“For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
Romans 8:13 (NIV)
Yesterday we considered walking by the Spirit. Today Paul shows us the other side of that same life: there are things we must put to death.
“For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
The phrase “put to death” translates thanatoo, and the older writers gave this doctrine a name: mortification. John Owen’s famous sentence on this verse has never been improved: “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
Notice the language is deliberately violent. Paul does not say manage, moderate, or gradually reduce. He says put to death. This is not negotiation. Sin is not a difficult colleague to be handled diplomatically; it is an enemy with intentions towards your life.
Now, notice carefully how Paul says we do it: “by the Spirit.”
That phrase rules out two errors at once.
It rules out self-improvement without God. This is not white-knuckle willpower, and it is not a programme of self-discipline that happens to have religious vocabulary attached. We need the Holy Spirit’s power, His conviction, and His help, because the flesh cannot be defeated by the flesh. Colossians 2:23 says self-imposed regulations “lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence,” which should sober anyone relying on rules alone.
But equally, it rules out passivity. Notice the verb is addressed to us: you put to death. Paul does not say the Spirit will do it while you wait. There is a genuine responsibility to act, and no amount of prayer substitutes for it.
This is the same indicative-imperative pattern we have seen all month. God supplies; we act. Neither half stands alone.
Now let me name the pattern that keeps many sincere Christians stuck for years.
Sometimes we ask God to remove a temptation while continuing to feed it.
We pray earnestly for freedom, and we keep the same access. The same environment. The same secret pattern. The same friendship or platform or app or routine that reliably precedes the failure. The same excuses, carefully maintained. And then we wonder why the prayer has not been answered.
That is not usually rebellion. It is more often a failure to understand what we were asking for. We wanted the desire removed; God offers the power to act against it. Those are different gifts, and He generally gives the second.
Anyone who has tried to clear bindweed from a garden knows that cutting it back at the surface achieves very little. It looks tidy for a week, and then it returns, because the root is still there. The only thing that works is digging out the root, and it usually takes more than one attempt.
So at some point, obedience may mean something concrete. Deleting something. Ending something. Confessing something to a person and not only to God. Changing a routine that always ends the same way. Putting a boundary in place and telling someone about it so that it holds.
And let me say plainly: that is not legalism.
Legalism is trying to earn God’s acceptance by rule-keeping. What we are describing is entirely different. It is a person already fully accepted in Christ taking practical steps to cooperate with the Spirit’s work. Jesus Himself used the most extreme imagery for this in Matthew 5:29-30, speaking of gouging out an eye or cutting off a hand. He was not being literal, but He was not being mild either. The point is decisiveness.
Think of the difference this way. Legalism asks, “What must I do to be accepted?” Mortification asks, “I am accepted; what is in the way of my walking freely?” Same actions, sometimes. Entirely different engine.
The flesh does not need to be negotiated with. It needs to come under the lordship of Christ.
Negotiation is what we usually attempt. We agree to reduce, to limit, to be careful, to allow it only under certain conditions. And the flesh accepts every one of those terms happily, because time is on its side. It does not need to win today; it only needs to remain alive.
Notice also the stakes Paul sets out. “If you live according to the flesh, you will die.” He is not threatening believers with condemnation; he has just declared in verse 1 that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ. He is describing two directions and their destinations. A life characterised by the flesh leads to death; a life characterised by the Spirit leads to life. The pattern of a life reveals whose it is.
And do not miss the promise at the end: “you will live.” Mortification is not a grim discipline of loss. It is the removal of what is strangling life so that life can flourish. You are not being asked to give up something good; you are being asked to stop protecting something that is consuming you.
So ask the Holy Spirit this morning to show you one area, not ten, where you need to stop managing sin and start putting it to death. One area, dealt with decisively, will teach you more than a general resolution to do better.
Then take a step today that costs something. Freedom grows where obedience becomes practical.
Let me add one word of encouragement, because this teaching can feel heavy.
Notice where Romans 8 goes immediately after verse 13. Verse 14: “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” Verse 15: you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, “by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”
So the call to put sin to death is immediately followed by the reminder that you are a beloved child, not a servant on probation.
That order matters enormously. Mortification pursued out of fear produces either despair or hypocrisy. Pursued out of sonship, it becomes the ordinary work of someone who knows they are safe.
Do not keep alive what is killing your spiritual strength. By the Spirit, put the flesh in its place and choose the life Jesus has given you.
Reflection
1. What have you been praying about while carefully preserving the conditions that keep it alive? Name the specific access, routine or secrecy.
2. Ask the Spirit for one area, not ten. What is the single decisive step you could take today rather than this year?
Prayer
Father, thank You that I am fully accepted in Christ and that there is no condemnation for me. From that place of security, give me courage to be decisive. Show me the one area where I have been managing sin rather than putting it to death, and show me the practical step I have been avoiding: the thing to delete, the conversation to have, the routine to change, the boundary to set. Holy Spirit, give me Your power, because I cannot do this on willpower. Let me choose life today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Declaration
I will not negotiate with what is killing me. By the Spirit I put the flesh in its place and choose the life Jesus gives.
Pastor Ras
All Nations Community Church
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