“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Romans 8:13
Do you treat forgiveness as a pre-paid credit card? Do you sin sexually, repeatedly and habitually because you believe your sins—past, present, future—are all forgiven, no matter what, guaranteed? Do you look at pornography and masturbate, week in, week out, knowing that on every occasion you can always rely on God for His forgiveness because God is obligated to forgive you?
If you look at pornography and masturbate but want to stop, your inability to conquer your sin might just be tied to your misunderstanding of eternal security. If you believe you are “once saved, always saved” and that you can never fall away, you need to read your New Testament. Every writer in the New Testament warns believers about falling away. When commissioning the 12 disciples, Christ warns them five times about falling away. Paul warns his readers against apostasy in every one of his 14 letters except two.
Here, in the Book of Romans, Paul warns Christians about spiritual death. “If you live according to the flesh you will die,” says Paul. Paul clearly teaches that you can be a believer but die spiritually. And that death is not accidental. You don’t “lose” your salvation. You forfeit your salvation. How? By living according to the flesh.
In the New Testament, the flesh is that part of the human condition that is weak and still subject to the attack of sin, that is opposed to the Spirit and wars against it, and that becomes the instrument of sin. When you “live according to the flesh,” you live according to your sinful nature. You obey its promptings, give in to its temptations, and obey its lusts. Paul says this way of living leads to spiritual death, which means separation from God. The remedy is to put the deeds of the body to death by the Spirit. You use the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to kill the lusts of the flesh. You stop living according to the flesh and start living a life that’s led by the Spirit of God.
A man who looks at pornography repeatedly, habitually is, by definition, living according to the flesh. Unless he forsakes his sin, He will die and be separated from God for all eternity. “If you live according to the flesh you will die.” You have God’s word on that.
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