Living by the Spirit: From Debt to Glory in Romans 8
- Jack Selcher
- Sep 8, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Summary
While many Americans struggle with financial debt, Scripture teaches that all Christians are debtors to the Spirit, not to self-interest. Believers must daily put sin to death and live under the Spirit’s rule. The Holy Spirit assures salvation, empowers endurance, and intercedes in weakness. Though suffering marks the present, it leads to future glory when God fully reveals His children and transforms them into Christ’s likeness.
Our True Obligation: Flesh or Spirit
The consumer debt of Americans is 2.4 trillion. That is an average of $7,800 for every individual.1
Not all Americans are debtors, but all Christians are. We are obligated to the Spirit, not our fleshly interests and selfish concerns.
Living by the Spirit
There are only two realms—the kingdom of self-interest and the kingdom of the Spirit. Neither wins without our cooperation. We must continue to put to death the body’s misdeeds (Romans 8:13).
Among them are “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5 NIV). Those who live for self-interest will experience eternal separation from God, whether they claim to be Christians or not.
When an airplane is flying, the law of aerodynamics is stronger than the law of gravity. We overcome the law of gravity by remaining in the plane.
We overcome the law of sin and death by remaining in the Spirit and being sensitive to His promptings. Only those whom the Spirit leads, rules, and governs are the children of God.
Through the Holy Spirit’s witness, we receive a secret inner witness to the reality of our salvation. The female egg reaches its full potential only after the sperm enters it. Similarly, the human spirit reaches its full potential only after the Holy Spirit enters our lives.
Life and Assurance Through the Holy Spirit
We become spiritually alive. We can then achieve that for which God created us. We are God’s heirs and co-heirs with Christ. We will share in Christ’s glory. But that glory has a cost.
Suffering Now, Glory Later
Sharing Jesus’ sufferings includes serving others, giving up our rights, and refusing to conform to the world, whatever the cost. The reward is eventually participating in His glory.
When Christ returns, God will transform the material universe to fulfill His purposes. Until then, the creation groans. We do too because of the weight of our present imperfections. We long for the glory God will reveal.
Our adoption has a future aspect—God will publicly acknowledge that we are His children. He will fully conform us to the image of His Son.
He will clothe us with an immortal, incorruptible body in the likeness of the body of Christ’s glory. That body will be perfectly suited to our new situation.
Hope, Endurance, and the Spirit’s Help
Until that happens, we have hope that brims with confidence—a by-product of our salvation. But for now, we must patiently endure the cross and tribulations. They are a prelude to glory.
The Holy Spirit encourages us amid our suffering and the burden of our weaknesses. He prays for our real needs in harmony with God’s will.
We pray in the background. His prayers are in the foreground, overshadowing our prayers. For now, that is enough. Around the bend, Christ’s glory awaits us. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 7,590 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 17,681 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting.
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