But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ….(11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (12) Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not 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.

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. He has just finished with God’s plan of salvation – we are justified in faith in Jesus Christ without the works of the law – and now moves in chapter 8 to the theme of security of believers. He begins with my favorite verse of Romans: 8:1, a statement that required no qualifying clause, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” God sees the believer in Christ Jesus and thus seen, he is free from all condemnation. All question of judgment is settled. We are reminded that two exactly opposite principles are involved. We either live after the flesh as natural man and unsaved/alienated from God or we live after the Spirit, in faith in Christ, reborn of the word and Spirit of God. There are only two ways to live with only two outcomes – to live according to the flesh ends in eternal death; to live according to the Spirit ends with eternal life. Our flesh is our old nature that we were born with and to live according to its desires is self centered and opposed to God.

Sin always destroys lives , always dangles the promise of happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction but that is only bait to lure the victim into a trap which leads to eternal death. We rationalize our behavior, excuse it, tolerate it as normal or even a good thing. Here we also have Paul’s assurance of the continuing struggle that goes on in a believer’s life – sanctification is a process. Since God has claimed the believer we owe nothing to the flesh and are not debtors to its service. The body is for the Lord – Paul is talking here about the body of the living believer who has new life in a body subject to physical death. Because God raised up Christ there is ground to believe He would raise up His people also – the redemption of Christ extends to the bodies as well as the souls of His people.

There is no profit, no holiness, no happiness for those who are out of Christ. The necessity of holiness is absolute while the destruction of sin is a slow and painful process. We are to behave as we believe.