We are debtors

Rom 8: "So then brothers, we are debtors..." Paul is in the middle of presenting his sweeping conclusion to the doctrinal realities he has laid down in the first 7 chapters. There is no condemnation, we have the Spirit, our minds are reset, we have true life. This all before v12.  Later comes the fact that we are not slaves but children and heirs, that a day of ultimate renewal is coming, that the Holy Spirit is interceding for us with groans, that God works all things out for our ultimate good, that if God didn't spare His own Son in our justification, why would He then condemn us or withhold from us that which we need? and that there is nothing imaginable that can separate those loved by God from the love of Christ.

So then brothers, we are debtors. In John Piper's book Brothers, We are not Professionals, there is chapter entitled "Beware of the Debtor's Ethic".  I respect and agree with his thesis, but I would want to come back to Paul's straightforward observation: So then brothers, we are debtors.

In Spurgeon's morning devotional for Feb 3, this thought is articulated well:

"But then, because we are not debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become ten times more debtors to God than we should have been otherwise. Christian, pause and ponder for a moment. What a debtor thou art to divine sovereignty! How much thou owest to his disinterested love, for he gave his own Son that he might die for thee. 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. Thou art as deep in debt as thou canst be to every attribute of God. To God thou owest thyself, and all thou hast-yield thyself as a living sacrifice, it is but thy reasonable service."

So then brothers, we are debtors...

 To God Alone be the Glory