By the Spirit, put to death
Not willpower, but the Spirit
Paul gives both the command and the means in a single sentence: if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Notice the crucial qualifier — by the Spirit. The death of self is commanded, but it is not accomplished by sheer human willpower. It is put to death by the Spirit, the power of God working in us, or it is not truly put to death at all.
This answers a question that haunts every serious attempt at the death of self: where does the strength come from? We have all tried to crucify our sins by gritted-teeth determination, and we have all failed, because the flesh cannot be defeated by the flesh. Trying harder in our own strength only produces either despair or a self-righteousness that is itself a deeper form of the old self. The killing must be done by a power greater than our own.
Yet notice that it is still we who put to death — by the Spirit, but genuinely we. This is not passivity, waiting limply for God to do it all while we do nothing. It is active dependence: we put the deeds of the body to death, but in the Spirit's power, not our own. We work, and the Spirit works in our working. The death of self is neither self-effort alone nor passive waiting, but our active obedience carried out by the Spirit's strength. By whose power have you been trying to put the old self to death?
“If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
— Paul, to the church at Rome — Romans 8:13 (WEB)
Put the old self to death by the Spirit's power, not your own willpower — in active dependence, neither white-knuckling it alone nor waiting passively.
“If we live by the Spirit, let's also walk by the Spirit.”
Self-effort hides a flattering assumption: that the flesh can be beaten by trying harder, as if the disease could perform its own cure. So we white-knuckle our sins and reap either collapse or a tidy pride that is the old self in fresh clothes. The interior work is to abandon both the striving and the limp passivity for active dependence — genuinely putting the deeds of the body to death, but in the Spirit's power, asking before resisting and leaning the whole fight on him.
This week, when you fight the old self, consciously depend on the Spirit rather than your willpower: ask for his power before you resist, and put the sin to death in his strength, neither striving alone nor waiting passively for it to die on its own.
Willpower is the trap most decorated as virtue, since it ends in either despair or a self-righteousness that looks like progress and is only pride. What the flesh could never kill in its own strength dies under the Spirit working in a soul that has stopped trusting its own grip — and there, at last, is real life.
Every serious attempt at the death of self eventually runs into the same wall: our own willpower is not enough. We try to crucify our sins by sheer determination and either collapse into despair when we fail, or, worse, succeed at the outward behavior and grow proud — a self-righteousness that is the old self in disguise. The flesh cannot defeat the flesh.
Paul names the missing power: by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body. The killing must be done in a strength greater than our own. Yet this is not passive waiting; it is still we who put to death, but in active dependence on the Spirit working in us. Self-effort alone produces despair or pride; passivity produces nothing; but active obedience carried out by the Spirit's power produces real death and real life. Have you been trying to put the old self to death by your own strength — and is that why it keeps surviving?
- By whose strength have I been trying to put the old self to death?
- Has self-effort left me in despair, or in proud self-righteousness?
- What would active dependence on the Spirit look like in my fight?
Lord, I try to crucify my sins by willpower and end in despair or pride, because the flesh cannot defeat the flesh. Teach me to put the deeds of the body to death by your Spirit, in active dependence on your power, that I may truly live. Amen.