What does it mean to be an enemy of God?

112 This parable shews us the way in which the seed is scattered. The Lord is here represented by a sower, and is scattering the seed of His word. He that receives it receives life into his soul, which was before "dead in trespasses and sins." The Lord is scattering the seed now, whether you believe it or not. He is testifying that you are naturally enemies to God, "alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works," and that the only way of escaping the punishment due is by the reception of this life which He gives, which is in Christ and nowhere else.

349 This is a truth that we can learn in different ways, either as seeing ourselves open sinners in rebellion against God, or by discovering that what we esteem best is utterly valueless before Him. Innocence is gone; man fell from paradise, and that is all over. There is no going back to the tree of life; and from that time forward man must be either an alien from God, an enemy in his mind by wicked works, or else he must have a heavenly place with God. On the road to Damascus Saul meets the Man in the glory, and then he is judged in his own conscience, and is found to be an open, ceaseless, enemy of God. It is easy for us to see that our sins must be judged by God, but we do not see at first that the mind and affections of the flesh are enmity against Him. But here you see there is an end of Saul, and of everything that the flesh was in this world - this world that was not paradise, and certainly was not heaven; this world in which the good things were worthless in the sight of God, and certainly the sins were not of any use.

86 Verse 7. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God," etc. Now, here we get a deeper thing still than lawbreaking in itself; an unsubject will always is the spirit of hatred against Him to whom we feel we ought to be subject, and this brings on the full judgment of self; for while there may be peace of heart and peace of conscience, yet a man finds that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for he finds that he, according to the flesh, has a will that will not be subject to God, and it would not be a will if it were. The flesh has not only desires, but a will that is not subject to the law of God, nor ever can be. The law not only declares right things, but also the authority of the Lawgiver, and that brings out the rebellion of the flesh, for the flesh immediately says, I will, and I won't. If you are guilty of breaking one commandment, you are guilty of all; for the unwillingness to submit is as much shown in the breaking one, as in breaking all. I may require my child to obey in three things, and in two of them he may obey me, because he does not want to do otherwise; but in the third he does not obey, not liking to do it, and therefore takes his own way instead of submitting; the sin was in the will, for he was as guilty in disobeying me, as if he had disobeyed in all: "So, then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God," because of the will in the members.

However men may classify the human family, Scripture now speaks of only two classes — those who are "in Christ," and those who are "in the flesh." All are naturally in the flesh. They may be moral, virtuous, amiable, kind or the reverse, educated or uneducated, religious in their way or irreligious; but being only in their natural state, they are far from God. "To be carnally minded is death." In Rom. 8:7 we are told that "the carnal mind" — that is, the mind of man in his natural state — "is enmity against God;" quite contrary to and opposed to God. But, worse than this, it is lawless, and refuses to obey God — "is not subject to the law of God." But worst of all, God says it is so bad that it cannot be subject — "neither indeed can be." Thus the divine verdict as to the condition of every child of Adam is hopelessly bad. Hence God Himself does not propose to mend or improve man in the flesh, for He says it cannot be subject to Him; but He gives him life. Christ says, "I am come that they might have life." God creates us in Christ Jesus. "If any man be in Christ — a new creation." He gives us also the Holy Ghost to link us with Christ in the heavenlies. It is not true that God gives people His Spirit to help them in the flesh, or to improve the flesh; but having given those who believe in the Lord Jesus life, eternal life, and made them sons, He sends forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. It is a point of the highest importance in the present day, when man is so exalted, to see that God pronounces man in the flesh to be hopelessly and irremediably bad. It is God's verdict of the natural standing, which belongs to us all as "in Adam." The whole nature is foul, utterly unclean, and incapable of being made fit for God's presence. The whole history of man from the fall shows that nothing can be worse. Judgments, commandments, ordinances, even the personal ministry of Christ Himself, failed to improve man in the flesh, and only brought out the evil of the heart. As to law, it is positively stated that "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." There was, therefore, but one way in which God could deal with man in the flesh; namely, judgment unto death. This God has done in a Substitute, His only-begotten, well-beloved Son, for all who believe in His name. Jesus, who knew no sin, was made sin for us. We are also told in Rom. 8:3 — "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Thus we see that "sin in the flesh" has been condemned by God Himself in Christ crucified. It is also most blessedly true that Christ bare our sins, suffered for our actual transgressions, in His own body on the tree; but here it is rather the bad nature, what we were in the flesh. And, after all, this is the greatest plague of every true Christian. Many who have enjoyed the blessed reality of forgiveness of sins are so troubled because of lusts, pride, inward feelings, and selfishness within, that the question with them often is, "Am I a Christian?" It is most blessed, therefore, to see that God has dealt with this judicially for us in the death of Jesus. Hence we read in Romans 6: "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him." This is what God has done. It is an accomplished fact, whether we believe it or not, that God has judicially set aside our old man in the death of Jesus. So that, when contemplating Jesus in death upon the tree, we see how that God has not only dealt with Christ in judgment there for the transgressions we have committed against Him, but also that our old evil nature, our old man, is crucified with Him. Happy those who simply believe what God says about it. Paul did. It was, therefore, to him a blessed reality. He could say, "I am crucified with Christ;" and he could assert it also as a divine fact, that "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." (Gal. 2:20, and Gal. 5:24.)

First, God gives us the fact that man is an enemy to God by wicked works - "enemies in [your] mind by wicked works" - and in active conflict with God, on account of being a guilty creature, hating God, hating the very presence of God, because it discloses to him what God really is, what his own actions are, and what he himself is. He hates God, he is an enemy to God, and he entirely distrusts God. God tells us that man by nature is just in this state of alienation; i.e., an enemy to God by wicked works. The Lord comes into the midst of this world in grace and goodness and love. He does a work that glorifies God, and makes it possible for the most bitter enemy of God to be at peace, to be at rest in the very presence of God. No matter how great the bitterness, the enmity, the work the Lord Jesus has done has laid the foundation on which God is known, and enemies to Himself are reconciled. It is a most important thing for all of us to recognize, that this is the ground we are upon. If you have known what the grace of God is to yourself, you delight to know this ground, and that you are upon it, never to know again for one little moment what enmity against God is, because He has beaten down your opposition in His divine grace and love, and set you down reconciled to Himself. Is there not a wonderful difference between a pardoned sinner and an enemy reconciled?

Passing down to verse 8, we find the term "sinners," but as we have already considered this, we may at once take the fourth which is in verse 10. If, says the apostle, when we were "enemies," &c. Thus every unsaved soul is an enemy to God. Is this too strong a word? Nay, the apostle says in another Place, as we have already seen, that the carnal mind, the mind of the flesh — that is, the mind of the natural man, man as born into this world — is enmity against God. (Rom. 8:7.) It is a terrible thing, but it is nevertheless true, that the sinner's mind, his will, is always opposed to God. This was proved when our Lord was down here, and He thus said of those amongst whom He had moved, "They have both seen and hated both Me and my Father;" and again, "They hated me without a cause." (John 15:18-25.) And this hatred found its full expression at the cross when they nailed Him, their Messiah, who was also the Son of God, to the cross. (Acts 2:23.)

Reconciliation. — Fresh truth thus comes before us. We are reconciled to God. Man was estranged from Him, an enemy in his mind by wicked works (Col. 1:21). The Gospel of God's grace is the weapon employed to remove that enmity. The agents used in this work are for the most part those who have been reconciled to God themselves, to whom a ministry of reconciliation has been given, and to whom also the word of reconciliation is entrusted (2 Cor. 5:18-21). And the truth which has power in that service is the death of God's Son. If we think of the claims of God's holiness and righteousness we turn to the blood of Christ. If we think of what it is that can appeal in power to the human heart, we learn that it is the death of God's Son. The Person who died, His relation to God, and the fact that He laid down His life for sinners, it is this which can touch the heart, and dispel for ever all the creature's enmity to, and estrangement from God. Paul had evidently learnt this, and the Colossian saints had proved it likewise (Col. 1:21-22).

And it was complete on man's side also. God had become as distasteful to man as man had become to God. The latter part of Romans 1 unfolds the dreadful story of man's alienation from God. The sunken state of mankind is attributable to this, "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge" (verse 28). Romans 3 corroborates this by telling us that, "there is none that seeks after God." When we get to Romans 5 it is plainly stated that when the reconciliation reached us we were "enemies."

Here we must carefully draw a distinction. On our side the alienation was not only in life but in heart also. On God's side the alienation in life was felt far more acutely than ever we could feel it, but there was no alienation in heart. In other words while we as sinners hated God, He never hated us. Had He hated us He could have just damned us, and left it at that. Instead of which He has Himself made available for us the reconciliation; a reconciliation brought to pass at so great a cost as "the death of His Son."

The apostle flames out here as contemplating, evidently, those who are pledged to God, but who are not abiding in the satisfaction yielded by that which is their own. "Adulteresses: know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" He is contemplating those espoused to Christ, and yet giving themselves to another; and, alas, how easy it is to forget that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Does not that seem often a little strong, perhaps? There it must remain as the immutable Word of inspiration, and let us face it fully. The world and God are on opposite sides, and can never be brought together. We may choose with which we will be; with both we cannot really be. "Whosoever, therefore, is minded to be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God." How well would it be if we let such strong yet wholesome admonition search us to the very bottom! How well the question comes just here, "Think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain?" How often it seems in vain even for the children of God themselves! But "the Spirit, then, who has taken His abode in us, does He desire enviously?" This certainly seems to be the force of what is here, and it must therefore be a question, not an affirmation, as the common version makes it. "The Spirit who hath taken His abode in us" cannot mean the mere human spirit, and therefore envious desire can only be intended to be put in contrast with that which is His mind, a contradiction to Himself, which is emphasized by giving it the form of a question, as we must. We know, surely, that the Spirit of God that dwelleth in us can have nothing to do with the envious desires of the heart which go out after the world for satisfaction. Nay, "He giveth more grace." What do we need, but to realize what this grace of God is, and what it has made our own, to have every unsatisfied lust stilled; and instead of grasping for ourselves, we acquire the lowliness that waits upon God, and to which He can minister. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."

The apostle James is exceedingly definite on this point. The world is in a state of open rebellion against God. It was ever thus since man fell, but its terrible enmity only came fully to light when Christ was manifested. Then it was that the world both saw and hated Him and His Father. Then it was that the breach was irrevocably fixed.

We are speaking, of course, of the world-system. If it be a question of the people in the world, then we read, "God so loved the world." The world-system is the point here, and it is in a state of deadly hostility to God; so much so that friendship with the one entails enmity as regards the other. The language is very strong. Literally it would read, "Whoever therefore is minded to be the friend of the world is constituted enemy of God." It does not say that God is his enemy, but the breach is so complete on the world's side that friendship with it is only possible on the basis of enmity against God. Let us never forget that!

And let us also never forget that we, as believers, are brought into such close and intimate relations with God that if we play Him false and enter into guilty alliance with the world the only sin amongst mankind with which it can be compared is the very terrible one of adultery.