Romans 8:3-13

8:3 For God achieved what the law could not do because 1  it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 8:4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

8:5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by 2  the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 8:6 For the outlook 3  of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 8:7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 8:9 You, however, are not in 4  the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but 5  the Spirit is your life 6  because of righteousness. 8:11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one 7  who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ 8  from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you. 9 

8:12 So then, 10  brothers and sisters, 11  we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh 8:13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will 12  die), 13  but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

1 tn Grk “in that.”

2 tn Grk “think on” or “are intent on” (twice in this verse). What is in view here is not primarily preoccupation, however, but worldview. Translations like “set their mind on” could be misunderstood by the typical English reader to refer exclusively to preoccupation.

3 tn Or “mindset,” “way of thinking” (twice in this verse and once in v. 7). The Greek term φρόνημα does not refer to one’s mind, but to one’s outlook or mindset.

4 tn Or “are not controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit.”

5 tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

6 tn Or “life-giving.” Grk “the Spirit is life.”

7 sn The one who raised Jesus from the dead refers to God (also in the following clause).

8 tc Several mss read ᾿Ιησοῦν (Ihsoun, “Jesus”) after Χριστόν (Criston, “Christ”; א* A D* 630 1506 1739 1881 pc bo); C 81 104 lat have ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν. The shorter reading is more likely to be original, though, both because of external evidence (א2 B D2 F G Ψ 33 Ï sa) and internal evidence (scribes were much more likely to add the name “Jesus” if it were lacking than to remove it if it were already present in the text, especially to harmonize with the earlier mention of Jesus in the verse).

9 tc Most mss (B D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï lat) have διά (dia) followed by the accusative: “because of his Spirit who lives in you.” The genitive “through his Spirit” is supported by א A C(*) 81 104 1505 1506 al, and is slightly preferred.

10 tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

11 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

12 tn Grk “are about to, are certainly going to.”

13 sn This remark is parenthetical to Paul’s argument.