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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - Romans 8:12 - 8:12
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That is, seeing the Holy Spirit dwelleth in us, quickening our souls for the present, and raising our bodies for time to come, furnishing the one with grace here, and fitting the other for glory hereafter; therefore we ought to live unto God and not to the flesh; we are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Where note, That the word flesh is not to be taken in the physical, but in a moral sense; not in a physical sense, for the body of man; every one is a debtor to his own body, he owes it food and clothing, nourishment and provision; the beast must be fed, though not pampered, lest it kick and throw its rider: But flesh is here to be taken in a moral sense for sin, for the unregenerate and unsanctified part in man; and then the sense is, that no man owes anything to the service and satisfaction of his sinful lusts, and inordinate desires; none of us owe sin, Satan, or the world, an hour's service; these are not warrantable creditors for any of us to be indebted to.
Learn hence, That believers are not indebted, or owe anything to the flesh, but all to the Spirit; the flesh is a cheater, an usurper, an oppressor; what it calls for, it has no right to demand: but the Spirit is a just creditor, and we are greatly indebted to him, as the author and producer of grace in us, and as he is the preserver and increaser of that grace in us which he has begun.
Oh blessed Spirit! we owe all that we are, and all that we have to thee, all that we have in hand, and all that we have in hope; thou hast a right to all, yea, more than all that we can pay thee, so infinitely are we indebted to thee: But for sin and the flesh, we never promised anything to it, we never got anything by it, nothing but shame and sorrow from it, and, therefore, we are not indebted to it.
Lord, keep us from being debtors to the most cruel and severe creditors in the world, sin and Satan; for the more we are to them, the more we run in arrears with thee, to whose justice we must pay the uttermost farthing.