Renew Our Minds

Romans 8:13 says if we don't purge ourselves of sin, we will die. This is another way of saying we must renew our minds. Paul gives us the next key in Romans 8:13: "For if you keep on following it [sinful nature], you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live."

It isn't until we find how to release the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to put to death that old man's fleshly deeds. The natural mind thinks it can "will" to change. "I will not sin anymore," you say with gritted teeth. But sometimes you just can't break a fleshly habit using the strength of your own will.

"Relying on sheer willpower to change your fleshly weakness will take you only so far," "It is only through the Spirit that you mortify the deeds of the body."

On the other hand, "mortification" through the Spirit is the process by which the Holy Spirit rises up on the inside of you to destroy the hold that the flesh has had over you. Instead of the sin having dominion over you, you gain dominion over it.

It's no accident that immediately after Paul talks about mortifying the deeds of the flesh in Romans 8:13 that he says in verse 14: "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God."

The term children of God refers to mature believers who have been nurtured by the Holy Spirit to the point that they can now walk by their new nature rather than the dictates of the flesh. This is a state of spiritual maturity where carnal patterns and systems of thought no longer dominate you because you are now walking after your new nature instead of according to the flesh.

That's what Romans 8:13 is talking about: As many as will allow their reborn human spirits to be nurtured and taught by the Holy Spirit, they are the mature children of God. For it is through the spirit-through the new nature within them-that they mortify the deeds of the flesh.

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