philosophy respecting the liberty of the will. Let every one acknowledge himself to be the servant
of sin, as he is in reality, that he may be made free, being set at liberty by the grace of Christ: to
glory in any other liberty is the highest folly.
8.They then who are in the flesh,etc. It is not without reason that I have rendered the adversative
δὲ as an illative: for the Apostle infers from what had been said, that those who give themselves
up to be guided by the lusts of the flesh, are all of them abominable before God; and he has thus
far confirmed this truth, — that all who walk not after the Spirit are alienated from Christ, for they
are without any spiritual life.
Romans 8:9-11
- Vos autem non estis in carne, sed in
Spiritu, siquidem Spiritus Dei habitat in vobis: - But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,
if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now
si quis vero Spiritum Christi non habet, hic non
est ejus.
if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his.- Si vero Christus in vobis est,corpus
quidem mortuum est propter peccatum, Spiritus
autem vita est propter justitiam. - And if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness. - Si inquam Spiritus ejus qui suscitavit
Iesum ex mortuis, habitat in vobis, qui suscitavit - 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 yourChristum ex mortuis, vivificabit et mortalia
mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.corpora propter Spiritum suum in vobis
habitantem.
9.But ye, etc. He applies hypothetically a general truth to those to whom he was writing; not
only that by directing his discourse to them particularly he might more powerfully affect them, but
also that they might with certainty gather from the description already given, that they were of the
number of those, from whom Christ had taken away the curse of the law. Yet, at the same time, by
explaining what the Spirit of God works in the elect, and what fruit he brings forth, he encourages
them to strive after newness of life.
If indeed the Spirit of God, etc. This qualifying sentence is fitly subjoined, by which they were
stirred up to examine themselves more closely, lest they should profess the name of Christ in vain.
And it is the surest mark by which the children of God are distinguished from the children of the
world, when by the Spirit of God they are renewed unto purity and holiness. It seems at the same
time to have been his purpose, not so much to detect hypocrisy, as to suggest reasons for glorying
against the absurd zealots of the law, who esteem the dead letter of more importance than the inward
power of the Spirit, who gives life to the law.
But this passage shows, that what Paul has hitherto meant by the Spirit, is not the mind or
understanding (which is called the superior part of the soul by the advocates of freewill) but a
celestial gift; for he shows that those are spiritual, not such as obey reason through their own will,
but such as God rules by his Spirit. Nor are they yet said to be according to the Spirit, because they
are filled with God’s Spirit, (which is now the case with none,) but because they have the Spirit