I. Don’t Live Like An Unbeliever Vs. 12, 13
A. Therefore-Refers to 8:11
1. The passage addresses those who are Christians
2. Refutes the universal Fatherhood of God; universal brotherhood of man
3. Before God’s throne, two options: child of God, or not a child of God
4. The follower of Jesus is under no obligation to live under the influence and impulse of the fleshly nature. There was not spiritual or eternal benefit gained when we lived after the flesh. The flesh brought sin and negative consequences.
5. The Christian needs to see himself as a debtor to God’s Spirit. We owe our lives to God, and to be led, influenced, and empowered by the Spirit.
B. Unbeliever Lives According To Flesh
1. Read Romans 8:6-8
2. Governed, motivated, influenced only by human nature.
3. Void of God’s influence or power.
4. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
5. The unsaved man is on a train track without an optional track to switch to.
C. Carnal (Fleshly) Living Brings Death
1. Sinful living brings negative consequences
2. Lifelong sinful living without repentance, brings eternal death and punishment
D. Put To Death The Deeds Of The Flesh
1. Live according to the Holy Spirit, having been born again by the Spirit, having been indwelt by the Spirit, having been empowered by the Spirit.
2. The child of God is a man with the option of which direction he is going in, which track he will run on: he has the Great Switch Operator whom he can look to.
a. Track of God’s will
b. Track of flesh
3. Abiding in and depending on the Holy Spirit is the only way to overcome flesh
4. J.B. Phillips Bible, Romans 8:13 “But if on the other hand, you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying the Spirit, you are on your way to real living.”
5. We don’t kill the flesh by the power or intentions of the flesh, we overcome the instincts of the flesh by yielding to the H. S.
6. W.H. Griffith Thomas– It is important for the spiritual life that we should remember that the flesh is still with us and dangerous, and that it is to be dealt with not by extirpation
(surgical removal), but by mortification (asceticism, discipline).
7. Stifler- The man in Christ is not in the flesh, but it (the flesh) is in him, and the problem of salvation is not how to transmute (change) the flesh into something good, but how to live with this thing every day without being overcome with it. The presence of the Spirit solves the problem.
8. Anonymous- We keep the body under by keeping the Spirit on top.