So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to flesh;
Paul has just shown that the Spirit of God lives in the believer. Now he draws the practical conclusion in the language of money owed: what did we ever owe the flesh, and who holds the debt now?
The verse opens by pointing back. The cross and the indwelling Spirit are what leave the flesh with no claim.
The conclusion to be drawn from all that we have just been considering is that the flesh has no claim upon us whatever. It has been judged in the Cross. It is opposed to God, and can never be reconciled to Him. We are not "in the flesh." The Spirit lives in us, and we are "in the Spirit." So we are in no way debtors to the flesh, that we should live after it.
Weigh up what the flesh has given us, and the account runs one way only.
"So then, brothers, we are debtors" — this is clear, for everything shows that we are dependent creatures, and the cross of Christ above all else. But if debtors, it is certainly "not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." The flesh has been nothing but a thief, robbing and destroying. Do we owe it more than the dreadful toll it has already taken? No! Our debt is to the One who has redeemed us from the oppressor who wasted us... If I feed the flesh it is sure to be strong; if I do not feed it, it will soon become inactive.
Commentators point out what this verse does not go on to say.
The structure of the wording is unusual, but I believe it is admirably wise. The sentence looks unfinished and sounds as if another clause were needed to complete it... Used to the schools and forms of man, one waits for some statement to be added, such as that we are debtors to the Spirit or to Christ the Lord. This the inspired writer avoids saying. He knows how prone we are to legalism, and would cut off the excuse first. He would keep us in liberty, the full liberty with which Christ set us free.
Dropping the second half is not a loosening of Christian duty. It changes what drives that duty.
The Apostle says, "we are debtors not to the flesh", but he does not say we are debtors to the Spirit. That would put us under a higher law — one even more impossible to keep than the law of Moses. It is not that we are not responsible to live after the Spirit, but that this responsibility is not carried out by legal obligation. It is carried out by the power of the new affections which the Spirit imparts.
Freedom is not a soft doctrine. It tests what a person really is.
Liberty is, indeed, the very emphasis of the passage. Christ has set the believer free from the law of sin and death. So he is no longer a debtor to the flesh, even in this present life. He lives to God in the liberty of redemption. This claim of liberty is life and joy to the spiritual man. But where Christianity is only a name and not a power, it is the searching edge of the word of holiness, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart... A Christian may abound much in practical holiness, or he may be very feeble and defective in this respect. But if he is alive to God at all, he cannot at the same time be alive in the flesh.
The danger is not that we deny this, but that we keep paying anyway. One writer finds the picture in Israel's history, under Eglon, king of Moab.
The Moabites had no real claim on Israel, and yet Eglon had set up his throne in the city of the palm trees... From that place of power he ruled Israel and made them pay him tribute. So what God alone had a right to claim was going to the king of Moab. How true a picture this is of the state of thousands of Christians. The flesh has no right to rule us, for "we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." We owe no debt to that evil principle within us which would make self everything and shut Christ out. We have every right to ignore its demands and to walk in the Spirit. And yet Christians often give time, thought and strength to the flesh, just as Israel gave Eglon what God alone could claim.
- Debt cancelled. The cross judged the flesh, so it holds no claim over the believer at all.
- Debt reviewed. The flesh only ever robbed us; feed it and it grows strong, starve it and it grows quiet.
- Debt not transferred. Paul never says we are debtors to the Spirit. That would set up a higher law we could not keep.
- Debt replaced by liberty. The new affections the Spirit gives now carry us, not a sense of obligation.
- Debt still being paid. The real danger is handing time, thought and strength to a creditor who has no right to a penny.
for if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live
Romans 8:13 sets two ways of living side by side, and attaches an outcome to each. Why does it still speak of dying, and what work does it leave a believer to do?
One writer explains why the apostle does not call us debtors to the Spirit:
It is indeed our duty to live after the Spirit. But if we said that we are debtors, that would put man under a higher law. Keeping that law would then be even more impossible for him. The Spirit was the strength to live. That strength comes through the affections He imparts, not through an obligation to have them. If we live after the flesh, we are going to die; but if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we shall live. The evil is there, but strength is there to overcome it.
The two halves of the verse are not worded the same way. One writer draws out the difference:
If men live according to the flesh, they are on the way to death. It does not say that they will die. God's grace is always free to come in. But if it comes in, it takes one off the road to death. The verse does not speak as if sin were of no consequence. On the other hand, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, it does not say you are on the way to life, because there is no uncertainty about the result, but "you will live."
How heavy is the word "die"? One writer takes it at full weight:
If I see a man going on with the world, I say, That ends in death; and if I walk after the flesh I shall die. God's Word is very plain about this. "If you live according to the flesh you will die," and I take that in its strongest meaning — you will be eternally lost. The end of that road is the lake of fire, and the end of the other road is the presence of God.
Another writer asks what such a life proves about the person living it:
A person who is living after the flesh will die. He therefore cannot have the real thing. This passage is not a warning against having a thing and somehow perishing, but against having the signs of the thing and then perishing.
The verse names the target with care. It assumes the old nature is still there, still ready to act:
If our old nature were not still left ready to act, we should not need to put to death the deeds of the body. It is not putting the body to death, but the deeds of the body. The great thing to see is that it is through the Spirit.
One writer explains why this killing has to go on and on:
As to our members that are on the earth, Scripture never says they are crucified. The old mortal body and its members, prone to evil, are still present, and we have to subdue them. Mortification is the process of bringing them under control… To mortify is to put to death. We cannot put to death what is already dead. Mortification, then, is a perpetual killing, if one may say so, of the members and of their deeds.
The phrase "by the Spirit" rules out the obvious substitute:
It is not by resolution. Do you understand now? Do you understand the difference between the Spirit of God and resolution? Resolution is the work of your own will. The Spirit of God is God's will… The Spirit in you is master of the flesh.
This work is expected only from people who have the Spirit. That changes who should feel the warning:
Putting the deeds of the body to death is the result of the Spirit's energy. He is the Spirit who produces the fruits of life in a person, when nothing hinders the gracious working of His love. This is expected only from believers in whom the Spirit lives. So there is nothing in verse 13 that need chill the confidence of the poor, weak-spirited, self-judging Christian in the least. Those who judge themselves most are the ones this warning touches least.
- Debt — The apostle never calls us debtors to the Spirit. He is our strength to live, not a higher law demanding what we cannot produce.
- Road — Living after the flesh sets a direction. It puts a person on the way to death, and only grace takes anyone off that road.
- Target — The killing aims at the deeds of the body, never at the body itself. The work never finishes in this life.
- Power — Resolution is your own will; the Spirit is God's will, and only He is master of the flesh in you.
- Certainty — One side is a road; the other is a result. Those in whom the Spirit works "will live," and the warning weighs least on those quickest to judge themselves.