Pastor Ostella

10-31-99

Romans 8:12-14

Introduction

What we covered last week (Rom. 8:10-11) gives a reason that leads Paul to a conclusion (therefore, v. 12). This conclusion centers on an obligation, "we have an obligation," he says. Think with me for a moment on how this reason and the conclusion that follows results in the title of this morning's message. The reason is the fact of resurrection glory for those who belong to Christ, and the obligation is a duty. Hence, we have the title: the duty of those bound for resurrection glory. I will discuss the duty given, the duty encouraged, and the duty clarified.

1A. The duty given (v. 12)

The duty of those who are bound for resurrection glory is presented in a strikingly indirect manner. This does not lessen, but increases its impact. There are very few explicit exhortations in chapters 6-8 of Romans. But here an exhortation is given, indirectly, in two ways. 1) First, it is stated in general: "we have an obligation" (instead of "your obligation is such and such"). 2) Second, it is stated in the negative. Paul tells us what the duty is not. "We have an obligation," he says, and it is "not to the flesh." But he does not state what the duty is. Of course we can easily follow the logic, since what it is not implies what it is. If it not to the flesh then it is … .Yes, it is to the Spirit.

The reason for this duty to the Spirit (not to the flesh) takes us back to the two claims; the marvelous contrast and the awesome promise stated in vs. 10-11. If Christ is in you and if the Spirit is living in you then the contrast holds for you and the promise is yours. The contrast (v. 10) is that though your physical body is subject to death still your Holy Spirit is life. The former is because of sin and the latter is because of righteousness, which is secured by the life and death of Christ. His holy and righteous life is given to you, and His death took away your punishment. So because of the work of Christ you have the Holy Spirit living in you, and He indwells you as life, as life giver that brought you out of death in sin and from your darkness, bondage, and enmity. The promise (v. 11) that follows is  though your body is subject to dying and death, the Holy Spirit living in you will certainly give life to your mortal body: you are bound for glory.

Therefore, since you have Christ living in you, and though history unfolds and you face aging and death, since you already have the life giving Holy Spirit, and since you are bound for the promised land, to home with God, to resurrection life in glory, then you have an obligation and it is not to the flesh. Again, "not to the flesh" means not to the remnants of sin remaining in us. We do not have obligation to our corrupt sinful natures that we inherited from our first parents and that we still have as God's people with Christ living in us.

Why is there no debt to the flesh, no duty, no obligation? Because the Holy Spirit has set us free if we belong to Christ, if Christ lives in us, if we have the Holy Spirit living in us as life, as our personal life giver.

Remember, the flesh refers to our fallen corrupt nature and to the bondage we once were under. Think again about the pit from which we have been dug by the grace of God. In the flesh we could do no good thing whatever. All our desires were evil continually. Therefore, we have to ask for clarity: "How can this be, given that non-Christians give to charity and provide for their families? Are these not good acts?" Sure, these are good acts with "good" in quotes; they are good in a relative sense and from a human perspective that is limited. But for an act to be good before God, before Him with whom we have to do, it must conform to the right standard (God's law), the right motive (love for God and the neighbor), and the right goal (the glory of God). In the ultimate sense, before the holy, true and righteous Judge of heaven earth, the natural person in the flesh, fallen man in his "natural" state can do nothing good, nothing acceptable to God. The non-Christian does nothing pleasing to God; he cannot please God. You must be able to believe to please God; this the natural man cannot do. Actually, Scripture tells us that the natural man wants to do his own thing. He does not want God. He is neither able nor willing to submit himself to God, to His law or to His will. Deep down, he hates God and will not have God rule over him (Rom. 8:7-8). He minds the flesh, that is, he minds the things of his sinful nature. From his heart he speaks and from his heart he acts. So from the heart comes murder, adultery, slander, and all manner of evil speaking. From the bad tree comes only bad fruit. From flesh is flesh (Jn. 3:6); the flesh profits nothing (Jn. 6:63).

Before we were set free by the Spirit, all our choices and decisions arose from our sinful natures, and they were all sinful. We sinned willingly. We did the evil we wanted to do, and all our choices flowed from our sinful hearts. Thus, all our choices were evil. But now that we have been set free by the Spirit, and that is the case if Christ is in you, if you have the Spirit, now, mark it down on a thankful record; we have no obligation to pay to the flesh. We have no dues to pay to the flesh. We are not under the flesh any longer. We are no longer enslaved to sin, we are no longer enslaved to our evil natures (Rom. 6:14, we are now under the power of grace). We were without God and without the Spirit. Now we still have this evil nature, but we are not bound to our sinful selves, we are no longer in the position of being able to do evil only because we have the Holy Spirit who set us free (Rom. 8:2). Now, He continually counteracts our sinful selves (Gal. 5:17, the Spirit lusts against the flesh).

There are only two categories of people in the world. Those without the Holy Spirit and those with the Spirit; those who do not have the Spirit and those who have the Spirit; those in bondage to sin and those set free from sin by the Spirit. Being set free from sin by the Spirit, you have no obligation to the flesh, to live after the flesh. This is a cloaked exhortation to live after the Spirit. You have the Spirit. You have been set free. You are no longer blind. You have spiritual eyesight. You are no longer dead in sin, but you have been made alive by the power of the Spirit. Therefore, it is silly, illogical, and ungrateful to think for a moment that you have any obligation to the flesh. This must translate into a sense of obligation to the Spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, to take up the word of the Spirit in the 66 books of the Bible for dear life, as bread, as sustenance to thus walk in His steps (Gal. 5:22-26, this is a good text to finalize the duty given by Paul).

2A. The duty encouraged (v. 13)

Consider the maximal way that Paul encourages us to this duty (to the Spirit, not to the flesh). He does so by warning on one hand and by promise on the other.

1). The warning is this: the way of the flesh is the way of death. What kind of death (v. 13a)? It is not just physical death but eternal death, enduring the wrath of God stored up by sin (2:5; Matt. 25:32, 46). This is a severe warning; those who mind the flesh will certainly perish. The only way to avoid eternal judgment is to be set free from and to desist from a life of the flesh. Nothing alters this connection between living in the flesh and death. This spurs the saintly pilgrim as a goad in his conscience. One way to get at this point is to say it like this: Christian, whenever you step onto the pathway of sin, this text informs you that what you did merits eternal punishment, and that those who live on that pathway in bondage to sin will perish eternally. You know sin as the proverbial hot potato that burns deep into the soul and vexes the conscience of those who have the Holy Spirit. This pathway burns your feet, and you "must tell Jesus"; you must go to the Savior to have your feet washed and cooled. You must submit yourself to the words of the Spirit to walk in them on the blessed narrow way. Thus, as this is a warning to any traveler on life's highway, it is especially acute in the conscience of God's people; it spurs away from sin and toward holiness.

2) But there is also a promise. Those who do battle with sin, who put to death the deeds of the body, shall live. This refers to eternal life in contrast to eternal death (6:21-23). This is the case, regardless of our station in life, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, master or slave (Rom. 2:6-11; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25, God is not partial or a face-looker who judges by outward station or appearance). What kind of good is referred to in Romans 2:7? It is not good deeds of the law that merit acceptance with God (it can't be merited as shown in Rom. 3:20). These are the good deeds pursued persistently by the Christian walking after the Spirit and putting to death the deeds of the body. The believer must persevere in doing good in order to arrive safely in glory. But his persevering in doing good is not the ground or basis of his acceptance by God and into glory. It is the way he must travel. It is his duty, encouraged by warning and promise.

3A. The duty clarified (v. 13)

1) Note an important point of clarification: it is wrong to conclude from this duty that a Christian may or may not fulfill it and thus a Christian may fall from grace and perish forever. Why is this a wrong conclusion? Briefly, three passages can be cited to show this incorrect, Romans 8:10-11, Philippians 1:6 and 2:12-13. The first passage tells us that if we have Christ and the Spirit indwelling us, and that is the case for all Christians, then we are bound for resurrection glory. Glorification of the physical body is an absolute certainty for the Christian because of the work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in seeing to it that he gets there. God will finish what he began (Phil. 1:6; He began it and He will complete it). Finally, in Philippians 2:12-13 we are told that we have the duty to work out our salvation, like what is taught in Romans 8:12-13, but Philippians gives the added point that the Christian will take up this duty because God so works it in him.

2) For clarification, note how the duty becomes explicit, but again, in an indirect way. It is expressed as a condition in an "if, then" statement (v. 13). It is to put the deeds of the body to death. The physical body is not evil; it is referred to here as the instrument of the flesh, our corrupt nature manifests itself in deeds of the body. The idea is that the flesh deeds that manifest themselves through our physical bodies are to be put to death (cf. Gal. 5:19-21).

3) Third, you do not just toss the hot potato, you take the knife to it. This is warfare to the death. It is all our days to the very end. It is serious business. How do you weed a garden, especially one that is alive with vigorous, thorny, tough and relentless weeds that spoil the fruit? You have to get vigorous, thorny, tough and relentless yourself in your pursuit of holiness, in using all the means that God has appointed to take hold of, learn and wield the sword of the Spirit! What is this sword of the Spirit that we are to take up and use in our battle with sin? It is the word of God is it not, all the glorious words of the 66 books of the Bible?

And at whom do we direct this knife? Ourselves! First we direct this sword to the sin in ourselves (as Jesus put it, take the logs or telephone poles of sin out of our own eyes, Mat. 7.3-5). Do you know why it is that love covers a multitude of sins in the lives of other people around you so that you don't spend all your time faulting and adding up the faults of others? It is because it takes so long and is so demanding to wield the sword of the Spirit against the ossified wood of the telephone pole in your own eye that you can hardly find the time or strength to do surgery on someone else's eye, trying to find little specks of dust. Besides, your knife gets dull chopping on your telephone pole and you must spend much time in prayer and study of the word for personal refreshment.

4) Fourth, this is at times a painful process. A person must walk in the Spirit and put to death the deeds of the body to make it to glory, and if he has the Spirit, he will in process. It is his duty but the Spirit will see to it that this duty is fulfilled (Rom. 8:1-4).

It will not be perfectly fulfilled. Tension and battle must ensue. In the process, failures yield painful consequences along the way, but the Spirit will continue to counter our sinful flesh and prompt us to this battle to the death with sin. If we get tripped up because we look down, then we will face the consequences of our sin, and the Spirit will chasten us. How do we get tripped up? We trip and stumble because we do not weed our gardens, because we do not take up the appointed means of grace, because we do not attend regularly to preaching, teaching and prayer. If we are stubborn, what will we do? We will lay there in the mud and defeat on the battlefield, complaining against others and pitying ourselves. But we then ask for more severe the chastening; and it will come until what the Spirit intends is performed. He will allow us varying degrees of disobedience and stubbornness. Then, graciously, He will set the limit. If he did not set the limit, we would perish of our own will and accord.

The fact of the duty and its unbreakable connection with eternal life, does not imply that the person indwelt by the Spirit can fail and perish in his or her sin. Why? Because the Spirit will not allow those who belong to Christ to go down the road of rebellion and disobedience to perdition, down the broad way to destruction. Although the seeds of such rebellion and disobedience are in our corrupt hearts (we are prone to wander and we sing of how we feel it: "prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love"). He tells us this is our duty. It is a must. He will teach us, discipline and train us—correct and rebuke and convict us graciously. That is why we pray, "Lord take my wandering heart and seal it for thy glorious courts above."

Conclusion

Sometimes we get weary on this battlefield, and we feel like failures and would faint in lack of strength striving against sin. Do you feel that way sometimes? Surely, we all face this at different times in our lives. But we must remember that we have not resisted unto blood striving against sin. And there is one who has, the Lord Jesus Christ. He did this for us in our place to give us His righteousness. So look up as you do battle with sin in yourself and in relation to others. Look up and fix your eyes on Jesus. How do you do this? He tells us in Hebrews 12:2-4. You look up by noting some things: 1) that He is the author and finisher of your faith—you will fulfill the duty that must be fulfilled to enter into the heavenly city (v. 2). 2) Note His joy, shame, and endurance in relation to sin (vs. 2-3), 3) Note the extent, the end to which He came (v. 4). By comparison with yourself and your struggle, this fixing on Jesus will keep you from weariness and loss of heart as you long and wait for the final day yet to come. Until that day comes, we sing: "O Lord Jesus, how long, how long?"