“Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 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.” Romans8:12,13 NIV

I like to think of our salvation as a two step operation. Step one, we have our salvation experience however that experience was for you, usually its saying the sinners prayer or for some its water baptism. Step two, is your sanctification.

For most folks this is a completely separate issue and it does not affect your salvation whatsoever. Or, as I would say, it is optional. Once your saved you are always saved, right? Salvation is one and done, right? Except when we run into some scriptures like the one above. Paul is saying what! If I live in the flesh I will die? No way, right?

  Every gospel, every epistle has those kinds of texts in them. There are warnnings.You know that, I know that. Let me quote a couple more and then we will  look at the text I quoted from Romans 8

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” 1John1:6

“… Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Ja.4:4

Back to Ro.8:12-13. It is a warning. I write about these warnings all the time but I feel I am talking to a brick wall. Nobody wants to hear what I have to say. We all know what the problem is, if we are honest with ourselves, we want to keep at least some of our sin habits.

So we put our sin habits and the holy gospel in a blender and viola! Good news! We can keep our sins and still be a disciple which means of course we get the free forgiveness thingy and a free ticket to heaven. It is a thing of beauty I tell ya.

That comes with only one caveat, we really should throttle down our sinning somewhat. At least try to sin about 20.5% less than your unsaved friends. That ought to do it, after all if you don’t do anything the Lord will throw your sorry bacon into the “cheap grace” dumpster. And you don’t want to go there.

So how does one, “by the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of the body”? Paul is in the middle of unpacking the gospel, laying it out so we can see exactly what it entails. So lets start out with what the gospel is in a nutshell, that is found in Rom.1:17

“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” NIV

Twirl those things around and you come up with the exact same thing, lets try it:

1. Righteous ones live by faith
2. Righteousness is something you live
3. If you live by faith, then you are living a truly righteous life.
4. You shall live it and you shall do it by faith. KJV

Therefore the putting to death the misdeeds of the body is done by exercising your faith. Faith, like your muscles have to be exercised.. don’t ask God for more faith, just begin to act like you have some no matter how little. Remember a mustard seed of faith can move a mountain.

Our bodies or our flesh or our sinful nature, however you want to call it has a propensity to act up, it wants its desires to be fulfilled. It craves pleasure. It wants to sin. This is our enemy and it must be put to death.

What to do the exact moment you are tempted? Let’s pretend that we are being tempted right now. The sinful desires are strong. They are very strong. So what am I to do? Time to exercise your faith. Put your faith in Jesus Christ, our deliverer, to deliver you in this moment of temptation. Now hold on, don’t let go, you must endure for a short while. Wait for Him, he will deliver you, he has promised.

Did you do it? Did he deliver you? If you hung on of course he did. Congratulations, now rinse and repeat. Don’t worry, it gets easier, your faith will get stronger. Notice how powerful your “weak” faith is, that is because you are tapping into the everlasting power of Jesus Christ. That is the same power that created the whole universe. It is not your faith as such that delivers us from sins powerful temptation, it is faith in our Deliverer. He is the one who saves us, not only from the consequences of our past sins but he also saves us from having to sin.

Did you fail? Don’t worry too much about that. There will be another opportunity coming just around the corner. Get ready for it, be prepared, now you know how strong the enemy is, but just remember greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. You have the advantage, use it.

I want to stress the importance of learning to live righteously by faith. This is not an option, it is required of us, so keep trying and don’t give up. You can do it, we all can, Christ has given us the faith that we need to do this so do it! Remember, you signed up for this, who among us would sign up for a marathon, show up, rub shoulders and chat with the other contestants and then when the signal sounds to go… you just stand there while everybody else takes off. You signed up for this, you made the decision to be a Christian, now it is time for you to live it.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.