SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS

ROMANS 7:25--8:17.

In this section of his letter, Paul completes his discussion of the Christian's relationship to the law. It is subdivided into three sections:
1. Deliverance from legalism (7:25--8:4),
2. The Spirit and the flesh (8:5-13),
3. The Sons of God (8:14-17).

DELIVERANCE FROM LEGALISM

ROMANS 7:25--8:4.

Romans 7 is not the normal Christian life but the abnormal experience of the believer who has placed himself under law. If the believer has fallen into this legalism, there is deliverance. "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:25a) The believer cannot deliver himself from this legalism; God must deliver him and that deliverance is through Jesus Christ our Lord and by the Holy Spirit. In the last verse of the Seventh Chapter and the first four verses of Chapter Eight of Romans, Paul sets forth the steps of this deliverance. In these verses, we find three steps of this deliverance from legalism:

  • Step 1 - The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b):
    "So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God,
    but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin." ERS
    To be delivered from legalism, one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to sin, that is, that he is under law and sin has dominion over him ( Rom. 6:14).
  • Step 2 - Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1).
    "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." NAS
    God delivers from legalism through His word of unconditional love which says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ. This is a word of grace and places the Christian back under grace. Legalism conditions God's love by our sins. God says that His love is unconditioned by our sins. Therefore, God does not condemn us for our failure under law but delivers us from under law and places us back under grace. For in His love, God acts to deliver us from sin and death (Rom. 8:2) and thus from wrath which is condemnation. This is the grace of God (God's love in action to deliver or save us, Eph. 2:4-5) and it takes us out from under the law and puts us back under grace, where sin as a slave master has no dominion over us ( Rom. 6:14).
  • Step 3 - Deliverance from sin and death (Rom. 8:2-4).
    "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." NAS
    The law or power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or power of action of sin and of death. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit delivers us from sin by giving us life in Christ which is deliverance from death. The law is not able to do this; it is through the death of Christ (Rom. 8:3) who put an end to sin's reign over us ("condemn sin in the flesh") by His death for us ( Rom. 6:10). The purpose (Rom. 8:4) was that the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. To walk according to the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort ("flesh"), to live up to the standard of the law. The believer must not do it that way. By walking according to the Spirit, he will fulfill the righteous acts of the law.
    • Let us now examine these verses in more detail.

    ROMANS 7:25--8:4.
    7:25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
    So then on the one hand I myself am serving with the mind the law of God
    but on the other hand with the flesh the law of sin.
    8:1. There is then now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
    2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
    has set me free from the law of sin and of death.
    3. For what the law could not do,
    in that it was weak through the flesh,
    God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
    and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
    4. in order that the righteous acts of the law might be fulfilled in us,
    who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

    7:25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
    So then on the one hand I myself am serving with the mind the law of God
    but on the other hand with the flesh the law of sin.
    "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
    In the first part of the verse, Paul gives thanks to God that there is deliverance from the miserable condition expressed in the cry of despair recorded in the previous verse. That deliverance is "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Paul will explain in the next chapter how that deliverance is accomplished through Jesus Christ; here he gives thanks for the fact of deliverance. In I Cor. 15:57, Paul expresses in similar words his thanks to God for the victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ;
    "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
    through our Lord Jesus Christ."
    It is not surprising that Paul used similar words in I Cor. 15; because that victory over death is the same deliverance from the body of this death here in Rom. 7. There in I Cor. 15, it is death whose sting is sin and the law is power of sin;
    "55 'O death, where is thy victory?
    O death, where is thy sting?'
    56 The sting of death is sin,
    and the power of sin is the law."
    (I Cor. 15:55-56)
    Here in Rom. 7, it is the law of death that, warring against the law of the mind, takes the believer under law captive to the law of sin ( Rom. 7:23). In both of these passages, there is the same complex of concepts: death, sin and the law; and these concepts are related in the same way: sin is the sting and the result of death and the law is the occasion and the power of sin.

    "So then on the one hand I myself am enslaved with the mind to the law of God
    but on the other hand with the flesh to the law of sin."

    The Greek word douleuo, usually translated "serve", means "to be a slave, be subject to." Paul is here recognizing and acknowledging the condition from which Christ Jesus his Lord will deliver him; he is a slave to the law with his mind and a slave to the law of sin with his flesh. In the next chapter 8, he will explain how God delivers from this twofold condition. Many commentators and translators, feeling that this statement about the slavery to the law of sin is out of place here after the thanksgiving for deliverance, have moved this last part of this verse 25 to before the cry of despair in the previous verse or to the end of verse 23. There is no textual or manuscript evidence for this part of verse 25 being anywhere else or being omitted. This statement is not out of place here because it is a statement of the first step of deliverance from legalism. Before anyone can be delivered from legalism, he must acknowledge he is under law ("I myself am enslaved with the mind to the law of God") and that as such he is a slave to sin. That is, he must come to see that not only is the law, which depends upon human effort ("the flesh"), powerless to deliver from the slavery to sin, but that the law becomes the occasion for sin to make him its slave ("sold under sin").

    8:1. There is then now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
    With this one statement, Paul breaks the slavery of being under the law and places thebeliever back under grace. This is the second step in the deliverance from legalism: deliverance from condemnation. Paul says elsewhere, "The law works wrath" ( Rom. 4:15). This wrath which the law works is condemnation. Nothing holds believers in bondage under the law more than the fear of condemnation. Real and imagined guilt hangs like a cloud over mind and consciences of most believers. But they are not under law and there is no condemnation for their failures under the law. The believer is in Christ Jesus and there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. This word of unconditioned love - unconditioned by their failures under law - places the believer back under the grace of God where sin as a slave master has no more dominion over him or her ( Rom. 6:14).

    Most modern translations correctly omit the words "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" added by the King James Version to verse 1. Since the time of King James Version in 1611, many and the oldest ancient Greek manuscripts have been recovered that omit in the Greek these words. The evidence of the Greek manuscripts is overwhelming in omitting this clause from verse 1, but the evidence is universal for including them in verse 4. Apparently the legalism of Christianity after Augustine lead the scribe who was copying the Greek manuscripts to interpolate the Greek words of this clause in verse 4 into the end of verse 1. This Christian legalism cannot tolerate the unconditional statement of "no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus" and thus must condition this statement by adding the words "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" at the end of verse 1. Thus their no condemnation is made dependent upon their walk, not on their position in Christ. Later this Christian legalism, while rejecting salvation by works, holds that the Christian life depends upon their works, their walk under law. But the Christian life is by God's grace through faith, not by our works, as salvation is by God's grace through our faith, not by our meritorious works (Eph. 2:8-9; Col. 2:6). By faith the believer is in Christ, and by faith the believer walks in the Spirit.

    8:2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
    has set me free from the law of sin and of death.
    In this verse, Paul explains why there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The grace of God sets them free from the law of sin and the law of death through the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Grace is more than unmerited favor; it is love in action. The grace of God is the love of God in action to save and set free from the law of sin and from the law of death. God does this by giving in His love (grace) the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. God gives them life by giving them His Spirit, the Spirit of life. The Spirit places them into a personal relationship to God, which is life in Christ Jesus. To be in Christ is to be in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. This is not a mystical union where two become somehow ontologically one, but where two persons become personally related together. This personal relationship of being "in Christ Jesus" has two sides to it: God's side in which God in His grace initiates and sustains the relationship and our side in which we response to His grace by faith and trust in Him. This personal relationship is "in Christ Jesus" because God's side in initiating this personal relationship is done by Christ Jesus as a living and real person who through the word of His death and resurrection (the gospel) brought us from death to life (John 5:24). Paul here says that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set him free." Paul uses the Greek word nomos usually translated "law" in several different ways like other New Testament writers. The following are some of them.
    1. The first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Matt. 12:5; Luke 2:23-24; 16:16; 24:44; Rom. 3:21b).
    2. The whole Old Testament ( Rom.3:19 referring to the passages quoted in Rom.3:10-18 which are not just from the Pentateuch; John 10:34, quoting Psa. 82:6; I Cor. 14:21, quoting Isa. 28:11)
    3. The Mosaic covenant that God made with the children of Israel (Exodus 24:1-12; Rom. 2:12; 3:19; 4:13-14; Gal. 3:17-18).
    4. The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21; Matt. 5:18), sometimes improperly called the moral law.
    5. All the commandments of God, ceremonial as well as the Ten Commandments; all statutes and ordinances of the law of Moses (Luke 2:22; John 7:23).
    6. Teaching, instruction, guidance ( Rom. 2:17-18, 20, 23, 26); compare this with the meaning of the Hebrew word Torah which has the same meaning. As such it is that content of God's revelation (the Word of the Lord, Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43,160) which makes clear man's personal relationship to God and to his fellow man. It provides guidance for man's actions in this relationship to God and to his fellow man.
    7. Any commandment regulating conduct ( Rom. 7:7, 8-9).
    8. A principle or power of action ( Rom. 3:27; 7:21, 23, 25; 8:2).
    This last use is the way Paul uses it here in this verse. The Greeks and Romans believed that the law had the power to force compliance with the law (Cicero, Laws, II, 8-10). In their view, the law was a principle or power of action which could by its action bring about what the law prescribed; it was not merely a description of or just a prescription for some action; the law made the action occur. This is the sense in which Paul speaks of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" and of "the law of sin" and of "the law of death." These are not merely descriptions of how the Spirit or death or sin acted; they are powers that act and bring about certain actions. Thus the law of the Spirit of life is the power of the Spirit of God acting to make one alive, and thus freeing him from the law or power of action of death and of sin. The law of death is the power of death acting to make one dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. (See the comments on Rom. 7:21-23). In the next verse 3, we see that the law of God is unable to make righteous, because it does not have that power of action. And, as Paul says in Gal. 3:21, righteousness is not by the law because the law cannot make alive; it does not have that power of action either.

    8:3. For what the law could not do,
    in that it was weak through the flesh,
    God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
    and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
    "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh."
    In this verse and in the next, Paul explains how the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets the believer free from the law of sin. God, through the death of His own Son whom He sent, sets the believer free from the law of sin. God did what the law could not do. What could the law not do? It could not stop sin. Sin as a slave master could not be stopped by the law from exercising its dominion over the believer who under law sought to be set free from the law of sin, the power of sin acting to make him sin. The law was powerless to set free from the law of sin. As Paul showed in the previous chapter, it was one thing to want not to sin, but it was another actually not to sin. Why could the law not stop sin? Because the law is weak through the flesh. The law relies upon human effort to do its commands. And human effort ("the flesh") is powerless to overcome the law of sin, the power of sin acting to make one sin. Legalism, in its overabounding confidence in the law, believes that the law has that power to stop sinning. It argues, "Does not man have the power to choose not to sin?" The fallacy of this legalistic argument is that it is one thing to choose not to sin but it is another thing to implement that choice. And man does not have that power; through the flesh the law is weak. This weakness of the law limits it and makes it unable to stop sin and to set free from the law of sin. God never intended that the law should save from sin; the purpose of the law is the knowledge of sin ( Rom. 3:20; 7:7). God did not give the law so that by the works of law man could be justified or saved; not because man cannot do them because of his sinful nature, but because the law was never given for that purpose. Salvation by meritorious works of the law is excluded in principle as a way of salvation. Paul is here not saying that because of his sinful nature the law is not able to set free man from the law of sin, but that the law itself is powerless to set free man from the law of sin. It was not the purpose of the law to do that. God did not give it that power. Why? Because the law could not make alive. As Paul says in Gal. 3:21, righteousness is not by the law because the law cannot make alive; the law does not have that power of action either, it could not set free from the law of death. Christian legalism by insisting that the law had this purpose says that the flesh here is the sinful nature to explain why the law is powerless to accomplish that purpose. The sinful nature is not the reason for the powerless of the law, but it is the law itself that is powerless to stop sin and to set free from the law of sin because the law could not set free from the law of death; it could not make alive to God. Since the law depends upon human effort ("flesh") and since human effort cannot make alive to God, the law is weak through the flesh.

    "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."
    God does what the law cannot do; He sets the believer free from the law of sin. In this part of verse 3, Paul explains how God did this. Paul here uses three phrases to explain God's method of setting the believer free from the law of sin.
    (1) God did this through the "sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh." In this phrase, Paul is referring to the incarnation, that is, the Son of God becoming a man. In contrast to the Apostle John's statement in his gospel ("The word became flesh and dwelt among us," John 1:14), Paul here says that God sent His Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh." Because Paul uses the phrase "sinful flesh," rather than just the word "flesh", he uses the word "likeness" to describe how the Son of God became man. Paul's use of this word "likeness" here does not mean that Paul believed that Son of God did not become a true man, but that when the Son of God became flesh, He was without sin, that is he was not under the slavery of sin like the rest of mankind. The phrase "sinful flesh," or literally, "the flesh of sin," means the flesh under control and slavery of sin as a slave master. It does not mean that man has a sinful nature, that is, that man is inherently sinful so that he sins because his nature is sinful, but rather that man is "under sin" as slave master ( Rom. 3:9). The word "flesh" (=human nature) here is qualified by the word sin because human nature is not inherently sinful.
    (2) But God sent His Son, not only "in the likeness of sinful flesh," but also "for sin." By this phrase, Paul is referring to the death of Jesus on the cross. This phrase "for sin" might simply mean that Jesus' death was concerned with or about sin (peri hamartia), but because this Greek phrase is used in LXX to translate the Hebrew word which means "a sin offering" (Lev. 6:25, 30; Heb. 10:6, 8), this phrase may also refer to the sacrificial character of the death of Jesus; it was "for a sin offering".
    (3) God by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and through His death "for a sin offering" "condemned sin in the flesh," that is, put an end to the dominion of sin as a slave master over the believer. This is the only place in his letters that Paul uses this phrase "condemned sin in the flesh" to describe the death of Christ. The closest that Paul comes to this phrase is in Rom. 6:6,
    "in order that the body of sin might be annulled,
    that we might no longer be enslaved to sin."
    The phrase "the body of sin" is equivalent to the phrase "sin in the flesh." The flesh is the body; and "sin in the flesh" is the body under the slavery and control of sin as a slave master. The flesh is not the sinful nature, it is not the nature that makes man sin, nor is it the tendency to sin. The body and its desires are not sin nor sinful. Sin as a slave master may enslave the body and use its desires to do sins; but that does not make or mean that the body or its desires are sin or sinful in themselves (God created them). See comments on Rom. 6:12-13. The phrase "To condemn sin in the flesh" is equivalent the phrase "to annul the body of sin." This condemnation is not the condemnation of the sinner, but of sin as a slave master; sin as slave master is stopped from exercising its dominion in the flesh, over the body. The Greek word, katakrino, translated "condemned," literally means "to judge down, to judge against." This is the first function of a Biblical judge (Psa. 75:7): to put down the oppressor, who in this verse is sin, the slavemaster. God exercises the second function of a Biblical judge: to lift up the oppressed, by setting him free from the law of sin through the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

    8:4. in order that the righteous acts of the law might be fulfilled in us,
    who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
    In this verse, Paul states the purpose that God condemned sin in the flesh. Having set the believer free the slavery of sin, the righteous acts of the law can be fulfilled in him. The Greek word, dikaioma, translated "righteous acts," here means acts of righteousness, concrete expressions of righteousness (see Rev. 15:4; 19:8; Rom. 5:16, 18). It can also mean a declarations of what is righteous, that is, a decrees, an ordinances (see Luke 1:6; Rom. 1:32; 2:26; Heb. 9:1, 10). Here it seems to have the former meaning. It is the righteous acts of the law that are fulfilled, and not just an observing of the decrees or ordinances of the law. Those who walk according the Spirit do not just acknowledge the decrees of the law but actually do the righteous acts of the law. The purpose of condemning sin in the flesh was that the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us "who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." To walk according to the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort ("the flesh"), to live up to the standard of the law. That is what Romans 7 was all about and its result was failure and despair. The believer must not do it that way. And walking according to the Spirit is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping, that is, being under the law and coming up to standard of the law by the power of the Spirit. But it is Spirit-filled law-fulfilling by love ( Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14). It is to be led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:18), making all one's decisions with reference to the Holy Spirit as He personally guides and fills the believer with God's love. The walk according to the Spirit is the moment by moment walk of faith and personal trust in the God who personally by His Holy Spirit reveals and communicates Himself and His love along each step of that walk. By walking according to the Spirit, the believer will do the righteous acts of the law. He will love God with all his heart, soul, mind and his neighbor as himself (Matt. 22:37-40). By love, he will fulfill the righteous acts of the law.

    THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH

    ROMANS 8:5-13.

    In verses 5 through 8, Paul explains the antithesis between flesh and Spirit which he introduced in verse 4. This antithesis between flesh and spirit (or Spirit) underlies Biblical thought in both the Old and New Testament (Gen. 6:3; Isa. 31:3; Matt. 26:41; Luke 24:39; John 3:6; 6:63; Gal. 4:29; 6:6; Col. 2:5; Heb. 12:9; I Pet. 3:18; 4:6). This antithesis rests on the basic Biblical ontological distinction between the Creator and the creature. "God is spirit" (John 4:24) and man that He has created is flesh (Gen. 6:12; Num. 27:16; Isa. 40:5; 49:26; Dan. 2:11; Joel 2:28). The flesh is that which is not God, who is spirit; the desires of the flesh and the desires of the spirit are opposed to each other (Gal. 5:17).

    ROMANS 8:5-13.
    5. For those who are according to the flesh
    set their minds on the things of the flesh,
    but those who are according to the Spirit
    set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
    6. For the mind set on the flesh is death,
    but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace;
    7. because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God;
    for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be;
    8. and those being in the flesh cannot please God.
    9. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,
    since the Spirit of God dwells in you.
    But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,
    he is none of His.
    10. But if Christ is in you,
    on the one hand the body is dead because of sin but
    on the other hand the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
    11. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
    he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also make alive
    your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
    12. So then, brethren, we are debtors,
    not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh --
    13. for if you live according to the flesh, you are about to die;
    but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body,
    you will live.

    8:5. For those who are according to the flesh
    set their minds on the things of the flesh,
    but those who are according to the Spirit
    set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
    Here in this verse, Paul distinguishes between two classes of men:
    (1) those who are according to the flesh and
    (2) those who are according to the Spirit.
    Their distinguishing characteristic is what they set their minds on:
    "those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but
    those who are according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit."
    The Greek word, phroneo, translated "set the mind on" indicates a "conscious spiritual orientation of life," an attitude or disposition of the will. See Paul's use of this word phroneo in Rom. 12:3, 16; 14:6; 15:5; Phil. 1:7; 2:2, 5; 3:15; and Col. 3:2. This orientation toward the flesh, to that which is not God who is spirit (John 4:24), is to put one's trust in something other than the true God. This is what we have been calling the basic sin of idolatry (Isa. 31:1-3; Jer. 17:5; Phil. 3:3-4, 19). This is not the sinful nature and it is misleading to call it that. Those who are according to the Spirit, on the other hand, put their trust in the true God; they are oriented to the things of the Spirit. Since the god in whom one trusts is one's ultimate criterion for all his choices, a person will choose those things that are in agreement with his ultimate criterion; his attitude and disposition will be oriented toward the things of his god. If his god is a false god ("the flesh"), he will be oriented toward the things of that false god; if his God is the true God ("the Spirit"), he will be oriented toward the things of the true God.

    8:6. For the mind set on the flesh is death,
    but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace;
    In this verse, Paul describes the condition of the mind set on the flesh and that set on the Spirit; the condition of "the mind set on the flesh is death" and the condition of "the mind set on the Spirit is life." Here Paul is not describing the result or effect of setting the mind on the flesh (and on the Spirit), but their present condition; he is not talking about eternal death and eternal life, but about the present condition of spiritual death and of spiritual life. The source of this present condition of spiritual death is Adam ( Rom. 5:12; I Cor. 15:21-22) and the source of the present condition of spiritual life is the resurrected Christ. In fact, the source of the mind set on the flesh is the spiritual death that spread unto all men from Adam's sin and the source of the mind set on the Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. To the condition of life Paul adds peace. Peace here may be considered also a condition of the mind set on the Spirit. Peace here is not the peace of God (Phil. 4:7), which keeps the heart and mind in Christ Jesus, but is the peace with God ( Rom. 5:1). This latter meaning seems to be the sense here in light of the next verse.

    8:7. because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God;
    for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be;
    In this verse, Paul describes the condition of the mind set on the flesh. He says that it is "hostile to God". The Greek word, echthra, translated here as "hostile," refers to a state of mind, of enmity (Col. 1:21; James 4:4). The mind of the flesh makes him an enemy of God (See Romans 5:10 for an explanation of the meaning of this phrase "an enemy of God").
    "The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God," because the mind set on the flesh is basically idolatry (see verse 5 above). It rejects the true God for a false god or gods, the flesh, that is anything other than the true God. And since the mind set on the flesh is basically idolatry - absolutizing the relative, "it is not subject to the law of God," which says, "You shall not have any other gods." Because of the idolatrous character of the mind set on the flesh, it is impossible for it to be subject to the law of God. Paul states this impossibility in the last phrase of this verse, "for neither can it be."

    8:8. and those being in the flesh cannot please God.
    In this verse, Paul adds another effect of the mind set on the flesh; "those being in the flesh cannot please God." The phrase "those in the flesh" is equivalent to the phrase "those according to the flesh." Paul used this phrase "in the flesh" previously in Rom. 7:5 to refer to believer's condition before they turned to Christ and were saved. It is equivalent to being "unsaved" and is the opposite to being "in the Spirit" (see next verse). Those who are "in the flesh cannot please God", because they do not have faith in the true God. "And without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6).

    8:9. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,
    since the Spirit of God dwells in you.
    But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,
    he is none of His.
    In this verse, Paul shifts to the second person and addresses his readers directly. In the previous four verses, Paul has been talking about a class of people to which they now do not belong. "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." And the reason they are in the Spirit is "since the Spirit of God dwells in you." The indwelling of the Spirit of God is the indispensable condition of being in the Spirit, that is being saved. In the last part of this verse, Paul states this truth in a negative form:
    "But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."
    Here, he calls the Spirit of God the Spirit of Christ, because he wants to say that if anyone does not belong to Christ, he does not have the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God, and not two different Spirits.

    8:10. But if Christ is in you,
    on the one hand the body is dead because of sin but
    on the other hand the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
    In this verse, Paul reveals an important fact about those who are saved, that is, about those who have Christ in them. (To have the Spirit of God, who is also the Spirit of Christ, is to have Christ in them.)
    "But if Christ is in you, on the one hand, the body is dead because of sin,
    but, on the other hand, the spirit is alive because of righteousness."
    Paul here is referring to the two part of the saved individual: his or her body and his or her spirit. The Greek word, soma, translated here "body," refers to the physical body and is not a synonym for "you." And the Greek word, pneuma, translated here "spirit", refers to the human spirit and not the Spirit of God. Paul here reveals that the physical body is dead. He is not referring to physical death, the separation of man's spirit from his physical body, but to spiritual death. The body is spiritually dead when the human spirit is unable to completely control the physical body. This spiritual death along with physical death was received from Adam ( Rom. 5:12, 15, 17; I Cor. 15:22-23). The body is dead because of Adam's sin, not because of their personal sins. It is true that physical death may result from personal sins; but that is not what Paul is referring to here. He is talking about the desires of the flesh (=body) not being under the control of human spirit (Gal. 5:17). Every man has a spirit (Gen. 2:7; I Cor. 2:10; 5:5; 7:34) which is alive and active; the human spirit makes the body physically alive and apart from the human spirit, the body is physically dead (James 2:26). The human spirit of the unbeliever is alive but it is not spiritually alive; that is the unbeliever's spirit is not in a personal relationship to God. But the human spirit of the believer is not only alive, it is also spiritually alive; that is, it is in a personal relationship to God. And the human spirit of the believer is spiritually alive "because of righteousness". Not by their own personal righteous acts, but by the righteous act of God in Christ putting them into right relationship with Himself, by the righteousness of God. Righteousness is a right personal relationship to God and God has put the believer into this right personal relationship to Himself through Christ's death and resurrection.

    8:11. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
    he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also make alive
    your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
    In this verse, Paul explains how God resolves the paradox of the previous verse: the believer's body is spiritually dead and his spirit is spiritually alive. God through His Spirit will make spiritually alive the spiritually dead body. This does not refer to the future resurrection of the believer's body when Christ comes for His own (I Thess. 4:13-17), but to the present work of the indwelling Holy Spirit who makes alive the believer's spiritually dead body; through the indwelling Spirit, God makes the desires of flesh to be controlled by the believer's human spirit. Because of legalistic teaching that Romans 7 is the normal Christian life, many believers have never experienced or expect to experience this work of the indwelling Spirit in their lives. Paul is not here teaching Spirit-empowered law-keeping which leaves the believer under law and enslaved to sin ( Rom. 6:14). The Holy Spirit sets the believer free from being under law and from the slavery of sin. Paul is here teaching that the believer is under the grace of God who makes alive their mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in them. And since their mortal bodies are alive through the Spirit of God who dwells in them, the desires of the flesh can be controlled by the Spirit of God. This is not by walking "according to the flesh", ( Rom. 8:4) by human self-effort, but is by walking "according to the Spirit" by faith, which Paul explains in the next verse.

    8:12-13.
    12. So then, brethren, we are debtors,
    not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh --
    13. for if you live according to the flesh, you are about to die;
    but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body,
    you will live.
    In verse 12 and in the next verse 13, Paul exhorts his readers to apply the teaching of the previous seven verses. His exhortation has a negative and positive aspect. In verse 12 and the first part of verse 13, he gives the negative exhortation. On the basis of what God has provided by His Spirit they are debtors to God, "not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." They are not obligated to do the desires of the flesh, to live according to the flesh. The believer has been set free from the law of sin and of death by the law of Spirit of life in Christ Jesus ( Rom. 8:2). The believer is no longer a slave of sin and is not obligated to do what sin wants him to do. If he does, the end is eternal death.
    "For if you live according to the flesh, you are about to die."
    The wages of the slavemaster sin is eternal death ( Rom. 6:23). The Christian does not have to die, but if he remains in the slavery to sin he will.

    In the last part of verse 13, Paul gives the positive exhortation.
    "But if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live."
    Here, Paul applies the teaching in verse 11 to the believer. The believer by the Spirit must put to death the practices of the body, that is, the doing of the desires of the flesh. He is to reckon himself dead to sin ( Rom. 6:11) and stop letting sin reign in his spiritually dead body, so that he obeys its desires ( Rom. 6:12). God through His indwelling Spirit will make alive the believer's spiritually dead body, enabling the believer to say "No" to the desires of the flesh.

    THE SONS OF GOD

    ROMANS 8:14-17


    14. For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God,
    these are the sons of God.
    15. For you have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear,
    but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons
    by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
    16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits
    that we are the children of God,
    17. and if children, heirs also, heirs of God on the one hand
    and joint-heirs with Christ on the other,
    since we will suffer with him,
    in order that we might be glorified with him.

    8:14. For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God,
    these are the sons of God.
    In this verse, Paul provides the basis for the positive exhortation in the previous verse. The basis for them doing that exhortation is their personal relationship to God; they are sons of God. And the evidence of that relationship is that they are lead by the Spirit of God. Being lead by the Spirit of God, they can by the Spirit put to death the practices of the body and live.

    8:15. For you have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear,
    but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons
    by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
    In this verse, Paul explains the basis for the statement in the previous verse. He explains why being lead by the Spirit of God means that they are the sons of God. Paul's explanation has both a negative and position side. Negatively, they "have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear." Paul is here referring to the slavery of the law ( Rom. 7:25b) and the fear that it creates. Those under the law are also under the slavery of sin and under the condemnation of sin by the law which creates fear. The spirit that they have received does not put them under law but under grace. The grace of God puts them into the position of Sons. Instead of a spirit of slavery they have received a spirit of adoption as sons. The Greek word, huiothesia, here translated "adoption as sons" means "the placing of a child as a son" and refers to the act of placing a minor child into the place or the status of an adult son. The translation "adoption" gives the wrong impression; the Greek word does not refer to the taking of a child, not born as one's own, into one's family legally to raise him as one's own, but it here refers to the placing of a child in the status of a son, who had the status of an adolescence child. Here Paul is saying that the believer under grace has the status as a son, in contrast to the status of a child under law (Gal. 4:5). Being lead by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God, not children under law, because the Spirit that they have received is a spirit of adoption of sons, not a spirit of slavery under the law. It is by the presence and witness of the Spirit that causes them to cry, "Abba, Father!" (Gal. 4:6).

    8:16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits
    that we are the children of God,
    In this verse, Paul tells how the believer knows that he is a child of God. "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God." Paul is here saying that the Spirit of God bears witness, not to the truth of the Scripture, but to the believers' personal relationship to God, that they are the children of God. The witness of the Spirit is to their spirits of their personal relationship to God as their Father and they as His children. It is because of this witness that believer cries, "Abba, Father!"

    8:17. and if children, heirs also,
    heirs of God on the one hand
    and joint-heirs with Christ on the other,
    since we will suffer with him,
    in order that we might be glorified with him.
    In this verse, Paul shows what is the implications of this relationship. "And if children, then heirs also." The Greek word, kleronomos, translated here "heir", means "one who receives an inheritance." As children, they will receive an inheritance. Paul does not here say what is that inheritance. But he goes on to show the twofold character of this heirship. "Heirs of God on the one hand, joint-heirs with Christ on the other." First, the heirship comes from God and, second, it is a joint-heirship with Christ. We share it with Christ just as we share His sufferings and His glory. In the next section ( Rom. 8:18-25) Paul will explain how we share His sufferings.