September 5 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh" (Rom. 8:12).

Devotional

So that no obscurity might gather around so momentous a subject, tending to misguide the judgment, God's Word distinctly and emphatically affirms that the flesh has no valid claim whatever upon the believer. Consequently, he is under no obligation to yield compliance with its feigned demands.

We are debtors, but the flesh is not our creditor. What are its demands with which it is our obligation to comply? Do we owe anything to sin, the parent of all our woe? Nothing. Do we owe anything to Satan, who plotted our temptation, and accomplished our downfall? Nothing. Do we owe anything to the world—ensnaring, deceitful, and ruinous? Nothing. No, to these—the assistants and allies of the flesh—we owe nothing but the deepest hatred and the most determined opposition.

And yet, as saints of God we are "debtors." To whom?

What debtors we are to the Father—for his electing love, for the covenant of grace, for his unspeakable gift, for having blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus! We but imperfectly estimate the debt of love, gratitude, and service which we owe to him whose mind the Eternal Son came to reveal, whose will he came to do, and whose heart he came to unveil. It was the Father who sent the Son. The Father originated the wondrous means of our redemption. He it was who laid all our sins on Jesus. It was his sword of Justice that smote the Shepherd, while his hand of love and protection was laid upon the little ones. We have too much supposed that the Atonement of Jesus was intended to inspire the mercy, rather than to propitiate the justice of God. We have too much imagined that it was to awaken in his heart a love that did not previously exist. Thus we have overlooked the source from where our salvation originated, and have lost sight of the truth—that the mediation of Jesus was not the cause, but rather the effect, of God's love to man. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Oh, for the spirit to understand, and for grace to feel, and for love to exemplify our deep obligation to God for the everlasting love that gave us his Son!

We are equal debtors to the Son. He was the active agent in our redemption. It was he who undertook and accomplished all that our salvation required. He left no path untrodden. He left no portion of the curse unborne. He left no sin unatoned. He left no part of the law uncancelled. He left nothing for us in the matter of our salvation to do, but simply to believe and be saved. Oh, to lift the eyes to him—strong in faith, beaming with love, moist with contrition—and exclaim, "You have borne my sin, endured my curse, extinguished my hell, secured my heaven. Your spirit was wounded for me; your heart bled for me; your body was bruised for me; your soul was stricken for me—for me, a sinner, the chief of sinners. I am your debtor—a debtor to your dying love, to your eternal, discriminating mercy. Surely an eternity of love, of service, and of praise, can never repay you what I owe you, you blessed Jesus." Oh, how deep the obligation we are under to Christ!

And we are no less indebted to the Holy Spirit. What of love and obedience do we not owe him who awoke the first thrill of life in our soul, who showed to us our guilt, and who sealed to us our pardon? What do we not owe him for leading us to Christ? What do we not owe him for dwelling in our hearts? What do we not owe him for his healing, sanctifying, comforting, and restoring grace? What do we not owe him for his influence, which no ingratitude has quenched? What do we not owe him for his patience, which no backsliding has exhausted? What do we not owe him for his love, which no sin has annihilated? Yes, we are the Spirit's lasting debtors. We owe him the intellect he has renewed. We owe him the heart he has sanctified. We owe him the body he inhabits. We owe him every breath of life he has inspired. We owe him every pulse of love he has awakened.

In this way, every real believer is a debtor to the Triune God—a debtor to the Father's everlasting love, to the Son's redeeming grace, and to the Spirit's quickening mercy. You owe nothing to the flesh except uncompromising hatred. To Jehovah you owe undivided and supreme affection.

Come, thou Fount of ev'ry blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of God's unchanging love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wand'ring from the fold of God:
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be.
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wand'ring heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love—
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

(Robert Robinson, 1758)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.