesus,

who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus

hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do,

in that it was weak through the flesh,

God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,

and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,

who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

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.

Romans chapter 8 continues St. Paul’s theological magnum opus, by drawing out for his readers the significance of the life of the mind and its relationship to the life of the individual.  This life of the mind is something different than many philosophers of the last several centuries might have made it out to be, and certainly not the Gnostic bifurcation of spirit and body that abounded in the Greek culture of Paul’s day.  St. Paul makes clear for his readers in the Church at Rome that the life of the mind cannot be separated from an individual’s life as a whole, and that what begins in the mind as focus or conviction will play itself out in the physical aspects of a person’s life.  A person who, in their own mind, focused on and pursued the Spirit of Christ (another way of saying the Holy Spirit, who bore the Word of Christ through the Prophets and Apostles, and is the ultimate author of the Holy Scriptures which all testify of Jesus) was one who walked or lived in Christ and was free from the law of sin and death.  Conversely, a person who, in their own mind, focused on and pursued the various passions and lusts of their flesh, was one who walked or lived in the flesh and was still subject to the law of sin and death.

In this context, St. Paul was mapping out two distinct paths:  a person could be alive in Christ, where the mind was fixed on Jesus and His Word by grace through faith, continually disciplining both body and mind through repentance, or they could be dead in their trespasses and sins by ignoring Jesus and His Word, fixing their minds instead on the disordered passions and lust of their flesh.  These two paths, one of life and one of death, were paths begun in the mind.  Where the mind began, the body and soul followed.  This allowed St. Paul, as St. John would do later in his epistles, to advise his readers if someone claimed to be a Christian and didn’t walk after Jesus, abiding in Jesus’ Word, then that person did not really belong to Jesus or the fellowship of Christians we call the Church.  While the Christian would aspire to follow Jesus by abiding in His Word through faith and repentance, receiving grace and forgiveness to rise up again if they fell to sin or temptation, the unbeliever wouldn’t really care about Jesus or His Word, and would happily abide in their own sins without faith or repentance, and thereby forgoing grace and forgiveness.  The path of Christian struggle against sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil through faith in Jesus ultimately resolves in resurrection unto eternal life, where the path of the flesh resolves in the terrible resurrection to eternal condemnation in hell.

Thus today, as in St. Paul’s day, Christians continue to gather together around Jesus’ Word and Sacraments by grace through faith, in the hope of eternal life, while striving within themselves to put to death the disordered passions of the flesh, and bring their flesh under the control of the Spirit of Christ.  Unbelievers today, as in days past, still gather together in unbelief around anything other than Jesus’ Word, comforting each other in their sins and passions, and lying to themselves about the judgment which awaits them.  These two paths are irreconcilable, are destined for two entirely different ends, and they both begin with the life of the mind.

It is tempting, but ultimately unfulfilling, to imagine that we are fully in control of our own mind.  Apart from the Word and Spirit of God, our minds are dark, fallen places from which emerge all the sins and wickedness known to mankind.  If the battle for our minds were decided simply by our own efforts to win them, we would be as lost today as we ever were—unable to believe, trust, or hope in the promises of God, or to love Him and keep His commandments.  Our fallen powers are hopelessly twisted, both of body and mind, so that our fallen spirit careens toward the abyss we have rightfully earned.  And yet, in His mercy, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  While we were unable to fix our minds on anything but our lusts and passions, the Word of God Made Flesh became our atonement upon His Cross, and by His Holy Spirit preached this Good News to all who might repent and believe in Him, reconciling the household of faith to the Father by the blood of the Son in the power of the Spirit.  In this the Christian trusts the battle not only for their daily physical walk of life, but of their life of the mind, as well.  For Jesus came to save sinners such as us, who could not save ourselves by our own thought, word, or deed—by the things we’ve done, nor the things we’ve left undone.

The good news to all people today, is the good news that St. Paul shared so many centuries ago, and that the people of God have lived in since the dawn of time:  that we are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ alone.  In Christ alone, we find the power of the Spirit to abide in His Word, that our minds might be conformed to His, and that the entirety of our lives may follow—a work begun in this world, and made perfect in the next.  In Christ alone we find the path of life which rings true to the mind as well as the body and the soul, calling all people to leave behind the ways of death and destruction.  In Christ alone do we find our salvation from the evil which corrupts our every fallen power, and the hell which yawns wide to receive all those who prefer darkness over light.  In Christ alone is our mind renewed as we are born from above by Water and Spirit, that we might be called the children and heirs of God.

Hear the Word of the Lord as it calls to you today.  Turn to the light which would dispel your darkness, the grace which would absolve your sins, and the life which would swallow up your death.  Let the Word of God reign in you, that your mind, your feet, your hands, and all that you are, might be found on the path of life.  Amen.