WWUTT 1272 So Then We Are Debtors (Romans 8:12-14)

In Christ, you have received so much more than conversion to faith.

You have holiness. You have fellowship with God. You have entrance into His eternal kingdom.

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Thank you, Becky. Back to our study in Romans chapter 8. If you want to open your Bible and join with me there,

I'm going to start reading in verse 12, and we'll go through verse 17. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

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.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,

Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him.

What a lot of meat in these verses to unpack here. So we come back to verse 12.

Then brothers, we are debtors. How are we debtors? We are debtors because we have been bought with a price.

And that's the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the

Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.

He paid the price with his blood. He bought us with his sacrifice.

We have been redeemed by Christ, who gave himself for us,

Christ's life, who was infinitely more valuable than ours, his life more valuable than ours, his life given for ours.

His life is so great that however many millions or perhaps billions of people come to faith in Jesus Christ over the centuries.

Going back to even before the cross, for those who were looking forward to the coming of the

Messiah, live by faith. They have received their righteousness by faith, just as Abraham did.

Remember he is our example, as we had seen back in Romans chapter 4.

And then we also have all the examples of the heroes of faith that are laid out for us in Hebrews chapter 11, which the author there says, time would fail me to go on and talk about all of these heroes that we have in the

Old Testament scriptures, all of these who believed by faith and they received a kingdom that is not of this world.

So even they were saved by faith in the Old Testament, by grace you have been saved by faith.

That is always been the way that God had saved, whether it was before the cross or after those

Old Testament faithful were looking forward to a coming promise. And we are looking at the fulfillment of that promise in our

Lord Jesus Christ. So Jesus life has so much value to it that however many millions or billions

Jesus has saved by the giving of his life, all of those lives put together don't even amount to the value of Christ because of just how good he is.

The perfect son of God that the father gave to die for us and Jesus in submission, joyfully in submission to the will of the father, gave his life for us looking beyond the shame of the cross, despising the shame, looking to the joy that was set before him, the promise that the father had given to the son.

And we are the inheritance that the son receives. We are the treasure that the father has given to the son.

Those whom Jesus had purchased by his blood, Titus 2 14,

Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

We are the reward that the father has given to the son for his faithfulness and submission to the will of the father.

We are the inheritance of Christ. And now with Christ, we receive an inheritance as we become fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom.

All this is just mind bogglingly beautiful. Going back to the verse that we finished with yesterday, 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.

That was Romans 8 11. And in light of all of the things that we read in Romans 8 1 through 11, we have this statement in verse 12.

So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

You have no debt to pay to the flesh. It is because of what you did in the flesh that you owed so great a price to God that you couldn't possibly pay it.

But Jesus, who is of such infinite, way more infinite value than we are worth, gave himself for us.

He redeemed us. He paid the price, the debt, the penalty that we owed because of our sin against God.

And he was not able to purchase just you and just me. But he has purchased all the many elect that God had for ordained from the foundation of the world for this salvation that we have received in Christ.

We begin Romans 8 with there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

He has saved us, which the law weakened by the flesh could not do.

Those who set their minds on the things of the of the flesh, 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. And it is in the spirit of Christ that has been given to us.

We are able to live in such a way that is pleasing unto God. Those who do not have the spirit of Christ do not belong to him.

But you have received this spirit as a follower of Jesus Christ and as a temple of the

Holy Spirit whom you have from God. You are not your own for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body. Jesus' death on the cross was not just a purchasing of your soul.

It was a purchasing of your whole self. Because not just the soul is going to be cast into hell, the body will be as well.

Consider these words from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5 verses 29 and 30.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Jesus is being hyperbolic here, of course, because you could cut off your hand or cut out your eye and still be a sinner since sin comes from the heart.

It's not like that cures the sin. But whatever it is that is in your life that may potentially be the temptation to you, get it out of your life.

Don't let it be anywhere near you that you may live in holiness. Let there be nothing that distracts you from Christ, but maintain your focus on him.

And this is, of course, a will and a power that we have because the

Holy Spirit that has been poured into our hearts. Jesus further says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 28, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

And likewise, we are told in First Corinthians chapter 15 that at the resurrection of the dead, not just our souls are raised to life in Christ forever in glory, but our very bodies will be brought back from the grave and transformed into something imperishable that we may dwell forever with God, not just in our souls, but even in a transformed body.

As as Paul said to the Philippians, Philippians chapter three, that our bodies will be transformed to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

So God has purchased not just your soul, but Christ has purchased your body.

So you must honor God with your body. When Jesus said, answering the question, what is the greatest commandment?

He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Don't you understand that heart and soul deals with spiritual things, but mind and strength deals with the way that you would even live in your very body.

You give all of yourself unto God. You leave, you leave nothing to yourself or to this world.

I can be a Christian in these parts of my life, but then I can still kind of enjoy some worldly things with these parts of me, right?

There's that that idea of dualism that exists within Gnosticism, that the the soul and the body are separate from one another.

So whatever you do in the body is it doesn't matter because the body is simply going to die.

But the soul is eternal. And what you do in the body does not even affect the soul. So don't worry about it.

The body will perish. The soul will go on and live forever. Of course, you might also identify that as universalism.

It's basically the idea that everybody is going to be saved. But this is not what

Scripture teaches. What you do in the body does have to do with the judgment of the soul and the body on that day of judgment when we all stand before God.

And so in your bodies, what you do with your body, what you do with your will, what you do with your mind, all of it must be in subjection to Christ for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body. Christ, by his death on the cross, has redeemed you and saved you from destruction, from the wrath of God.

So you must honor him with your whole self. You are a debtor, not unto your flesh.

You owe nothing to the flesh. The flesh is the reason why you owed a debt in the first place, a debt that you could not pay.

Christ paid the debt. And so we are debtors unto him because he paid the price for us.

Now it's not that we can possibly pay that price back. We can't. Because remember, Christ is of infinite worth and we are not together.

We have made ourselves worthless, as it says in Romans 3 10. So Christ is the one who gives us our worth because he has purchased us and given us his righteousness.

So we must live as though we are living to pay back a debt which

Christ paid for us. But knowing we will never get that debt fully paid off, nor is

God expecting us to because we can't do it. That's just his grace and his mercy that we are not obligated to pay back this debt, which we couldn't pay back in the first place.

And we cannot pay back even though Christ has paid it for us. So God is merciful and he's not expecting us to pay that back.

But we must live our lives as if we were attempting to pay that back.

Not burdened, not burdened to pay back this debt because you can't. You would never be able to achieve it.

See, this is where even sanctification can become legalism. If you think that, well, I have to be holy in order to pay back what it is that Christ has has paid for me.

You can't do that because you're never going to get to the end of that. Just like in in the in the justification side of legalism, there was no good work that was going to make you saved.

So in the sanctification side of legalism, there is no good work that is going to make you sanctified. You are justified in Christ.

You are sanctified in Christ. So live in such a way that you honor

God with your body, knowing that you belong to him, but not to live your life in such a way as if I need to do this until I have paid this back as though you're trying to pay something back.

You live like you're like you're trying to, but you're not really trying to.

Does that make sense? Let me read to you what James Montgomery Boyce said in his commentary to Romans chapter seven.

We're on into chapter eight here. But here's what James Montgomery Boyce said in the commentary to Romans seven.

He said, what is sanctification? Is it an awareness of how good we are becoming?

Or is it a growing sense of how sinful we really are? So we will constantly turn to and depend upon Jesus Christ.

If we are mature in Christ, we know it is the latter, not an awareness of how good we are becoming, but a growing sense of how sinful we really are.

And notice what James Montgomery Boyce says there. So we will constantly turn to and depend upon Jesus Christ.

When you have an awareness of just how sinful you are, don't turn towards your works. Don't turn toward why

I need to do some good and better things so that way I can offset the bad sinful things that I do, or even the temptations that I have are the things that I'm constantly wrestling with in my body, right?

That is never going to sanctify you doing enough good things to be sanctified.

Rather I think James Montgomery Boyce is right on the money when he says that our sanctification is rather a growing sense of how sinful we really are.

So we will constantly turn to and depend upon Jesus Christ.

If we think about sanctification as becoming better, then we're going to rely upon our works.

But if we think of sanctification as a growing sense of understanding our own sin, then we are going to turn all the more to Christ.

Boy, the gospel just gets more and more gorgeous. The more you, if you'll pardon the expression, flesh this out, right?

But we are not debtors to the flesh. We don't live according to the flesh. Verse 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.

This is something that comes up constantly in the New Testament. Putting to death the deeds of the body.

I've quoted to you several times Galatians 2 .20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer

I who live, but Christ who lives within me in the life. I now live in the body. I live by faith unto the son of God.

You have the instruction that Paul gives to the Colossians. Colossians 3 .5, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

Putting to death those things in the body, the desires of our flesh, our temptations.

You must be killing sin or sin will be killing you, as John Owen had said.

So put to death the deeds of the body so that you will live. Verse 14, Romans 8 .14, for all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God.

And you want to be a worthy son or daughter of God, right? You want to please your heavenly father.

So live in such a way that you know is pleasing to your father. If you are in Christ Jesus, if the spirit is within you, the spirit of Christ within you.

When God the father looks at you, you know what his facial expression is?

What the father's facial expression is toward you? When he looks at you, a son or a daughter of God adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ, there is nothing on God's face but a smile.

He loves you and has such affection for his son or his daughter who has received the same love that God has for his own son.

The love that God has for his son is the love that the father has for you. He is pleased with you.

So don't think that when you sin, suddenly you're out of the love of the father and he doesn't love you anymore.

No, he loves you and he's going to discipline you as a son or a daughter, just as our earthly fathers will discipline us.

So our heavenly father does the same. He disciplines you so that you know right, you know righteousness, and you will walk in righteousness and turn away from the sin.

But you still as a son or a daughter, you want to live your life in such a way that is pleasing to your father.

Do you not? Did you not try to do that when you were a child? Even if maybe you didn't have a good relationship with your dad, you still wanted to please your dad, right?

What do I have to do to please my father? So we should have that attitude toward our father in heaven.

But because we love him in light of how he loves us, we love

God because he first loved us and gave his son to be a propitiation for our sins, as it says in 1

John. And it's through Christ, through faith in Christ that we have the spirit of adoption.

This is verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.

You're not in a slavery to your flesh, to your sins, to continue in sin that you may fear the judgment of God, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons that you may glorify in the love of God.

It's in the spirit that we cry, Abba, father, we are able to call upon God as our father because we know we have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ.

The spirit, verse 16, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Now, tomorrow, I don't want to go on from here. We're going to wait until next week to jump into the next section, starting verse 18.

So I want to come back again to this tomorrow and finish up versus 16 and 17.

Well, really, verse 15 as well. As we talk some more about adoption, this doctrine of adoption, it doesn't get talked about very much.

But while we have it here in our text, I want to understand this doctrine a little bit more. That's where we'll come back to tomorrow.

Heavenly father, I thank you for this adoption that we have received in Christ, that we may call upon you as father.

We know our heavenly father above loves us and is looking down upon us with fondness, is guiding us, has given us faith, has given us forgiveness, grace, mercy.

All the wonderful blessings that we have received in Christ is because our father in heaven loves us.

May we live this day as worthy sons and daughters of God, desiring to please God with our whole selves, heart, soul, mind, and strength.

us our sins. Lead us in righteousness. In Jesus name. Amen.