Romans 8:8-11
Chapter 8
8
Therefore, those living according to the flesh cannot please God.
9
However, your existence is not in the flesh but in the spirit because God’s Spirit dwells within you. If you did not have the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to him.
10
But Christ is within you; although the body is marked by death as a consequence of sin, the spirit is life and holiness.
11
And if the Spirit of him, who raised Jesus from the dead, is within you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Yes, he will do it through his Spirit who dwells within you.
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).