THE
DOCTRINES OF MORTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION
It is the doctrine of mortification that teaches the
believer how to live Eternal life on earth.
Romans
8:13 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the
flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:
but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
We believers owe a debt, but
it is not to live after the flesh, it is to live after the spirit. Paul explains
it elsewhere this way:
2Cor
5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
The purpose for which Christ
came and died for all who will believe in him, was so that we who presently
live in fleshly bodies, should no longer live unto ourselves; we should no
longer live according to our will, our pleasures, our ambitions, but we should
live unto him.
It is this living unto him
that Romans 8:14 explains as living by mortifying or killing the deeds or works
of the body through the Spirit.
Verse 15 therefore refers to this kind of
living as being led by the Spirit of God and those who engage in such living as
the sons of God.
This kind of living by dying
is a doctrine to be found all over the Epistles. Paul again alludes to it
in:
2Cor
4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day.
Both
‘Lives’ – the Outward Man and the Inward Man cannot co-exist together in peace…one
must dominate the other…one must live while the other must die. This is
peculiar only to the Believer who alone has these two kinds of ‘Lives’ within.
The two
Lives are described as two Men…the Outward Man and the Inward Man. In Ephesians, Paul again reveals the fact that
they cannot co-exist together in peace; one must be put off and the other put
on…
Eph 4:22-24 That ye put off concerning
the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the
deceitful lusts;
And be renewed in the spirit of your
mind;
And that ye put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness
So we
see that the Believer has not begun to live the Christian life till he has
begun to mortify the deeds of the body. He may have eternal life within, but he
has not yet begun to give expression to that life until he begins to kill the
works of the flesh through the Holy Spirit. He cannot begin to bear fruit unto
God until he begins to die to Self, for this mortifying of the deeds of the
body is nothing more than the dying to Self, or as Christ taught; it is the
denying of Self and taking up of the cross. Until this is in practice, we
cannot follow Christ; we are not yet his disciples.
Luke
9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Being born again is only the
doorway into the Christian life, but it is the mortifying of the deeds of the
flesh that begins the actual living of the Christian life.
Romans 8:14 prefixes the two
kinds of Living with the conditional word IF…
For
if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
In the first kind of life, the believer has a choice of
living after the flesh and the end result is death. In the second kind of life,
the believer has a choice of truly living, but only if through the Spirit he
mortifies the deeds of the body.
It is also very important to note that verse 15 reveals
that those who are led by the Spirit are those who are living the second kind
of life…the life of mortifying the deeds of the body. The verse starts with the
word ‘For’…this carries the same weight as because as it is a continuation from
the previous verse, which in turn starts with a ‘For’, which also is a
continuation of the previous verse…
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall
die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God.
Both Fors, carry
the same weight as the word ‘Because’.
So now if we substitute the word ‘because’ in place of ‘for’;
we will see instantly how the verses are linked…
Romans
8:13 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the
flesh.
Because
if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Because as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God.
Therefore, to be led by the
Spirit of God is to mortify the deeds of the body, those who live such lives of
mortification through the Spirit are referred to as sons of God.
You will recall that Christ
was LED INTO THE WILDERNESS BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, where he was tempted for 40
days and nights…
Luke
4: 1-2
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost
returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
Being
forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when
they were ended, he afterward hungered.
The leading of the Spirit
will always be into a place of mortification so that the Inward Man may thrive.
It is not a life of fleshly enjoyment or pleasure or excitement…it is a place
of death to Self.
Col
3:1-3 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set
your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God.
First the Scripture above notes that those who are truly
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Many believers think that
being a Christian means merely being born again, yet this scripture clearly
indicates that the true believer is one who is risen with Christ…we may be born
of the Spirit and yet remain alive to sin…we may not be risen with Christ.
Verse 3 says for a fact that
we are DEAD…not biologically dead, but rather we have through the Spirit KILLED
the deeds of the body. It is the Self that has been KILLED through the
mortification of the deeds of the body by the help of the Holy Spirit.
We can clearly know if we
are in this company of believers IF we truly are setting our affection on
things above and not on things on the earth. This is so because those who are
mortifying the deeds of the body clearly have no affections for the things on
the earth any longer.
Wherever we turn to in the
Epistles, we find this doctrine of being dead to sin, dead to Self, and mortifying
or killing the deeds of the body. We cannot escape the fact that this is the
path to living the life of the Spirit here on earth…
The proof that one belongs
to Christ indeed is to be found in IF that believer is mortifying the deeds of
the body…
GA
5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified
the flesh with the affections and
lusts.
Without the mortification of the deeds of the body, the
believer is yet to begin his Christian walk…
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