Introduction:
One of the sad realities associated with growing older in this country, during a time when your nation has experienced the judgment of God in the form of a moral freefall, is the awareness that you have witnessed the loss of an appreciation for certain words.
Character words. Words that once had meaning, not only in the church, but due to Christian influence, even in the world at large. These words no longer to seem to matter, at least not to the degree they once did.
Words like:
Honor
Integrity
Loyalty
Faithfulness
And a word that we think about as we look at our text, the word used in the NASB, the word “obligation.” Or as the ESV has it, “debtors.”
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the English word obligation this way, “An act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound; a duty or commitment.”
The Greek word translated “debtors” is ὀφειλέτης and the Greek lexicon defines the word, in this context to mean:
② one who is under obligation in a moral or social sense, one under obligation, one liable for
The Holy Spirit of God, through Paul, having told us of what the new condition is that Christians have been brought into, now speaks to us of the OBLIGATIONS that belong to that condition.
Let it register with us that redemption brings new responsibility.
Salvation produces a new freedom that results in a new ABILITY and that new ability imparts a brand-new set of obligations.
Obligation is not a bad word. The life of Christian obligation is a glorious condition, not a depressing one.
The obligations of the Christian life speak of God’s grace to us.
This morning we think about our obligation as a redeemed people, salvation’s obligation.
THE CHRISTIAN’S OBLIGATION STATED (vs.12)
The transition, here, is emphatic, and it is as instructive as the statement itself. The new obligation has a foundation. It is the result of what Paul has just taught us.
THE FOUNDATION FOR OUR OBLIGATION

THE NEW OBLIGATION IS THE RESULT OF FORGIVENESS (vs.1-3)
THE NEW OBLIGATION IS THE RESULT OF INTERNAL TRANSFORMATION (vs.4)
THE NEW OBLIGATION IS THE RESULT OF A NEW HOPE GUARANTEED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PRESENCE (vs.9-11)
Indeed, we could sum all of this up by saying that the Christian now stands in a new place of moral responsibility due to the fact that now he or she knows LIFE IN THE SPIRIT.
James Montgomery Boice – “Paul is arguing that Christians “have an obligation” to live according to the Holy Spirit, rather than according to the sinful nature. And the reason for this, which he has just stated, is that the Holy Spirit has joined them to Jesus Christ so that: (1) they have been delivered from the wrath of God against them for their sin and been brought into an entirely new realm, the sphere of God’s rule in Christ; (2) they have been given a new nature, being made alive to spiritual things to which they were previously dead; and (3) they have been assured of an entirely new destiny in which not only will they live with God forever, but even their physical bodies will be resurrected. These are things God has done (or will do) for us. We have not done them for ourselves; indeed, we could not have. But, says Paul, because God has done them for us, “we have an obligation” to live like God has lived. We must—it is an imperative—live for him.”