Victory over Flesh

Romans 8:12-15

Victory over Flesh by Holy Spirit!

Romans 8:12-15, 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.” Romans chapters ³ to ⁷ show us how Jesus Christ provided a no-condemnation salvation. Romans chapter ⁸ demonstrates how the Holy Spirit secures that no-condemnation salvation. Verse 1, we are in no-condemnation status before God because we are in Christ. Verses 2&3, The Spirit frees us from sin and death. All men are sinners.

All have sinned and violated God's law. Therefore, all are under the curse. All come short of the glory of God, and, therefore, are sentenced to eternal death. V 2, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

These two verses spell the great work of the Spirit in producing our no condemnation status was to free us from sin and death. We could not be freed from sin and death by the law, as Romans 3 said, for by the works of the law, none of us could be saved or justified.

Why? Because no man can keep the law.

Who can help us? The principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit, who is the One who sets us free from the law of sin and death.

How does the Spirit do that? V 3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, It is done by the work of substitution.

We could not please God. We could not keep His law. The law could not help us. We were in a damnable situation and condition. We were under severe and eternal condemnation. Because of His work of substitution salvation can be brought to us through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus paid the penalty for sin. Holy Spirit enables us to fulfil God's law. V 4, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

• If we are going to have a relationship with God,
• If we are going to be right with God,
• If we are going to know God,
• If we are going to come into fellowship with God,

The law of God is nothing but a transcript of His holy character. Nobody has fellowship with Him that does not bear that holy character. Justification and sanctification are inseparable.

This is the initial work of sanctification. We are transformed from flesh walkers to Spirit walkers.

2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

We move from a condition of not having the power to keep the law, which condemns us, to having the power to keep the law, which no longer condemns us. The law no longer condemns us because of justification. Now we have the power to keep that law because of sanctification or regeneration or conversion.

Two kinds of people

➢ Those who walk according to the flesh, and ➢ Those who walk according to the Spirit. V 5, For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Those people operate on a different mindset. Those who walk according to the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. Those who walk according to the Spirit have their mind set on the things of the Spirit.

➢ For those who walk according to the flesh with their mind set on the flesh, there is death. ➢ For those who walk according to the Spirit with their mind set on the Spirit, there is life and peace. The contrast. Flesh minds the things of the flesh and is death. It says it is death. Does not say it leads to death. It is death, spiritual death.

Those in the flesh, thinking with a mindset of the flesh, are dead in trespasses and sins, and it will end up in eternal death. Those who have been transformed and now walk according to the Spirit, living in the Spirit, minding the things of the Spirit are alive.

They are alive. V 6, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. They partake in life right now, the very life of God, which is full of peace.

Galatians 6:8, For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

There is an eternal consequence to this. For them, it is eternal death. For us, it is eternal life. We are not minding the things of the flesh but minding the things of the Spirit. V 5, We are not headed for death but for life and peace. V 6.

We are not hostile to God, but we are subject to the law of God. We no longer displease God. V 8. We please God and that's because we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. V 9. We are alive. V 10. We have been raised from the dead. V 11.

All of that speaks of the change in our nature. ➢ We have been freed from sin and death. ➢ We have been enabled to fulfil God's law and ➢ We have had our nature changed by the Holy Spirit. Tremendous truth. Holy Spirit empowers us for victory over the flesh.

• We are already in a no-condemnation status, that is we will never have to pay the penalty of sin.
• We have been freed from the penalty of sin, which is death, eternal death.
• We have been enabled to keep God's law because the righteousness of God has been imputed to us.

• We have had our nature transformed so that we are new creations who are in the Spirit, minding the things of the Spirit, enjoying life and peace but we still have a battle with the present flesh on a day-to-day basis.

So, the Holy Spirit must empower us for victory over the flesh. This is the result of a changed nature. We are not just declared righteous but also transformed, converted, regenerated, born again so that we have a new inner man. New inner man has been totally changed.

We are a new creation, but that new inner man is incarcerated in unredeemed humanness, which Paul calls flesh. Great battle going on there as we saw in Romans 7 and the Holy Spirit empowers us for a day-to-day victory over that flesh.

V 12-13, 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.

The Spirit of God has come into our lives, changed our nature, taken up residence. Now provides not only a no-condemnation status but the power to put to death the deeds of the body.

These two verses focus on what the Holy Spirit does in us. For us, the Holy Spirit provided a no-condemnation status by the work of Jesus Christ being applied to us, both His suffering for sin and His righteous life applied to us.

He also changed our nature through conversion. Since we have not got our glorified bodies as, yet our struggles are spelled out here. V 13, "by the Spirit." By the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body. An ongoing life in which we win the battle with the flesh, and we do it by the Spirit. Apart from the Spirit there can be no victory.

• Flesh cannot overcome flesh.
• Humanness cannot overcome humanness.
• You cannot pick yourself up by your own bootstraps.
• You can't change yourself.

All that flesh can do is serve the law of sin, that's Roman 7. Roman 7:18-19, For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

You still have a component in your makeup that is all evil and flesh can't do good. Roman 7:21, I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

Where is it? It is in my flesh. Roman 7:23, But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. A different law or principle or members of my body waging war against the principle of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. There is clinging to me.

Roman 7:24-25, O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

The flesh can’t change the flesh. Through the years I have grieved because there has been misunderstanding about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

When anybody gets into a process in their Christian life where they do not understand the true means of victory over sin. Where they do not understand the true resource of the power of the Holy Spirit any false understanding of sanctification literally cripples the process.

Because if anything is left to the flesh, if anything is taken out of the control of the Spirit then no sanctification takes place. The flesh can only serve the law of sin. Flesh can only do what is evil. Flesh cannot overcome flesh.

So, we must understand the work of the Spirit. To express the life of that new person there must be a triumph over that custody around us, that shell of flesh around us that debilitates the expression. It is then in this passage that the apostle Paul defines for us victory over the flesh by the power of the Spirit.

Now we know that the Holy Spirit is powerful.

Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you."

Ephesians 3:16, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,

The inner man is the new creation. It is the real you. It is the truest expression of who you are. The Spirit of God has taken up residence there, he lives in you. He is power personified. The deacons in Acts chapter 6, Philip, and Stephen, that they were full of faith and full of power and full of the Holy Spirit.

So, we have residing in us the Spirit of God. Zachariah 4:6, So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.

Matthew 12:31-32, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. ³² Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. In Christ,

• We have been freed from the law of sin and death.

• We have been made alive to God.
• We have been able to fulfil the righteous law by the imputed righteousness of Christ.
• We have been granted a new disposition, a new creation, we are a new person, wherein resides the Holy Spirit in full power, which power is available to us for victory over the flesh.

When we get to the end of chapter seven Paul has defined for us the battle. When you come into chapter 8, he launches into a discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit, because it is the Holy Spirit who gives you victory in the battle.

Romans 7:14, "I am of flesh sold into bondage to sin." I do what I don't want to do and I don't do what I do and I am a wretched man. verse 24, and I want to be free from the body of this death. I know God has made provision but I'm still struggling. On the one hand serving the law of God and On the other hand, my flesh, the law of sin.

Where lays the victory?

Paul comes immediately into chapter 8, and it is the Holy Spirit who is the source of that victory, and he comes to say that specifically in verses 12 and 13. We may say that we are not having too much victory in our life over sin.

We may feel we are powerless. The power is all there you just need to plug in. It's resident within you. You will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and there are no conditions. You have the power of the living God, the third member of the Trinity is living in you.

You are strengthened with might, with power by His spirit in the inner man. You ought to be explosive and you ought to be experiencing triumph over sin.

Ephesians 5:18, "Be being kept filled with the Spirit" One sense is to always experience the fullness of that power. He is commanding us to yield ourselves fully to the power of the Holy Spirit. To be being kept filled means to yield to the spirit totally.

To give up your own control, your own agenda and let the Holy Spirit habitually permeate your life and exercise full control by letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Saturation of the Word of God, a surrendering of your will, intellect, body, time, talent, treasure, everything to the Spirit's control.

It is really the elimination of self. It is really the death of you. But the power's there. The power of victory is the Holy Spirit The people of victory. V 12, "So then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh."

Brethren. The word that identifies the people of victory. A word of love, to sweeten the exhortation. A word of fellowship to show them that they are not alone. There is love here and there is equality here. Paul has the same struggle they have. He just defined it in chapter seven. But the people of victory are the brethren, those redeemed in Christ.

The rest of the world, never experience victory. In fact, for the most part, they don't even experience the war. Because it's just flesh and flesh. They get along fine. It is reasonable for Christians to have higher highs and lower lows than unregenerate people.

It is somewhat normal to a truly mature and Godly believer to experience the highest exhilaration of praise and gratitude to God for His mercy, grace, and the depth of remorse and sadness because of battles lost with sin.

We have a greater potential for discomfort in life then the unregenerate do. Nothing should be as profoundly wounding to us as losing the battle with the flesh. It's what made Paul cry, "Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?"

It was like he had a corpse strapped to his back. Many Christians have been told when they came to profess Christ that Jesus was going to fix their life and make them happy all the time. Only the brethren know the joy of rising above the corruption.

The world doesn't know that. It's just constant debilitation, it's just constant lack of fulfilment.

For us there are those times of triumph and those great moments of exhilarating joy when we see the flesh subdued by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, the power of victory is the Holy Spirit, the people of victory are the brethren, the Christians. We can be not like the ten spies who could only see the giants and never claim the victory. But we can be like the two who see the giants and know the power of our God.

The pattern for victory.

How then do we engage this victory? V 12, "So then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." Implied we are under obligation to that new creation. We are not under any obligation to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

The pattern for victory then is simple! Don't live according to the flesh because you don't need to. You are no longer after the flesh. V 5, For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

V 7, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. V 8, So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You no longer have to live after the flesh. You no longer have to mind the things of the flesh.

Now if you do that it's a choice. Sure, the flesh is there pounding away with all its seductive impulses, but you no longer are the servant of the flesh, you are no longer the slave of sin. You have become the servants of righteousness.

The flesh, just to define it for you, is that ugly complex of sinful desire, motive, affection, principle, and purpose that exists in your humanness. V 4, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

To mind the things of the flesh is to be ruled and motivated and guided by that complex of sinful desires, motives, affections, principles, and purposes.

How ridiculous for brethren who have the privileges of justification and sanctification?

• Having been freed from sin and death,
• Having been delivered from debilitating wickedness to be able to fulfil the law of God,
• Having been transformed in your nature,

How foolish to reach back and serve your old master? At the beginning of Romans 7 Paul said you are only under obligation to your husband as long he lives and when he dies you are not under obligation anymore. But you can take a new husband.

Paul was using that as an illustration of the transformation in the life of a believer, who was once under the obligation of the husband of sin. But sin has been destroyed in terms of that wonderful, recreated, new spirit and we now are servants to a new husband. That is righteousness.

Paul affirms the strength of his point. V 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. if you are living according to the flesh you must die.

That's an axiom.

An axiom is a self-evident statement that needs no explanation; it's a fact. If you live after the flesh you will die. He is not discussing the Christian here. He is discussing the life of a non-Christian. If you are after the flesh, if you walk according to the flesh, if you mind the things of the flesh, you are dead. He said that in the prior passage. You are dead.

Paul just repeats it axiomatically. If you are living according to the flesh you must die. If you are life is dominated by the flesh and you always mind the things of the flesh and you fulfil the impulses of the flesh, and your mind is set on the flesh. You are hostile toward God and have no desire to submit to His law there is evidence that you are on the way to eternal death.

You are not saved. You are dead in trespasses and sin spiritually and you are about to die eternally. If you do not kill sin, sin will kill you. So, Paul makes a very powerful point. He says you owe nothing to the flesh.

• You don't live after the flesh now.
• You don't mind the things of the flesh now.
• Your old is dead and dying life.

This is another reminder of the need for self-examination. Such reminders are all over the New Testament. The individual who habitually lives under the dominion of the flesh is unsaved and on the way to death. You have been transformed.

You are His workmanship, created unto good works which God has before ordained that you should walk in them. Now there will be lapses of fleshly behaviour regularly. As long as we are in this flesh, we are going to do things we don't want to do and we are not going to do the things we want to do but the difference is we don't want them.

1 Corinthians 3 reminds us that the Corinthians, though they were believers who came behind in no spiritual gift and had accepted the gospel and been baptized and were making up a church there which Paul loved, and they had been taught.

1 Corinthians 3:1-2, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;

They were engaging in fleshly behaviour.

Of course. If we say we have no sin we make God a liar, 1 John says. Romans 7 tells us we still are in the struggle and sometimes we lose the struggle. Paul said I don't do what I want to do and do what I don't want to do. Of course, you will still have those lapses of fleshly behaviour.

Philippians 3:12, Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Paul says that I haven't arrived. I am not there yet. Paul's point is that if you are living totally after the flesh, you are one of those who will die. That kind of life is true of the spiritually dead, not the spiritually alive. Since living according to the flesh axiomatically characterizes the unregenerate, why in the world would you want to entertain the flesh? It's utterly inconsistent with your nature and that's why Paul is crying out in Romans ⁷ saying, oh God, deliver me from this body of death which is part of the past.

What the passage here says is we should be living by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body. If we do that then we give evidence of being the people who will live eternally. That's the second axiom in verse 13.

If by the spirit, you are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live. You will enter into eternal life because you give evidence of being transformed. How can you tell if you are a Christian? If the sins of the flesh are foreign to your desires.

If sin and iniquity is not what you want. If you don't rationalize all your sins. In the pattern of victory is to realize that we are not after the flesh, we no longer mind the things of the flesh, we owe nothing to the flesh.

That was true of us in an unregenerate condition. First is a step of recognition of our situation, understanding the character of being a Christian or the nature. Then secondly acting upon it and that's verse 13, put to death the deeds of the body.

Again, this is another axiom, if you are killing the deeds of the body you will live.

Why?

Because you give evidence of overcoming the flesh and since the flesh can't overcome the flesh that proves the Spirit dwells in you. The Spirit only dwells in those who are God's. If you are the one who is killing the deeds of the body, then you are the one who is spiritually alive.

If you are enjoying triumph over sin, you never really enjoy it except in moments of triumph because no matter how much you have victory over sin you will always be heartbroken over the defeats. So really this is a test of your salvation.

Paul says you should be seeing victory over the flesh. The flesh again is that unredeemed humanness. It's that part of us where sin has taken its residence. That is why in chapter 8, Paul cries out for the redemption of his body to get rid of this fallen flesh. Believers are those who are in the battle, in the struggle.

Believers are those who are in the process of the battle, and they are winning. They are not winning like they would like to win. They feel the remorse that Paul felt but they are winning by the Spirit's presence and power. They are seeing victory over

the deeds of the flesh. They win. They kill the deeds of the flesh. V 13, “Mortify.” or “kill”. Greek word, thanato. It is the same word for death. The same Greek word used in 1 Peter 3:18 to refer to Christ's death. It's the same word used in Romans 7:4 to speak of our dying to the law.

So, it's not just a reckoning to be dead. It's not just to think of it as if you are dead. It is an actual slaying. It is in your power as a Christian to slay sin, to get into battle and come out totally triumphant, to engage in that temptation and impulse coming from the flesh and walk away the victor.

These sins, like the Amalekites of old, must be utterly destroyed. 1 Samuel 15. Saul was rejected from being king because he spared Agag and spared the spoil. Because he didn't do what God told him to do and slay it all and slay the king the Amalekites came back and won future victories.

You have the power for victory over sin. The weapon is put in your hand. In the power of the Holy Spirit that weapon is delivered to you when you know the Word of God. The Word of God dwells richly in your heart and when you are yielded and surrendered to the spirit and to His will and His truth and not your own agenda the weapon is in your hand and you will have the power over the flesh that has an unregenerate person you absolutely never had.

Colossians 3:2-11, Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. ⁵ Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, ⁷ in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. ⁸ But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, ¹⁰ and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, ¹¹ where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

The old man is not converted, he is not renewed but he is dead. You are a new creation by the creative act of God, and nothing less. But the flesh is still there. You have the power in that new creation to kill the flesh.

So, the believer’s being freed from sin and death, and the believer’s being enabled to fulfil the law of God by imputed righteousness. The believers are being transformed as to His nature doesn't free us from the battle because even though there is no condemnation because all of our sins are paid for we still battle them.

Practical sanctification is progressive and it's progressive killing of sin.

How do we do it? 1. Recognize the presence of sin in your flesh. Indwelling sin, according to Romans 7:21. It is a principle. We must recognize that it is there. The problem is not outside of you, the problem is not the culture, absence of cultural morality, education, and television.

You are the problem.

• The problem is not bad examples.
• The problem is not Satan.
• The problem is not demons.

The problem is you. If there were not any Satan and there were not any demons as will be true in the millennial kingdom there will still be rampant iniquity. It is not true that the more people get educated conversely the more moral they become. We are the most educated society in the world, and we would rival the immorality of any era of human history.

The problem is not our society, culture, and not outside of us. The problem is inside. We still possess unredeemed flesh. You must recognize you are the problem. While the best a non-Christian can do is sin. The worst a Christian can do is sin.

But the battle is intimate. You are the problem. Recognize it. Don't blame everything around you. Start by acknowledging your own problem. Search out the poison in you. Find that

hidden, camouflaged darkness in your mind and your will and you will start to kill sin when you remember it is there in you, deceitful and violent, looking for an opportunity to conquer.

Psalm 139:23-24, Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; ²⁴ And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. Be honest enough to say God please uncover my sin. If there is any love of the world there, if there is any of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes or the pride of life God show it to me. Don't be deceived that there isn't any there. Don't play games with yourself and say that the good outweighs the bad and you only have a few besetting sins and they're very private. Don't kid yourself. Be honest. If you want to kill sin, be honest in recognizing that it's there.

The flesh in you is wretched. It spurts forth between the cracks of your supposed righteousness. It spurts forth in anger, bitter words, unkind thoughts, criticism, self-conceit, lack of understanding, impatience, weak prayers, indifferent worship, and public and private acts of sin.

2. Have a heart fixed on God. I am not here to preach you sermons so that you can have more information. As much information as I give you that's not what I am trying to accomplish. I am basically here to jerk you out of your complacency week after week get you back to a God consciousness.

I am here to pull you back into Scripture. I am here to pull you toward heaven. I am here to refocus your thoughts. I am here to shift your gears off whatever it is you think about all week. Everything from your job to your family issues to the neighbourhood to fixing the fence to the TV sitcoms and whatever it is you occupy yourself with. I am here to jerk your mind back to spiritual reality so that you can fix yourself on God.

That is why we don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together. My responsibility for the hour that we are together in the Word of God and the time of worship and all that we do is to focus you on God.

The greatest side benefit of being in the ministry is just spending all your time in the Word of God, fixing your heart on Him, thinking His thoughts. 3. Meditate on the Word of God. You get beyond just us pulling you to God, helping you focus.

Psalms 119:11, Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

When Jesus was being tempted in Matthew's gospel chapter 4 by Satan, three times he answered the temptation and each time he quoted out of Deuteronomy. Whatever controls your mind controls your behaviour. Crowd out the garbage with God's Word. It's a Word saturation.

4. Commune with God in prayer, diligent, watchful prayer.

1 Peter 4:7, But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. True prayer unmasks Satan's deceit. True prayer forces honesty. Prayer exposes secret sins. Prayer weakens prevailing sins. Prayer fights off temptation.

Prayer finds strength in fellowship with the Holy God. 5. Cultivate obedience to the Word. Make it your goal to obey what Scripture says.

1 Peter 1:22, Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, That is the way you live your life, a life of gradual, habitual obedience. When you are honest about your own sin, the sin that is in you and your flesh, when you recognize it, when you fix your heart on God, when you meditate on His Word and commune with Him in prayer you will begin to kill sin because you will begin to have a pattern of obedience. It may seem hard and slow but hang in there and stay with it.

The more you become holy the more sinful you will think you are. This is growing in grace. This is perfecting holiness in the fear of God. This is renewing the inner man day by day.

How are you doing?

How are you doing in this battle? Evaluate your zeal for God honestly. Evaluate your love for the Word and for prayer. Evaluate your delight in worship.

Where do we get the motivation for this victory? V 12, "So then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh."

What is the motive? We are debtors. We are debtors to the Holy Spirit who convicted us of sin, who generated faith in us, who regenerated us. The Holy Spirit who gave us new life, we were born of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit who brought us into a no-condemnation status, the Holy Spirit who on our behalf settled the issue of sin and death, the Holy Spirit who granted us the righteousness of Christ, the Holy Spirit who changed our nature, the Holy Spirit who has done all of that, we're in debt to him.

This is how we repay that debt. This should be the passion of victory. Grace is free and salvation is by free grace but in one sense that puts us in debt. We are debtors to the gracious God, the gracious Christ, and the gracious Spirit.

It should be the discharge of that debt that motivates us to triumph in the power of the Holy Spirit.