Thomas Aquinas Commentary Romans 8:7-13

"because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be: and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but 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 Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live." — Romans 8:7-13 (ASV)

1. In the preceding section, the Apostle had presupposed that the prudence of the flesh is death, and here he intends to prove this.

   First, he proves it.

   Second, he shows that the believers to whom he writes are immune from such prudence, at but you are not.

   Regarding the first point, he does two things.

   First, he proves his statement about the prudence of the flesh in the abstract.

   Second, he applies what he had said about the prudence of the flesh to those who follow it, at and they who are in the flesh.

   Regarding the first of these, he sets out three middle terms, each of which proves the one before it.

2. Using the first middle term, he proves something stated earlier—namely, that the prudence of the flesh is death—in the following way: the one who is hostile to God incurs death. But as for those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me (Luke 19:27). This is because God is our life: for he is your life (Deuteronomy 30:20). And so, the one who is hostile to God incurs death; but the prudence of the flesh is hostile to God. Therefore, the prudence of the flesh is the cause of death.

3. Here it should be noted that what he earlier called the prudence of the flesh (Romans 8:6) he now calls the wisdom of the flesh, not because prudence and wisdom are absolutely the same, but because wisdom in human matters is prudence: wisdom is prudence to a man (Proverbs 10:23).

   To understand this, it should be recognized that one who knows the highest cause on which all things depend is called wise in the strict sense. But the supreme cause of all things is God. Therefore, wisdom in the strict sense is knowledge of divine things, as Augustine says in On the Trinity; yet among the mature we do impart wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:6). Now, one who knows the highest cause in a particular category is said to be wise in that category. For example, in the art of building, it is not the man who knows how to cut wood and stone but the one who conceives and plans the house who is called wise, for the entire building depends on him. Hence the Apostle says, as a wise architect I have laid the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:10). Thus, one is called wise in human matters who has a good understanding of the goal of human life and regulates the whole of human life accordingly, which pertains to prudence.

   And so the wisdom of the flesh is the same as the prudence of the flesh, about which it is said: not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish (James 3:15).

   This wisdom is said to be hostile to God because it inclines a person against God’s law: running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield (Job 15:26).

4. To prove this he uses another middle term, adding, it is not subject to the law of God.

   For a person cannot hate God for what He is in Himself, since God is the very essence of goodness. Rather, a sinner hates God inasmuch as some precept of the divine law is contrary to his will, as an adulterer hates God inasmuch as he hates the precept, you shall not commit adultery. And so all sinners, inasmuch as they are unwilling to submit to God’s law, are hostile to God: should you love those who hate the Lord? (2 Chronicles 19:2).

   Hence, he has satisfactorily proved that the prudence or wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God, because it is not subject to the law of God.

5. He proves this through a third middle term, saying: nor can it be.

   For the prudence of the flesh is a form of vice, as is clear from what has been said. But although a person subject to a vice can be freed from it and submit to God, as it says above, having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of justice (Romans 6:18), the vice itself cannot submit to God, since the vice itself is a turning away from God or from God’s law. Just as something black can become white, but the blackness itself can never become white: an evil tree cannot bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18).

   From this it is clear that the Manicheans were not correct in using these words to support their error, for they wished by these words to show that the nature of the flesh is not from God, since it is hostile to God and cannot be subject to God. For the Apostle is not dealing here with the flesh, which is a creature of God, but with the prudence of the flesh, which is a human vice, as has been said.

6. Then when he says, and they who are in the flesh, he applies what he had said about the prudence of the flesh to people whom the prudence of the flesh rules, saying: they who are in the flesh, that is, who follow the desires of the flesh by the prudence of the flesh, as long as they are this way cannot please God, because: the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him (Psalms 147:11).

   Hence those who do not submit to Him cannot please Him, as long as they remain so. But they can cease to be in the flesh according to the manner described, and then they will be pleasing to God.

7. Then when he says, but you are not in the flesh, he shows that those to whom he is speaking are immune from the prudence of the flesh.

   In regard to this he does three things. First, he describes the state of believers, saying, but you are not in the flesh. This makes it clear that he is not speaking about the nature of the flesh, for the Romans, to whom he was speaking, were mortal men clothed in flesh. Rather, he is taking "flesh" to mean the vices of the flesh: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50). Hence he says you are not in the flesh, that is, you are not in the vices of the flesh as though living according to the flesh: living in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh (2 Corinthians 10:3). But in the Spirit, that is, you follow the Spirit: I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10).

8. Second, he adds a condition, saying, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, namely, through love: you are God’s temple, and God’s Spirit dwells in you (1 Corinthians 3:16).

   He adds this condition because, even though they received the Holy Spirit in baptism, they might have lost the Holy Spirit through a later sin. Concerning this it is said that he will not abide when iniquity comes in .

9. Third, he shows that this condition should be found in them, saying, but if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. For just as that is not a bodily member which is not given life by the body’s spirit, so he is not Christ’s member who does not have the Spirit of Christ: by this we know that we abide in him, because he has given us of his own Spirit (1 John 4:13).

   It should be noted that the Spirit of Christ and of God the Father is the same. He is called the Spirit of God the Father inasmuch as He proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit of Christ inasmuch as He proceeds from the Son. Hence the Lord always ascribes Him to both, as in John, but the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name (John 14:26) and again: when the Counselor comes whom I will send to you from the Father (John 15:26).

10. Then when he says, but if Christ, he shows that through the grace of Christ or through the Holy Spirit we are freed from punishment.

    First, he shows that we are freed by the Holy Spirit in the future from bodily death.

    Second, that in the meantime the Holy Spirit helps us against the weaknesses of the present life, at likewise, the Spirit (Romans 8:26).

    Concerning the first point, he does three things.

    First, he sets out what he intends.

    Second, he draws a corollary from this, at therefore, brethren.

    Third, he proves his proposition, at for whosoever are led (Romans 8:14).

    Regarding the first of these, it should be recalled that above he mentioned the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, although it is one and the same Spirit.

    First, therefore, he shows what we obtain from the Spirit inasmuch as He is the Spirit of Christ.

    Second, inasmuch as He is the Spirit of God the Father, at and if the Spirit of him.

11. He says, therefore: we have said that if one does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Hence, since you belong to Christ, you have the Spirit of Christ and Christ Himself dwelling in you through faith: that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). But if Christ is thus in you, you should be conformed to Christ.

    Now Christ so came into the world that regarding the Spirit, He was full of grace and truth, but regarding the body, He had the likeness of sinful flesh, as was stated above. Hence this should also be in you, that your body indeed, because of sin which still remains in your flesh, is dead, that is, subject to the necessity of death: in whatsoever day you eat it, you shall die the death (Genesis 2:17), meaning, you will be subject to the necessity of death. But the spirit lives, being recalled from sin—be renewed in the spirit of your minds (Ephesians 4:23)—it lives with the life of grace because of justification, through which it is justified by God: the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20); the just man lives by faith (Romans 1:17).

12. Then when he says and if the Spirit, he shows what we obtain from the Holy Spirit inasmuch as He is the Spirit of the Father, saying: if the Spirit of him, namely, of God the Father, who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead—but do you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up (Psalms 41:10); him God raised from the dead (Acts 3:14). Although Christ rose by His own power, because the power of the Father and of the Son is the same, it follows that what God the Father did in Christ, He can also do in us.

    And this is what he says: he who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. He does not say dead, but mortal, because in the resurrection there will be taken away from our bodies not only that they are dead (that is, having the necessity of death), but also that they are mortal (that is, capable of dying), as was Adam’s body before sin. For after the resurrection our bodies will be wholly immortal: your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise (Isaiah 26:19); after two days he will revive us (Hosea 6:2).

    And this is because of his Spirit dwelling in you, that is, in virtue of the Spirit dwelling in you: thus says the Lord God to these bones: behold I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live (Ezekiel 37:5).

    And this is because of his Spirit dwelling in you, that is, on account of the dignity our bodies have from being receptacles of the Holy Spirit: do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? (1 Corinthians 6:19). Those indeed whose bodies were not temples of the Spirit will also rise, but their bodies will be able to suffer.

13. Then when he says, therefore, brethren, he draws a corollary from the preceding points.

    First, he sets out a conclusion.

    Second, he gives the reason, at for if you live.

14. First, therefore, he says: we have said that many benefits flow to us through the Holy Spirit and that death follows from the prudence of the flesh; therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, but to the Holy Spirit on account of the benefits received from Him, to live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh: if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25).

15. Then when he says, for if you live according to the flesh, he gives the reason for the above conclusion.

    First, as to the flesh, he says, if you live according to the flesh, namely, by following the desires of the flesh, you will die—the death of guilt in the present and the death of damnation in the future: she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives (1 Timothy 5:6).

    Second, he gives a reason as to the spirit, saying, but if by the spirit, that is, through the Spirit, you mortify the deeds of the flesh, that is, deeds which flow from the desires of the flesh, you will live—the life of grace in the present and the life of glory in the future: put to death what is earthly in you (Colossians 3:5); those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24).