“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.” (Romans 8:12)
What Paul is saying is that we owe the flesh nothing, so we should not indulge in any activity that is of the flesh. It’s a strange way of wording something. The word “therefore” indicates that this statement is made as a result of the previous verses in which Paul is talking about living in the Spirit.
Paul delineates the differences between living in the Spirit and living in the flesh because they are opposites. To live in the flesh is to live carnally minded which is opposite and hostile to God. This mind does not and cannot obey God. (Romans 8:12) At the beginning of Romans, Paul described the carnal mind: “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:” (Romans 1:29-31) He further describes the carnal mind in Ephesians as darkened and alienated from God, ignorant because they are blind and without feeling have given themselves over to various vices acting in a filthy manner physically and morally. (Ephesians 4:18,19) And in his letter to Timothy, Paul warns Timothy that in the last days man will be more carnal minded than spiritually minded, “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2Timothy 3:2-5) Paul commands to avoid them.
The carnal minded do not and cannot obey God because they don’t have the Holy Spirit. They flounder in what the devil has to offer and that is sin. Even if they tried, they cannot change their hearts. Only God can give them a new heart. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27) A pastor once said, “Sinners sin. That is what they do.” This is what they are. The opposite is also true.
We have a new heart. Our desire is to obey God. Unlike the carnal mind that cannot. If we have a new heart and the Spirit of God is in us we can. “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:11) We need the Holy Spirit to quicken our mortal bodies. Our human spirits may be spiritually in tune to God, but our mortal body isn’t. “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:10) It’s the power of the Holy Spirit that empowers us to have rule over our body and its flesh desires. No matter if one is a brand-new believer or has been a believer for decades, that flesh isn’t saved. Reading the Word of God and being obedient to it makes our mind more and more spiritually minded. And being spiritually minded, we are able to yield more to the Holy Spirit than to our flesh. That is living in the Spirit. It’s allowing God to give us that new heart, a heart with a nature that loves God, wants to obey and can obey Him. It’s having the Holy Spirit indwelling and empowering us to obey God and to live in the Spirit. “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” (Romans 6:13)
If one is having a problem with a carnal sin, it’s necessary to daily make a decision to listen to the Holy Spirit and to read the Bible. Even if the reading doesn’t pertain to the exact situation, the Word of God is light. It shines God’s wisdom, knowledge and understanding in the darkness that the flesh wants and exposes it. We are then able to yield it to the Holy Spirit Who will “quicken” us and empower us to obey God.
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