“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:7-8,20-21, 38-39). If you boil down the word enmity to its roots, it literally means against love. In some sense, the carnal mind is a creature all on its own, subject to vanities and corruption and not subject to the law of God. This creature of the carnal mind will do everything it can to separate itself and, by extension, us from the love of God. But Paul said that neither death, nor life, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. The creature of the carnal mind may be filled with enmity against God, but ultimately it will fail in its efforts to separate us from the love of God. The bondage of corruption will eventually yield to the glorious liberty of the children of God. At times all we can do is hang on and endure when our carnal mind tries to separate the part of us that yearns for the love of our Heavenly Father, both that we may feel His love and also that we may reciprocate and show our love for Him as best as we are able. But eventually the creature itself will be delivered from its enmity and we will no longer be separated from the love of God nor will we feel torn in two by the competing halves of our nature. Every time that we set aside the enmity of the carnal mind and act in a way that brings us closer rather than farther from the love of God, we do not let that other creature separate us from our Savior. I hope that we will be patient with ourselves and have the humility to take even the tiniest steps to fight against anything or any creature that would separate us from the Lord.
