Romans 8:6 - Part One: How Jesus did it

I promised in my last post that we'd be looking further into Romans 8. Let's get to it—

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 set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

I have posited all along that the reason KatieLyn ran back home in the middle of the night was because she stopped living by faith in the Spirit and set her mind on things of the flesh.  The  mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God and His plan.   

It would behoove us to look at how Jesus handled the conflict between the mind set on the flesh and the mind set on the spirit. Chapters 4 in the gospels of both Matthew and Luke provide the account.

After Jesus was baptized, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Upon completion of a forty day fast, he was hungry.  In this state, the devil came to challenge Him and said, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."
 [ Providentially, Mary wasn't out there in the wilderness to give advice, although her "suggestions" and "misgivings" did come up later, at which point Jesus had to nearly disown her, cf Mark 3:33. ]

This is typical behavior for the devil:
   Jesus was tempted to do something other than what his Father had said to him.
   The devil attempts to get Jesus to set his mind on things in the natural world.

 Jesus does not answer the flesh but turns his answer to the spiritual by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3,
 "Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." This explains why Paul could tell the Romans that the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Lesson Connections
   Regular readers will know that I usually conclude each post with The Lesson. But today I am taking the liberty to deviate from the formula because it is important to see how some lessons we've already covered fit together.  We have learned previously that a person is a spirit, has a soul, and lives in a physical body. We learned that the soul is the place of intellect, reasoning, and emotions; it is the mind of the soul that chooses between the spiritual spirit and the physical flesh. We can now make this connection with Jesus' temptations; we see him using his human soul to choose the divine of the spirit.  And we can make the connection as to why Paul wrote that setting the mind on the flesh is hostile to God. 

To be continued in Part Two...