Reflections from Romans 8:12-13, shared in our message on July 24
"So then, brothers, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:12-13, LSB)
Romans 8 is one of the richest chapters in Scripture on the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. It opens with the assurance that there is no condemnation for those in Christ, and it closes with the promise that nothing can separate us from His love. In between, Paul walks us through what the Spirit does in us: He frees us from the law of sin and death, applies the finished work of Christ to our lives, gives us new affections, dwells within us as proof that we belong to Christ, and quickens our spirit with the very life of Christ. Verse 11 leaves us with a breathtaking hope that the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will one day give life to our mortal bodies too.
It's in that context of the Spirit residing in us, working in us, and quickening us that Paul turns to talk about our obligation as believers.
We are debtors, not to the flesh
Paul says we are debtors, and it's worth noticing the tense: we are debtors, present tense, ongoing. Before Christ, we were debtors to sin and to Satan, carrying a death penalty we had no way to pay off. But the Lord paid that debt Himself, at the cost of His own precious blood, and then gave us His Spirit as a great deposit. So now our debt has changed hands. We are debtors to Him.
This is why Paul can say we are "not debtors to the flesh." It's a word specifically for believers, because only the believer lives with an ongoing war between the old nature and the new. An unbeliever doesn't experience this struggle. But for those of us in Christ, we're reminded that we have real authority over our flesh. We belong to a new Master now, and our old master has no claim on us anymore.
A serious warning
Verse 13 carries a sobering warning: those who live according to the flesh will surely die. Paul saw this play out with the Corinthians: believers, truly born again, who were still living by their old patterns. He called them infants in Christ. And when he wrote to confront that lifestyle, they responded with godly sorrow and repentance.
The point is simple but important: the flesh cannot improve itself. It cannot produce any meaningful, lasting change in us. Willpower and good decisions aren't the answer either. Paul's phrase is specific and worth underlining — it is only "by the Spirit."
How the Spirit does it
So how does the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body?
First, the Spirit gives us power — the same power Jesus promised in Acts 1:8. That power isn't a one-time event; it's the Spirit who dwells in us, empowering us daily. Which means our prayers ought to reflect that: asking God to help us use the Spirit's power effectively, every single day. As the Puritan John Owen put it, "if you don't kill sin, it will kill you." The deeds of the flesh don't just go away. They keep resurfacing. But we have access to the Spirit's power to put them to death.
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 that although we're at war with Satan and the world, our primary fight is with our old self. And our weapon for that fight is the Word of God.
We see this modelled perfectly in Jesus. Led into the wilderness by the Spirit, He was tempted for forty days. When tempted to turn stones into bread, He didn't reach for His own power, but he reached for Scripture, quoting Deuteronomy: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." It echoes back to the manna in the wilderness. God's intent that His people would live on what He provided, even when they craved something else. Christ is the true bread, the embodiment of that manna, and we're called to feed on His words daily.
Living in the abundance
As we live in His Word and, by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we grow. We already have the life of Christ within us. But Jesus said He came so we might enjoy in the abundance of life (John 10:10). That abundance joy and peace.
May the Holy Spirit empower each of us to fight against our old nature and win consistently so that we can walk in the abundance of joy and peace He offers.