You Are Not in the Flesh but in the Spirit, If the Spirit of God Dwells in You (Romans 8:8–11)

Rom. 8:8. So those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

“So” is a particle of contrast and is not bound with the immediately preceding text. Setting the present text in connection with the preceding, one would need to use the particle “thus” or “therefore.” If Saint Paul did not use it, it means he did not connect this verse with the preceding. With what then is it connected? With verse 4. Having said that the righteousness of the Law, its goal—to make us holy and pleasing to God—is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, Saint Paul in verses 5, 6, and 7 sets forth the characteristic features of walking according to Spirit and flesh, binding them as a chain of causes with the particles “for, for, because.” All of them in their totality, consequently, are clarifications of what was said in verse 4 and present a series of inserted propositions. Having finished the clarification, the holy Apostle returns to the interrupted discourse. The dispensation of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ was accomplished so that the righteousness of the Law—that we might become holy and pleasing to God—might be fulfilled in us. It is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. And in those who walk according to the flesh, it cannot be fulfilled, because such cannot please God. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Such is the connection of this text; its meaning is clear in itself. “Those in the flesh” is the same as “those living according to the flesh”—that is, living in passionate and pleasure-loving self-indulgence. They cannot please God because they do not will to fulfill God’s will and God’s Law—what alone makes man pleasing to God—their heart has no inclination for it, they have no taste for it, no thoughts nor desires for it.

Saint Chrysostom says on this passage: “So what? Will you say, must we cut off the body, exit the flesh, to please God? Is he leading us to virtue by commanding us to be self-murderers? No. Under the name of flesh Paul here means not the body, not the substance of the body, but fleshly and worldly life spent in amusements and luxury, which makes the whole man flesh. Just as those who are winged by the Spirit make even the body itself spiritual, so those who turn from the Spirit, serving the belly and pleasures, make the very soul flesh, not changing its essence but destroying its nobility. Such a manner of expression is often found in the Old Testament; there too the name flesh means a coarse and unclean life devoted to coarse amusements. Thus Noah was told: ‘My Spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh’ (Gen. 6:3). Although Noah himself was clothed in flesh; but being clothed in flesh was not sinful, as it was natural; sinful was to love fleshly life.” So here: “The Apostle does not command us to become without a body, but to be freed from fleshly thinking” (Blessed Theodoret). Because “those having fleshly thinking cannot please God while they remain such” (Blessed Theophylact).

Rom. 8:9. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Above, in verse 3, having said that the Son of God, being incarnate, condemned sin—that is, overcame it and made us its victors—immediately thereafter he said that we no longer walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit and have the power to fulfill the righteousness of the Law. But how it came to pass that the sin-conquering power from Christ the Lord passed to us and made us such powerful—of this he only hinted before, in verse 2, in the word about the law of the Spirit of life which freed us from the law of sin. Now he sets forth this very point more clearly, saying: you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, because God’s Spirit dwells in you. God’s Spirit, having descended in you in the mysteries, drew your spirit out of the bonds of fleshliness—passionate, soul-and-body self-indulgence—and placed it in its place, at the head, governing all in all manifestations of your life, and, by His power, for your self-surrender to Him, keeping it in this rank, makes it that you are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit, and, consequently, always do only what is spiritual, holy and pleasing to God, and stand therefore on the path of salvation, certainly leading to eternal blessedness in God in Christ Jesus the Lord. This conclusion itself comes to mind of its own accord after what the Apostle said before about the essential features of life according to Spirit and flesh. It seems that in the words “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” the spirit means the natural part of human nature—the spirit breathed by God at creation and through the fall subjected to the tyranny of flesh. And in the words following: “because God’s Spirit dwells in you”—by Spirit is understood the Holy Spirit, gracious, regenerating and establishing a new life within. He, descending upon man’s spirit and uniting with it, makes it strong to resist the flesh and to act as is natural to it, by its nature. Saint Chrysostom expounds this beautifully. “One thing is good, another is evil, another neither good nor evil. Thus soul or flesh is something in between and can become either one or the other; but spirit is always good and never becomes anything else. Therefore, if you give soul and body to the better, then you yourself will belong to the same side; if you give to the worse, you will share in its destruction, not by the nature of soul or flesh, but by disposition, which has the power to choose one or the other. And that this is truly the meaning of the Apostle’s words and by them flesh (as flesh) is not condemned, we shall see by returning to that same expression and analyzing it more carefully. ‘But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,’ says Paul. How is this? Were they not in the flesh but bodiless? Is this possible? Do you notice that he means fleshly life? Why then did he not say: you do not live in sin? So that you might understand that Christ not only quenched the torture of sin but made flesh easier and more spiritual, not by changing nature but more by uplifting it. As iron, from prolonged contact with fire, itself becomes fire, retaining its own nature: so among the faithful who have the Spirit, the very flesh is reborn into the same activity, becoming completely spiritual, altogether crucified and uplifted together with the soul. Such was Paul’s body. For this reason it despised all pleasures and delights, rejoiced in hunger, beatings, imprisonment, and suffering these things, it did not grieve. Paul expressed this clearly, calling it momentary and ‘light affliction’ (2 Cor. 4:17). Thus did he teach the flesh to walk together with the spirit.”

“Because God’s Spirit dwells in you. Because”—in Greek stands ει—if. But this if does not express doubt, but expresses an indubitable assertion and stands instead of έπειδήπερ—since. The Slavonic text exactly conveys the Apostle’s thought. “The word ‘if,’ εϊπερ,” testifies Saint Chrysostom, the Apostle often uses not to express doubt, but with full assurance, instead of έπειδήπερ ‘since’—as, for example, saying: “if it is right with God to repay with affliction those who afflict you” (2 Thess. 1:6).

“God’s Spirit dwells in you.” With what decisiveness the Apostle affirms this of the believing Romans, who have properly entered the assembly of believers! “God’s Spirit dwells in you”—he assured the Corinthians too (1 Cor. 3:16), adding: “you are the living church of God” (2 Cor. 6:16), “the temple of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you” (1 Cor. 6:19). He reminded the Galatians of the same, saying that God “sent into their hearts the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6). And to the Ephesians he said that they, “having believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13), whom he commands them “not to grieve” (Eph. 4:30). He affirmed the same in other Epistles, and not he alone, but all the other Apostles as well, and the Lord and Saviour Himself. And all this with such decisiveness that whoever does not have the Holy Spirit in him is not a Christian, and if anyone is a Christian, he is so only because he is anointed with the Holy Spirit. And into the Kingdom of Heaven is admitted only he who approaches its gates having on his brow and throughout his whole being the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the ticket for entrance, and therefore it is called “the earnest of the inheritance” (Eph. 1:14).

After this it is clear of itself why the Apostle adds further: “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His”—that is, he is not Christ’s, and is not a Christian. “He who does not partake of this grace has no communion with Christ” (Blessed Theodoret). And justly. For the Spirit is a seal. Therefore, he who does not have the seal does not belong to the Lord, marked by this seal (Blessed Theophylact). Hearing this, who will not be moved with desire to have the Holy Spirit? But you do have it. Everyone who with faith receives the Divine Mysteries of Baptism and Chrismation has the Spirit in himself. Therefore you do too. You will say: I have grieved the Holy Spirit with my sins, and He has departed from me. But you have brought forth repentance and communicated the Body and Blood of Christ the Lord, and the Divine gracious order in you has been restored. Therefore you have the Spirit, you are Christ’s. How comforting are these truths! Yet at the same time it cannot help but be painful that a Christian must be assured that he is Christ’s and has the Holy Spirit. And yet this is necessary, not to arouse pride, but to awaken attention to himself as a bearer, dwelling place and temple of the Spirit, and to strengthen him in the order of life showing how much one values this treasure. With all that, however, the question is not out of place: by what, by what signs can I know that the Holy Spirit is truly in me? The Apostle answers this:

Rom. 8:10. And if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

One would expect the Apostle to say: if the Holy Spirit is in you—but he says: “if Christ is in you.” “In saying this, the Apostle does not call the Spirit Christ—not at all!—but gives to understand that he who has the Spirit not only is called Christ’s, but even has Christ Himself dwelling in him. For it is impossible for Christ not to be where the Spirit is. Where one of the Persons of the Trinity is, there is the whole Trinity. Thus is it Itself indivisible and united in the close way within itself!” (Saint Chrysostom). Those being baptized clothe themselves in Christ; and as Christ, being baptized, received the descended Spirit, so those baptized in His name receive afterward the Spirit in Chrismation and have both Christ and the Spirit. Therefore, to say “if Christ is in you” or “if the Spirit is in you” is equivalent. The presence of the Spirit gives to understand the presence of Christ, and the presence of Christ the presence of the Spirit. And not only this, but also the presence of the Father, as Christ the Son of God assured us (Jn. 14:23). What a great mystery does a Christian bear within himself!

“What then will be, you ask, if Christ is in you? The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. See how many evils there are in not having the Holy Spirit in yourself: death, enmity against God, inability to please Him by obeying His laws, to be Christ’s and to have Him dwelling in you! See also how many goods there are in having the Spirit: truly to be Christ’s, to have Christ Himself dwelling in you, to rival the Angels! For to have the flesh dead for sin means to begin to live eternal life, even here on earth, to bear in yourself the pledge of resurrection and the ability to walk the path of virtue. The Apostle said not simply ‘the body is dead,’ but added ‘because of sin,’ that you might understand that vice is mortified, not the nature of the body. The Apostle does not speak of this; on the contrary, he wants the body to be dead while remaining alive. When our bodies differ in nothing from those lying in the grave with respect to fleshly impulses; this is a sign that we have the Son in us, that the Spirit abides in us” (Saint Chrysostom).

Just as darkness cannot stand before light, so the fleshly, passionate, sinful cannot stand before Christ the Lord and His Spirit. But just as the being of the sun does not take away the being of darkness, so the presence in us of the Son and the Spirit does not take away the being of something sinful and passionate in us, but only takes away its power. The passionate and sinful, as soon as occasion comes, immediately appears and offers itself to awareness and will. If awareness turns attention to it and occupies itself with it, the will too can incline that way. But if awareness and will in that moment turn to the side of the Spirit and turn toward Christ the Lord and His Spirit, then everything fleshly and passionate instantly vanishes like smoke at a breath of wind. This is what is meant by: the flesh is dead, powerless. This is the universal law of the life of true Christians. But there are degrees. When someone remains unwaveringly in awareness and will on the side of the Spirit in living tangible communion with Christ the Lord in His Spirit; then the fleshly and passionate cannot even appear—as darkness before the sun and cold before flame. There the flesh is completely dead, motionless. This is the degree the holy Paul means in the present passage. Saint Makarios of Egypt often depicts this degree. And the general order of spiritual life is best described by Saint Hesychios. The essence of his teaching is this: when flesh and passion rise up, turn away from them by inattention, contempt and aversion, and turn prayerfully toward Christ the Lord dwelling in you—and the fleshly and passionate will instantly depart. “And the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” In Greek stands not “is life” but life: the Spirit is life because of righteousness. The Spirit here means the human spirit, whose nature is life in God by attention and will with self-surrender to Him and earnest pleasing through strict fulfillment of His will or His commandments: in which consists righteousness. Life because of righteousness is the nature of the spirit; so that to say: then the spirit is life because of righteousness—is the same as to say: then our spirit becomes what it should be by nature—life because of righteousness, is restored to its rank. If we apply to this the thought that the passionate and sinful in body and soul is something foreign and added to nature, and becomes dead in him in whom Christ with His Spirit abides, then it will be evident how in these few words the Apostle depicted the state of one in whom fallen human nature has been restored from the fall to its natural rank in spirit, soul and body.

Thus here one can see a summary of the whole discourse on the restoration of the fallen. Having depicted in chapter 7 the sad condition of the fallen under the tyranny of sin dwelling in him, the Apostle came to the question: “who will deliver me?” With the answer “I thank God through Jesus Christ” he confessed that he was already delivered and indicated by whom he was delivered. Having explained the whole course of deliverance in the first verses of chapter 8, he concludes in the present verse: here finally is what kind of life is established in man: “the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” And this is the structure of human life originally ordained in creation.

But is the restorative power in Christ Jesus exhausted in this? No. For man still remains under the appearance of decay, and all nature still labors under vanity. Complete restoration requires the removal of these unseemly things. And they will indeed be removed in their time—toward which indication the holy Paul now proceeds. Previously he explained “the mode of restoration;” now he wishes to depict “the extent of this restoration”—in man himself and in visible nature.

Bb) Its full manifestation in the future age (Rom. 8:11–17)

Rom. 8:11. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Here is the answer to the following: man fell spiritually and became subject to death; but now he is restored spiritually: why then death? Why death is left, the Apostle does not explain, but only assures that death will be abolished, saying as it were: do not be troubled! Your dead bodies will also be made alive by the power of that same Spirit which already dwells in you, by the example and power of the risen Christ the Lord, who also is in you. He who raised Jesus the Lord will raise your bodies after death; and that it will truly be so, take assurance from the resurrection of Christ and from the giving to you of the Holy Spirit. About the connection of the gift of the Spirit with future resurrection the Apostle speaks here clearly, and about the connection with it of Christ’s resurrection only hints by mentioning it. But in other places of his Epistles the Apostle sets forth this, as well as the first, clearly, so that according to him, in the very resurrection of Christ we are already raised (Eph. 2:6). Christ the Lord is the firstfruits of the risen. Since believers clothe themselves in Christ and so unite with Him as a graft with a tree, so also must they be raised; for the members cannot remain in the realm of death when the head abides in the splendor of resurrection. But to each thing its own time: “each in his order: Christ as the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ” (that is, will be raised) (1 Cor. 15:23). The Apostle everywhere expresses the connection of the gift of the Holy Spirit with our resurrection by calling Him “the earnest of our inheritance”—the inheritance of the Kingdom with Christ risen, consequently after we too are raised (Eph. 1:14). The grace of the Holy Spirit is the seed of resurrection, which will surely sprout, flower and bear fruit in its time. It should be noted that the Apostle’s word “will give life”—in Greek some read διά του πνεύματος—through the Spirit—and others δια το πνεύμα—for the Spirit, because of the Spirit. Both meanings are acceptable. Our holy interpreters in their explanatory discourses use both expressions, but more the latter. There is nothing to dispute: for the work of universal resurrection is the common work of the Most Holy Trinity—God the One, the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit, or the Father through the Spirit in the Son.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle encouraged hope by the future and sufficiently inspired zeal for present struggles. For he says: in a short time your bodies will be immortal and will become inaccessible to the passions troubling you. And this God the Almighty Himself will accomplish, now generously giving you the pledge of the Spirit. And the Apostle presented to them the resurrection of Christ as surety for their resurrection.” Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle begins to speak of resurrection because the hope of resurrection especially encourages the hearer and strengthens him by the example of Christ. Do not be afraid, he says, that you are clothed in a mortal body. Have the Spirit in you, and the body will certainly be raised. But what is this? Will not the bodies of those not having the Spirit be raised? And how then shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ? Is the doctrine of hell then certain? If those not having the Spirit do not rise, then there is no hell. So what does the Apostle mean? Although all will be raised, yet not all to life, but some to punishment and others to life. Therefore he did not say ‘will raise,’ but ‘will give life,’—which means more than resurrection and is given to the righteous alone. And showing the reason for this honor, he added: through His Spirit dwelling in you. Therefore if you lose the grace of the Spirit in this life and die not preserving it intact, then surely you will perish, though you will be raised. Just as Christ, seeing His Spirit shining in you, will not wish to deliver you to punishment, so seeing it extinguished in you, He will not agree to bring you into the bridal chamber as the foolish virgins (Matt. 25:1–12). Do not let your body live now, that it may live then. Let it die so as not to die. As long as it remains alive, it does not live; but when it dies, it will live. The same will be at the general resurrection. The body must first die and be buried, and then become immortal. The same was accomplished in baptism. First man is crucified and buried, and then rises. The same was true of the Lord’s body. It too was crucified and buried, and then rose. Let us do likewise. Let us continually mortify the body in its deeds. I say this not about the substance of the body—not about that at all—but about its tendency to vicious deeds. For (even here on earth) not to tolerate anything human in oneself, not to serve pleasures—constitutes life, indeed the very life.”