If You By The Spirit...

This point we did not follow fully enough—that is, that it was and is the living power of the Spirit which breaks the power of the flesh in the life of the believer. We saw that ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ was strong enough to break the power of ‘the law of sin and death’ in bringing forensic justification. We also saw that the fulfilling of the dikaioma (="righteous requirements") of the law was by the power of the Spirit working in us and not by us using the Spirit instrumentally. To walk in the Spirit and to be led by the Spirit is what is required of us—nothing more. 

  

What, then, do we make of Romans 8:12—13? Its text is: ‘So then, brethren, 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’.

Because of the work of the cross and resurrection, Man is not indebted to live according to the flesh. He is finished with that regime (cf. Galatians 5:24), which was always linked with rebellion against the law. I like to think that Paul was about to begin a complementary parenthesis at the end of Romans 8:12, and it would have gone something like this, ‘but you are debtors to the Spirit to live after the Spirit’. To live in the flesh (cf. Romans 8:6) means death—but then, ‘if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live’. The ‘deeds of the body’ here may not be concupiscent—that is, ‘the works of the flesh’ but be on the verge of becoming such. We speak of right desires of the body in eating, drinking, and similar actions that are legitimate. The subject of putting these deeds to death lest they become lusts is the person. But he takes actions not ‘of himself but ‘of the Spirit’. The next verse says, ‘For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God’, and shows that the subject behind the subject is the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Spirit leads Man into being dependent upon the Spirit. This accords with all that is said about ‘fulfillment’ in regard to Romans 8:4.

 
My idea in taking up this point is to show that Man is not incapable of opposing the flesh, and of putting it to death in action as well as in intention. It means Man is not subject at all to the flesh, but has been released to be victor over it. This means a lot regarding ethical power in the life of the believer by the Spirit. Again, as in our former point of obedience—that is, the law being fulfilled in us—Christ took no unilateral action in life. He only did what the Father told Him (John 5:17—30; 8:28; 12:49; 14:10). And, in- deed, the Father who dwelled in Him did the works. This can only be understood on the basis of John 10:38—that the Son was in the Father and the Father was in the Son. Of course, the Father-Son and Son-Father relationship is the key to all obedience. It was this relationship that Adam should have followed!
 

from "God and Man in the Mission of the Kingdom", by Geoffrey C. Bingham, Redeemer Baptist Press: North Parramatta, 2003, pp.238-239