John Flavel said, ‘It is easier to declaim, like an orator, against a thousand sins of others than it is to mortify one sin, like Christians, in ourselves; to be more industrious in our pulpits than in our closets; to preach twenty sermons to our people than one to our own hearts.’ ¹ Mortifying sin was Paul’s subject here in Romans 8:12-13. What can we learn about how to put this into operation in our everyday lives?

No Longer Debtors

Romans 8:12-13
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

• In the next five verses, Paul extends his comments, in Romans 8, on our need to no longer live after the flesh because of the Spirit’s help.
• He advances his argument, by helping us to understand the high position that believers enjoy because of our status as ‘full’ sons of God.
• Verse twelve starts with the word ‘therefore.’
• The word functions as a conclusion drawn from the first eleven verses.
• He says, ‘we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.’
• The word debtors in the Greek, ὀφειλέτης/opheiletēs, means one under obligation, one liable for, a debtor.
• Believers in Jesus are not debtors to the flesh.
• We don’t owe the flesh anything.
• We owe it no allegiance.
• We have a new Master now, a new Lord.

Romans 13:14 (NKJV)
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

• Provision is planned forethought.
• It’s involved thinking in an effort to meet a need ahead of time.
• Paul is saying you don’t owe the flesh your thought life.
• Give the flesh no wiggle room.
• The law which excites the flesh has also been dealt with.
• We have no obligation to the law because all believers in Jesus are widows from the law.

[Tweet “Paul is saying in Romans 13:14,  that you don’t owe the flesh your thought life.”]

Romans 7:1–6 (NKJV)
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

• The law which triggered and excited into manifestation the sin nature (Romans 7:5), no longer has place in a believer’s life.
• Since the law has passed away, we have no obligations to it.
• No one owes the dead anything.
• Since we owe the law nothing, we also owe the sin nature, excited by the law, nothing.
• If we don’t owe anything, it makes no sense to pay anything.
• Yielding to the call of the sin nature, giving in to the call of the flesh, is no different from a man who continues to pay a mortgage that’s already been cleared.
• The last phrase of Romans 8:12, reads ‘to live after the flesh.’
• The Greek word ‘to live’,ζάω/zaō, means to behave, to live a certain way.
• This phrase doesn’t refer to the occasional slip.
• It points to a pattern of behavior.
• Again, we are not debtors obligated to live our lives in the flesh following a pattern of behavior.
• If we are not debtors to the flesh, who are we debtors to?
• The contrasting agents in the verses that have led up to this point are the Holy Spirit and the flesh or sin nature (Romans 8:9).
• If we are not under obligation to the flesh, then by inference our obligations are to the Spirit of God.

A Present Warning Against Fleshly Living

• In Romans 8:13, Paul begins with the conjunction ‘for’ which presents a warning against fleshly living flowing from the previous verse.
• If you live after the flesh, that is if we keep paying the mortgage we do not owe, we won’t get anything in return except death.
• No equity builds in a life sold to the sin nature.
• In essence, you are paying to be destroyed.
• You are flushing your efforts down the drain.
• Does this make sense?
• Life after the flesh can only be a complete waste of time.
• Deeds of the flesh are all unprofitable.
• Living after the flesh can only be a one way ticket to total defeat as a Christian.

The Alternative to a Fleshly Lifestyle

• ‘But if you through the Spirit’,
• The word ‘through’ is not supplied in the Greek but is inferred by the grammar.
• Paul states you are not alone in this area of dealing with the flesh.
• Assistance will come ‘through’ the Holy Spirit, your Helper.
• He will guide you.
• He makes available His resources to help you, to make you a success in your walk and your work for God.
• But, conditions exist.
• You cannot go your own way.
• You must do as the next part of this verse instructs ‘mortify the deeds of the flesh.’
• The word mortify, θανατόω/thanatoō is a strong word full of finality.
• It’s basic definition is to put to death, to kill, to execute.
• It is the exact same word used in the gospels of putting Jesus to death. (Matthew 27:1 and 1 Peter 3:18).
• The same word Paul used to describe how we are to treat the sin nature, is the same word Jesus physically experienced.
• We are to put to death, crucify, mortify the sin nature so it finds no expression through the body.
• Hear the New Century version on Romans 8:13.

Romans 8:13 (NCV)
13 If you use your lives to do the wrong things your sinful selves want, you will die spiritually. But if you use the Spirit’s help to stop doing the wrong things you do with your body, you will have true life.

• Many times believers decry how much sin and darkness pervade on planet earth.
• How much less would it reign if believers just obeyed the admonition Paul gives here in Romans?
• Mortifying the flesh involves the absolute cessation of sin activity.
• There must not exist any chance of life for that which has been declared dead.
• This sentence of death must be carried out in a diligent fashion.
• Why?
• The snake can continue to show life even when missing its head.
• Dealing with the flesh involves brutal, dictatorial and iron-fisted control.
• It’s part of what a ‘crucified life’is about.
• Jesus expects this of all believers.
• The old phrase, ‘No matter where you go there you are rings true.
• The sin nature which you carry around with you everywhere, must be watched over everywhere.
• The constraint of this life Jesus referenced in Matthew’s gospel.

Matthew 7:13–14 (NKJV)
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

How Do We Get it Done?

• The question remains, how then do we exercise such control over the flesh?
• Only with the help of the Holy Spirit.
• He will help you use a little two letter word on your flesh, the word NO!
• The word ‘no’ taps into the discipline aspect of life in Christ.

What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we ‘are’ is the result of previous years of self-discipline. – H.P. Liddon

Call to Action:

The call to action is found in the section above, ‘How Do We Get It Done?’ Tap into the help which only comes from the Spirit of God. Learn to live a disciplined, Spirit controlled life and you are on your way.

Question: How will you get it done? What will you do to put the flesh in it’s place? You can leave a comment in the comments section below.

________
References: