Romans 8:5-8 - Exposition

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. These verses are added for explanation and enforcement of the condition demanded at the end of Romans 8:4 ; pressing the fact that "the infection of our nature"—"the lust of the flesh, called in Greek phronema sarkos " (Art. 9.)—with its antagonism to the Law of God, and its deadly tendency, remains even in the regenerate, and that hence we are still in danger of succumbing to it; but that if we do—unless the Spirit within us prove in practice the stronger power—the condition required for our individual redemption is not fulfilled. οἱ ἐν σαρκὶ ὄντες , in Romans 8:7 , evidently does not mean those who are still in the body, but the same essentially as οἱ κατὰ σάρκα ὄντες in Romans 8:5 ; ἐν denotes the element in which they live (see verse following). The δὲ which connects Romans 8:8 with the foregoing has its ecbatic, not its adversative sense. So then, in the Authorized Version, though not strictly equivalent, seems sufficiently to express the general idea.