So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 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. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 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 himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 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. (Romans 8:12-17 ESV)
In the Nicene Creed we confess that we believe in the “Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.” Our text from Romans for today helps us to work through just what it means that the Holy Spirit is the giver of life.
A little context is in order here. The passage for today begins with “So then,” which indicates that it is referring to something which has already been said. To that end, let’s hear from Romans 8:7-11:
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
The distinction continues, as it has throughout Romans, between being led by the flesh and being led by the Spirit. The life of the flesh leads to death. That’s what the flesh does. It seeks itself and its own ways, it seeks to do all things in order to make the self happy. The flesh is not particularly interested in the ways of God, for God is really quite the inconvenience if the focus and purpose of life is to be content with yourself.
But the way of the flesh, to seek to satisfy yourself, leads to death. The heart of humanity is flawed, corrupted. It does not know and cannot know the right things to do, the right ways to live, for it is not focussed on God. Again, as Romans 3 noted, there is no-one who is right before God according to their works.
As Paul notes, it’s not as though we owe anything to our flesh, either. We really don’t. The flesh leads to sin which leads to death. That’s certainly not the sort of debt a person wants to have to bear up under. This is why we list our flesh as one of the three things against which we are called to constantly strive as we live our Christian lives. The devil, the world, and the flesh. These are the things which would keep us from Christ, which would drive us away from our salvation and drive us to despair.
Truly, the life of the Christian is one of battle against these things. It is warfare, a constant conflagration. And it’s a battle that you or I can’t win, not by our own strength. After all, the devil’s had many years of practice, and your heart’s every inclination, apart from the Holy Spirit, will lead you away from God and toward yourself. That’s simply how it is. That’s simply how it remains, apart from the Holy Spirit.
For when we fight the forces of evil by our own strength, we can only resist but a short while. They don’t fight fair. They are able to make evil look good and good to look evil. The devil’s oldest trick is to ask the flesh, “did God really say?” And the flesh will lose this one, every time. We need the Holy Spirit to fight for us and with us, to keep the flesh in check and guide us by the Gospel. Only with His help and aid will we overcome the power of evil which would drive us away from our only source of life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Spirit does this first and foremost through Baptism. In Baptism, as we learn in the Small Catechism, the Old Adam is drowned and dies with all sins and evil desires, and the new man emerges to live before God in righteousness and purity. This is a daily thing, recalling the promise God made to you in Baptism, being sorry of your sins, and repenting—turning away from your sins—and starting new again. It is a good thing too that the Spirit is the one who dwells within us through Baptism.
Recall what Jesus taught His disciples about what happens when an unclean spirit departs from a person: “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:43-45 ESV)
Without the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, remaining in you, you are open to evil and its power. But with the Holy Spirit resting upon you and remaining with you, through regular hearing of God’s Word, through regular remembrance of the promise of Baptism, through regular receiving of the Lord’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, the evil spirits have no power over you. In this way, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body and live according to the Spirit.
Being led by the Spirit of God makes us sons of God. We have special status before God as His adopted children. In Bible times it was often practised that wealthier people who did not have children of their own would choose promising young men to become their legal heirs. Only a son could inherit. God, in Baptism, chooses each of us, whether men or women, as legal heirs—sons, in that sense. As such, we have the special right to call God our Dad—what the word “Abba” means. God is your dad through Baptism.
We are thus assured by the Spirit that we are the children of God. This delivers us from the tyranny of fear. After all, the works of the flesh, the works of sin, give a guilty conscience. On some level everyone knows that there are certain things which are simply wrong. There is what we call the natural knowledge of God, that understanding that there is some overarching sense of justice. This is why we have such things as lobbyists, working to legalize the use of marijuana or to increase homosexual rights or to do whatever. We look for ways to legalize our sins instead of confessing them. For to justify your way around the sin takes that sense of guilt away before other people, helps you feel better about yourself and the sins you are committing. That’s the way of the flesh. But it still doesn’t solve the deeper problem—how to deal with God.
The Holy Spirit delivers us from the fear of punishment for sin by taking away both the sin and by renewing our hearts and minds so that we are not inclined to follow the way of sin and death. Fear, guilt, and death are all removed when in Christ’s death, applied to us in Baptism, the flesh is put to death and the new man is born to walk in life.
This is what the adoption is about—we are now credited with being God’s own children, having the same nature as His natural Son. We are given Jesus’ own life, the life of holiness and pure service to God. This is what is credited to our account, this is who we are made to be through this adoption. We might not remember our adoption through the waters of Baptism, but Baptism is what makes us who we are and keeps us who we are supposed to be. It is the work of the Spirit through the water and the Word to take away our sins, give us the Spirit within, and give us life and salvation.
And because we are adopted, because God is your dad, you have the right to talk to Him as Dad. You have the right to ask Him things and He is pleased to hear you. He may not always give you all that you would like, just like a human father does not indulge every whim of their children. But He, like any good human father, has the best in mind for you at all times—and better than any human father, is always working out in your life what is best for you, even if you do not see how this can be so.
Finally, the life which we are given by the Holy Spirit is a life which is identified with that of Christ. We are together with Christ in everything. This does mean that to be a believer is also to suffer with Christ. Jesus never promised us that things would be fun or easy as long as we have flesh and dwell on this earth. He did promise that those who followed Him would have a hard road, one which involves taking up the cross daily, which involves being persecuted and suffering and dying, if needs be, in order to stay true to Him. As the world has done to our Lord, so we can expect to be done to us. We are not our own but belong to Him. If they hated Him, they will hate us. If they scorned and mocked Him, they will scorn and mock us. Nobody ever promised that life in Christ would be more enjoyable in this life than life apart from Christ.
But being identified with Christ is also to be identified with His eternal life, His glory. The sufferings and shames of this world are for a brief time. The glory of the Lord lasts forever. For the joy that was set before Him, Jesus took up the Cross, scorning its shame, as we hear in Hebrews 12. This same joy is now set before us. God has sent His Holy Spirit to us in the Gospel, applied to us through Baptism, renewed in us through the Word and the Lord’s Supper, in order to give and maintain His life in us. We live because God gives us life through the Spirit. We live because He has forgiven us our sins, not because of any merit or worthiness which we might like to claim, but simply because that’s His desire for us. We live as His own people both now and forevermore because the Lord has sent His Holy Spirit to be and abide with all of us. May this life which He has begun in you continue to bear much fruit to His glory until the day of His returning! Amen.
Last updated July 2008 by the webmaster.