Romans 8:12,13

Vv. 12 and 13 form the transition from the preceding passage to this. The life of the Spirit is not realized in the believer without his concurrence merely from the fact that the Spirit has once been communicated to him. There is needed on man's part a persevering decision, an active docility in giving himself over to the guidance of the Spirit. For the guidamce of the Spirit tends constantly to the sacrifice of the flesh; and if the believer refuses to follow it on this path, he renounces the life of the Spirit and its glorious privileges.

Vv. 12, 13. “ Thus then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. ”

It is not enough to have received the Spirit; it is also necessary to walk according to Him. The thus then refers to the thought of the preceding passage: “Since the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death, do not replace yourselves under this curse.” The address: brethren, reappears every time the apostle wishes to bring home to his readers a practical and personal warning.

When saying: we are under obligation, literally debtors, Paul meant to continue in the words: to the Spirit, to live according to Him. As soon as the Spirit comes to dwell in our heart, we owe to Him, ourselves, and a life wholly conformed to His wishes. But the apostle breaks off his sentence to set aside the opposite supposition, one unfortunately which cannot be passed over in silence, and he makes haste to add: not to the flesh. “The natural man,” Hofmann observes, “imagines that he owes it to his flesh to satisfy it.” The care of his person, from the most earthly point of view, appears to him the first and most important of his obligations. Now it is this tendency which is combated by the Spirit as soon as He takes possession of us (Galatians 5:17). This is the debt which should neither be acknowledged nor paid. The apostle says why in the following verse.