Please explain Romans 8:12. I am a Christian. My sister (a very wicked person) and my brother hate me. I asked them for forgiveness, and at the same time I forgave them without reason, because I do not want to justify myself. Please help me.
My dear friend, I am so glad to hear that you are a Christian, and my heart goes out to you regarding how your sister and brother feel toward you since you were saved. Close friends and family members who are not believers can sometimes resent those who have become Christians, perhaps because they might feel we are judging them. We are changed by the Holy Spirit when we believe, and suddenly we have different interests, and choose not to engage in the things that we might formerly have enjoyed together; friends and family members may feel threatened by this. But I do not believe that becoming a Christian is a matter for you to be seeking their forgiveness for, nor for the changes that now have taken place in your life through the Holy Spirit. Rather, I would praise God that you are a born again Christian now, and I would be praying for your family members that they might become Christians too. How wonderful if they could come with you to heaven at the end of life. But as to those who hate us for our faith, we are not alone by any means. We must remember the words of our Lord Jesus to His disciples just before He went to the cross to die for our sins: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you,” (John 15:18,19).
But now, I want to address the verse you have asked about, which is Romans 8:12, and I’ll add in verse 13 as well: “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.” William MacDonald in his commentary on Romans 8:11-13 states: “But the reminder that the body is still subject to death need cause no alarm or despair. The fact that the Holy Spirit indwells our bodies is a guarantee that, just as He raised Christ from the dead, so He will also give life to our mortal bodies. This will be the final act of our redemption…when our bodies are glorified like the Savior’s body of glory. Now when we see the stark contrast between the flesh and the Spirit, what conclusion do we draw? We owe nothing to the flesh, to live according to its dictates. Those who live according to the flesh must die, not only physically but eternally. To live according to the flesh is to be unsaved. This is made clear in 8:4-5. But why does Paul address this to those who were already Christians? Does he imply that some of them might eventually be lost? No, but the apostle often includes words of warning and self-examination in his Letters, realizing that in every congregation there may be some people who have never been genuinely born again.”
My dear friend, if you are born again, in other words, saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), then you do have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, and nothing in these verses in Romans 8 should be troubling to you. You must simply believe what God says in His Word is true, and not trust in your abilities, feelings, or personal perceptions of worthiness. You owe nothing to the flesh for your salvation, but you owe all to the Lord. Believers on the Lord Jesus are thus, “born again” with new life from above (II Corinthians 5:17). We have the Spirit within us (John 15:26). Whether we “feel it” or not, we have new desires and a new nature which is heavenly. The old nature is still there, but we have also a new one which loves God, and which cannot sin “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever,” (1 Peter 1:23; see also John 3:3-5). And yet, as I have said, that old nature remains in us while we live on the earth, and it wars against our new nature which is holy. Thus, we have the conflict we read of in Romans 7:23-25. But Romans 8:1 reminds us of a glorious truth, and a truth which does not depend on our feelings: “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus,” (JND). It is not our good works that saves us, nor by our own power that we can walk a holy walk in this world. This is precisely what I think your verse Romans 8:12 tells us. We cannot achieve God’s righteousness by our own efforts, but only by faith in the finished work of Christ Jesus at Calvary’s cross on our behalf. There is nothing of our old nature, the flesh, that helps us in our Christian walk, and thus we owe nothing to the flesh, but all to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Similarly, we cannot walk a holy walk in this world, nor can we please God without the Holy Spirit in our hearts giving us the power. (SF) (604.4)