Two Laws Two Minds Two Options

Life is filled with choices. Yogi Berra said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Today’s thought is an offer from God to consider a choice that will determine the quality of your remaining time on earth and, more importantly, where you will spend eternity.

Paul’s letter to the Romans

is filled with nuggets of wisdom. And, as usual, God never forces us to do things His way. His love doesn’t make demands, it woos us with what should be an obvious decision, but because of sin in our lives, isn’t always.

Today’s title introduces us to perhaps the most important choice we’ll ever have to make. We’re still in Romans 8 which opens with the statement, “For the law of the Spirit of Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death.” These laws are not optional in the sense we can choose to ignore them. To not choose defaults to the worst outcome. It follows up a couple verses later with, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace”

You’ll notice the “the law” is passive,

but “the mind” has to be set [a choice, an action verb] on the flesh or the Spirit. The two options are the results of what we set our minds on. There is no pressure here to make the right choice; only the diametrically opposed results of making the wrong choice. In John 3:7 Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and answers one of his questions by saying, “…you must be born again.” And that’s the idea of setting our minds on the Spirit.

But even in Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, there was no demand. He was just stating the truth about salvation. It’s a free gift, no strings attached, though we do have to be humble enough to admit we are a sinner and no matter how good we think we are, or how much time and money we contribute to “church” organizations, we cannot repay the debt our sin has accumulated. Only Christ’s death and resurrection did that.

So the two laws and the two options

are cast in stone. They are what they are. Our only play is to identify, consider, and choose where we set our mind [flesh or Spirit]…and then do it. Questions you may have about this are answered in Steps To Salvation elsewhere on this site.

Thanks for reading.