12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors--not to the flesh, to live according 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. 14 For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by
whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be
glorified together. (NKJV)
When God saves His people their hearts are regenerated. This means that they now have the faith that is required for salvation. It means that they are now able to obey God because they have everything in place that enables it. However, many of us can testify to many years of bondage to besetting sins after salvation. Even though our salvation freed us from the penalty of sin and provided the only way for us to become victors over our sin nature, our pride working in cooperation with our sin nature has deceived us into believing that pleasing our flesh would give us more fulfillment than the Joy of the Lord.
When we give in to this by exposing our members to the desires of our flesh, we move away from the light into darkness. If we do not repent of this and learn how to walk according to the spirit, to become Spirit-led, we will eventually become enslaved to our flesh. This bondage can become very hard to break. In fact, we cannot break these chains by OUR WILL POWER. We cannot kill our sin by trying hard or doing good works or being super religious.
What makes this a huge problem is that there are very few mature believers in our time who teach and disciple new Christians how to KILL their sin and thereby live according to the spirit.
In the passage above, the Apostle Paul tells us that all believers are debtors to the Spirit of God, not their flesh. He then tells us that professing Christians who never try to find victory over their flesh are not genuine. Part of the change in a regenerate heart is a hatred for what God hates and a love for what God loves. God hates sin. Genuine Believers will also hate their sin. That does not mean that they know how to get the victory over their sin nature, but they do hate it.
So how do believers get the victory to break the chains of bondage to their flesh? We will find the answer in another part of the Bible written by Paul.....
to be continued........
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