"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh," ROM 8:12.

As God's creatures, we are all debtors to Him—to obey Him with all our body, and soul, and strength. Having broken His commandments, as we all have, we are debtors to His justice, and we owe to Him a vast amount which we are not able to pay.

But of the true believer it can be said that he does not owe God's justice anything. How is that? Christ has paid the debt His people owed; for this reason the believer owes the more to love. I am a debtor to God's grace and forgiving mercy; but I am no debtor to His justice, for He will never accuse me of a debt already paid.

Christ said, "It is finished!" and by that He meant, that whatever His people owed was wiped away forever from the book of remembrance. Christ has satisfied divine justice, to the uttermost. The account is settled; the handwriting is nailed to the cross; the receipt is given, and we are no longer debtors to God's justice.

But then, because we are not debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become all the more debtors to God than we should have been otherwise. Believer, pause and ponder for a moment. What a debtor thou art to divine sovereignty! How much you owe to His deep, merciful love, for He gave His own Son that He might die for you.

Consider how much you owe to His forgiving grace, that after ten thousand affronts He loves you as infinitely as ever. Consider what you owe to His power; how He has raised you from your death in sin; how He has preserved your spiritual life; how He has kept you from falling; and how, though a thousand enemies have beset your path, you have been able to hold on your way.

Consider what you owe to His immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, He has not changed once. You are as deep in debt as you can be to every attribute of God. To God you owe a debt of love which you will never be able to pay—even if you do yield yourself as a living sacrifice.

Our text says in its context, "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," ROM 8:12-14. Amen

C. H. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, February 3

I hear the Saviour say,
"Thy strength indeed is small,
Come to me I’ll be thy stay,
Find in Me thine all in all."

Lord, now indeed I find,
Thy power, and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots,
And melt the heart of stone.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim —
I’ll wash my garments white,
In the blood to Calvary’s Lamb.

And when, before the throne,
I stand in Him complete,
"Jesus died my soul to save"
My lips shall still repeat.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.