Romans 8:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"The flesh is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness." Do you see how many evils arise from not having the Holy Spirit within us? Death, enmity toward God, inability to please His laws, inability to belong to Christ as one ought, and inability to have Him dwelling within oneself. Look also at how many blessings there are if we have the Spirit within us: to belong to Christ, to have Christ Himself within us, and to rival the angels. This is what it means to mortify the flesh, that is, to live eternal life, to have already here on earth the pledge of the resurrection, and to walk easily on the path of virtue. The Apostle did not say that the body is already inactive with respect to sin, but that it is dead to sin. By this he magnifies the ease of the contests. The one who has Christ is crowned even without labors and struggles. Therefore the Apostle added "because of sin," so that you may understand that He once for all destroyed vice, not the nature of the body. Otherwise much that can be useful for the soul would have been destroyed. Thus the Apostle is not speaking about this. He wants the body, while living and remaining, to be dead. When our bodies, in relation to bodily activity, differ in no way from those lying in the grave, this is the sign that we have the Son within us and that the Spirit abides in us. But when you hear of death, do not be afraid, because you have within yourself true life, after which no death will follow. Such is the life of the Spirit. It is no longer subject to death, but ruins and destroys death, and preserves immortal what it has received. Therefore, after calling the body dead, the Apostle did not say, "the Spirit gives life," but called Him life, showing that He can give life also to others. Then, again drawing the hearer, he speaks of the cause and testimony of life: this is righteousness. When there is no sin, death does not appear. When there is no death, there is eternal life.

When it is preserved, there will be no sin. When there is no sin, there is no death. Finally, life remains everywhere: in the present age, when one begins to live according to God, for that life is properly called life when we are dead to sin; and in the age to come, where life is unending.

For righteousness and lawlessness, sanctification and uncleanness, cannot exist at the same time. By "spirit" in the words "the spirit is life," we understand the human spirit, made alive by the grace of the Holy Spirit and enriched with righteousness through communion with Him. In this way we become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4), for Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, understand those who have the Spirit within themselves. Although they bear a body, they are not fleshly, as the Apostle says: "You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Rom 8:9). They are dead to the world, and the world is dead to them, as he says of them in his own person: "The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6:14). [...] "But if Christ is in you, the flesh is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of righteousness" (Rom 8:10). Therefore whoever is not conscious that this [...] happens in him manifestly should sit alone and weep over himself. He has not yet become a servant of Christ, has not yet become a partaker of Christ's glory and Godhead, and his condition is still not manifest. Therefore let him take the greatest care for himself, and have no concern for others. For a passionate man cannot judge the affairs of the brethren dispassionately, just as a blind man cannot see sensible things even if he holds them in his hands.

But after the fall he no longer remained according to the spirit, though the spirit was still in him. It raised its voice, but men did not listen to it. Such are all who have not yet risen from the fall.

A man begins to be according to the spirit only after receiving grace, when he has been regenerated. Then the spirit enters its own rank, gains strength, and governs everything in man.

It determines by itself the norm of his life. Such a man has only one concern: to be unceasingly in God by the spirit, and to direct everything toward what is pleasing to Him.”

The one who exists according to the spirit and keeps spiritual-mindedness is in living union with the Source of all life. He is filled with every true life.

This life brings into harmony all manifestations of his own life, both inward and outward. It introduces into it a peace and harmony more beautiful, sweet, and delightful than man can imagine.

By contrast, carnal-mindedness is life at a distance from God and in forgetfulness of Him. It is the life of pleasure-loving self-pleasing, moved and tossed by the passions.

It makes human nature impoverished. It introduces discord into this nature, decomposing and corroding it. Both conditions make themselves felt by a languor resembling the agony of one dying.

“His soul,” says Theophan of the carnally minded man, “has no inclination toward God and divine things. This lack of inclination of the soul toward the divine is the lightest outer limit of enmity against God.

The heaviest outer limit is an active uprising with fury against the divine order. Disobedience to the law of God is, in general, the distinguishing mark of carnal-mindedness.

Carnal-mindedness, while it remains such, cannot submit to the law of God. For as soon as it submitted, it would cease to be carnal-mindedness.”

Concerning this infirmity, St. John Chrysostom says: “Do not be troubled when you hear, ‘nor indeed can be.’ This difficulty can still be easily removed.

By carnal-mindedness the Apostle here means a mind made earthly and attached to worldly and evil deeds. Of this the Apostle says that it cannot submit to God, not of man in general.

So also Christ says in the Gospel, ‘A bad tree cannot bear good fruit’ (Mt 7:18). He did not say that a bad tree cannot become good.

He says that while it remains bad, it cannot bear good fruit.”

As men of the flesh cannot serve the spirit, because the Spirit of God is not in them (cf. Gen 6:3), so, conversely, men guided by the spirit cannot live carnally, that is, live for sin.

This is because the Holy Spirit lives in them and guides them into all truth. Here, among other things, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ.

Catholics base on this their teaching concerning the procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son. Yet here there is not even a hint of the Spirit’s procession from the Son.

He is called Christ’s because He is given to us for the sake of Christ’s merits and through His intercession.

“I will pray the Father,” Jesus Christ said, “and He will send you the Spirit, the Comforter, Who proceeds from the Father. He will teach you all things” (Jn 14:26; 15:26).

St. John Chrysostom says: “The Apostle does not call the Spirit Christ. Rather, he gives us to understand that the one who has the Spirit is not only called Christ’s, but even has Christ Himself within him.

For it is impossible that Christ should not be where the Spirit is. Where one of the Persons of the Trinity is, there is the whole Trinity. Thus She is indivisible in Herself and most closely united.”

They have both Christ and the Spirit. Therefore, to say “if Christ is in you” or “if the Spirit is in you” has the same meaning.

The presence of the Spirit lets us understand the presence of Christ. The presence of Christ lets us understand the presence of the Spirit.

Not only this, but also the presence of the Father is understood, as Christ the Son of God assured us (see Jn 14:23). How great a mystery the Christian bears within himself.

“What then,” you ask, “will happen if Christ is in us? ‘The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of righteousness.’

Do you see how many evils come from not having the Holy Spirit within oneself? There is death, enmity against God, and the impossibility of pleasing Him by submitting to His laws.

There is also the impossibility of being Christ’s and having Him dwelling within oneself. See also how many blessings come from having the Spirit within oneself.

One truly belongs to Christ, has Christ Himself within oneself, and contends together with the angels. For to have the flesh dead to sin means to begin living eternal life.

It means, even here on earth, to bear within oneself the pledge of resurrection and the ease of walking the path of virtue.

The Apostle did not simply say, ‘the body is dead.’ He added, ‘because of sin,’ so that you may understand that vice is put to death, not the nature of the body.

The Apostle is not speaking of that. On the contrary, he wants the body to be dead while remaining alive.

When our bodies, in regard to carnal impulses, differ in no way from bodies lying in the grave, this is a sign that we have the Son within us, and that the Spirit abides in us” (St. Chrysostom).

As darkness cannot stand before light, so the carnal, passionate, and sinful cannot stand before Christ the Lord and His Spirit. Yet the existence of the sun does not abolish the existence of darkness.

So also the presence in us of the Son and the Spirit does not abolish the existence in us of something sinful and passionate. It only takes away its strength.

The passionate and sinful element, as soon as an occasion appears, immediately comes forward and offers itself to consciousness and free will. If consciousness pays attention to it and occupies itself with it, free will may also incline there.

But if consciousness and free will at that moment pass over to the side of the spirit and turn to Christ the Lord and His Spirit, then everything carnal and passionate immediately vanishes.

It disappears like smoke before the breath of the wind. This is what it means that the flesh is dead and powerless.

Such is the universal law of the life of true Christians. Yet there are degrees. When a man remains without ceasing, in consciousness and free will, on the side of the spirit, he is in living and perceptible communion with Christ the Lord in His Spirit.

At that time the carnal and passionate cannot even show itself, as darkness cannot before the sun, and cold cannot before flame. Here the flesh is entirely dead and unmoving.

This is the degree which St. Paul means in the present passage. St. Macarius of Egypt often depicts this degree.

The general order of the spiritual life is best described by Venerable Hesychius. The essence of his instructions is this.

When the flesh and passion rise up, turn away from them by inattention, contempt, and aversion. Then turn in prayer to Christ the Lord, Who is within you.

Both the carnal and the passionate will at once depart.

“But the spirit lives because of righteousness.” In Greek it does not say “lives,” but “life”: “the spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Here “spirit” means the human spirit, whose nature is life in God through attention and free will. This life consists in devotion to Him and zealous pleasing of Him through strict fulfillment of His will, or His commandments.

This is righteousness. Life because of righteousness is the nature of the spirit.

Thus to say, “then the spirit is life because of righteousness,” is the same as saying that our spirit then becomes what it ought to be according to nature.

It becomes life because of righteousness, and is restored to its own rank.

If we add to this the thought that what is passionate and sinful in body and soul is something foreign and additional to nature, then the Apostle’s meaning becomes clear.

In the one in whom Christ is present with His Spirit, that foreign element is made dead.

Thus in these few words the Apostle has described the state of the person in whom fallen human nature has been restored from the fall to its natural rank, in spirit, soul, and body.

In this way one may see here a summary of the whole discourse on the restoration of the fallen man. In chapter 7 he described the lamentable state of the fallen man under the tyranny of sin dwelling in him.

The Apostle came to the question, “Who will deliver me?” By the answer, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ,” he confessed that he had already been delivered, and indicated by Whom he was delivered (Rom 7:24-25).

After explaining the whole course of deliverance in the first verses of chapter 8, he concludes it in the present verse.

He says, in effect, that this is the life finally established in man: “the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of righteousness.”

This is the ordering of human life intended in creation. But is the whole restorative power in Christ Jesus exhausted by this? No.

For man is still left under the appearance of corruption, and all nature is still subject to vanity. Full restoration requires that these unseemly conditions also be removed.

And they will indeed be removed in their own time. St. Paul now proceeds to indicate this.

Before this he explained the manner of restoration. Now he wishes to describe the scope of this restoration, both in man himself and in visible nature.