Or, How to Observe the Spirit’s Leading
Scripture: Romans 8:12-17
Date: October 23, 2022
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Is it hard or easy to be a Christian? It is good, but so is fighting on the right side in a just war. That is “easier” than trying to convince yourself to fight knowing you’re on the wrong side, and “easier” than dealing with the guilt of sitting out the battle on the right sideline. But no one would call the good fight easy.
In Romans 8:12-17 there are not only a buffet of doctrinal proteins, there are great comfort foods. The truth is, we have no obligations to do what the flesh tells us to do. God’s Spirit dwells in us, leads us, and communicates directly to us. We have been brought into a familial relationship with God; He is our Father and we His sons. We’ve been given the promise of life and inheritance and glory. And it may be the hardest thing in the world. The Spirit is willing and the flesh is too weak to get over itself.
We have to kill the desires of our own flesh, daily, minute-ly. We will be matured into sons ready to receive our Father’s inheritance through suffering; our Father is committed to it. It is amazing that we can cry to God as our Father. And we will need to.
Doctrines in this paragraph include: Mortification, Adoption, Internal Testimony, Inheritance, and Glorification. Belonging to the discussion are still Justification, Sanctification, and Union with Christ.
This paragraph probably doesn’t get all the love and attention it deserves because 8:1-4, 8:28, and 8:31-39 are such bright stars. But this is no lesser light.
Here’s a logical conclusion with familial affection. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Flesh, and sin, and death aren’t giving the orders around here anymore.
The key word is debtors , “under obligation” (NASB). One who borrows money is a debtor to the lender, there is an expectation for you to pay it back. It’s a duty. The ties that bind us to the flesh have been cut. The flesh is not our business anymore.
Let’s say you have a life in the public eye, and you spend all your time, and hire consultants to help you spend your time, thinking about how the media is going to report/spin your comments. You’ve got to present a certain look. Everybody’s watching, taking photos, expecting you to keep up your image. Your life is consumed with figuring out how to please the ones who gave you the platform, your importance, your wealth. You have an obligation to your fans.
Then, let’s say, you read a book about the vanity of it all. You give up that lifestyle, buy a thousand acre ranch in Montana, and move there with your wife and start a family. Not only do you not pay New York taxes, you don’t owe that celebrity-making machine anything.
Or, for a more biblical illustration, let’s say you just crossed the Red Sea, and your old taskmaster is trying to hand you a todo list as his head bobs up and down in the water. Would you take it? No, he’s not your boss.
In a greater and even more true way, by faith in Christ we’ve been committed to a new way of thinking (per Romans 6:17), and we have no obligations at all to the flesh and the former ways. It will keep sending signals. It will talk at us like we’re not free. But we have no debt to the flesh.
The opposite isn’t stated but it’s assumed. We are obligated to the Spirit. Perhaps it’s more elegant to avoid “debt” language while in a grace context. We are not paying anything back, as if God’s grace were like a loan that we must work off through obedience payments. And yet, there are good obligations for loyalty and living in a new way, as sons.
The primary expected behavior is explained in verse 13.
The explanation of consequences is not an explanation of causes. 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 wages of sin is death. The die is physical, but also eternal. A “natural man” (1 Corinthians 2:14) only “lives” to die.
A spiritual man lives to kill. The ones who live to live, resurrected and eternal, wage battle against the flesh for now.
Put to death means to mortify (mortis is the Genitive form of the Latin word for death). Don’t feed the flesh. Starve it. Don’t even make it a sandwich. Spiritual people aren’t primarily identified as tongue-talkers but more so as tongue-bridlers (cf James 3:2-4).
Put to death requires the Spirit. It is not flesh against flesh, not even law against flesh (which only makes it worse; you can’t fight a match with fire). We can only kill the correct way if we kill supernaturally, and the aspect is one of continual vigilance. Put to death is not one and done. It is not battery powered; but like a lamp, always needing to be plugged in.
Life is on the line. You don’t “let go and let God,” you get the Spirit of God’s strength to make war.
From a temporal angle, you can develop habits, routine, and lifestyle that fits with your living mindset and worldview. We always do, it’s just that some are more consistent. As John Owen said,
“Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”
The evidence of more righteousness—consistently killing fleshly desires—is evidence of being led , and being led is evidence of sonship. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Everything in context explaining what leading refers to is non-guilt-driven, non-self-credited, non-excuse-making members led toward righteousness. To the Galatians Paul listed elements of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). To the Corinthians Paul listed some of the Spirit’s gifting (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). But here the leading means less listening to fleshly debt collectors.
The Spirit leads sons toward righteousness, not necessarily toward the right investment deal; if anything the Spirit’s leading would be in a humble response for an investment choice gone bad (and not blaming the Spirit). The leading of the Spirit won’t be against Scripture (which the Spirit inspired), nor will it be an authoritative addition to Scripture. Such claims are not more spiritual. They are not the claims of sons.
This doctrine isn’t mentioned as many times in the New Testament, but it is more comforting. If justification by faith alone is like a pair of new waterproof boots against the trench-foot of guilt, adoption is like wool socks perfectly knit to fit. It is one thing to be freed from a life sentence in prison, it is more to be freed and picked up by a family who has prepared a place for you.
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 who caused us to be born again, the Spirit who gifted us with repentance and faith, has not brought us to new, higher, supernatural levels of anxiety over law-breaking. There are places where fear of the Lord is good, and we are slaves of a new kind. But the fear and slavery in verse 15 is the kind that goes with uncertainty before a judge. But we who believe in Christ have certainty about the verdict; the Son took our penalty on Himself, and the Judge took us in as His own children. We go home with Him.
The Spirit of adoption is the capital “S” Spirit (per the complementary passage in Galatians 4:6). Adoption wasn’t a typical thing in Israel.
The Abba! Father! can be made superficial in two ways. The “He’s my Daddy” group don’t reckon with the dignity of the Father. They could use more reverence. But the ones who are always quick to criticize the Daddy group probably have their own daddy issues. They might just need a hug. I’m serious. Paul is trying to get his readers to be awed by this warmth of intimacy. Abba is Aramaic, and is like “dada” or “papa,” something a small child would say. God is familiar to His sons. Jesus Himself used the Aramaic and Greek combination in His Garden prayer (Mark 14:36).
This is a surprisingly big deal. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Our “spirit” is not a second witness. This is God’s Spirit communicating directly to us that we belong to God. He bears witness to us. Our spirit isn’t trustworthy.
This is faith, this is receiving of promises and truth in the Word. It is personal, unmediated assurance.
Children are provided for: 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.
More about suffering and glorification in the next part of the chapter.
Heirs is the privilege of receiving into possession another’s property. It’s also interesting because neither God nor Christ die or get out of the way; we don’t want them to. In the OT there are clear statements of God Himself being the inheritance (Psalm 16:5-6; see also Psalm 73:25-26). We are heirs of God , only used here in the NT; we get God Himself forever. With Him we will get all things, and there are other texts that give additional details.
We “with-suffer” and “with-gloried” (συμπάσχομεν … συνδοξασθῶμεν). More than following the same path He did, we follow the path in union with Him. When His people are persecuted, He is persecuted. When one member suffers, the Body suffers. All these things work toward our conformity to Christ. Co-heirs/joint-heirs now, and forever, in glory.
How do we observe the Spirit’s leading?
The Spirit stimulates our faith that we would kill sin, not stimulate doubt about faith because of sin. You are sons of God, you have a duty to depend on the Father and live according to the Spirit whom the Father has given to seal us as the “guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Don’t be deceived. Being awesome doesn’t always feel awesome. Doing good doesn’t always feel energizing. Sowing to the Spirit doesn’t always feel eternal. But don’t think that you will reap what you don’t sow. Mortify your flesh by the Spirit. Live and walk and sow in the Spirit. Your flesh is weak, but the Holy Spirit is willing and working.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:7–9, ESV)