11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 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.
(Romans 8:11-13 English Standard Version, emphasis added for attention)
paying the old master
If it is true that the Spirit that raised Christ lives in us, and that he will give us life, we no longer have the debtor of sin over us. We were once slaves to sin, (Rom 6:17,20) but now we are no longer under that yoke, no longer to live according to the flesh. Our debt has been paid in full, we have been ransomed, we owe the flesh nothing, and the Spirit everything. (yes, that last thing was a Piper quote)
and now the McOwen
We have a few questions to answer from verse 13:
- What is meant here by flesh/body and it’s “deeds”?
- What is to be done against the flesh/body?
- Who is to do this action?
- By what means are they do this action?
- Upon what motivation should they do this action?
Flesh/Body
“The flesh” and “the body” are the same thing meant here. The flesh is “our sinful passions.” (Rom 7:5) The body is taken to mean the members offered to our sinful desires. (Rom. 6:19) The flesh, and the body, are set sternly opposing the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
(Rom 8:5-8)
The deeds of the flesh are sin, the submitting our members to impurity and lawlessness. (Rom. 6:19)
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
(Gal 5:19-21)
Ha Ha Ha, murder
To mortify (Gk. – Ei Thanatoute) “if you put to death” a metaphorical expression, taken from the killing of any living thing. To kill anything is to strike it’s principle of strength, vigor, and power. Here indwelling sin is compared to a person , so we must strike, it’s very principle of strength, it’s root. We once had the law of impurity in our hearts, and once we have a law contrary to it placed upon our hearts there begins, in degrees, a work to be carried out unto perfection all our days. HA Ha Ha of course I mention trees, I’m a lumberjack!
Responsibility
The you included in the verb here is referring to believers; to whom “there is no condemnation” (v.1); are “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit” (v.9); those “quickened by the Spirit of Christ” (vv. 10-11) If anyone who is not a believer is required to do this work, it is nothing short of self-righteous men ignorant of the gospel. So There!
Is it Sprirt or Ghost?
The principle efficient cause, or the answer to the question “who made it,” of the action is the Spirit: ei de pneumati -”if by the Spirit.” The Spirit is the same mentioned throughout this chapter: The Spirit of God, dwelling in us (v.9); the Spirit that quickens us (v.11); the Holy Ghost (v.14); Spirit of adoption (v.15); the Spirit that makes intercession (v. 26.
ALL OTHER WAYS OF KILLING THE DEEDS OF THE BODY ARE VAIN! Men may attempt this work by other means, by their own efforts, but Paul clearly states, if this is to be done, it is to be done “by the Spirit”
Mmmmm Tasty Goodness
YOU SHALL LIVE! you get heaven, you get God! Really, I need to expound here?
Do it = God, Don’t = Hell, that about sums it up.
I know that most of this is practically verbatim out of John Owen’s “of the Mortification of sin in believers,” but you try to come up with a better exposition of that verse. Here I stand on the shoulders of giants so that I may see farther, cause let’s be honest, me, come up with this awesomeness … right.
