DM#10: Debtors to the Spirit

Doctrine of the Mysteries #10

Debtors to the Spirit

Rom 8:12-14  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  (13)  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  (14)  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Our principal duty as believers, which is also the will of God for us, is to come to the knowledge of the truth, 1Tim 2:4. How do we come to the knowledge of the truth? We study the written Word of truth and learn how to rightly divide it, 2Tim 2:15. We allow the Word of God to dwell in us richly, Col 3:16. We allow it to renew our mind so that it makes us wise unto its doctrine, allowing it to reprove, correct, and instruct us.

Being led by the Spirit of God is not being led by some ethereal voice or premonitions, but rather, it is simply having a knowledge and understanding of the written Word within you. You walk by the Spirit (or walk by faith) when you obey the truth of God’s Word, applying it to your life circumstances and scenarios. Notice what Paul says here,

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

In 2Tim 3:15-17 and in Php 2:13, Paul tells us that, having the knowledge of the truth within us, will result in us being thoroughly furnished unto all good works, according to God’s will and doing, which God Himself works within us.

Now, let me tell you a secret. According to the last statement in our key verse above, Paul says that those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. Paul is indicating to us that we are growing up in faith and spiritual maturity. We are no longer carnal babes in Christ who are subject to envying, and strife, and divisions, 1Cor 3:1-3. We are no longer children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, Eph 4:14, and who are yet having Christ formed within them, Gal 4:19. Being sons of God indicates that we know the will and judgements of our Father. We are no longer under the laws of governors and tutors, Gal 4:2, but we have matured to walk in the liberty of our own choices, which, in the obedience of love, are subject to the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God, Rom 12:2.

With the above in mind, notice how clearly the following verses can now be understood, (my emphasis in square brackets),

Rom 7:5-6  For when we were in the flesh [as babes and children], the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit [works] unto death.  (6)  But now [knowing God’s Word, as sons] we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit [led by knowledge of the Word within us], and not in the oldness of the letter [of law].

The foundational chapters of Rom 6-8 are not details we take lightly. They are not chapters we study and leave in the past as we press on to higher revelation. No. These chapters remain with us as we advance in Paul’s curriculum, and as we grow in the spiritual doctrine. These three chapters remain our constant reality and experience as we mature in this truth. Chapters 6 and 7 should remind us to continue to die to sin and law while chapter 8 should continue to prompt us to increase in obedience to the Spirit. Furthermore, these chapters should continue to remain in focus as we study the lessons of the Corinthian babes in Christ, who were carnal, and still blinded to spiritual truths, and through the lessons of the law-orientated Galatian children, who were unstable in their faith, and under the travail of Paul, until Christ should be formed in them.