Romans 8.13a-If The Christian Submits To The Flesh, He Will Lose Fellowship With God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday November 11, 2008
Romans: Romans 8:13a-If The Christian Submits To The Flesh, He Will Lose Fellowship With God
Lesson # 256
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:1.
This evening we will study Romans 8:13a and in this passage, Paul teaches that the Christian, who submits to his flesh, will lose fellowship with God.
Tomorrow evening we will note Romans 8:13b and in this passage Paul teaches that if by the Spirit, the Christian puts to death the deeds of the sin nature, then he will live and experience fellowship with God.
Romans 8:1-13 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh -- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
“For” is the “causal” use of the conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces a statement that presents the “basis” or the “reason” for Paul’s statement in Romans 8:12.
So when Paul uses gar in Romans 8:13, it is introducing a statement that presents the “basis” or the “reason why” the Christian is by no means a debtor to the sin nature in the sense of possessing a lifestyle of being submissive to the desires of the sin nature.
Therefore, in Romans 8:13, Paul is teaching his Christian readers in Rome that they were by no means obligated to be submissive to the desires of the sin nature “because” they will experience temporal spiritual death or in other words, loss of fellowship with God.
“If” is the conditional particle ei (ei)) (i), which introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
As we noted many times in our study of the book of Romans, the idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume it is true for the sake of argument, then...”
Here the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument you are living in submission to the flesh, i.e. the sin nature.”
The apodasis is “(then) you will die, i.e. lose fellowship with God.”
The basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “cause-effect.”
The “cause” is that the Christian living in submission to the flesh, i.e. his sin nature.
The “effect” is that he will lose fellowship with God, i.e. experience temporal spiritual death.
Romans 8:13, “For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
“You are living” is the verb zao (zavw) (dzah-o), which means, “to conduct oneself” with the particular manner specified by the context.
The word refers to the manner in which a Christian behaves or conducts himself or herself in submission to the sin nature.
Therefore, in Romans 8:13, the verb denotes the Christian conducting his or her life in submission to the desires of the flesh, i.e. the sin nature.
The second person plural form of the verb denotes that Paul is addressing this statement to all of the believers in Rome as a corporate unit and means, “all of you.”
In Romans 8:12, Paul use the first person plural form meaning, “we” referring to himself and his fellow Christians in Rome who were the recipients of this epistle.
Now, in Romans 8:13, he switches to the second person plural, which indicates that Paul is exercising his authority as an apostle in order to warn his readers that submitting to the flesh results in a loss of fellowship with God.
“According to the flesh” refers to submission to the desires of the sin nature.
“You must die” is composed of the verb mello (mevllw) (mel-lo), “you must” and the verb apothnesko (a)poqnhv|skw) (ap-oth-nace-ko), “die.”
In Romans 8:13, the verb mello means, “to be inevitable” with respect to future developments as a result of doing something.
The word signifies that it is a “of a certainty” or “it is inevitable” that the Christian who submits to the desires of the sin nature will die spiritually in the sense of losing fellowship with God.
Paul is saying that if you conduct your lives in submission to the desires of the sin nature, then you “will certainly” die, i.e. lose fellowship with God.
Accompanying the verb mello is the verb apothnesko, which refers to Paul as a Christian dying spiritually in the sense that he lost fellowship with God.
In Romans 8:13, the apostle Paul is speaking to Christians in the context of fellowship with God, which is synonymous with “experiential sanctification.”
Therefore, apothnesko can not possibly refer to the second death in the eternal lake of fire since this is exclusively for those who reject Jesus Christ as Savior.
Rather, he is speaking of “temporal spiritual death” or in other words, “loss of fellowship with God.”
“Temporal spiritual death” or “loss of fellowship” with God takes place when the believer commits mental, verbal or overt acts of sin as a result of obeying the desires of the sin nature.
Therefore, Paul is not referring to physical death since the Christian doesn’t die immediately when he commits an act of sin.
However, the Lord will administer dying discipline to the Christian who possesses a lifestyle of living in submission to his flesh such as Saul.
The believer, therefore, must “confess” any known sins to the Father in order to be restored to fellowship.
1 John 1:9, “If any of us does at any time confess our sins, then, He (God the Father) is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from each and every wrongdoing.”
Immediately upon confessing his sins to the Father, the Christian is automatically restored to fellowship with Him.
He is restored to fellowship because of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross.
Thus, the Father is faithful and just to forgive the believer his sins.
Fellowship is maintained by bringing one’s thoughts into obedience to the Spirit.
Romans 8:5-6, “For you see those who at any time exist in the state of being in submission to the flesh are, as an eternal spiritual truth, preoccupied with the things produced by the flesh. However, those in submission to the Spirit, the things produced by the Spirit. In fact, the mind-set produced by the flesh is, as an eternal spiritual truth temporal spiritual death. However, the mind-set produced by the Spirit is, as an eternal spiritual truth life as well as peace.”
Therefore, obedience to the Spirit who speaks to the believer through the teaching of the Word of God will enable the believer to experience fellowship with God, which is synonymous with experiencing sanctification.
Therefore, after confessing our sins, we are to obey the Word of God and, in particular, we are commanded to bring our thoughts into obedience to the Spirit.
This constitutes obeying the commands to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18) and to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in our souls (Col 3:16).
Both will result in us experiencing fellowship with God.
When the Christian commits sin, he is grieving and hindering the Holy Spirit from performing His post-salvation ministries on the Christian’s behalf.
Ephesians 4:30, “Do not make it a habit to grieve the Holy Spirit by means of whom all of you have been sealed for the day of redemption.”
1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not make it a habit of hindering the Spirit.”
Paul spoke of “temporal spiritual death” i.e. “loss of fellowship with God” in Romans 6:16 and in Romans 7:9-13.
Therefore, since Paul is speaking in the context of the Christian’s sanctification, the verb apothnesko in Romans 8:13 refers to the Christian experiencing “temporal spiritual death” or in other words, “loss of fellowship with God.”