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forth the faith of Paul in Romans!³ Such warped readings of Paul are all too common.

In v. 5, Paul again reminds us of the two ways. On the one hand, we have all who are governed by their flesh, i.e., by the supposed autonomy and self-sufficiency of man and humanity. On the other side, we have all who are ruled by God’s Holy Spirit. If our assessment of life’s issues is in terms of our humanity rather than God’s law-word, we are walking “after the flesh.” We must remember that Paul summons us to walk, i.e., to cover the ground, to tread all around, and to exercise dominion. We cannot profess faith justly when we view our lives, problems, and duties humanistically rather than theologically.

This has consequences, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (v. 6). The word minded is phronema, and it refers to thinking. Paul tells us that we are either governed in our thinking by the Holy Spirit or by our human nature. To be “carnally minded” is to think in terms of man-centered considerations, or egocentric goals; its result is death. The government of our minds by God’s Spirit and His law-word is life and peace.

The humanistic and egocentric mind prefers its own way, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (v. 7). Paul brings us back again to man’s fall, his revolt against God. Its premise is that man is his own god and law (Gen.

3:5). Hence, its inevitable, logical, and inescapable drive is for independence from God. It refuses to be subject to the law of God, nor can it be, because it is now by its fallen nature dedicated to its own law. Paul is thus contrasting man’s law with God’s law, and man’s spirit with God’s Spirit.

His conclusion is clear: “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (v. 8). To please, aresko, is to be acceptable. Man is only acceptable to God in Christ. Man in Christ works to execute God’s law, to put into practice God’s justice, and to exercise dominion under God.

The rebels against God hate God and His law; they refuse to submit to it and are by nature unwilling to submit and not capable of doing so.⁴ It is their fallen nature and drive to be their own god and law. There is no life, Paul makes clear, apart from Christ and outside His ordained walk for us.

We are to cover the earth with our walk or tread, and we must exercise dominion over every sphere of life and thought. This is the way of life and of blessedness. In Calvin’s words on v. 6, “The minding of the Spirit he calls life, for it is life-giving, or leads to life; and by peace he designates, after the

3. Walter Luthi: The Letter to the Romans, p. 97. Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, (1961) 1962.

4. Cranfield, op. cit., p. 387.

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manner of the Hebrews, every kind of happiness; for whatever the Spirit of God works in us tends to our felicity.”⁵

5. John Calvin: Commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 286. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1948.

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30. Our Praxis in the Spirit (Romans 8:9-15)

9. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

(Romans 8:9-15)

Paul has much to say again about the flesh and the Spirit, i.e., our humanity after the first Adam, and our renewed humanity in Christ, our new Adam, and in His Spirit. The flesh is the realm of weakness, sin, and death; it belongs to the world of failure. The Spirit is the power of God, working in us and in our world. The Old Testament sees the Spirit as the power of God, working mightily in this world. The spiritual man is the man of power. The modern equation of spirituality with an ethereal and impotent nature is radically false. The prophets are men of power because the Spirit of the Lord is upon them. Pentecost endowed the apostles with the power and the gifts of the Spirit, and they worked miracles. Spirituality in Scripture means power; the flesh means weakness and death. Hence, Paul summons believers to move from the realm of impotence and death into the kingdom of spirituality, of life and power.

Believers must realize that they are not in the flesh but in the Spirit (v. 9) This is only true if God’s Spirit dwells in us. It is not our verbal profession that marks us as Christ’s members but the Holy Spirit in us. The mark of the Spirit is godly power. False doctrines of spirituality associate it with mousiness and harmlessness. The two great examples of spirituality in the Bible are Moses and Elijah, the two who met with our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-3). Moses and Elijah, with their blazing power, were hardly comfortable men to be near, but they were men uniquely filled with the Spirit. Both had weaknesses many mousy churchmen lack, but they also had the overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit.

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Moreover, Kasemann is right in stating that Paul knows no Christ who is localized in heaven, but only a cosmic Christ at work everywhere. If we have had a true baptism in Christ, we now have been clothed with a permanent power (Gal. 3:27). However, as Kasemann adds, we misunderstand Paul if we see our gain in power as the primary focus

“instead of on the reign of Christ.”¹ Godet saw the contrast in v. 9 as one between the dominion or reign of our old humanity as against the dominion and reign of Christ in us, over us, and through us.²

Paul in v. 9 uses the terms “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ.”

As Hodge noted, “Both expressions designate the Holy Ghost,” who is also called the Spirit of Christ in Galatians 4:16, Philippians 1:19, and I Peter 1:11. This clearly indicates that there is no subordination of the Son to the Father in the Trinity. As Hodge said, commenting on the Western Church’s defense of the filoque clause,

For this the gratitude of all Christians is due to the Latin Church, as it vindicates the full equality of the Son with the Father. No clearer assertion, and no higher exhibition of the Godhead of the Son can be conceived, than that which presents him as the source and possessor of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit proceeds from, and belongs to him, and by him is given to whomsoever he wills. John 1.33, xv. 26, xvi. 7, Luke xxiv. 29, &c.³

As Mills pointed out, v. 9 (like so much before) is a denial of anti-nomianism. “Works are always the result of salvation. To this end salvation always presses (Ephesians 2:10).”⁴

In v. 10, Paul tells us that our old humanity, being condemned to death, requires the death of the body we inherited in Adam. However, if Christ is in us, even though our body shall perish, we have life because the Holy Spirit is now within us, our own spirit is now one of righteousness or justice and life, not sin and death. Godet observed, “As the body dies because of a sin which is not ours individually, so the spirit lives in consequence of a righteousness which is not ours.”⁵ The Spirit in us is both a regenerating and resurrecting power, as well as a sanctifying one.

In v. 11, Paul tells us, “The present possession of the Spirit of God is an assurance that even in the body life shall at last triumph over death.”⁶ The

1. Ernst Kasemann: Commentary on Romans, p. 222f. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Ee-rdmans (1980) 1982.

2. Frederic Louis Godet: Commentary on Romans, p. 304. Grand Rapids, Michigan:

Kregel Publications (1883) 1977.

3. Charles Hodge: Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 405. New York, New York: A.C. Armstrong (1882) 1893.

4. Sanford C. Mills: A Hebrew Christian Looks at Romans, p. 247. New York, New York: American Board of Missions to the Jews, 1971.

5. Godet, op. cit., p. 305.

6. E.H. Gifford, in “Romans,” in F.C. Cook, editor: The Holy Bible, A Commentary, New Testament, vol.III, p. 151. London, England: John Murray, 1881.

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