[There is] then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
These words come right after the long struggle of the previous chapter, where a person cries out to be rescued from himself. Two things decide their force: what "in Christ Jesus" means, and how much of the verse Paul wrote.
By this point Paul has moved past the question of guilt. One writer shows the difference between being forgiven and being set free:
He finds his sins wiped out. He was unclean, and God washes him. He offended, and God forgives him. He was guilty, and God justifies him. God has made that clear for ever. But the old self is dead before God, and the new self is in Christ. Christ is my righteousness. I was lost, without hope in myself, but now I am in Christ before God. That is deliverance. In Romans 5 you are justified. But in Romans 8, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Older printed Bibles add a clause to this verse: "who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Commentators agree that a copyist carried these words here from verse 4:
All critics now agree, whatever they themselves believe, that "who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" was wrongly inserted here from the fourth verse. In verse 4 the words fit perfectly. Where they stand, they make "no condemnation" depend on a certain way of living. But that would cancel the apostle's argument... Think of someone groaning because he cannot do the good he wants to do. What comfort is it to tell him that his freedom from condemnation still depends on doing it!
You can reach the same conclusion without studying any manuscripts. Just ask whether any Christian's conduct could carry that weight:
Take the best Christian life anyone ever lived, and the best Christian state anyone ever reached. Even that would give some ground for judgment and condemnation. There is not a Christian on earth who does not have to judge his own state and conduct every day... To be free from all condemnation, we need something that is perfect as God is perfect, and no Christian life is that, or ever was.
The verse does not describe a feeling or an achievement. It describes a location. One writer makes the contrast sharp by naming the alternative:
Rom. 8:1 reads "There is therefore, now, no condemnation to them which are" (not in their sins, but), "in Christ Jesus."
The verses that follow give the reason. They cover both halves of the problem: the new life God gives, and the old nature He has judged:
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And he explains this in two ways. How could you condemn them? "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." How could you condemn a life that is perfectly good? ... But there is another reason. God has condemned sin already... He has already judged my nature. It is not a question of forgiveness. I do not want my nature to be forgiven; I do not forgive it myself.
Sin still in the believer deserves everything the word "condemnation" means. The question is where that sentence of condemnation has already fallen:
Believers still live in mortal bodies, and the flesh and sin are still in them. That flesh and sin are evil beyond cure, and they deserve nothing but the fullest condemnation. But God's condemnation has already fallen in the sacrifice of Christ, and the believer in Christ Jesus is beyond it for ever. For us there is no condemnation. It has exhausted itself in the cross!
The phrase is "in Christ Jesus." So the risen Christ Himself sets the measure:
The Lord Jesus Christ bore all our condemnation on the cross. God has raised Him from the dead, and no condemnation of any sort can apply to Him now. How could there? Then there can be none for those who are in Him.
The verse does not promise a favourable outcome at some future hearing. It settles the present:
If it said that we believers will escape condemnation on the day of judgment, that would be wonderful. What it does state, however, is that there is NOW no condemnation. Christ has borne the condemnation and used it up for us. We now share the life of the risen Christ, so we are as clear of condemnation as He is.
- Therefore — the verse answers a cry for rescue, not just a plea for pardon. Forgiveness clears what I did; this clears where I am.
- No — a copyist carried the clause about walking by the Spirit in from verse 4. What Paul wrote carries no conditions.
- Condemnation — God did not waive it. It fell on Christ at the cross and burned itself out there, and it judged sin in the flesh with it.
- Now — not a verdict awaited at a future court, but a present standing already settled.
- In Christ Jesus — the risen Christ Himself is the measure. Nothing can be charged against Him, so nothing can be charged against those in Him.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death.
This verse sets one controlling power against another. It answers how a believer who still carries a sinful nature can live free.
The word "law" here does not mean the law of God. Commentators compare it to the laws we speak of in nature.
Here it carries the same sense it does when we speak of the laws of the universe, or more exactly of the law of gravitation. It points to a controlling force that works the same way on everyone under its power.
If "law" means a steady controlling force, then "the law of sin and death" describes what the flesh always does, and what it always ends in.
"The law of sin and death" does not mean the law of God. Some teachers strangely said it did, by taking "the law of the Spirit" to be the gospel. It means the flesh working by one fixed principle, in what it is morally and in what it leads to. Power is in the Spirit, who has shown us our place in Christ and set us free as alive to God in Him. So no condemnation for those in Christ goes hand in hand with a new life in the power of the Spirit in Christ risen.
A believer can delight in God's law and still not be free. So the new nature is not the power that frees.
But what new law, or power, or principle, is this? Is it the power of my new nature as born of God? No. Though as such I did delight in the law of God, that did not make me free from the law of sin, as we have seen. But this does — the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This is God the Holy Spirit dwelling in us; it is not now death, but the Spirit of life. … Elsewhere we learn that the life we now have is eternal, and the Spirit is eternal. So the power we have is eternal.
The cross met our guilt. This verse says more is needed.
It is not only the death of Christ Jesus. His death in itself never gives full Christian liberty. It met my guilt, but I want more than this; I want a power of life that has won the victory. And this is what I have through grace. … No wonder, then, that people who are unaware of this are always taken up with a miserable toil under the law. They hope their sins are forgiven rather than know it.
The verse is careful about what it frees us from.
It is worth noting that this freedom is not said to be from the presence of sin and death. It is freedom from "the law of sin and death." While we are down here we shall not be free from the presence of sin. But "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" sets us free from the power of sin and death.
These writers quote an older translation reading "has made me free"; the ESV has "has set you free." Either way, the verse states the freedom as already done.
No level of experience or spirituality made Paul feel free from the law of sin and death. Nor did he just feel free. That was not the question. We must not trust feelings here. We must have established facts, not feelings. … "Has made me free": this is rest indeed. It is not something to grab at or to work up by human effort, experience, or feelings.
The stronger law does not work by struggle. It works by attraction.
Suppose I had a piece of steel on this table. There it lies, held by the law of gravitation. It has no power in itself to rise or to free itself from the law that holds it. But suppose I hold a powerful magnet over it. Another force comes into play: the law of magnetic attraction. At once the steel responds to the pull and springs to the magnet. This is how the law of the Spirit of life acts. Christ is the magnet, the great attraction of our souls. We now have an object outside ourselves, and Christ is that object. Just as the steel has a nature that responds to the magnet, so we have a nature that responds to Christ.
- Two laws. "Law" here means a steady controlling force, like gravity, not the law of God.
- The lesser law. The law of sin and death is the flesh acting as it always acts, and ending where it always ends.
- The greater law. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the stronger force, and the greater law overrides the lesser.
- Freed, not sinless. The release is from sin's power, not from its presence; the flesh stays, but it no longer rules.
- A fact to rest on. "Has set you free" is finished work — believe it, do not wait to feel it, and Christ Himself draws the heart.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh,
The law could not deal with the human problem. This verse says why, and it says what God did instead: He sent His own Son. Why did the law fail? What does "likeness of sinful flesh" guard? And what does it mean that God condemned sin instead of forgiving it?
The failure lay in the material the law had to work on, not in the law itself.
The law was not at fault. It failed through the weakness of the flesh. You cannot make anything perfect out of bad materials. A man may be a very skilful workman, but set him to work on bad materials and all his skill is useless. Carving wood, he may show the finest taste and craft, and produce something all must admire. Try the same on clay, or on rotten wood, and it would crumble to pieces under his hand. All his skill would go for nothing. So the law, attempting to work on the flesh, only crumbles it to pieces.
The verse says "likeness" of sinful flesh, not the thing itself.
It could not have been in the reality of sinful flesh. In that case He could not have been a sacrifice for sin at all. If there had been an atom of the reality of sinful flesh, if there had been a single taint, it would have destroyed the sin offering. The "grain offering" represents the life of Christ. The "sin" (and "trespass") offering brings before us His death. Of both offerings we are told the same thing: "it is most holy." The Lord Jesus looked like any other man, and that is why it says "in the likeness."
An Old Testament picture follows the same pattern.
Moses made the bronze serpent in the likeness of the fiery serpents that were the source of the trouble. In the same way, God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that sin in the flesh might be condemned in His sacrifice for sin. Sin lived in our flesh, dominating and corrupting our old life.
The two small words "for sin" carry a technical meaning drawn from the offerings.
This aspect of the death of Jesus is so closely tied to the sin of man that in the original language the word for "sin" and "sin offering" is the same.
God treats sins and sin in two different ways.
Remember also that sin in the flesh is condemned and not forgiven. In human justice, forgiveness may take the form of cancelling a sentence. Even then the law still condemns the lawless and criminal instincts the crime came from. Divine justice works the same way. Human justice, where it is good and right, is only a faint reflection of God's. The sacrifice of Christ does provide the basis on which God can forgive the believer's offences and still be righteous. It just as clearly shows God's hatred and condemnation of the corrupt nature those offences sprang from.
The verb is stronger than it first sounds.
God condemned — or, you might say, executed — sin in the flesh for us by the death of Christ. He did not die only for my sins (though that is true), but for my sin.
Sins and the sinful nature are two different problems. The cross dealt with both.
God has already condemned sin in the flesh at Christ's cross — not merely sins, but sin. So He is not only satisfied (as older writers used to put it) but glorified in it. So on neither count can condemnation fall. God forgives the believer's sins because Christ bore them on the tree. He has also condemned the sin in the nature there, to His own glory. The believer stands clear on both counts.
God's judgment on the flesh is meant to become ours.
God tested man again and again through Old Testament history. Then men — religious, cultured and political — crucified the Lord Jesus, God's well beloved Son. There God condemned sinful flesh once and for all. God would teach us to bring our view of the flesh into line with His. He would have us agree with Him, passing the same sentence of condemnation on it.
- Weak — the law had no fault, but no power either. It worked on material that crumbled under it.
- Sent — God did what the law could not do. He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, never in its reality: one taint would have ruined the offering.
- Sacrifice — in the original language the word for "sin" and for "sin offering" is one and the same; His death is bound up with man's sin.
- Condemned — God forgives sins, but He does not pardon sin in the flesh. He executes it. The cross shows His hatred of the nature the sins came from.
- Clear — Christ bore the sins and God condemned the sin, so no condemnation can reach the believer. Our part is to pass the same sentence on the flesh that God has.
in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit.
Romans 8:4 gives the purpose of what God did in sending His own Son to deal with sin in the flesh. But if the believer is not under law, why does the law's demand appear here, and how is it met?
Many read the verse as if the Spirit helped a believer keep the law and so be justified. One writer rules that out.
God worked in Christ so that the requirement of the law — its righteous claim — might be fulfilled in us ... This, I gladly grant, applies not to justification, as so many teachers wrongly teach. It is the practical consequence of justification, or rather of the infinite work of the Saviour, in those who receive Him.
So why does the law's claim appear at all, for people set free from law? One writer traces the answer back to Romans 7.
The connection shows that this is worked out in the delivered soul — in those who have passed through the experience of Romans 7. ... But if we have been delivered from the law, and from efforts to fulfil it, why are we told that the righteous requirement of the law is still fulfilled in us? ... We can gather the reason from the previous chapter. There the standard before the soul was obedience to the law. The apostle points out that "the good," which could never be attained while under law, is now reached in a new and better way. What the law required, but never obtained, is now produced in those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
One writer shows the difference with a school bell that rings twice in one day.
They hate the sound of that bell at that hour, and obey its command with great reluctance and only because they must. The law of the school is fulfilled by them, not because they love it, but from fear of the consequences of disobedience.
The same bell rings again at dinner time.
It is now as pleasant to them as before it was hateful ... they drop whatever they are doing and rush to the dining room. The command of the dinner bell is fulfilled IN them, for there is that in them that gives an instant response to it.
The verse describes how a believer walks, and it names two possible sources of that walk.
He is not taking up the old nature here, but the walk. Note that there are two principles of walk — after the flesh, and after the Spirit. Flesh is not changed; if it were, why warn us not to walk after it? The flesh is the same as ever, but the believer now has power over it. He does not walk after it, although it is there. The flesh is in him, but he is not in the flesh. There is no excuse for a Christian walking in flesh, because the Spirit of Christ is in him.
One writer adds a sober admission.
This verse states normal Christianity. We must also admit that none of us, not even the most spiritual, walk fully according to the Spirit. So none of us fully meet what the law righteously demands.
The law never supplies the power for such a walk.
Too many believers live under law in practice, working to correct and improve the flesh — the case described in the second half of Romans 7. There is no power in that. ... Christ is the only power of holiness, not the law — Christ in grace and truth, Christ dead and risen. That power works through the Holy Spirit in us, and the heart answers in love to God and man.
The believer who is free from law does not end up below its demands, but above them.
Find us a Christian who recognises how God has condemned sin in the flesh at the cross, and who therefore disowns the flesh and does not walk by it. Find us one who also rejoices in the new life in Christ Jesus, and in the Spirit of that new life who is its power and energy. We will at once show you a Christian who is fulfilling what He had so righteously required of men. Indeed we will show you one who goes beyond those requirements. He is learning to walk as Christ walked, and that is a far higher standard than the law of Moses.
- Cause. The verse opens with "in order that" — it is the goal of what God did in sending His Son, not a condition we meet to be accepted.
- Gift. The demand is fulfilled in us, not by us. New life and the Spirit answer God's will the way hungry boys answer a dinner bell.
- Power. Working to improve the flesh gives no power. Christ, dead and risen, is the only strength for holiness, and He works by the Spirit.
- Walk. Two principles are open to a believer: flesh and Spirit. The flesh remains, but it no longer has to rule — and no one walks wholly by the Spirit.
- Result. What the law asked for and never got is now produced. And more: the standard is now Christ Himself, not Moses.
For they that are according to flesh mind the things of the flesh; and they that are according to Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Paul has just described a Christian as someone who walks "not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." This verse explains why. Each of the two orders of person has its own set of interests, and every reader is left with one question: what is your mind set on?
The verse sorts people, not moods. It describes what each kind of person is by nature, and what follows from that.
There are two classes to consider: those "after" or "according to" the flesh, and those according to the Spirit. The first mind the things of the flesh; the second, the things of the Spirit. The mind of the flesh is death: the mind of the Spirit life and peace. The two classes stand in complete contrast in nature, character and end. They move in two completely separate spheres. Paul is of course speaking in general terms. He is looking at the whole position as it is by inward nature, not at particular people or their differing experiences.
To "mind" something is not to think about it occasionally. It is where your desires settle, what you are after.
The mind — phronema — is what the desires are on. Their mind is set on those things, and so you get, "The mind of the flesh is death." That is what the flesh is after.
Every nature is drawn to what suits it, and two natures are in view here.
It is "after the Spirit." Here the man's condition is seen as spiritual. Every nature has its object, and that object is its "mind." Two principles are at work here, and each has its own object. Even the animals have their desires; the flesh has objects it chooses more deliberately. The spiritual man obeys the tastes and appetites of the Spirit instead of the flesh.
The verse links three things: what a person is by birth, what marks him, and how he lives. The two natures never turn into each other.
If they were after flesh, the mind and affection would be on the things of the flesh. Source, character, and conduct go together. Flesh is never refined into spirit, and spirit never sinks or changes into flesh. As the Lord said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Even Adam before the fall was not spirit.
The believer now belongs to the other order, and that is why his mind turns where it does.
We belong now to another order; we are after the Spirit. And we mind the things of the Spirit. There are those that are after the flesh, and they mind the things of the flesh; this is the natural order. They know nothing about the things of the Spirit; they are not of that order… Our minds are turned away from the lusts and pride of man and fixed on the love of God, the excellence of Christ and heavenly things.
The phrase is not vague. It has real content, and that content reaches far past anything the law regulates.
If we walk according to the Spirit we shall mind the things of the Spirit. This will take us a great way beyond fulfilling the requirements of the law. The law does not go beyond regulating our conduct on earth in the varied relationships of life. The "things of the Spirit" are heavenly things, tied to the heavenly relationships that belong to the life in Christ Jesus. He leads us "into all truth": things to come, the Father's things, and the things concerning Christ.
The two sets of objects belong to two different worlds. So the verse is not a label to wear but a question to answer.
Those who walk according to the desires of the flesh will have their minds set on the things of this world, which only the flesh can appreciate. The Spirit has nothing to say to the things of this world apart from the interests of Christ. We may well challenge our hearts with this question: are our minds set on the things of the flesh or the things of the Spirit?
That challenge is fair, because the flesh is still in the believer.
We have to confess that, though we are not after the flesh, we still have the flesh in us. So we can turn aside from minding the things of the Spirit and mind the things of the flesh instead. As far as we do, we meet death instead of life and peace. But let us make no mistake: if we go in for the things of the flesh, we are not seeking things that truly mark a Christian. Such things are completely abnormal and improper for us.
- Nature — Every nature has its object; what you are by birth decides what draws you.
- Mind — To "mind" is not passing thought but settled desire: what the heart is after.
- Order — Two orders, two spheres. The natural order knows nothing of the things of the Spirit, and flesh never turns into spirit.
- Objects — The things of the Spirit are heavenly: the Father's things and the things concerning Christ. They reach far beyond what law regulates.
- Test — Ask where your mind is set. The flesh is still in you, and turning to its things is abnormal for a Christian.
For the mind of the flesh [is] death; but the mind of the Spirit life and peace.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be
The verse names what the mind of the flesh really is, and its wording is stronger than it first looks. So what is this "mind" that cannot submit to God — and what hope is there if it truly cannot?
Older translations read "carnal mind." The phrase means man's mind as it is by nature. The verse then lays three charges against it, each worse than the last.
Scripture now speaks of only two classes — those who are "in Christ," and those who are "in the flesh." All are naturally in the flesh. They may be moral, virtuous and kind, or the opposite. They may be educated or uneducated, religious in their way or not religious at all. But they are only in their natural state, so they are far from God. In Romans 8:7 we are told that "the carnal mind" — that is, the mind of man in his natural state — "is enmity against God"; quite contrary to and opposed to God. But worse than this, it is lawless and refuses to obey God: it is not subject to the law of God. Worst of all, God says it is so bad that it cannot be subject — neither indeed can it be. So God Himself does not offer to mend or improve man in the flesh. He says it cannot be subject to Him. Instead He gives him life.
Older wording says "enmity" where ESV says "hostile to God." The precise phrasing rules out one hopeful reading of the verse.
Scripture declares that "the carnal [fleshly] mind is enmity against God." Not that it is at enmity. In such a case reconciliation might be effected. But it says the carnal mind is enmity, and adds "it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Surely this is final.
The verse reaches past wrong actions to the will underneath them.
Here we get something deeper still than lawbreaking itself. A will that refuses to submit is always the spirit of hatred against Him whom we feel we ought to obey… The flesh has not only desires. It has a will that is not subject to the law of God, and never can be. The law does not only declare right things. It also declares the authority of the Lawgiver. That brings out the rebellion of the flesh, for the flesh says at once, I will, and I won't. If you break one commandment, you are guilty of all, for the unwillingness to submit shows itself as much in breaking one as in breaking all.
So what part does the law play in all this?
The law brings in His authority and forbids the flesh its own way, which is everything to it. So its independence proves to be enmity against God. In seeking its own will it neither does nor can subject itself to His law. Obedience can never fit together with the self-will of the flesh, which would stop being itself if it obeyed God.
If the flesh cannot submit, what does God do with it?
This saying in verse 7 may seem hard, but it is true, for the flesh is lawless by its very nature. Not only is it not subject but it cannot be. Do we believe that? Educate the flesh, refine it, give it religion; starve it, whip it, hold it down — it is still the same old flesh. The only thing to do with it is to condemn it and set it aside, and this is just what God has done, as stated in verse 3.
Does this verdict still touch a person who believes?
What stronger pronouncement can we think of than this? Insubjection to God is enmity against Him, and the mind of flesh cannot be subject to Him: it has a fixed character of rebellion. Solemn, dreadful truth to contemplate! We must remember that this is the natural mind of man. Even a believer may act foolishly in line with it, when he does not use the mind of the Spirit that is his by right.
- Diagnosis. The "carnal mind" is man's mind in his natural state. Moral or immoral, educated or not, religious or not — the verdict falls on all alike.
- Depth. The charge is not bad behaviour but a will that refuses to be ruled; not lawbreaking only, but "I will, and I won't."
- Degree. Three steps down: opposed to God, refusing His law, unable to be otherwise. It is enmity, not at enmity — so there is nothing to negotiate.
- Dead end. Education, restraint and religion change the surface and leave the nature. The law tested the flesh and proved it. It was never the cure.
- Deliverance. God does not mend the flesh. He condemned it and set it aside (verse 3), and gives life instead. The believer walks free by using the mind of the Spirit that now belongs to him.
and they that are in flesh cannot please God.
This verse ends an argument: the flesh is hostile to God, and here is the result. The question is not whether a person can improve, but whether anyone standing where Adam stands can produce anything God accepts.
The words follow from what has gone before. One writer traces the logic step by step and explains what the phrase "in the flesh" describes — and what the verse does not say:
This must be so, since the flesh is entirely contrary to God. It is enmity to God. It loves the things that God hates, and hates the things that God loves. What is more, it rebels against the authority of God. It is not subject to the law of God, and it cannot be. So it follows that "those who are in the flesh" — who stand before God in the position of Adam — "cannot please God." The verse does not say that such people cannot please men. It does not say they cannot do a great many things that are kind and useful to the world. Besides doing evil, the flesh can do things that are morally good; but in all these things self, in some form, is the motive.
The problem is not performance but position. So the verdict covers the finest character on earth:
A man out of Christ is "in the flesh," and such a man cannot please God. He may be most religious, most moral, most likeable, most generous, an excellent employer, a generous friend, a liberal giver, good company, a helper of the poor, upright and honourable in all his dealings. He may be an eloquent preacher and a popular writer. And all the while he is not "in Christ," but "in the flesh," and so he "cannot please God."
The phrase is easily misread as a comment on having a body. Commentators are careful here:
Are believers, then, not in the flesh? Scripture emphatically says so. But does this mean they are not in the body? Certainly not. They are in the body, as to the fact of their existence; but not in the flesh, as to the ground of their standing before God.
This does not mean the flesh is gone from the Christian:
Of course nobody denies that the flesh is in us; but as Christians we are not in it.
Refusing this verdict keeps a person busy with himself. One writer shows the loop it creates, and where peace comes from instead:
Suppose a person is not clear on this point. Suppose he has not received it as a divine revelation, or grasped it as the truth of the living God. Then he will keep thinking about mending, improving, altering — doing something or other to commend himself to God. He will be, in some way or other, looking at self; sometimes puffed up with pride, at other times cast down with despair... But believe that no efforts of the flesh can please God, and you are forced to look right outside yourself for peace. You gladly find it there, presented to you by God Himself in the death and resurrection of His beloved Son.
If nothing in the flesh can please God, what can?
He may please men, and perhaps himself most of all. But nothing about men can please God except the work of His Spirit within them. Only God's own workmanship can produce what pleases God.
The verse never describes a Christian. The very next words mark the boundary, and the presence of the Spirit is what settles which side a person is on:
If a believer does not have the Spirit of God, he is in the flesh, and "those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8). That could not be said of any believer.
- Cannot, not just does not — the flesh loves what God hates and rebels against His authority. The failure lies in its nature, so the verse states a conclusion, not an insult.
- Position, not performance — "in the flesh" means standing before God where Adam stood. A believer is still in the body, but no longer in the flesh.
- Reaches the best of men — moral, generous, religious, eloquent. All of it may please men and still not please God, because self is somewhere in the motive.
- Ends self-repair — fight this verdict and you swing between pride and despair. Accept it and you look outside yourself, and find peace in the death and resurrection of Christ.
- Only God's own work — what pleases God is the work of His Spirit in a person. That is why a believer, who has the Spirit, is not in the flesh.
But *ye* are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God's Spirit dwell in you; but if any one has not [the] Spirit of Christ *he* is not of him
Paul has just said that those "in the flesh cannot please God." Now he describes what a Christian is. The verse states a settled position and then gives a test. The dividing line is the Spirit living in a person.
To be "in the flesh" is the natural state of every child of Adam. One writer sets it against the Christian's place:
To be in flesh is hopeless ruin. Its mind is opposed to God, and it will not submit to His law at all. This is the sad condition of all the sons of fallen Adam. It is not, however, the standing of the Christian. The beginning of our chapter says he is in Christ, and therefore outside every possible condemnation. So here it says, "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you." So the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the witness and proof that we are "in Spirit," and so not in flesh.
The verse's closing clause leaves no third category:
The part of the verse that says, "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him," is an aside. You are either a Christian with the Spirit and of Christ, or a natural man without the Spirit and not of Christ.
Being "in the Spirit" is not a mood that rises and falls. It is the condition on earth that matches the believer's place in Christ:
He indwells us so that He may control us. He gives us the capacity to walk in newness of life and to serve in newness of spirit. He produces in us a state that matches our standing outside ourselves. If "in Christ Jesus" expresses our standing, "in the Spirit" expresses our state.
Notice what the condition is not. It is not "if you are sincere," nor even "if you are born again":
Here man's natural condition stands in contrast with the full Christian condition. There is no middle condition in view. The contrast is not between the natural man and a man born again. It is between the natural man and what is true of a Christian — someone in whom the Holy Spirit lives. Old Testament saints were born again by the Spirit as truly as New Testament saints. But this passage is not speaking of them.
The words "dwell in you" point to a Person: "it plainly refers to the Spirit personally... He is distinct from the person He dwells in" (J. N. Darby).
The verse names the same Spirit twice, but with different titles, and the shift carries meaning:
There is only one and the same Spirit, yet the change in the descriptive title is significant. Christ is the One from whom we derive our origin spiritually, the One to whom we belong. If we truly are His, we have His Spirit. So we should be Christlike in our spirits, clearly enough for everyone to see that Christ is in us.
The Spirit carries three titles in these verses:
Three characteristic names are given here to the Holy Spirit. First, the Spirit of God (v. 9), in contrast with the flesh. Second, the Spirit of Christ, as the forming power of the new man. Third, the Spirit of Him who raised up Christ from among the dead, because He is in us the pledge of our resurrection.
Older versions end the verse, "he is none of His." The Spirit is an owner's mark, and where the mark is missing the claim fails:
So, among those owning Christ we can say, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." The seal of the Spirit is Christ's mark upon His own. So among those professing to be His, if the mark is not there, it is a false profession.
Commentators differ over how sharply the warning lands. Some read it as an outright exclusion. Others soften the tone: "'None of his' alarms people; it is simply that he is not yet His, any more than the prodigal son was in a son's place until he reached his father" (J. N. Darby).
If the Spirit's presence is the test, doubting His presence is serious:
Understand this as clearly as possible: this indwelling is not because of anything in us, either at the beginning or at any stage of the Christian life. From first to last, the Spirit dwells with us because of the unchanging value of the work of Christ. Stop dishonouring the value of that work by doubting the presence of this Holy Person. Your feelings and your faithfulness have nothing to do with this basic fact.
- Two places. There is no middle ground — in the flesh without the Spirit, or in the Spirit and Christ's.
- One test. The condition is not sincerity or even new birth, but "if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you."
- The mark. The Spirit is Christ's mark of ownership. Where the mark is missing, the profession is empty.
- Likeness. The mark is the Spirit of Christ. So the one who has Him should look like Christ, clearly enough for others to see.
- Certainty. He dwells in us because of the unchanging value of Christ's work. Feelings and failures never settle the question.
but if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness.
Earlier in the letter the believer stands in Christ; here Christ is in the believer. Two results follow — one about the body, one about the Spirit — and each has a cause: sin in the first, righteousness in the second.
Being "in Christ" describes where God has placed the believer. This verse states the matching truth from the other side:
We have already seen that the ground and title of the believer's blessing is his being in Christ. Here we have the counterpart of that truth. A Christian is not simply a man who has Christian ideas and notions, as people say, but one in whom Christ is; who lives — yet not he, but Christ lives in him.
The reason is sin. When the body acts on its own will, nothing else comes out of it:
"If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin." The body can only produce sin. Now, because of Christ, the Christian counts it as dead. If it acts in its own will, there is nothing but sin. The body is only an instrument of righteousness so far as it is dead.
Some take "dead" to mean the body is still mortal and must die, since sin brought death in. Others read it as a reckoning the believer makes. One writer preferred the second reading:
"Mortal" hardly fits with this. The other sense makes "the body is dead" depend on what goes before. If Christ is in you, the body is dead — that is, reckoned dead according to Romans 6 — because sin is its character if it is alive in flesh. And the spirit is life, because righteousness is the will of God and in us the fruit of the Spirit.
The first view also has support. One writer takes the phrase to mean the believer is still mortal in an unchanged body, though he is heir to immortality. So far he differs from other people only in what he knows and hopes.
If sin could be rooted out of a person's nature, this half of the verse would collapse:
This does not mean that sin is rooted out, or the evil nature improved… If the doctrine of perfection in the flesh were true, the body could neither be dead nor could it die. Death came in by sin. We see the effect of sin in the body — death itself.
The second half names righteousness as the reason life is there at all. God had to have a just basis before He could give life:
On the ground of the righteous claims of God being met at the cross, God has a righteous basis on which to communicate life, and this is a necessity if a man is to know and enjoy justification, and the stirrings and actions of new and divine life are to be pleasing to God.
That righteousness is not something the believer supplies. It is settled first, and the Spirit then indwells on that footing:
I must not look to the body for the display of life or righteousness. For now it is still linked with sin and death. But the Spirit of God dwells within me, on the only righteous basis — the death of Christ. Life is linked with Him. God has secured righteousness for me first, so the Spirit, who is life, is free to act.
Righteousness is the ground of this life. It is also what the life produces:
The old man in us is as dead, stripped of will, for I judge it. But the Spirit is life, already showing the fruits of righteousness in us, to the praise of the glory of God.
Holding the body dead is not a theory. It decides what gets fed and what gets refused:
The body is dead. So treat it as dead. Neglect its lusts and deny its desires. Use it, do not serve it. Govern it, do not obey it. Bring it into subjection and yield it to God.
Some have used this verse to argue that the believer has only the Spirit now, and no eternal life yet. One writer answered:
It is a foolish and evil twisting of Romans 8:10 to shut out our having eternal life in the Son now, on the plea that without it "the Spirit is life." Even verse 2 had joined Christ with the Spirit, just like the verse they twist into the opposite. For what does "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" mean, if not that? What God joined together, let no man dare to separate.
- Counterpart — "In Christ" is the believer's standing. "Christ in you" is its inward side. A Christian is not a man with Christian notions, but a man in whom Christ lives.
- Cause: sin — Left to its own will, the body yields nothing but sin. So the believer counts it dead, and only then does it serve righteousness.
- Cause: righteousness — God secured righteousness first, through the death of Christ. On that basis the Spirit, who is life, lives in the believer.
- Consequence — The righteousness that grounds this life also shows up as its fruit. The believer governs the body instead of obeying it.
- Guard — Commentators differ over whether "dead" means mortal or reckoned dead. They agree on this: sin is not rooted out of our nature, and eternal life is the believer's now.
But if the Spirit of him that has raised up Jesus from among [the] dead dwell in you, he that has raised up Christ from among [the] dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of his Spirit which dwells in you.
This verse turns the Spirit who lives in the believer into a promise about the believer's body. The question is what God will do with the dying body He lives in — and why the Spirit's presence settles it.
The verse gives the Spirit a new title, drawn from God raising Jesus from the dead. The names also change between the two halves of the verse.
God, the God of resurrection, raised up His Son Jesus from the dead. That same Spirit carried Him through this unclean world to the glory of God, and He was never stained by it. That Spirit was the guarantee that death could not hold Him... Now that same power lives in believers, because we have received the Spirit from the risen Christ. And since that is so, He who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies by that same Spirit. When only God and His Son are in view, the wording is "Him who raised up Jesus." When others are included, it is "He who raised up Christ." Jesus is His own personal name. Christ is the title of the last Adam, the Head of the family He has redeemed.
Some readers take the word "if" as a challenge to reach a higher level of spiritual life. It tests something simpler than that, and it also rules out healing.
There are two things to say in reply. First, there is an "if" in the verse. But it is not "if we claim the fullness of the Spirit." It is "if the Spirit dwells in us" — and He does, if we are believers at all. Second, the question is not healing but the giving of life from God. Once the mortal body is made alive, it is no longer mortal. This has clearly not yet happened to any believer living on earth. If Paul's mortal body had been quickened, for instance, the executioner's axe could never have killed him. He would still be walking among us!
Notice the word "mortal." The promise is made about the failing body you have now, and that is what makes it remarkable.
Even this mortal body will be made alive — not a new body created and handed to me, but this same mortal body changed. This is not simply a fresh creation. It is the most glorious proof of God's love and grace toward us. The mortal body will be raised because of His Spirit who dwells in us. The Holy One who lives in us now will never give up His claim on the body He lives in.
Commentators differ over the last phrase. Some read "by His Spirit." Others read "because of His Spirit," which makes the Spirit's presence the reason God acts, not just the means.
A day is coming when a change will take place. To that we are here pointed. In view of that day the Spirit receives a new title: "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead." If that Spirit dwells in us, He who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies — because of His Spirit who dwells in us, not merely by Him. The body belongs to God. That of the Christian is precious to Him, since it is now a temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of that God will quicken it.
The promise is future, and it covers two groups of believers.
Verse 11 calls our bodies "mortal bodies." They must die; the seeds of death are in them from the start. At the coming of the Lord they will live again. The God who raised up Christ from the dead will do this by His Spirit... He lives in us in this character, and He is the pledge of the life to come. That life reaches some of us by resurrection of the body. It reaches others by the change God works in the bodies of believers who are still alive at the Lord's coming.
Earlier in the letter a man cries out for rescue from "this body of death." This verse is where that cry finally gets its full answer.
There is a third title: "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead." It is always the same Spirit, but with different results. Here my resurrection is the outcome of the Holy Spirit living in me. The body itself is set free... The cry, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" is fully answered. First we are set free in spiritual power. Then we are given objects that belong to that new life and suit it. Finally we are set free in a body of glory.
The date is fixed and the outcome is certain, so present weakness loses its power to discourage you.
It is a settled and secure prospect, and faith can wait for it in quiet joy. So there is no need to be discouraged by the presence of sin in our mortal bodies. We should expect it until that blessed day. Still, it is our privilege to live above it, by the power of the Spirit who dwells in us.
- Resident — The Spirit does not visit; He moves in. That is true of every believer, not of an advanced few.
- Reason — His presence is the ground of the promise. The body He lives in is God's temple, and God will not leave His temple in death.
- Same body — What is raised is this mortal frame, changed — not a fresh creation handed to you in its place.
- Set date — The promise is future, at the Lord's coming. Those who have died will rise; those still living will be changed.
- Result — The cry "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" is answered all the way through: soul now, body then.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to flesh;
Paul has just shown that the Spirit of God lives in the believer. Now he draws the practical conclusion in the language of money owed: what did we ever owe the flesh, and who holds the debt now?
The verse opens by pointing back. The cross and the indwelling Spirit are what leave the flesh with no claim.
The conclusion to be drawn from all that we have just been considering is that the flesh has no claim upon us whatever. It has been judged in the Cross. It is opposed to God, and can never be reconciled to Him. We are not "in the flesh." The Spirit lives in us, and we are "in the Spirit." So we are in no way debtors to the flesh, that we should live after it.
Weigh up what the flesh has given us, and the account runs one way only.
"So then, brothers, we are debtors" — this is clear, for everything shows that we are dependent creatures, and the cross of Christ above all else. But if debtors, it is certainly "not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." The flesh has been nothing but a thief, robbing and destroying. Do we owe it more than the dreadful toll it has already taken? No! Our debt is to the One who has redeemed us from the oppressor who wasted us... If I feed the flesh it is sure to be strong; if I do not feed it, it will soon become inactive.
Commentators point out what this verse does not go on to say.
The structure of the wording is unusual, but I believe it is admirably wise. The sentence looks unfinished and sounds as if another clause were needed to complete it... Used to the schools and forms of man, one waits for some statement to be added, such as that we are debtors to the Spirit or to Christ the Lord. This the inspired writer avoids saying. He knows how prone we are to legalism, and would cut off the excuse first. He would keep us in liberty, the full liberty with which Christ set us free.
Dropping the second half is not a loosening of Christian duty. It changes what drives that duty.
The Apostle says, "we are debtors not to the flesh", but he does not say we are debtors to the Spirit. That would put us under a higher law — one even more impossible to keep than the law of Moses. It is not that we are not responsible to live after the Spirit, but that this responsibility is not carried out by legal obligation. It is carried out by the power of the new affections which the Spirit imparts.
Freedom is not a soft doctrine. It tests what a person really is.
Liberty is, indeed, the very emphasis of the passage. Christ has set the believer free from the law of sin and death. So he is no longer a debtor to the flesh, even in this present life. He lives to God in the liberty of redemption. This claim of liberty is life and joy to the spiritual man. But where Christianity is only a name and not a power, it is the searching edge of the word of holiness, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart... A Christian may abound much in practical holiness, or he may be very feeble and defective in this respect. But if he is alive to God at all, he cannot at the same time be alive in the flesh.
The danger is not that we deny this, but that we keep paying anyway. One writer finds the picture in Israel's history, under Eglon, king of Moab.
The Moabites had no real claim on Israel, and yet Eglon had set up his throne in the city of the palm trees... From that place of power he ruled Israel and made them pay him tribute. So what God alone had a right to claim was going to the king of Moab. How true a picture this is of the state of thousands of Christians. The flesh has no right to rule us, for "we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." We owe no debt to that evil principle within us which would make self everything and shut Christ out. We have every right to ignore its demands and to walk in the Spirit. And yet Christians often give time, thought and strength to the flesh, just as Israel gave Eglon what God alone could claim.
- Debt cancelled. The cross judged the flesh, so it holds no claim over the believer at all.
- Debt reviewed. The flesh only ever robbed us; feed it and it grows strong, starve it and it grows quiet.
- Debt not transferred. Paul never says we are debtors to the Spirit. That would set up a higher law we could not keep.
- Debt replaced by liberty. The new affections the Spirit gives now carry us, not a sense of obligation.
- Debt still being paid. The real danger is handing time, thought and strength to a creditor who has no right to a penny.
for if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live
Romans 8:13 sets two ways of living side by side, and attaches an outcome to each. Why does it still speak of dying, and what work does it leave a believer to do?
One writer explains why the apostle does not call us debtors to the Spirit:
It is indeed our duty to live after the Spirit. But if we said that we are debtors, that would put man under a higher law. Keeping that law would then be even more impossible for him. The Spirit was the strength to live. That strength comes through the affections He imparts, not through an obligation to have them. If we live after the flesh, we are going to die; but if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we shall live. The evil is there, but strength is there to overcome it.
The two halves of the verse are not worded the same way. One writer draws out the difference:
If men live according to the flesh, they are on the way to death. It does not say that they will die. God's grace is always free to come in. But if it comes in, it takes one off the road to death. The verse does not speak as if sin were of no consequence. On the other hand, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, it does not say you are on the way to life, because there is no uncertainty about the result, but "you will live."
How heavy is the word "die"? One writer takes it at full weight:
If I see a man going on with the world, I say, That ends in death; and if I walk after the flesh I shall die. God's Word is very plain about this. "If you live according to the flesh you will die," and I take that in its strongest meaning — you will be eternally lost. The end of that road is the lake of fire, and the end of the other road is the presence of God.
Another writer asks what such a life proves about the person living it:
A person who is living after the flesh will die. He therefore cannot have the real thing. This passage is not a warning against having a thing and somehow perishing, but against having the signs of the thing and then perishing.
The verse names the target with care. It assumes the old nature is still there, still ready to act:
If our old nature were not still left ready to act, we should not need to put to death the deeds of the body. It is not putting the body to death, but the deeds of the body. The great thing to see is that it is through the Spirit.
One writer explains why this killing has to go on and on:
As to our members that are on the earth, Scripture never says they are crucified. The old mortal body and its members, prone to evil, are still present, and we have to subdue them. Mortification is the process of bringing them under control… To mortify is to put to death. We cannot put to death what is already dead. Mortification, then, is a perpetual killing, if one may say so, of the members and of their deeds.
The phrase "by the Spirit" rules out the obvious substitute:
It is not by resolution. Do you understand now? Do you understand the difference between the Spirit of God and resolution? Resolution is the work of your own will. The Spirit of God is God's will… The Spirit in you is master of the flesh.
This work is expected only from people who have the Spirit. That changes who should feel the warning:
Putting the deeds of the body to death is the result of the Spirit's energy. He is the Spirit who produces the fruits of life in a person, when nothing hinders the gracious working of His love. This is expected only from believers in whom the Spirit lives. So there is nothing in verse 13 that need chill the confidence of the poor, weak-spirited, self-judging Christian in the least. Those who judge themselves most are the ones this warning touches least.
- Debt — The apostle never calls us debtors to the Spirit. He is our strength to live, not a higher law demanding what we cannot produce.
- Road — Living after the flesh sets a direction. It puts a person on the way to death, and only grace takes anyone off that road.
- Target — The killing aims at the deeds of the body, never at the body itself. The work never finishes in this life.
- Power — Resolution is your own will; the Spirit is God's will, and only He is master of the flesh in you.
- Certainty — One side is a road; the other is a result. Those in whom the Spirit works "will live," and the warning weighs least on those quickest to judge themselves.
for as many as are led by [the] Spirit of God, *these* are sons of God.
Paul has just spoken of putting the deeds of the body to death by the Spirit. Now he names the mark of everyone in God's family: a Leader lives inside them and guides them day by day.
What does "led" mean here? One writer explains the word with a picture from a royal household:
This word translated "led" has many uses, but the main idea running through them all is "to take care of." The Spirit takes care of us by leading us into right paths. Having such a guide shows that we are "sons of God." A young prince is always in the care of a tutor. The tutor knows how the prince ought to behave in his position. He must act at all times as the son of a king. In the same way the Spirit lives in our hearts, instructing us in the conduct that suits us because we are "sons of God."
Some reduce this leading to a state of soul — faith and holiness stirred up in our affections and our life. One writer answers that the verse is about the Spirit Himself. Look at what the rest of the chapter says He does:
The influence of the Holy Spirit shows itself in these things. But what is on the apostle's mind is not the influence of the Spirit only. It is the Spirit Himself. What is on the mind of the writer he answers is a state of soul. In Romans 8:16 the apostle says, "it is the same Spirit," or "the Spirit itself." And again, "the Spirit helps," "the Spirit makes intercession," the Spirit "dwells" in us.
The word "sons" is deliberate. It sets the Christian's relationship against the position Israel held under the law:
"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Here we begin to hear of our relationship, in contrast with the place of servants or slaves, which Israel had under law. It also opens the way for the Spirit to appear as a Person who acts, rather than only as what marks out our new nature and standing over against the flesh.
Commentators differ over how "sons" relates to "children," which appears two verses later. Some hold that "son" means a higher, more mature place in the family. Kelly disagrees. He says "son" is the less close of the two words. It marks a public place given by adoption, always set against the place of a slave. "Child" speaks of being truly born into the family.
Is this leading only for advanced Christians? One writer says it belongs to all of them, and sets it against what came before:
Being led by the Spirit is a favour common to all Christians. It is the principle on which God now deals in grace with His people. Outside the circle where God lives by His Spirit, Satan leads men. Under the law His people were in bondage, kept under a guardian. Now, as a Christian privilege, the Spirit leads: "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Galatians 5:18).
Verse 13 and verse 14 belong together. One writer asks where the power for a Christian walk comes from:
There is a further lesson here: we may be led by the Spirit. He is not only our power for keeping the flesh in check, for putting our members to death (Col. 3). He also enables us to walk, and so is our power for progress in the divine path. We must hold on to these teachings firmly. From them we learn that we have no natural resource of our own. We depend entirely on the power of the Holy Spirit for the fight and for the walk, as for every activity of the divine life.
How far may we expect this leading to reach into ordinary choices? One answer joins real expectation to two safeguards — humility, and Scripture:
I do not doubt this: if we walk with God and look to Him, the Spirit will put in our hearts the special things He wishes us to do. Only it is important that we keep the word of God in memory. It will then guard us against all our own imaginations. Otherwise the Christian who lacks humility will do his own will, and will often take it for the Holy Spirit.
- Led. The word carries the idea of taking care — a tutor training a king's son to behave like one.
- Leader. What leads is a divine Person living in us, not a mood or a stirring of our own affections.
- Sons. This leading marks a family relationship, not the slave's place Israel held under law.
- Power. The same Spirit who checks the flesh also carries us forward; our own willpower has no share in it.
- Path. Expect real guidance in daily choices. Humility and the written Word keep it honest.