MORTIFYING THE DEEDS OF THE FLESH (Romans 8 v13)

Theologians interpret this verse in the naturalistic way of Christendom to mean that, by divine power, we are to (literally) put to death all the base pursuits of the body. But this is plainly a natural impossibility and we deceive ourselves if we think otherwise. No more than Paul, chapter 7, can we put to death the deeds of the flesh in a natural sense. So much for natural thinking, 1 Cor.2:14. That which is of the Spirit is not to be interpreted literally, nor applied to secular life in a puritanical manner. The christian system is not a divine means to improve human nature to make the world a better place. The flesh cannot be purified.

In considering the true (spiritual) interpretation, we might ponder why, as the flesh has already been put to death in the death of Christ, Rom.6:6, it is then required that we in turn mortify its deeds? Surely, if the flesh by divine act is dead, then there can be no deeds to mortify! The answer to this apparent conundrum lies in understanding the spiritual nature and implications of the divine act.

The death of the flesh, the old nature, signalled in the death of Christ, was a spiritual effect of the cross, so that the flesh is dead only in a spiritual sense, in divine estimation. By faith we are to reckon it to be so in our christian (spiritual) walk, to have the same spiritual mind about it as God, despite the fact that in natural life we are conscious it is very much alive. That God has declared the flesh dead in divine purpose is all that matters to the spiritually attuned mind. We walk by faith not by sight.

The corollary is that the mortifying in v.13 is likewise to be construed spiritually. If God has acted spiritually, then the response of a spiritual people likewise must be spiritual. As we have seen, it is in any event a literal impossibility. What God has done spiritually we are also called to do if we are to enter into the good of the divine act. Spiritual things are enacted in the power of the Spirit, whose activity has to do solely with the spiritual realm.

The (natural) life of the flesh is a life that is “about to die” (Newberry,Darby). It is temporal and hence of no eternal significance, so responding to God in that nature is unprofitable and a waste of the new (spiritual) life. It renders God’s accomplished work in Christ vain and fruitless in the present outworking of divine purpose.

Paul, having given that warning, then shows how we can profitably use the divine power given to us. We can now, as Paul had discovered, put the deeds of the flesh to death in a spiritual sense by the Spirit. We do so by our present spiritual response to God, the Spirit in us enduing us with spiritual intelligence to understand the spiritual position into which God has placed us. It is “by the Spirit”.

So, if by the Spirit we apprehend our spiritual situation aright and act accordingly, we shall live. That is, we shall live in present experience towards God in a new (spiritual) life which is not “about to die” but which is eternal and significant to divine purpose. Just as Christ acted by the Holy Spirit in divine service, so we are called upon to act in the divine system of Christianity, not according to the flesh in us.

In God’s sight we are not in the flesh and recognising that divine fact should ensure that we do not act in it in our christian (spiritual) walk. So-called practical holiness, the vain puritanical attempt to harness secular life to the divine system of Christianity by subduing the flesh, is entirely misplaced for the holy life consists in spiritual growth and activity of the inner man.