Living Life in the Spirit. (Romans 8: 5-11)

Welcome to today’s episode of The Bible Project Daily Podcast!

Today, we're exploring one of the most transformative passages in the book of Romans: Chapter 8, verses 5 to 11. In this powerful section of Paul’s letter, we’re invited to consider what it really means to live a life “according to the Spirit.”

What we’ll discover is that this is not just a change in religious behaviour—it’s a complete reorientation of the mind, heart, and soul. A Spirit-governed life leads us away from the realm of death, and into the abundant life of peace, purpose, and presence with God.

📖 Episode Summary & Study Notes

Main Theme:
There are two ways to live: according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. One leads to death—manifested through fear, guilt, hostility, and emptiness. The other leads to life and peace—a Spirit-led transformation grounded in the presence of Christ within us.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• The two mindsets Paul describes: one set on the flesh, the other on the Spirit.
• How your mindset shapes your whole inner life—your thoughts, emotions, values, and purposes.
• The spiritual consequences of each path:
  • The flesh brings death, marked by fear, shame, anger, and meaninglessness.
  • The Spirit brings life, expressed in trust, acceptance, love, joy, and peace.
• The remarkable truth: If Christ is in you, the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is already working within you—even in your mortal body—to bring newness of life.

Core Takeaway:
You are no longer a prisoner to your sinful nature. In Christ, by the Spirit, you have the freedom, the power, and the calling to live a new kind of life—a life marked by righteousness, peace, and a deep, abiding connection with God.

🕊️ Reflection Questions

1. What are the signs that your mind is set on the flesh versus set on the Spirit?
2. How have you experienced the peace and vitality that comes from living by the Spirit?
3. What might it look like to more fully orient your life around the things of the Spirit?

🙏 Closing Thought

Life in the Spirit isn’t just a doctrine—it’s a daily reality. Through the Spirit, we have hope, renewal, and the promise of God’s abiding presence, even in our weakness.

Thanks for listening—and remember, in Jesus Christ, you are no longer in the realm of death. You are in the Spirit. So walk in it.

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• 14:21 [Ad] The Balance of Gray
• 15:09 (Cont.) Living Life in the Spirit. (Romans 8: 5-11)

Transcript

Living Life in the Spirit. (Romans 8: 5-11)

Transcript: 

So, we saw yesterday that if you walk according to the Spirit, not only are you freed from the problem of the law of sin and death, but you will also fulfill the very ideas the law was always pointing toward quite naturally.

Today I want to examine another result, of living a life in the Spirit the benefit of living a life that will be filled with life and peace , no less. Look at verse 5. 

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

(Romans 8 5-6)

So, if you walk according to the Spirit, if you are spiritually minded, then you will be filled with life and peace.

These verses in chapter eight present us with two possible ways to live. 

The first is to live according to the flesh. Verse 5 says that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. 

But then Paul gives the second possibility: those who live according to the Spirit—what do they do? They set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Verse 6 tells us, to be carnally minded is death, but the second half of that verse says, to be spiritually minded is life and peace….

We are going to talk about one of two possible realities today.

Look at verse 5 again, at the phrase “Having their minds set on what the flesh desires. That is a very, very important phrase. You should underline it, circle it, or mark it in whatever way helps you remember that this matters.

The phrase set your mind means more than just putting information in your head. It’s more than simply saying, “I am determined to do something.” The Greek word used here includes your thinking, your will, and your emotions. It includes all of you, your whole inner person.

Even more importantly, this phrase includes your outlook, your assumptions, your values, and your purposes. The idea is that your life is oriented toward something, a higher goal

That you are governed by something.

Paul is saying, essentially, that there are two kinds of people: those who live according to the flesh and do so because they set their aim on the things of the world. They are oriented towards their fallen human nature, and it’s drives. They let that nature determine their values, their assumptions, their purpose in life.

And what’s the result? Verse 6 says, to be carnally minded is death. 

So, this means that to have your mind oriented around the flesh is to dwell in the sphere of death.

Now, as I’ve been saying all along through Romans 6, 7, and 8, the word death here doesn’t just mean physical death. It’s not even just mean spiritual death. It refers to an entire realm—a sphere—of death.

Death is not just something waiting for you at the end of life. It is something that you can experience right here, right now whenever you live according to your sinful nature.

So, what does this type of spiritual death look like?

If you study Scripture carefully, you’ll find that death in this present experience tends to express itself in four basic forms

1.     Fear.

2.     Guilt.

3.     Hostility.

4.     Emptiness.

Those are the manifestations of death—and they arise when you orient your life around the things of the flesh. If what you live for is money, pleasure, fame, or self-fulfillment, then you’ll find these companions tagging along with you at the same time:

·         Fear can take the form of anxiety, worry, dread, or timidity.

·         Guilt can appear as shame, self-hatred, perfectionism, or even self-righteousness.

·         Hostility might show up as hatred, resentment, bitterness, cruelty, or the thirst for revenge.

·         Emptiness can manifest as loneliness, spiritual depression, discouragement, despair, or a sense of meaninglessness.

These are the symptoms of living in the realm of death. And it doesn’t stop at emotional and spiritual pain. These symptoms of spiritual death can even effect your physical health. 

As many experience the toll of spiritual death can result in nervous disorders, rashes, ulcers, heart problems, even cancer. The list goes on.

There is a sphere of death that we might now exist in, and it is everything that is the opposite of the life and peace that God offers us in Jesus Christ.

If you choose to live according to the flesh, you are choosing to live in that realm of death. And while the specific form it takes in your individual life may differ, it will always lead to some version of fear, hostility, emptiness, and loneliness playing out in your life.

It is the land of the dead.

If you live according to the flesh, you will die, even your spiritual life in Jesus Christ will shrivel up and fail.

But there’s another way to live.

You can live according to the Spirit. 

Paul says in verse 5 that those who live according to the Spirit set their minds—same word—on the things of the Spirit. That means their thoughts, emotions, desires, purposes, and assumptions are oriented around the Spirit of God. They are governed by Him.

And the result, they can have a life and peace.

The peace he mentions here is the peace that comes after the inner struggle and defeat of Romans 7 has been overcome.

But what about life? What does Paul mean by that?

·         “If death is fear, then life is trust, hope, and confidence.

·         If death is guilt, then life is the feeling of acceptance, security, and assurance.

·         If death is hostility, then life is love, friendliness, kindness, and reaching out to others.

·         If death is emptiness, then life is a sense of well-being, fulfillment, excitement, vitality—the fullness of life.”

That’s the contrast Paul is drawing. You can choose life or death. The choice is yours.

With life comes peace. Which, of course, can mean an inner calm, a quiet spirit, a more remarkable sense of being able to cope and to handle life.

That is what comes available to us when the mind is set on the Spirit.

Now again, you give me what you think are the characteristics of life. Whatever they are, this much I can tell you—what Romans 6, 7, and 8 are teaching is this: Because I have been put into Jesus Christ, I have been raised by Christ to walk in a new kind of life.

·         It's called, in Romans 6, newness of life.

·         It's called, in Romans 7:6, newness of the Spirit.

·         And in Romans 8, it's called life and peace.

Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.” That abundance of life is what Paul is talking about in this passage.

Describe it any way you will. If I were going to choose, I'd say it goes like this: It is love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, endurance, self-control, hope, anticipation. 

Those kinds of things, don’t they sound familiar?

That's the kind of life that is the result of setting your mind, your outlook and arranging your values, having your purposes—according to the things of the Spirit of God.

But now the point that is very clear in this passage is that:

As we walk in the Spirit,

We will be free from the law of sin and death.

We will fulfill the righteous requirements of the law.

We are filled with life and peace.

Paul elaborates in verses 7 through 11.

Verse 7:

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”

If you walk according to the flesh, you're going to find out that everything within you is hostile to God. You are the enemy of God and that’s not going to fulfill His law.

Because you're walking in the flesh, you can’t do all that we’re describing—because the flesh is the opposite of God.

Verse 8:

“The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

Now frankly, this is talking about the unsaved person.

There is a difference in this passage between the phrase “according to the flesh” and “in the flesh.”

Paul is talking about being in the flesh, and he’s saying:

Unsaved people live by the flesh. They cannot fulfill the law of God, and they cannot please God.

Then, addressing his Roman readers (Christian believers) he specifically says:

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.”

(Romans 8: 9)

And again, there's a difference between being in the Spirit and walking according to the Spirit.

He says to the Romans, “You are in the Spirit—if the Spirit of Christ dwells in you.” And, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.

In other words, you’re not a Christian if you don’t have the Holy Spirit.

But if you do, don’t worry, you're not in the flesh anymore—you are in the Spirit.

Verse 10:

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

This verse has been variously interpreted.

Some commentators—as far back as Augustine—wanted to take the phrase “the body is dead” here to mean the body being physically dead.

John Calvin, however, interpreted “the body is dead” as referring to the body of sin spoken of all the way up to this point in previous chapters.

And I personally think Calvin is right—not Augustine—because of the next verse.

Verse 11:

“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who.”

“Mortal bodies” in verse 11 is a further elaboration on “the body is dead” in verse 10.

Clearly “mortal bodies” does not mean dead bodies—it means those bodies of ours that our subject to death.

So, all Paul is saying is that if Christ is in you, this mortal body still has the state of death in it because of sin. Nevertheless, the Spirit is life, the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in you. So even though your physical body is subject to death. We will be given new life through the Spirit who dwells in you.

So, all verses 7 through 11 are just an elaboration on the idea of life eternal and peace talked about at the end of verse 6.

So, Paul is saying: Look, you are not stuck in this dying body now, you are living in the Spirit.

And since you are in the Spirit, and Christ is in you, you have the possibility and the power in the Holy Spirit to experience this new spiritual life I’ve been talking about.

I know sometimes Romans can seem a little complex—and it is—but the core thought within it is actually quite simple.

Let me try and crystalize his core message.

What’s our problem: Answer- The problem is the flesh.

In one word the problem is sin< In one word the solution is the Holy Spirit.

That’s right. And all these verses are telling us is that if we walk according to the Spirit, good things will happen:

·         You will be free from the law of sin and death, meaning you now have the power within you to resist sin now.

·         You will by nature fulfill the law, not just obey the law, we could never do that: fulfill the law, that’s different.. 

·         You can have life in its fullness and peace.

So clearly, the key thing here is the Spirit of God.

Romans chapter 8 is probably the main chapter in the Bible when it comes to understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

Somebody has pointed out that:

In chapters 1 through 7, the word spirit occurs only five times.

In chapters 9 through 16, the word spirit occurs eight times.

But in Romans 8, the word spirit occurs twenty-one times—More than in any other chapter in the New Testament. 

And now, what you're probably sitting there asking is:

What part do I play in this process of receiving and living I the life of the Holy Spirit?

First, you need to be spiritually minded.

Now the problem with me saying that is that the phrase “spiritually minded” gives you the impression that you just need to fill your head with all sorts of spiritual knowledge.

That is most assuredly not what this passage has in mind.

Obviously, you need exposure to the Scriptures.

You need to soak and saturate your brain in the Word of God—obviously.

But it is possible to know the content of the Scripture and still not be spiritually minded.

Frankly, there is an attitude to Scripture that people can take whereby you can know its content and not even be a Christian. And of course, it is also possible to be a Christian, to know the Bible—and to still walk according to the flesh.

But there is also the best possibility to aim for in that, as you expose yourself to the Word of God, the Spirit of God does a work deep within you—one that truly changes you.

Your outlook shifts. Your assumptions re-align. You begin to value different things. Your purpose in life becomes different.

According to the Bible, this kind of transformation only comes through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

So somehow, as you encounter the Word of God, the Spirit of God must be allowed to be at work in you—renewing, transforming, reshaping.

It's a spiritual process, and it happens as we not only engage with Scripture, but as we submit ourselves to their truth.

The first part, exposure to the Word of God is straightforward. But I can also tell you that simply reading or hearing it isn’t enough—it must happen in connection with the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

But notice this passage tells us we are to walk according to the Spirit. We are to be spiritually minded—transformed from the inside out—and we must walk according to the Spirit.

To be honest I think the word “walk” has lost its punch for us today. We live in the age of cars and airplanes. Walking doesn’t hold the same meaning. But for Paul’s audience, it was rich with significance. Walking implies effort, movement, and direction. It also implies participation in getting somewhere.

Paul tells us to, “Walk in the Spirit.” Not “sit in the Spirit, by the way.” Walk. You have to be involved. You have to move forward. You have to obey the Word of God—and you need to do what it tells us enabled by the Spirit, by His power, and in His direction.

It is the Spirit of God that strengthens the inner person. Christ takes up residence. And our part? Through faith. Is to simple walk in obedience to the Word and in dependence on the Spirit, 

The result of doing that is that the mind of Christ will then begin to form in us. 

And that is what it really means to walk according to the Spirit.

Now, I suspect some of you are still hoping for a formula. Three steps type of thing. Something to guarantee that when you wake up tomorrow, you’ll feel spiritual. But it usually doesn’t work that way.

Walking by the Spirit is always describes in the terms of bringing about the fruit of the Spirit that rises out of doing that. And the important point is fruit doesn’t grow overnight. 

You don’t plant apple seeds one night and wake up with an orchard the following morning.

So how do you grow good fruit? You weed. You water. You feed it, and you wait.

Romans 8 describes that kind of process. I weed out the flesh. I feed in the Word. And I rely on the Spirit.

Then slowly, often imperceptibly, Jesus Christ is formed in me. That is what theologians call ‘sanctification’.

Do we need a dramatic experience of a dedication ceremony, or some sort of “second blessing.” My conclusion is: no.

This passage isn’t even really calling for a one-time act of dedication, or a single event, that may be a part of it and an initial realization for some people, certainly. But I think it’s more about committing ourselves afresh to the Lord every day.

What Romans 8 is describing is what some theologians identify as progressive sanctification—the ongoing work of God in our lives by which we are set apart more and more for Him.

Let me leave you with one last thought.

The picture of Romans 8 is about us becoming equipped as Christian believers. When you walk according to the Spirit, you're no longer trying to fight the flesh with a stick or a stone. You’re armed with something infinitely more powerful. You are empowered by the Spirit of God.

Now, the flesh is crafty. The devil is subtle. So no one is saying that you’ll reach a place where sin will never be a problem again. That only

comes coming in glory. 

But I am saying this: you can learn to walk in the Spirit. You can grow. You can be transformed. You can learn to say no to sinful impulses.

And when you do—when employ the holy spirit in your life you will begin to see everything this passage promises: 

·         Freedom from the law of sin and death.

·         A life filled with righteousness and peace.

·         And Jesus Christ being formed in you.