Romans 8:13

In this way the regenerate man himself would go on to death. So the flesh will reward us for our fidelity in discharging our debt to it. Μέλλετε : “there is nothing for you but to die; such is the only future which awaits you.” Now was the time to resume the sentence which had been begun: “Ye are under obligation... to the Spirit. ” But the apostle supposes this idea to come out clearly enough from the expressed contrast: not to the flesh, and continues as if he had expressed it: “ But if through the Spirit,” etc. Whither does this principle, whose impelling power takes the place of the flesh, lead us? To death also; to the death of the flesh, and thereby to life: ye shall live. The rhythm of this verse is quite similar to that observed by Calvin in Romans 7:9-10; Romans 13 a, the life of the flesh is the death of Man 1:13 b, the death of the flesh is the life of man. Why does the apostle say: the works of the body, and not of the flesh? This difference already struck certain Greco-Latin copyists, who have sought to correct the text in this direction. But it is unnecessary. The complement: of the body, is not here the genitive of the instrument, but that of the author. The acts of which the body is the simple instrument are not its own. Paul would suppress those of which it is the independent author, and wherein, consequently, it withdraws from the dominion of the Spirit. These should come to an end, because in the Christian the Spirit should direct and penetrate all, even his eating and drinking, according to the example quoted by the apostle, 1 Corinthians 10:31. In all these acts of life the body should not guide, but be guided. Every act of sacrifice whereby the independence of the body is denied, and its submission to the spirit forcibly asserted, secures a growth of spiritual life in man. It is only as a void is cleared in the domain of the flesh, that the efficacy of the Spirit shows itself with new force. Thus is explained the ye shall live, which applies to every moment of the believer's existence on to the state of perfection.

This last word: ye shall live, becomes the theme of the following passage. For the two attributes son and heir of God, which are about to be developed, the one in Romans 8:14-16, the other in Romans 8:17, exhaust the notion of life.