I want to look at the carnal mind today, and just define it for everyone.   The apostle Paul says in Romans 8 the carnal mind is enmity against God.  It cannot know God or comprehend God or understand the things of God.  Paul says to be carnally minded is death.

The body of Christ hasnt really understood the carnal mind and what happened to mankind in Adam.  We havent understood what happened with Adam, and how it ails us, and how the gospel heals us.  We havent understood the eye of our understanding was made sick, and what it is that made our eye sick, and how that was able to animate our bodies with darkness and the fruit of death.  

Human beings function by understanding.  We desire to understand.  We all have minds and they are constantly reasoning about the things we see and the things we encounter in this world and what those things mean. The reason human beings can even make computers that process information is because that is what our minds are always doing.  Now absent getting our understanding from God we will come up with our own logic to try and explain the dynamics we see in our lives and in the world around us.   

What’s happened is because of a lack of understanding we’ve misdiagnosed the problem we inherited from Adam as some mythical sin nature, and that has distracted us from what the apostle Paul says is the real problem, and left us in bondage, shadow boxing with mythical things.

I say mythical because what is it?  Who can see it?  How does it work?  No one could ever tell you what it really is, or how it worked, or how you could be free from its effect in your lives.  It was always just that we’re inherently evil and our nature is sinful, and thats just the way it is, and we are just condemned as worms in the sight of God.   When someone finally came along and said believers no longer have a sin nature.  What happened is we had to now create doctrines like spirit, soul, and body to explain why believers who no longer have a sin nature are still doing the same things they did before they believed.  Back to the shadowboxing.  Ever learning but never coming into the knowledge of the truth.  

The apostle Paul never taught the problem for man is a sin nature.  He never said we inherited a sin nature from Adam.  He says in romans 5 by the sin of one man Adam death reigned over all.  In romans 3 he says all fell short and missed the mark of possessing the immortality of God in their physical bodies.  He says in Romans 7 who shall save me from this body of death.  Who shall save me from this dying flesh I’m clothed in.  As I mentioned before he says to be carnally minded is death.  He says it’s the carnal mind that is enmity against God.  It’s the carnal mind; the wisdom that is of the world that cannot comprehend God, not a sin nature. 

Where did the idea of a sin nature come from? 

Whats happened is well intentioned people not really understanding the gospel took the phrase “in the flesh” & “after the flesh” the apostle Paul uses in Romans 8 to come up with the idea of a sin nature.  But, the apostle Paul himself defines “in the flesh” when he goes on to talk about the carnal mind.  The apostle Paul defines “in the flesh”, as being carnally minded, and then describes in detail how the carnal mind got it right enslave mankind to sin & how God set us free through Jesus.  

So what is the carnal mind? 

Theres more than one aspect to the carnal mind.  You can describe it in several different ways and they would all be true.  There’s the thing that father’s the carnal mind, or that gives birth to the carnal mind.  You can call it the place from where the carnal mind reasons and makes all it conclusions about life.  You have the thoughts and the conclusions that come from the carnal mind.  And then theres the fruit the carnal mind produces in people.

Where does the carnal mind come from?  What is its origin?

The carnal mind comes from death.  Death is the Father of the carnal mind.  Death is what gives birth to the carnal mind.  Death is the seed or the root that produces the carnal mind.  In Ephesians 4:18 the apostle Paul talks about an understanding or a mind that is darkened and ignorant because its alienated from the life of God.  Darkness in the scriptures is synonymous with death.  Isaiah 9 says the people were walking in darkness and the darkness shadowing the land is death.  

The carnal mind is a mind thats been darkened with death.  If we look at the origin of the carnal mind.  The carnal mind came into existence when satan was envious of the life God promised mankind.  He saw himself as being alienated from the life he needed.  Ezekiel describing satan as a tree in the midst of the garden says he corrupted his wisdom.  He saw the river from where he was decorated with life, but rejected the River and said I will exalt myself above the stars of Heaven.  His thoughts were born from the idea he didnt have the life he should needed and should have.  

The place the carnal mind reasons from is death.  The eye through which it sees everything is darkened by the death thats in the world.   It builds all its thoughts and conclusions about mankind and God and life on the death and the fruit of death it sees.  All its judgments and conclusions about everything are filtered through the death and the lack and the corruption it sees.  

The Gospel of John says in Jesus is life and that life is a light to people.  The life that manifested in Jesus opens our eyes to the love of God.  Well contrariwise in the world is death and that death darkened everyone’s understanding about God, and what is in His heart for all people, especially sinners.  

If you listen to people who say they don’t believe in God.  Many times the reason they say they don’t believe in God is because of all the death and tribulation they see in the world.  What’s happening is they are building their understanding on the death and lack they see in the world instead of the life that manifested in Jesus.  

When Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil sin found an opportunity to manifest death in his body and in the earth.  Adam’s conscience became stained with death.  He considered the deadness in his body and all around him, and death became exalted in his eyes.  Death became his God.  Death became his lord so to speak.  Every edict death spoke became the word by which Adam lived.  Every word that death was speaking became the meditation of his heart.  All his steps were ordered by the death and the lack he beheld in himself and in the earth.  

To use the apostle Paul’s words Adam was in the flesh.  Adam didnt discern the deadness he saw in himself through God and the love in God’s heart for him, and the promise of life.  He didnt build his thoughts about himself and His thoughts about God’s heart for him on the promise of life God made to him, or the fact that God got down on one knee and blessed him in the garden.  Adam’s understanding about himself and God and God’s thoughts and intentions towards him were darkened by the deadness he saw in himself.  

When Adam saw the deadness in his body the carnal mind judged him as evil and it judged God’s thoughts and intents towards him as evil.  The carnal mind told Adam God was ashamed of his nakedness and angry with him because of his sin, and that God abandoned him and left him as an orphan in the earth, needing to care for himself … Adam couldnt comprehend God.  He was blinded by the death he saw in himself.  He couldnt see God’s heart was full of lovingkindness towards him, even when he was in sin, and he couldn’t see God was with him to cloth his nakedness with the life of His lamb.  

The conclusions of the carnal mind were enmity against God.  They were in opposition to God’s own thoughts and they were in opposition to the goodness in God’s heart towards Adam.  We know they were contrary to what was really in Gods heart towards Adam because GOD showed up in the midst of Adams sin and clothed Adam with the life of His lamb. 

The carnal mind was death unto Adam because the result was he didnt cry out to the one whose heart was to cloth him.  He didnt see God was with him to be the Shepherd of his life so he didnt look to the shepherd and bishop of his soul.  As a result Adam’s mind was filled with his own works.  And the result of Adams mind being filled with his own works is he was decorated in thorns and thistles and the fruit of death.  And thus the carnal mind resulted in death and the fruit of death for Adam.  

One of the meanings of carnal is a perishable human body.  Carnal speaks of the body of sin, or the body man built with the works of their own hands, the body thats dying and derives its life from its bones working to produce blood.  The carnal mind makes its judgments according to the corruption it sees in the flesh.  This is why Jesus says in the account of the woman caught in the act of adultery that he judges no one according to the flesh.  It isnt just about not judging yourself by any flesh.  I mean I am living my life in this world, daily judging myself and God by what I see manifested in the flesh of the man Jesus, seated at the right hand of God.  When Jesus says he judges no one according to the flesh, its about not judging yourself and God through the flesh thats been corrupted with death and the fruit of death.  

Isaiah 53 says the people saw the death that was come upon Jesus at the cross, and they concluded he was smitten and stricken by God.  They saw the death that was manifesting in his flesh, and they said this death that is come upon him must be by the hand of God.  They saw the death there and they judged Jesus and God by the death they saw manifesting in his body.  In Genesis 15 the word of the Lord came to Abram saying fear not Abram I am thy shield and thy exceedingly great reward.  Abram looked at himself and the deadness he saw in himself and in sarah and said what shall you give me Lord seeing I have no seed.  He judged the word of God by the deadness he saw in himself.  Sarah when she heard she would conceive she laughed.  She laughed because her judgments about what she heard were born from the deadness she saw in Abram and herself instead of the life God has in Himself. 

The carnal mind cannot comprehend God.  It cannot see God.  The carnal mind is blind.  Its eye is full of darkness so its blind to the lovingkindness in God’s heart for sinners.  It’s eye is full of death so it cannot see God is the good shepherd and there to cloth with the life of His lamb.  

The carnal mind is enmity against God.  Its filled with thoughts that are in opposition to God’s own thoughts.  Whereas God is thinking He will prepare you a table full of life, and He will hedge you about with His life.  The carnal mind sees death, and thinks the death is a sign God has abandoned you.  When Gods thoughts are filled with the work He will do to serve you with life.  The carnal mind is filled with the work it can do to have life.  

To be carnally minded is death.  The carnal mind results in death because if you cannot see God is with you to only ever be good to you; to exalt your life above the death in the world.  What will happen is your mind will be filled with your own works to try and serve yourself with life and with peace and love and joy.  And since you don’t have life in and of yourself, that will leave you covered in thorns and thistles and the fruit of death.  You’ll be left standing in the condemnation of death.  

The apostle Paul describes the dynamic of the carnal mind at work in his own life in romans 7-8.  

Paul couldnt comprehend God was with him to cloth upon his dying body with immortal flesh.  He couldnt comprehend that God’s heart was full of lovingkindness towards him.  He couldnt see he wasnt a lamb left in the world to be led away to the slaughter; He couldnt see God was with him to be the shepherd and bishop of his life; He couldnt see God was with Him to condemn the death in his flesh that was always working condemnation in his heart.  His thoughts were at enmity with God’s own thoughts.  His thoughts were in opposition to God’s own thoughts.  He saw God’s life.  He saw the fruit of God’s life, and agreed it was good and to be desired.  But, he was blind to the fact God was with him to serve him with that life, and his conscience was filled with labors and annoyances.  His soul was agitated by the deadness he saw in his body and the lack he saw in his life.  He couldnt see it wasnt God who was condemning him.  He couldnt see God was with him as his advocate to condemn the death that was manifesting in his flesh.  And what happened is the motion of sin was made alive in his members.  He lusted after the life of God through his own works, and that was death unto him.  It left him standing in the condemnation of death.  It left him in the place where all the fruit he bore was only unto death. 

At the end of it all Paul says oh wretched man that I am who shall save me from this body of death.  I thank God for what He has done to condemn death in the flesh through the Lord Jesus Christ.  When Paul was carnally minded, and it was working death in him.  And he thought he was an orphan in the earth without someone to Father his life.  He says God showed up in Jesus and saved him.

We can’t set ourselves free from the carnal mind.  The carnal mind is not a figment of the imagination.  We cannot be free by saying death isnt real.  We cant be free by saying we will live forever in heaven as spirits.  We can’t be set free by saying our spirit man is perfect.  There’s only one thing that can set us free from the carnal mind.  Next week we’ll talk about how God delivered us from the carnal mind through Jesus.