by Jarrod M. Jacobs<\/p>\n
When the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, he said, “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise<\/em>” (Romans 1:14). What did that mean? How could he have been a “debtor” to them when he had not seen them yet (Romans 1:13; 15:22)? Put simply, being “debtor” meant that Paul was under an obligation to preach the gospel to the Romans (Vine’s p. 279). In the same sense that Paul said, “woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel<\/em>” (I Corinthians 9:16), he also felt that urgency toward the Romans and planned on preaching there soon. As we study the Bible, we also learn that we are “debtors” today.<\/p>\n Romans 8:12 says that we are debtors to Christ to mortify (or put to death) the deeds of the body and not live after the flesh. Paul shows that when we do this, we will be alive spiritually (Romans 8:13). Paul’s letter to the Romans leaves no doubt that if we wish to be joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), then we become debtors to “mortify the deeds of the body,” and live for Christ. If we wish to please God, we must put off “our old man” of sin by being baptized for the remission of sins (Romans 6:3-6, 16-18; Colossians 2:11-12; 3:9; Mark 16:16).<\/p>\n As Paul was fighting the false doctrine of the Judaizers in Galatia, he said, “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace<\/em>” (Galatians 5:3-4). This is a lesson many of our friends in the denominational world need to learn. When people try to justify their actions in worship by Old Testament teachings, they become debtors to do all the Law.<\/p>\n This is also a lesson those of us in the church need to learn. The Old Testament teaches us by revealing examples worthy of imitation, as well as revealing examples of folks whose actions we ought not to imitate (Romans 15:4). However if we cling to the Old Testament as the word by which we authorize our actions today, Paul said without hesitation that we can and will fall from grace because we have left the law of Christ and have become indebted to the Law of Moses.<\/p>\n Think about it: God sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice on the cross for us (Romans 5:8; John 3:16). While we can never repay His great sacrifice, we are under an obligation to God to live our lives in His service (Luke 17:10; II Corinthians 5:14-15; Romans 12:1-2). Friend, give your life to God instead of wasting your life with Satan (Mark 16:16; James 4:7-8)! We owe Him that much!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jarrod M. Jacobs When the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, he said, “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise” (Romans 1:14). What did that mean? How could he have been a “debtor” to them when he had not seen them yet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[477,1668],"class_list":["post-64952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-debt","tag-obligation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":90727,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/forgiveness-of-debts-owed\/","url_meta":{"origin":64952,"position":0},"title":"Forgiveness of Debts Owed","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer It seems that in the \"forgiveness debate\" (that sounds odd), people can easily talk past each other. The discussion really hinges on what is meant by \"forgiveness.\" To further clarify the nature and nuances of forgiveness, please note the phrase used by Jesus in His model prayer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56572,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gospel-paul-preached\/","url_meta":{"origin":64952,"position":1},"title":"The Gospel Paul Preached","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sean P. Cavender The book of Romans is Paul's defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout the epistle, Paul details man's sin, man's need for justification, the conditions for justification, the effects of God's grace, and the assurances of the child of God. He makes several statements of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4216,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/christ-did-not-send-me-to-baptize\/","url_meta":{"origin":64952,"position":2},"title":"Christ Did Not Send Me to Baptize","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton What did Paul mean by this statement in I Corinthians 1:17? Preaching the gospel is what leads to people being baptized (Mark 16:15-16). You could read the whole Old Testament, including the Law of Moses, and it will not command you to be baptized. Only the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18020,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-person-with-more-sins-love-god-greater\/","url_meta":{"origin":64952,"position":3},"title":"Does the person with more sins love God greater?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. I have a question for you. Actually, a couple. I think this will be some pretty good ones to have on the site, but mainly I am writing for some clarification for my own personal understanding. Concerning the parable of the two debtors that Jesus told Simon Peter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90778,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gods-power-to-save\/","url_meta":{"origin":64952,"position":4},"title":"God’s Power to Save","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0by J. F. Dancer When Paul wrote the letter to the saints at Rome, he explained to them why he had not yet visited them. He had promised to come and still intended to do so (Romans 15:24), but had been prevented (Romans 1:13). Then he set forth the basic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35264,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-paul-a-false-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":64952,"position":5},"title":"Was Paul a false apostle?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have recently stumbled onto some information. Apparently, some Christians think that the apostle Paul was a false apostle and false teacher. They say that he taught Jesus \"faith only\" while Jesus himself clearly taught faith + works. I am deeply troubled by this and feel my world has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How are we “debtors”?<\/h2>\n
We are debtors to God!<\/h2>\n