Romans Chapter 8 Vs. 12

 

Heirs with Christ

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Rom 8:12

Therefore, brethren, we... So then, we owe the flesh nothing. It has no more control of our lives. We must not live in the sins of the flesh or we shall die. But if we will put to death the practices of the flesh by the Spirit, we shall live (Rom. 8:12-13; Gal. 5:16-26; Col. 3:5-10).

Flesh and Spirit Life Contrasted

The Fleshly Life:	The Spiritual Life:
1. Minds things of flesh	minds things of Spirit (Rom. 8:5)
2. Carnally minded	spiritually minded
3. Spiritually dead	alive (Rom. 8:6)
4. Enmity to God	no enmity (Rom. 8:7)
5. Not subject to God	subject to God
6. Cannot be subject	can be subjected
7. Cannot please God	can please God (Rom. 8:8)
8. Not in the Spirit	in the Spirit
9. Not Christ’s	is Christ’s (Rom. 8:9)
10. Body alive to sin	dead to sin
11. Spirit dead to God	alive to God
12. No Christ	Christ in life (Rom. 8:10)
13. Sinful life	righteous life
14. No Holy Spirit	Spirit indwelling
15. No physical quickening	a physical quickening
16. Debtor to flesh	not a debtor (Rom. 8:12)
17. No help from Spirit	help from Spirit (Rom. 8:13)
18. The end is death	the end is life

Our old flesh died with Christ and the life we now enjoy is a new divinely given life that is the life of Christ Himself. We have been removed from the unregenerate self’s presence and control, so we should not follow the remaining memories of its old sinful ways as if we were still under its evil influence.

Therefore we are debtors, not to the flesh which is our old selves, but to the Spirit of Christ as we saw in verse 9.

You see we do not owe our bodies anything. The flesh is our enemy. If we obey the lust of the flesh, we are living in sin. We must overcome the flesh and put it in subjection to the spirit.

Paul drew a conclusion and made an application from his previous discussion. Therefore… we have an obligation. Each believer’s responsibility is a positive one — to live each day in the control and power of the Holy Spirit. But first Paul expressed this truth negatively — not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. Each Christian is to refuse to follow the inclinations and desires of his sin nature. He is to deny the efforts of that nature to impose its lifestyle on him (cf. Tit. 2:12).