{"id":1753,"date":"2010-06-06T21:03:01","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T03:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2010-06-06T21:03:01","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T03:03:01","slug":"romans-813-evidence-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-813-evidence-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 8:13 – Evidence of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 8:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Your actions indicate whether you are spiritually dead or alive.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The words \u201cyou will<\/span>\u201d are from the Greek word mell\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which usually means \u201cit is about to happen.\u201d It is normally followed by a verb in the future infinitive form. However, in this verse it is followed by a verb in the present infinitive form. This makes the expression stronger than a future verb. It indicates a necessary consequence. Hence, we could translate this as \u201cyou are at the point of death\u201d or \u201cyou are<\/strong> going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word \u201cdeeds<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek noun praxis<\/span><\/em>, which is from the verb prass\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto practice,\u201d that is, to perform an action over and over. Therefore, we see that praxis<\/span><\/em> refers to habitual, repeated actions.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cPut to death<\/span>\u201d is from the verb thanato\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto kill,\u201d that is, \u201cto take an active part in causing the death of something.\u201d Paul is telling us that a person who habitually satisfies their sin nature will cause their own death.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cBody<\/span>\u201d is from s\u014dma<\/span><\/em>, which refers to our physical body.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at this one phrase at a time. Paul starts out with, \u201cFor if you live according to the flesh<\/span>.\u201d We have already talked about \u201caccording to the flesh,<\/span>\u201d meaning \u201csatisfying the desires of the sin nature.\u201d The end of this phrase is, \u201cyou will die<\/span>.\u201d It\u2019s not a matter that you may die, but that you definitely will die. This is another indication that Paul is now talking about someone who is not saved. One of the characteristics of an unsaved person is that their actions are dictated by self, not by the Spirit of God, and he or she will suffer eternal death.<\/p>\n

The second half of this verse is, \u201cbut if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.<\/span>\u201d In other words, if we personally take an active part in putting to death the deeds of our body, we will have life. This is a characteristic of a Christian. As born again Christians, we live by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we will actively fight against and put to death the selfish deeds of our sin nature.<\/p>\n

Remember back in verse ten Paul said that if Christ is in you, the body is dead but the spirit is alive. He is now saying that one way for you to tell if Christ is in you (if you are truly saved) is that you will not continually be living to satisfy your sin nature because the Holy Spirit is living in you. Through the Holy Spirit we are continually working to kill the fleshly practices that our body (influenced by our sin nature) wants to do. But, those who are not saved are continually letting their body and its fleshly desires have their way. As a result, they are destined to die and be eternally separated from God. That\u2019s precisely what James meant when he wrote:<\/p>\n

Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.<\/span> (James 2:18b<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So where do your actions say you will spend eternity? Do they say that you are destined to die eternally or that will live eternally in God\u2019s presence as His adopted son or daughter?<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Truth to Learn Your actions indicate whether you are spiritually dead or alive. Behind the Words The words \u201cyou will\u201d are from the Greek word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[866,493,918,104,919,712,920,838,921,922,923],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-body","tag-deeds","tag-die","tag-flesh","tag-kill","tag-live","tag-mello","tag-practice","tag-praxis","tag-slirit","tag-thanatoo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-sh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}