Romans 8:12-13 - Exposition

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.