John Calvin Commentary Romans 8:6

"For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace:" — Romans 8:6 (ASV)

The minding of the flesh, etc. Erasmus has rendered it “affection” (affectum); the old translator, “prudence” (prudentiam). But since it is certain that the τὸ φρόνημα of Paul is the same as what Moses calls the imagination (figmentum – devising) of the heart (Genesis 6:5), and that this word includes all the faculties of the soul—reason, understanding, and affections—it seems to me that “minding” (cogitatio – thinking, imagining, caring) is a more suitable word.

And though Paul uses the particle γὰρ (for), I have no doubt that it is only a simple confirmative, as there is a kind of concession here. For after having briefly defined what it is to be in the flesh, he now subjoins the end that awaits all who are slaves to the flesh. Thus, by stating the contrary effect, he proves that those who abide in the flesh cannot be partakers of the favor of Christ, for through the whole course of their life they proceed and hasten toward death.

This passage deserves special notice. For from this we learn that, while following the course of nature, we rush headlong into death, because on our own we contrive nothing but what ends in ruin.

But he immediately adds another clause to teach us that if anything in us tends to life, it is what the Spirit produces; for no spark of life proceeds from our flesh.

He calls the minding of the Spirit life, because it is life-giving or leads to life. By peace he designates, in the Hebrew manner, every kind of happiness, for whatever the Spirit of God works in us tends to our felicity.

There is, however, no reason why anyone should on this account attribute salvation to works. For though God begins our salvation and finally completes it by renewing us after his own image, yet the only cause is his good pleasure, by which he makes us partakers of Christ.