Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

on top. The sins of your body make you hoggish; those of your mind make you worldly; while the
sins of your spirit make you devilish. There is a fearful liability that the degradation of your immortal
spirit may pass the susceptibility of spiritual influence, in which case Satan succeeds in utterly
blowing off the third story of humanity, sealing your doom in hell and diabolizing you forever. These
are those who commit the unpardonable sin.
7. “For the mind of the flesh is enmity toward God: for it is not subject to the law of God: for it
is not able to be.” The fallen churches in all ages have sought in vain to subdue the carnal mind and
subordinate it to the law of God Oh, the efforts everywhere made in popular ecclesiasticisms to wash
and dress old Adam so he will do for heaven! It is all a trick of the devil to fool the people and catch
them with the lasso of carnal security. God’s method with sin is extermination. We can not evade
the issue. Cato, the great Roman statesman and orator, wound up every speech before the Roman
senate with the statement “Carthago delenda est” — Carthage must be destroyed. She was the
uncompromising rival of Rome. Hence the one or the other must be destroyed. So the carnal mind
is the implacable enemy of grace, and must be destroyed or the hope of heaven surrendered forever.
This carnal mind is none other than Satan’s own mind imparted to humanity in the Fall. God is the
pure Holy Spirit, and has the sole right to rule men, angels and the universe. The carnal mind
subordinates soul, mind, spirit and the entire being to the animal body, in that way alienating you
from God, brutalizing and turning you over to the devil.
8. “For those who are in carnality are not able to please God.” The word “flesh” (E.V.) here
does not mean the body, but the carnal mind. Enoch pleased God while in the body, and He took him
to heaven. The next verse shows that it does not mean the body, but carnality. There is but one way
out, and that is to have carnality destroyed, which is the work of entire sanctification. If we do not
please God, it is certain we will never get to heaven. If we please Him we must obey Him. He
commands us to be holy, and that means to get rid of depravity. For this he has made ample
provision. Hence we must obey and be holy, or disobey, remain carnal and displease God, thus
backsliding and making our bed in hell. If you walk in all the light He gives you, his blood will
cleanse you from all sin. If you do not walk in the light, you will displease Him, and lose your soul
in the end.
DIVINE UNITY.
9. “You are not in carnality, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if
any one have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.” Here we have a beautiful and lucid affirmation
of the divine unity. “Spirit” occurring three times in this verse. First, He is the Holy Spirit, in the
second place, the Spirit of the Father; and in the third instance, the Spirit of the Son, and identical
throughout, illustrating clearly the identity of the three persons constituting the Godhead, and the
identity of the Spirit of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The same is clearly revealed in Acts 5,
where Holy Ghost, in verse 3, God, in verse 4, and Spirit of the Lord, i.e., Christ, in verse 9, are all
used synonymously. It is exceedingly pertinent for us to be specific at this point, as some have gotten
tangled discriminating between the Spirit of Jesus and the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God, and
gone off into the tri-theistic heresy to their spiritual detriment. However incomprehensible the Divine
Trinity and Unity, yet it is a fact clearly revealed in God’s infallible Word. We are not saved by
knowledge, but by faith. Hence we do not have to understand the Scriptures, but “only believe.”