47. Live
Romans 8:13 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.
A conditional promise: if you put to death the deeds of the body, then you will live. The corollary: if you live after the flesh, then you will die. The threat and the promise are literally life or death. The choice is clear: living after the flesh or putting to death the deeds of the body. The flesh most likely means the body and the soul; the deeds of the body indicates that it is the body that does deeds; the soul does not do anything, but it directs the body and decides what the body will do. The body does deeds at the behest of the soul; the mind, will and emotions control the deeds of the body.
Putting to death the deeds of the body begins with controlling the soul. Dying to self “mortifies” the deeds of the body. We put to death the deeds of the body through the Spirit, that is, the spirit does it through its influence on the soul. The key to dying to self is accepting and allowing the Spirit to have His way instead of our own will being done. Acknowledge that the soul, the self, is already dead, that the flesh can produce nothing good, nothing lasting or life-giving. Faith is so important because trusting the Spirit instead of our own mind and feeling is so hard. It takes faith to believe that the Spirit really does know better than I do. That is why God gives us this promise, that we might believe that the desires of the Spirit leads to a better life than the lusts of the flesh. Death is in the flesh; Life is in the Spirit.
Repentance agrees with God’s Word that my flesh (body and soul) is dead and can produce only death (a bad life). Repentance involves believing the Gospel and exercising the power of the Gospel over against the sins of the body. Repentance and faith says that I am dead and Jesus lives in me. Faith in the Gospel says: “you shall live.” The promise of life is much more than just existing. It is living.