But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But (not now, as in the Authorized Version) if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. That is—Though I imply the possibility of even the baptized being still in the flesh, so as to be unable to please God, this is certainly not your condition; if, indeed (as is surely the case), your conversion was a reality, so that you have become really Christ's; for the Spirit of Christ (which is the Spirit of God) of necessity dwells (so as to be the ruling power) in all such as are really his (cf 1 Corinthians 3:16). We observe here how "the Spirit of Christ" is identified with "the Spirit of God," so as to imply the essential Deity of Christ, and also to lend support to the doctrine of the double procession of the Holy Ghost (cf. 1 Peter 1:11). Observe, too, how persistently and continually the apostle presses his protest against antinomian abuse of the doctrine of grace, with which he began this section of his Epistle, at Romans 6:1, He never loses sight of it; it pervades the whole. If St. Paul, especially in this Epistle, is, on the one hand, the great exponent of the doctrine of justification by faith only, he is, on the other, no less the persistent preacher of the necessity of works. Sanctification is continually pressed as the necessary result, as well as evidence, of justification. He only shuts out human works from the office of justifying.
But (or, and) if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; bat the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ (the previous ἰησοῦν denotes the human person of our Lord; χριστὸν his office, fitly used here in connection with the thought of his resurrection ensuring ours. Some readings give τὸν before, and ἰησοῦν after, χριστὸν) from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. These verses have been variously understood. It has been supposed by some that Romans 8:10 continues the thought of Romans 8:9; "the body" ( τὸ σῶμα) meaning the same as "the flesh ( σάρξ),and dead ( νεκρὸν) meaning νενεκρωμένον, i.e. mortified, or lifeless with respect to the power of sin that was in it (cf. Romans 6:6, ἵνα καταργηθῇ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἀμαρτίας). Thus the meaning of the first clause of Romans 8:10 would be, "If Christ be in you, the body of sin in you is dead; but you are alive in the Spirit." Decisive objections to this view are,
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye must ( μέλλετε, expressing here a result that must; follow. The Authorized Version has "shall;' not distinguishing the force of the phrase from that of the simple future ζήσεσθε which follows), die; but if by the Spirit ye do mortify (rather, do to death, or make to die, so as to correspond to the die preceding) the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Here "the body" ( τοῦ σώματος) must be taken in the same sense as in Romans 8:10, Romans 8:11. True, the "deeds" spoken of are, in fact, those of the flesh; but the body is regarded as the organ of the lusts of the flesh, and it is fitly named here in connection with the thought of the preceding verses. The word translated. "deeds" is πράξεις, denoting, not single acts, but rather doings—the general outcome in action of fleshly lusts using the body as their organ. ΄έλλετε ἀποθήσκειν and ζήσεσθε, viewed in connection with ζωοποιήσει in Romans 8:11, seem to point ultimately to the result hereafter of the two courses of life denoted: but not, it would seem, exclusively; for our future state is constantly regarded by the apostle as the continuance and sequence of what is begun in us already—whether of life in Christ now unto life eternal, or of death in sin now unto death beyond the grave. The general idea may be stated thus: If ye live after the flesh, the power in you to which you give your allegiance and adhesion will involve you in its own doom, death; but if ye live after the Spirit, you identify yourselves with the Spirit of life that is in you, whereby you will be emancipated at last even from these your mortal bodies, whose doings you already slay.