English · KJV

Romans 8:12

“Heirs with Christ”Romans 8:12–17

King James Version
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
Therefore G686 G3767, brethren G80, we are G2070 debtors G3781, not G3756 to the flesh G4561, to live G2198 after G2596 the flesh G4561.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
Therefore brethren, wee are detters not to the flesh, to liue after the flesh:

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
So, then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh;

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
12 Greek words
  1. ἌραAraSoG686CONJConjunction
  2. οὖνounthenG3767CONJConjunction
  3. ἀδελφοίadelphoibrothersG80N-VPMNoun Vocative Plural Masculine
  4. ὀφειλέταιopheiletaidebtorsG3781N-NPMNoun Nominative Plural Masculine
  5. ἐσμὲνesmenwe areG1510V-PAI-1PVerb Present Active Indicative 1st Plural
  6. οὐounotG3756PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  7. τῇtēato theG3588T-DSFDefinite article Dative Singular Feminine
  8. σαρκὶsarkifleshG4561N-DSFNoun Dative Singular Feminine
  9. τοῦtou[the]G3588T-GSNDefinite article Genitive Singular Neuter
  10. κατὰkataaccording toG2596PREPPreposition
  11. σάρκαsarkafleshG4561N-ASFNoun Accusative Singular Feminine
  12. ζῆν·zēnto liveG2198V-PANVerb Present Active Infinitive
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

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This verse

Because the Spirit has set us free, we owe the flesh no debt and have no duty to live by our sinful nature.

“Therefore, brethren,”

“Therefore” ties this to all of Romans 8:1–11, and “brethren” speaks to everyone in the family of faith, since the truth applies to all who believe.

“we are debtors,”

Paul includes himself. Every believer is under an obligation, and the verse goes on to name the one we are released from.

“not to the flesh,”

The flesh once held power over us, and Christ’s redeeming work and the indwelling Spirit have broken it.

“to live after the flesh.”

This is the life the old debt demanded, with decisions and desires shaped by our fallen nature.

Passage studyRomans 8:12–17

Heirs with Christ

12Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Summary

Paul draws out what follows from the Spirit’s life in us. We owe the flesh no obedience, because a life lived by it ends in death, while those who put to death the deeds of the body through the Spirit will live. Everyone led by the Spirit of God is a son of God. The Spirit we have received is the Spirit of adoption, who moves us to call God “Abba, Father” and who bears witness with our own spirit that we are his children. And children are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, who share his sufferings now so that they will share his glory with him.

What we owe, and to whom

“Therefore” gathers up everything Paul has said since the chapter opened with “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The law of the Spirit of life has made us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). God did what the Law was too weak to do, sending his own Son and condemning sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). Paul has set the mind of the flesh, which is death, beside the mind of the Spirit, which is life and peace (Romans 8:5–11), and he has promised that the Spirit who dwells in everyone who belongs to Christ will also give life to their mortal bodies (Romans 8:9–11). Because all this is true, he turns to how we live. He calls his readers “brethren”, members of one family in Christ, and he counts himself among them: “we are debtors.”

A debtor, opheilétēs, is anyone under an obligation, whether the debt is money or a duty of conscience. The word would have meant a great deal in Rome, where people knew debts of many kinds, financial, social and moral, often bound up with a patron and the loyalty owed to him. Paul names the one creditor that has lost its claim on us. We owe the flesh nothing, and we have no duty “to live after the flesh.”

In Paul’s letters the flesh, sárx, usually means more than the physical body. It is our sinful, unredeemed human nature, the fallen disposition that sets itself against God, the principle of sin at work in us, which acts through the body. “To be carnally minded is death” (Romans 8:6), and “they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7–8). “To live after” joins záō, to live, with katá, according to, and it describes a life whose thoughts, choices and desires are steered by that nature. The flesh still tempts believers, and its rule over them has been broken. Paul has already said so: “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). He tells us to reckon ourselves “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11). This is the freedom from sin’s rule that he set out in Romans 6, and here it becomes the shape of daily life.

So what do we owe?

We owe God a life lived by his Spirit. The next verse shows where our obligation now lies: “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). God set us free by the Spirit of life, and the debt we now carry comes from his grace and is a joy to carry. Paul describes it elsewhere as walking in the Spirit: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). It is putting off the old man and putting on the new (Ephesians 4:22–24). Freedom from the flesh is freedom for righteousness, because God changes the very source of our desires and actions.

The church in Rome held both Jewish and Gentile believers. Jewish believers had long known the struggle with the Law and with sin, and Gentile believers had come out of the pagan practices and loose morals of their former lives. Paul’s word sets both free, from the self-effort of trying to be righteous under the Law and from the pressure to live as the people around them lived.

Putting to death the deeds of the body

Living after the flesh and putting its deeds to death through the Spirit lead to opposite ends. “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.” This death is first of all spiritual: separation from God, a life that ends in futility, and at last eternal condemnation. Sin brings physical death too, and here Paul is speaking of our standing before God and where we are going. Scripture has set life and death before people as the outcomes of obedience and disobedience from the beginning, when God warned Adam, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The promise on the other side, “ye shall live,” means true life with God now and eternal life in Christ to come.

To mortify is thanatóō, to put to death or to kill. Paul uses it as a picture of what we do with sinful deeds, which is to make them powerless and inoperative. What is put to death is the sinful impulse, and the body itself is left unharmed. Paul gives the same command in Colossians 3:5: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.”

“The deeds of the body” are the sinful practices that come from our fallen nature. They include the obvious sins and also any thought, word or act that grows out of pride, self-reliance or rebellion against God. Putting them to death is a daily work, done with watchfulness and prayer, because the Christian life is a continuing battle against what remains of sin. Paul says the same elsewhere: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12–14), and “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Galatians 5:16–17). He describes the struggle with sin in Romans 7, sets the works of the flesh against the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, and gives the believer armour for the fight in Ephesians 6.

Do we put sin to death in our own strength?

We do it “through the Spirit,” as the verse says. The word is pneûma, which means breath or wind and, by extension, a spirit, and here it is the Holy Spirit, who lives in every believer. He gives the strength, the conviction and the guidance to resist temptation, choose what is right and build godly habits. The Roman world knew self-discipline and even asceticism, usually pursued for other ends, and this verse places the power in God’s own Spirit, who is greater than all human weakness.

Our union with Christ is the ground of it. “Our old man is crucified with him” (Romans 6:6–7), and the Spirit whom Jesus promised his disciples (John 14:16–17) applies Christ’s victory to our daily lives. So putting sin to death is the fruit and evidence of salvation, and never a way of earning it. The life it leads to is Christ’s own life in us, which shapes us more and more to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29).

The sons of God are led by his Spirit

The mark of God’s family is the leading of his Spirit: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” To be led, ágō, is to be guided or conducted with a purpose, the way a shepherd leads his flock. It describes a continuing life in which the believer yields to the Spirit’s direction in thought, desire, decision and action. The Spirit leads through God’s Word, through prayer and wise counsel, and through the inner conviction he gives, so that we walk in step with him. Every believer has this Spirit, for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9).

Does being led by the Spirit make us sons?

Being led by the Spirit is the evidence of a sonship we already have through faith in Christ and adoption. Paul puts it this way to the Galatians: “because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6). The Spirit is the “Spirit of adoption” of the next verse, who confirms our sonship and enables us to live like God’s sons. This gives a steady assurance, resting on the Spirit’s presence and work in us, which holds firmer than our feelings or our performance. When we find ourselves more sensitive to God’s voice, wanting to obey him and given strength to resist sin, those are signs of his leading.

Sonship is God’s gift, given through the Spirit, and human effort or family line cannot gain it (Galatians 4:4–7). John says the same: “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12), and “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). Being led by the Spirit is also how holiness grows. The life Paul described in Romans 6:1–14, dead to sin and alive to God, is lived out as the Spirit leads.

The word for sons, huiós, carries the weight of full standing in a family and the right to inherit. Among the Romans, adoption (Latin adoptio) was a weighty legal practice, especially among the elite, who used it to secure an heir, carry on a family name or seal a political alliance. An adopted son (filius adoptivus) had every legal right of a son born into the family, including the inheritance. Paul’s readers in Rome knew that practice well.

The Spirit of adoption

“Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.” Bondage, douleía, is slavery, from the verb meaning to serve as a slave. Here it is spiritual slavery to sin and to the Law, a life marked by dread of judgment and by the hopeless effort to earn God’s favour by keeping the Law perfectly. The struggle Paul describes in Romans 7 is this condition, the inner conflict of one who is “carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). The “spirit of bondage” is a governing disposition, the frame of mind of a slave who lives in fear. The word “again,” pálin, shows that it belongs to the past: believers lived that way once, and that fear is behind them.

“But ye have received the Spirit of adoption.” This is the Holy Spirit himself, who brings about and guarantees our new standing as God’s children. Adoption, huiothesía, means literally “the placing as a son.” It is the legal act of taking someone into a family and giving them all the rights, privileges and inheritance of a child born into it. A Roman adoption was a complete change of family and status. The adopted child’s ties to the old family were cut, the child took the new family’s name, and everything a natural son had became the child’s own. Among the Jews sonship came mainly by birth and adoption was less common, so Paul’s legal term would have spoken especially to his Gentile readers. It told them that their place in God’s family is secure and binding.

God planned this adoption: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself” (Ephesians 1:5). And he paid for it. God “sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” to redeem those under the law, “that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4–5). Christ’s sacrifice removed the sin and the curse of the Law that bred the spirit of bondage.

What “Abba, Father” means

The Spirit of adoption is the one “whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Abbâ is the Aramaic word for father, a warm and familiar way of speaking to a father in Jewish homes. Jesus himself prayed with it: “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee” (Mark 14:36). Paul sets it beside the Greek word for father, Patēr, so that the one cry belongs to Jewish and Gentile believers alike. To cry, krázō, is to call out earnestly and from the heart, and it is the Spirit who stirs that cry in us. For Gentiles who had worshipped distant and fearsome gods, this nearness to God was something new.

The cry shares in the relationship Jesus has with his Father, into which he draws us: “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). So we come to God with the confidence and affection of children, and prayer becomes a child speaking with the Father.

The Spirit bears witness with our spirit

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” The verb, symmartyréō, joins sýn, with, to martyréō, to bear witness. It means to testify together, to confirm by agreeing evidence, the way a second witness in court backs up the first. The Holy Spirit testifies within us, and our own spirit, made alive by God, recognises his testimony and agrees with it. Both times the word is pneûma, which can name a human spirit as well as the divine Spirit. The first is the Holy Spirit, and the second is our innermost self. The Spirit himself gives this testimony, and its content is plain: we are the children of God.

This builds on the cry of verse 15. When we call God Father, the Spirit confirms that we really are his children, and he makes the truth of our adoption a living reality in our hearts. Paul says elsewhere that believers were “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” who is “the earnest of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13–14). Here is the ground of our assurance of salvation, a certainty given by God himself, which goes deeper than our own feelings and reasoning.

How does the Spirit bear witness?

The Spirit’s witness is an inner conviction, a settled knowledge that agrees with the truth of God’s Word. It can bring peace, joy and assurance, and it runs deeper than a passing emotion. It shows itself in a sense of belonging to God and a heart that knows him as Father, in peace about one’s salvation, in the Spirit opening Scripture so that we grasp its promises as our own, and in the fruit of the Spirit growing in us (Galatians 5:22–23). It is seldom an audible voice.

The experience of it varies from one believer to another. The truth it testifies to is the same for everyone in Christ, while how strongly a person senses it can depend on maturity, temperament, circumstances and even spiritual attack. Some know a deep, overwhelming peace, and others a quieter, steady conviction. The Spirit bears his witness all the same, because it rests on God’s faithfulness, even while our awareness of it rises and falls.

Children and sons

Verse 16 calls us children, téknon, where verse 14 called us sons, huiós. Téknon comes from the root of tíktō, to give birth, and means a child as one born. It speaks of real offspring and a shared nature, and it points to the new birth: believers are born of God’s Spirit and made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Huiós more often carries the sense of standing and the right to inherit. English uses “child” and “son” almost interchangeably, and in Paul the two words belong together. All believers are children by spiritual birth and sons in their standing and inheritance, and verse 17 draws the inheritance straight from the word “children.” John rejoices in the same family standing (1 John 3:1–2).

Jewish believers already knew “children of God” as a name for Israel or for the righteous. Paul gives it to all who believe in Christ, whatever their nation.

Heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ

“And if children, then heirs.” The inheritance follows from being God’s children, so it rests on grace alone. An heir, klēronómos, is one who receives an inheritance by right of kinship or by law. As God’s children we are heirs of his blessings and promises and of his eternal kingdom. Paul says we are “heirs of God,” and the inheritance comes from God and is, in a real sense, God himself: his eternal life, the riches of his kingdom, and unending fellowship with him. Paul writes the same hope to the Colossians: “of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24).

Then Paul goes further. We are “joint-heirs with Christ.” Synklēronómos joins syn-, with, to klēronómos, heir. Christ is the heir, the Son “whom he hath appointed heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2), and we share the same inheritance with him fully, as co-sharers in all that is his. What belongs to Christ by right, eternal life, the Father’s favour and future glory, becomes ours by grace. Our destiny is bound to his. If he is glorified, we will be glorified with him, and we will reign and live with him for ever.

Paul ties the verse together with three words built on syn-: synklēronómos, joint-heirs, sympáschō, suffer with, and syndoxázō, glorified together. Inheritance, suffering and glory all come to us with Christ. The word “heirs” also comes three times in a row, heirs, heirs of God, joint-heirs, rising each time.

Does suffering earn the inheritance?

Suffering is the road God’s children walk with Christ, and the inheritance is theirs already, by grace, because they are his children (Romans 8:15–16). “If so be,” eí per, states what goes along with being a child of God in a fallen world. Sharing Christ’s sufferings, whether persecution, hardship or self-denial for the gospel, marks us as his and shows that we are united with him. The glory is sure for all his children, and suffering is the path many of them walk on the way to it.

The church in Rome already faced opposition, and Paul helps them see their hardships as something shared with their Saviour that leads to sure glory. He goes straight on to say so: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). The verses that follow speak of the whole creation waiting for that glory (Romans 8:18–25).

Suffering with him, glorified together

This is the path Christ himself took. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and God, “in bringing many sons unto glory,” made “the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10). Jesus asked, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). He humbled himself to the death of the cross, and God highly exalted him (Philippians 2:8–9).

Our suffering with him is a share in his own life and destiny. Since we “have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). Paul’s own longing was to know “the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10), and Peter tells believers to “rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13). The glory of “glorified together” is the glory we will share with Christ at his return: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

The Son in whom we become sons

Every part of these verses rests on Jesus Christ, the Son of God in a unique sense (John 3:16). He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), the Spirit came down on him at his baptism (Matthew 3:16), and he cast out devils “by the Spirit of God” (Matthew 12:28). Fully God and fully man, he lived free of the flesh’s rule, obeyed the Father perfectly through the Spirit, and on the cross condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). Through his resurrection he began a new humanity that walks “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

The Spirit who leads us, cries “Abba” in us and bears witness with our spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), whom Jesus promised to send: “if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7). Our adoption is “by Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5), our “Abba” shares in his own prayer, and our inheritance is a share in his. To be a son of God is to be joined by faith to the true Son.

Living as the Father’s children

These verses tell you who you are if you belong to Christ. You owe the flesh nothing, so you are free to turn from temptation and to follow where God leads, and you do it through the Spirit who lives in you, out of thankful love for the One who set you free. Your place in God’s family rests on his adoption and his Spirit’s witness, so you can come to him as a child comes to a loving father and call him Abba in your prayers. And when following Christ costs you something, you are walking where he walked, on the way to a glory you will share with him. That hope lets you hold earthly comforts loosely and set your heart on the riches that last for ever.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Romans 8:10–16. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 7 verses
Passage under commentRomans 8:10–16
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

In these verses the apostle represents two more excellent benefits, which belong to true believers.

I.Life.

The happiness is not barely a negative happiness, not to be condemned; but it is positive, it is an advancement to a life that will be the unspeakable happiness of the man (Romans 8:10, Romans 8:11): If Christ be in you. Observe, If the Spirit be in us, Christ is in us. He dwells in the heart by faith, Ephesians 3:17. Now we are here told what becomes of the bodies and souls of those in whom Christ is.

1.We cannot say but that the body is dead; it is a frail, mortal, dying body, and it will be dead shortly; it is a house of clay, whose foundation is in the dust. The life purchased and promised does not immortalize the body in its present state. It is dead, that is, it is appointed to die, it is under a sentence of death: as we say one that is condemned is a dead man. In the midst of life we are in death: be our bodies ever so strong, and healthful, and handsome, they are as good as dead (Hebrews 11:12), and this because of sin. It is sin that kills the body. This effect the first threatening has (Genesis 3:19): Dust thou art. Methinks, were there no other argument, love to our bodies should make us hate sin, because it is such an enemy to our bodies. The death even of the bodies of the saints is a remaining token of God's displeasure against sin.

2.But the spirit, the precious soul, that is life; it is now spiritually alive, nay, it is life. Grace in the soul is its new nature; the life of the saint lies in the soul, while the life of the sinner goes no further than the body. When the body dies, and returns to the dust, the spirit if life; not only living and immortal, but swallowed up of life. Death to the saints is but the freeing of the heaven-born spirit from the clog and load of this body, that it may be fit to partake of eternal life. When Abraham was dead, yet God was the God of Abraham, for even then his spirit was life, Matthew 22:31, Matthew 22:32. See Psalm 49:15. And this because of righteousness. The righteousness of Christ imputed to them secures the soul, the better part, from death; the righteousness of Christ inherent in them, the renewed image of God upon the soul, preserves it, and, by God's ordination, at death elevates it, and improves it, and makes it meet to partake of the inheritance of the saints in light. The eternal life of the soul consists in the vision and fruition of God, and both assimilating, for which the soul is qualified by the righteousness of sanctification. I refer to Psalm 17:15, I will behold thy face in righteousness.

3.There is a life reserved too for the poor body at last: He shall also quicken your mortal bodies, Romans 8:11. The Lord is for the body; and though at death it is cast aside as a despised broken vessel, a vessel in which is no pleasure, yet God will have a desire to the work of his hands (Job 14:15), will remember his covenant with the dust, and will not lose a grain of it; but the body shall be reunited to the soul, and clothed with a glory agreeable to it. Vile bodies shall be newly fashioned, Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:42. Two great assurances of the resurrection of the body are mentioned: - (1.) The resurrection of Christ: He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken. Christ rose as the head, and first-fruits, and forerunner of all the saints, 1 Corinthians 15:20. The body of Christ lay in the grave, under the sin of all the elect imputed, and broke through it. O grave, then, where is thy victory? It is in the virtue of Christ's resurrection that we shall rise. (2.) The indwelling of the Spirit. The same Spirit that raiseth the soul now will raise the body shortly: By his Spirit that dwelleth in you. The bodies of the saints are the temples of the Holy Ghost, 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19. Now, though these temples may be suffered for awhile to lie in ruins, yet they shall be rebuilt. The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, shall be repaired, whatever great mountains may be in the way. The Spirit, breathing upon dead and dry bones, will make them live, and the saints even in their flesh shall see God. Hence the apostle by the way infers how much it is our duty to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, Romans 8:12, Romans 8:13. Let not our life be after the wills and motions of the flesh. Two motives he mentions here: - [1.] We are not debtors to the flesh, neither by relation, gratitude, nor any other bond or obligation. We owe no suit nor service to our carnal desires; we are indeed bound to clothe, and feed, and take care of the body, as a servant to the soul in the service of God, but no further. We are not debtors to it; the flesh never did us so much kindness as to oblige us to serve it. It is implied that we are debtors to Christ and to the Spirit: there we owe our all, all we have and all we can do, by a thousand bonds and obligations. Being delivered from so great a death by so great a ransom, we are deeply indebted to our deliverer. See 1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 6:20. [2.] Consider the consequences, what will be at the end of the way. Here are life and death, blessing and cursing, set before us. If you live after the flesh, you shall die; that is, die eternally. It is the pleasing, and serving, and gratifying, of the flesh, that are the ruin of souls; that is, the second death. Dying indeed is the soul's dying: the death of the saints is but a sleep. But, on the other hand, You shall live, live and be happy to eternity; that is the true life: If you through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, subdue and keep under all fleshly lusts and affections, deny yourselves in the pleasing and humouring of the body, and this through the Spirit; we cannot do it without the Spirit working it in us, and the Spirit will not do it without our doing our endeavour. So that in a word we are put upon this dilemma, either to displease the body or destroy the soul.

II.The Spirit of adoption is another privilege belonging to those that are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:14-16.

1.All that are Christ's are taken into the relation of Children to God, Romans 8:14. Observe,

(1.)Their property: They are led by the Spirit of God, as a scholar in his learning is led by his tutor, as a traveller in his journey is led by his guide, as a soldier in his engagements is led by his captain; not driven as beasts, but led as rational creatures, drawn with the cords of a man and the bands of love. It is the undoubted character of all true believers that they are led by the Spirit of God. Having submitted themselves in believing to his guidance, they do in their obedience follow that guidance, and are sweetly led into all truth and all duty.

(2.)Their privilege: They are the sons of God, received into the number of God's children by adoption, owned and loved by him as his children.

2.And those that are the sons of God have the Spirit,

(1.)To work in them the disposition of children.

[1.]You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, Romans 8:15. Understand it, First, Of that spirit of bondage which the Old Testament church was under, by reason of the darkness and terror of that dispensation. The veil signified bondage, 2 Corinthians 3:15. Compare Romans 8:17. The Spirit of adoption was not then so plentifully poured out as now; for the law opened the wound, but little of the remedy. Now you are not under that dispensation, you have not received that spirit. Secondly, Of that spirit of bondage which many of the saints themselves were under at their conversion, under the convictions of sin and wrath set home by the Spirit; as those in Acts 2:37, the jailer (Acts 16:30), Paul, Acts 9:6. Then the Spirit himself was to the saints a spirit of bondage: "But," says the apostle, "with you this is over." "God as a Judge," says Dr. Manton, "by the spirit of bondage, sends us to Christ as Mediator, and Christ as Mediator, by the spirit of adoption, sends us back again to God as a Father." Though a child of God may come under fear of bondage again, and may be questioning his sonship, yet the blessed Spirit is not again a spirit of bondage, for then he would witness an untruth.

[2.]But you have received the Spirit of adoption. Men may give a charter of adoption; but it is God's prerogative, when he adopts, to give a spirit of adoption - the nature of children. The Spirit of adoption works in the children of God a filial love to God as a Father, a delight in him, and a dependence upon him, as a Father. A sanctified soul bears the image of God, as the child bears the image of the father. Whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Praying is here called crying, which is not only an earnest, but a natural expression of desire; children that cannot speak vent their desires by crying. Now, the Spirit teaches us in prayer to come to God as a Father, with a holy humble confidence, emboldening the soul in that duty. Abba, Father. Abba is a Syriac word signifying father or my father; patēr, a Greek work; and why both, Abba, Father? Because Christ said so in prayer (Mark 14:36), Abba, Father: and we have received the Spirit of the Son. It denotes an affectionate endearing importunity, and a believing stress laid upon the relation. Little children, begging of their parents, can say little but Father, Father, and that is rhetoric enough. It also denotes that the adoption is common both to Jews and Gentiles: the Jews call him Abba in their language, the Greeks may call him patēr in their language; for in Christ Jesus there is neither Greek nor Jew.

(2.)To witness to the relation of children, Romans 8:16. The former is the work of the Spirit as a Sanctifier; this as a Comforter. Beareth witness with our spirit. Many a man has the witness of his own spirit to the goodness of his state who has not the concurring testimony of the Spirit. Many speak peace to themselves to whom the God of heaven does not speak peace. But those that are sanctified have God's Spirit witnessing with their spirits, which is to be understood not of any immediate extraordinary revelation, but an ordinary work of the Spirit, in and by the means of comfort, speaking peace to the soul. This testimony is always agreeable to the written word, and is therefore always grounded upon sanctification; for the Spirit in the heart cannot contradict the Spirit in the word. The Spirit witnesses to none the privileges of children who have not the nature and disposition of children.

Historical interpretation

Two Centuries of Reception

6 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

6 quotes · AD 253–458
Ante-NicenePost-Nicene
300400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 258CyprianAnte-NiceneSourceTreatise X. On Jealousy and Envy.
Vices and carnal sins must be trampled down, beloved brethren, and the corrupting plague of the earthly body must be trodden under foot with spiritual vigour, lest, while we are turned back again to the conversation of the old man, we be entangled in deadly snares, even as the apostle, with foresight and wholesomeness, forewarned us of this very thing, and said: "Therefore, brethren, let us not live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall begin to die; but if ye, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God." If we are the sons of God, if we are already beginning to be His temples, if, having received the Holy Spirit, we are living holily and spiritually, if we have raised our eyes from earth to heaven, if we have lifted our hearts, filled with God and Christ, to things above and divine, let us do nothing but what is worthy of God and Christ, even as the apostle arouses and exhorts us, saying: "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; occupy your minds with things that are above, not with things which are upon the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. But when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Let us, then, who in baptism have both died and been buried in respect of the carnal sins of the old man, who have risen again with Christ in the heavenly regeneration, both think upon and do the things which are Christ's, even as the same apostle again teaches and counsels, saying: "The first man is of the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven. Such as he is from the earth, such also are they who are froth the earth and such as He the heavenly is, such also are they who are heavenly. As we have borne the image of him who is of the earth, let us also bear the image of Him who is from heaven." But we cannot bear the heavenly image, unless in that condition wherein we have already begun to be, we show forth the likeness of Christ.
d. AD 384AmbrosiasterPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
It is right and clear that we are not obliged to follow Adam, who lived according to the flesh, and who by being the first to sin left us an inheritance of sin. On the contrary, we ought rather to obey the law of Christ who, as was demonstrated above, has redeemed us spiritually from death. We are debtors to him who has washed our spirits, which had been sullied by carnal sins, in baptism, who has justified us and who has made us children of God.
d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceHomily on Romans 14
After showing how great the reward of a spiritual life is, and that it maketh Christ to dwell in us, and that it quickeneth our mortal bodies, and wingeth them to heaven, and rendereth the way of virtue easier, he next fitly introduces an exhortation to this purpose. "Therefore" we ought "not to live after the flesh." But this is not what he says, for he words it in a much more striking and powerful way, thus, "we are debtors to the Spirit." For saying, "we are debtors not to the flesh," indicates this. And this is a point he is everywhere giving proof of, that what God hath done for us is not matter of debt, but of mere grace. But after this, what we do is no longer matter of free-will offering, but of debt. For when he saith, "Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men"; and when he writes, "Ye are not your own"; and again in another passage he calls these selfsame things to their mind, in these words, "If One died for all, then all died that they should not henceforth live unto themselves." And it is to establish this that he says here also, "We are debtors;" then since he said we are "not" debtors "to the flesh," lest you should again take him to be speaking against the nature of the flesh, he does not leave speaking, but proceeds, "to live after the flesh." For there are many things which we do owe it, as giving it food, warmth, and rest, medicine when out of health, clothing, and a thousand other attentions. To prevent your supposing then that it is this ministration he is for abrogating when he says, "We are not debtors to the flesh," he explains it by saying, "to live after the flesh." For the care that I am for abrogating is, he means, that which leadeth to sin, as I should be for its having what is healing to it.

You see that it is not the essence of the body whereof we are discoursing, but the deeds of the flesh. For he does not say, "if ye through the Spirit do mortify" the essence "of the body," but "the deeds of" it, and these not all deeds, but such as are evil. And this is plain in what follows: for if ye do this, "ye shall live," he says. And how is it in the nature of things for this to be, if it was all deeds that his language applied to? for seeing and hearing and speaking and walking are deeds of the body; and if we mortify these, we shall be so far from living, that we shall have to suffer the punishment of a manslayer. What sort of deeds then does he mean us to mortify? Those which tend toward wickedness, those which go after vice, which there is no other way of mortifying save through the Spirit. For by killing yourself you may put an end to the others. And this you have no right to do. But to these you can put an end by the Spirit only. For if This be present, all the billows are laid low, and the passions cower under It, and nothing can exalt itself against us.
d. AD 418PelagiusPost-NiceneSourcePELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
The force of this whole argument is to show that the law, which was given for the carnally minded, is not necessary for those who are spiritual.
d. AD 458Theodoret of CyrusPost-NiceneSourceINTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
Since we have obtained salvation from Christ the Lord and have received the grace of the Spirit, we are obliged to serve him.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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