Disciples are to be led by the Spirit, not by flesh. This daily devotional looks at why we are considered debtors to God and what we need to do to follow the Spirit.
Nuggets
- Though we could never repay God the debt we owe Him, He accepts our service to Him.
- We are to mortify our sins, which can be difficult to do.
- We must choose to be children of God.
Devotions in the Never Alone: The Holy Spirit in Our Lives series
The Holy Spirit lives within our hearts. Because of this, we want to be led by the Spirit, not our flesh.
Paul continued his discourse in Romans 8, comparing the Spirit to the flesh. Let’s see what we can add to the last discussion.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Debtors to the Spirit
“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh” (Rom. 8: 12 ESV)
Though we could never repay God the debt we owe Him, He accepts our service to Him.
Many times, the worldview tries to tell us that we don’t owe anyone anything. Sometimes, that is even swung around to say “they” owe us instead.
Paul says wrong. He just wanted to make sure we are paying it to the right place.
We don’t owe a debt to our flesh. We aren’t talking about our bodies here.
Yes, we have to eat and grow. We do have responsibilities in this life.
The flesh is our human, sinful nature. Our main focus should be on God and His work.
We owe past disciples a huge debt. They are the one who started the church and kept it focused on God. They kept Satan out.
We pass it on by keeping the church for future generations.
That is what our service is all about. “… not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh” (Rom. 8: 12 ESV).
Our lives shouldn’t be about hoarding all the riches of this world. It isn’t about indulging in sinful pursuits.
It is about our covenant with God. A covenant is an agreement between two parties.
Because of the covenant God has made with us, we owe Him a huge debt that we can never repay.
Spurgeon reminded us that we owe God a debt even if we are not His children. We are all His creation. Hence, we owe him a debt.
Glossary
Resource
The greatest debt we have — the debt for our being disobedient to God — was paid by Jesus on the cross. It was paid because of His love for us.
That knocks our pride out of the way, doesn’t it? Being a disciple is all about humility. Christian humility is our yielding our dependence to Christ to serve Him and others.
We don’t have a puffed up opinion about ourselves. We have a high opinion of God and others.
That should make us want to serve God in whatever way He calls.
Let’s switch that around a little bit. A debt is something we owe, but when we deny that debt, we withhold the payment for it.
We have to make sure we really owe the debt. No, we don’t owe things just because we breathe.
Neither are we owed things just because we breathe. We have to remember that this flesh is temporary.
This jumps us back into the discussion of mortifying our sins. Mortify means to place a death penalty on our sins.
Glossary
God tests our commitment to Him. He wants to make sure we are striving to cut the sin out of our lives.
But then again, this mortification is part of sanctification. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Killing Sin
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8: 13 ESV)
We are to mortify our sins, which can be difficult to do.
Let’s start at the end of the verse. If we find out what “… the deeds of the body …” (Rom. 8: 13 ESV) are, we will learn how not to “… live according to the flesh …” (Rom. 8: 13 ESV).
- sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth (Col. 3: 5-10)·
- deceitful desires, falsehood, stealing, grieving the Holy Spirit of God, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice (Eph. 4: 22-32).
- works of darkness, orgies and drunkenness, quarreling, and jealousy (Rom. 13: 12-14)
- impurity, sensuality, sorcery, enmity, strife, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy (Gal. 5: 19-21)
- drinking parties and lawless idolatry (I Pet. 4: 3)
Take a good look at this list. They are both outward and inward sins. We have to be totally committed to God.
Many of these deeds take our focus off God. We think we are lonely, so need a spouse. Yet, God is always with us.
We react with anger, malice, covetousness, and envy when we should react with love and harmony. We are thinking of how it impact us and our goals.
These are all sins. If sin is in our lives, we are spiritually dead.
Putting our faith and trust in Jesus brings us spiritual life. Continuing to commit these sins keeps us spiritually dead.
And yes, we are spiritually dead at birth. Mankind is that way because of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
The only way we correct that condition is through God’s Plan of Salvation. Belief in Jesus is the only way.
The only way we can kill sin is through the Holy Spirit. We follow His promptings and live a life of faith.
Charnock warned us that it is not enough to stop doing a sin to call that mortification of sin. He cautioned that may not be genuine in killing the sin.
- We may replace that sin with another sin.
- The outward stoppage may not be accompanied by an inward change.
- We may just be switching our allegiance to something else, rather than switching it to God.
- The desire to change may be brought on by a condition that, once removed, will remove the desire to change.
- The discontinuation of the sin may be because the opportunity is no longer there.
Resource
It must be our conscious, sincere desire to repent of our sins. That includes a complete change from wanting and doing the sin.
Children of God
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8: 14 ESV)
We must choose to be children of God.
We talked a little in the last devotion how the Holy Spirit was called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Verse 11 also described Him as “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you …” (Rom. 8: 11 ESV).
This mighty Spirit is the One who is in our hearts strengthening us!
I know we can scratch our heads sometimes when we read things like this. But then, it does strengthen our comprehension of the Trinity.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are three in one. That means references to them can be interchangeable while they have distinct titles.
Horton explained it this way. He wrote,
“The Holy Ghost, then, may be called the Spirit of God, inasmuch as He cometh forth from God. He is also the Spirit of Christ, inasmuch as He represents Christ, and is sent by Him to do the Saviour’s work. Further, to have the Spirit is to have Christ, because it is only through the Spirit that Jesus can take up His residence within. It follows, accordingly, that to have the Spirit of Christ in us, means something more than merely to have a disposition resembling Christ’s. It means that we have God Himself to dwell within our breasts.”
Resource
When it says we are “… led by the Spirit of God …” (Rom. 8: 14 ESV), we have to remember free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
God doesn’t force us to follow Him. We make that commitment.
How does the Spirit lead?
- In truth and holiness
- To vital godliness
- To the written Word
- With power and efficacy
- With sweetness and gentleness
- Leads the whole man
- Leads to all should know, believe, and do
- Into usefulness
Resource
There is no one better to lead us to salvation than the Holy Spirit. He knows the way. “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 CSB).
We are talking about just a Sunday morning excursion where the Spirit leads us. This is 24/7/365.
There is a reward for allowing the Spirit lead us. We are children of God.
I see you jumping up and down over there. Yes, some worldview people believe they are children of God just because they are creations of God. They are made in God’s image.
But they aren’t children of God.
We have to believe to be children of God. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1: 12 ESV).
But I think we also have to let the Holy Spirit lead to be children of God.
Think about it. The unpardonable sin is that we don’t quench the Holy Spirit.
We can believe and not let the Spirit lead. Just let God call you to move thousands of miles away from your family and home.
God wants total submission, not just believing. He wants us to have His character, not human morals.
Making the Connections
We can’t think that we can sit back and let the Holy Spirit do all the work for us. We’ve got to work out our salvation ourselves (Phil. 2: 12).
Owen said it this way. He wrote, “We can do nothing without [the Holy Spirit]; He will do nothing without us.”
Resource
Winslow cautioned us to not mix human responsibility with God’s work. We can’t say we will be kind to others to live peacefully in the worldview, believing that will cut it for the second greatest commandment of loving others.
Resource
We have to focus on God and His plan for us. We serve Him His way.
How Do We Apply This?
- Strive to be more holy.
- Work to follow God’s laws and commandments.
- Choose not to be willful and headstrong.
Resource
Father God. We commit to following the Holy Spirit rather than following the call of our flesh. Make us more holy. Amen.
What do you think?
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