Romans 8:12-17
Chapter 8
12
Then, brothers and sisters, let us forsake the flesh and stop living according to it.
13
If not, we will die. Instead, by walking in the Spirit, let us eliminate the body’s deeds so that we may live.
14
Everyone who walks in God’s Spirit is a son or daughter of God.
15
Then, do not fear anymore: you did not receive a spirit of slavery, but the spirit that makes you sons and daughters, and every time we cry, “Abba! (which means Dad!) Father!”
16
The Spirit reassures our spirit that we are sons and daughters of God.
17
If we are children, then we are also heirs. Our inheritance will be from God, and we will share it with Christ; for if we suffer with him now, we will also share in his glory.
Commentaries
Life Through the Spirit.
All the main themes of Paul’s preaching come together in this chapter to present a grand vision of the Christian life and hope, revealed through the mystery of God’s love in its three parts: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Human beings are no longer alone in their struggle. God the Father is fully committed, sending his Son into the world “in a condition similar to that of sinful man” (3). The death and resurrection of Jesus open the way for the Spirit, whom Paul mentions 29 times in this chapter, and show him as a force full of energy: he inspires (5), aims for life and peace (6), dwells in Christians (9), will give life to our mortal bodies (11), helps to mortify the actions of the body (13), culminating in the great revelation of the ultimate gift that sums up and includes all the others: he makes us children of God, allows us to cry out Abba, Father (15), testifies with our spirit that we are children of God (16), heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ (17). The apostle concludes by saying that now, this “sonship and inheritance” (cf. Mk 14:36; Gal 4:6) is to share in his passion, through which we will also share in his glory (cf. Phil 3:10ff).