Romans 8:12-14 – Murder One
Several years ago, I watched a documentary on TV about sharks. I love sharks. I find them fascinating. They taste good as steak, too. Now, I learned an interesting characteristic about sharks that day that I’ve never forgotten. Most varieties of sharks never stop swimming. They have to keep moving to breathe. If they stop, they die. As well, they can’t swim backwards. So, in order for certain sharks to continue to live, they have to keep going forwards.
There’s something to be said about that same characteristic in Christians too. To keep moving forward and pressing on. It’s certainly easier to get saved and stay that way. Now that I’m saved and on my way to heaven, I can just pitch my tent here and be comfortable about life. I love the line from the song called “Ride” by the Canadian group 54-40 that says, “And I’ve looked inside my heart and I have been afraid that I might settle for what it is I have become. No one ever told me that I would have to follow…”
But as tempting as getting comfortable in our faith sounds, God has something better for you than that. God’s plans for you include making you better than you already are. No matter what baggage you brought when you found the Lord, no matter what baggage you have picked up since, God’s plans for you include some improvements in your heart, in your mind, maybe even on your face. God wants you to know who you are, to understand it, and to apply it. Let’s read Romans 8:12-14.
One of the reasons I preach in series is that it allows for progression. What we saw last week carries over into this week, and the lesson this week helps explain last week, and so on. So, when this week’s passage begins with the word “therefore”, it means that we will be looking further into last week’s thoughts. Last week, Paul showed us that we have been given eternal life. Life abundantly. Life with the power of the resurrection contained in it.
Now, because we have been given such a wonderful life, we must not take it for granted – v12. We have an obligation. The Greek word there means that we are debtors. We in debt to God for what He has done for us. Because of His love for us, because of His amazing grace, we owe our very lives to God. Everything you have, and everything you are is because of Him. Therefore, it is not too big an expectation to live to please Him, and not yourself. You owe yourself nothing. You served yourself for many years with no lasting reward. It is time to get rid of the things in your life that displease God, things that are there just because you like them. No, it is time to live only for God.
Because, in the end, if you don’t get them, they’ll get you – v13a. Now, what could that mean? Well, I think of it this way. Some people grow old gracefully. Some grow old bitterly. I understand, there may be mental things going on. But, I can’t help but think that at least in part, it’s because they stop fighting the battle. They like where they are at, and they don’t fight any longer. They’re old after all, and they should get their own way. They don’t like how things are being run in the church, and how they would never have done it that way, and they begin to resist God. Perhaps their eternal future is not in jeopardy, but they are not the people God wants them to be either. That is dying.
But there is an alternative – v13b. Paul is telling us how we can really live. He’s giving us the insight to discover life. He says we have to become murderers in a sense. We must put to death, mortify, make dead, the misdeeds of the body. It is through this death that a believer becomes more alive than ever.
Some of you may want to shout out at me, “But Pastor, you hate legalism. Isn’t this just a form of being right with God by keeping the law?” First of all, they are Paul’s words. I’m not making up new rules for you to obey. I’m simply saying what Paul said. If you have a problem with that, your problem is with God telling you what to do. But secondly, this death isn’t a slipping back into legalism; rather, it is the outflow, the consequences and result, of communion with God, being led by the Spirit – v14. It is the payoff of wanting to walk with God, desiring to get rid of the things that clog us up. It’s God loving you enough to help you get rid of the stuff in your life that you are better without.
At this point we have to backtrack. We have to look at other scriptures that lay the foundation for this thought. Let’s go back to Romans 6. In v1 Paul asks the question, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” And he answers it himself: “By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Now, you may notice something here. Paul says in ch6 that we died to sin, and 2 chapters later he tells us to kill the deeds of our sinful nature. How is that? Well, Rom.6 is not the only place he says such things.
Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” 2 Timothy 2:11 – “If we died with him, we will also live with him.” Colossians 3:3 – “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” And Galatians 5:24 – “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” All past tense. As Christians, by definition, we are positionally dead. We died to the sinful nature, we died and were crucified with Christ. We are dead to sin, we are dead to the law. That’s who we are.
And yet Paul tells us to kill the remnants of that former life. How do we bring the 2 together? Romans 6:11 gives us a clue – “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Reckon it so. The word is an accounting term, not to imagine something there that isn’t, but rather, to call something that is is. To recognize the truth. To admit that what is true is true. It’s a confession of what God has said about us. It’s to say, “Well, God says I am dead to sin, so I guess I’d better believe it and live like it.” It’s being who you really are. It’s not imaginations. It’s not wishful thinking. It’s not fooling yourself. It’s being real. Killing sin off in your life is really who you are meant to be!
It is true we died. We said goodbye to our best of friends, the one we cared about more than any other, the one we thought of more than any other. Our self. Death was painful, but it was also liberating. Death for a Christian is freedom. And death to self is too. God’s not calling you to an easy life but it is a better one.
When we came to Christ, we died. That is what Wesleyans would call initial sanctification. The first step to becoming like Christ. We are cleansed because we asked for it. And because of this death, we are to continue to kill all the remnants of our former lives. We are to live as if we were dead. We are to live as though we believe what is true about us. This is progressive sanctification – the continuing cleansing of a previous occurrence. We often get caught up in terms, but in essence, this is how it is.
And our most misunderstood doctrine, what we call entire sanctification, or the infilling of the Spirit, or whatever you want to call it, that happens when you say, “I want God to have everything I have. I already gave Him my sin, but now I give Him everything else too. I give Him my life plans. I give Him my strengths and my weaknesses. I give Him all that is inside me. I allow Him to do whatever He wants with me.” That’s the consecration. Then God does just that. He takes you and molds you and uses you.
But you need to reach that place. You need to reach the time when you really want to kill off everything that is un-Christ-like in you. But most imagine this to be a one-way-street. God does it all for us. We are just along for the ride. While it is true that we cannot clean ourselves, we are not helpless spectators either. God has done His part, and now it’s up to you to do yours. If you were just a puppet, if it was only up to God, apart from your own agency as some people seem to think, none of us would ever sin again. God wants to work with you to cleanse you and change you, to give you the strength and courage to kill off the selfish parts of your life.
But I guess the question is, how do we do it? Paul tells us what to do. He tells us why to do it. But in this passage, he’s a little short on the how. How do we kill off the behaviors of the sinful nature? First let’s look at what they are. Paul says this in Colossians 3:5 – “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” And he says we “must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, and lying to each other.”
And Paul says in Galatians 5 – “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery (eagerness for lustful pleasure); idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord (quarreling), jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions (divisions), factions (that is, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group) and envy; drunkenness, orgies (wild parties), and the like.”
There are lots of behaviors Paul condemns, but many of them aren’t the open, flagrant sins. Many of them you can do without anybody even knowing. The hidden ones may not impact others as much, but they are no less wrong. Paul tells us to kill them off, to get rid of them, to eliminate them from our lives. But how? It’s the same verses I took you to earlier. This is the Roman Road to Victory.
#1 – apprehend the truth – Romans 6:2. Know that you have died. Know who you are as a believer. Know the hope to which He has called you. Know the inheritance that is yours. Know the power He promises for believers. Grab hold of the truth.
#2 – accept the truth – Romans 6:11. It’s not enough to know that believers can be free of sin. You have to know that it applies to you. It’s true of you. As a believer, you can be free of sin. Believe in your heart what you know in your head.
#3 – apply the truth – Romans 8:13. Since God wants you to kill off your sinful behaviors, do you not think He will help you do it? Pray like this: “Lord, this is hard. This is what I want to do. This seems right. But You say it’s wrong. And since You love me and You know me, I have to agree with You. So Lord, give me the strength and the courage to do this. By the power of the Holy Spirit, help me to live the way You want me to. I resist this sin in the name of Jesus Christ. Forgive me and strengthen me. Amen.”
And keep praying it. Victory is yours because Christ won the victory first. Apprehend the truth that you have died to sin. Accept the truth that it is meant for you. And apply the truth of promised freedom of sin to all areas of your life. That’s the way we have life.
There’s death whatever we do. We either kill our sinful ways, or they kill us. No getting around it. The question is, do you want to be the winner or the loser?
