Romans 8

“So then” draws the line from the Spirit’s indwelling: brothers are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Wesley: we are not debtors to the flesh—we ought not to follow it. The obligation is no illusion, and it runs the other way.

Arminian readers hear a living duty under grace. Freedom from the flesh’s claim does not annul obedience; it names what the church must not live for. The Spirit enables the walk; the walk is still required of those who remain in Christ. Do not flatten “not debtors” into permission to coast.

Calvin: this is the conclusion of what has been said—if we are to renounce the flesh, we ought not to consent to it; if the Spirit ought to reign in us, it is inconsistent not to attend to his bidding. Paul omits the other half of the contrast, that we are debtors to the Spirit, but the meaning is not obscure. The sentence has the force of an exhortation.

Those in whom the Spirit dwells are bound to his bidding. Calvin warns against the idle talk that says we must do nothing because we have no power. Grace offered is not to be extinguished by contempt. The debt is the fruit of indwelling, not a ladder into the family.

The warning is not decorative. If you live after the flesh, you must die; if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Wesley: the deeds of the flesh are not only evil actions, but evil desires, tempers, thoughts. If ye mortify—kill, destroy these—ye shall live: the life of faith more abundantly here, and hereafter the life of glory.

Classical Arminians take putting to death as a Spirit-enabled duty. Those who live after the flesh will die—including a believer who returns to the flesh. Life is promised to those who, by the Spirit, actually mortify. The “if” is a living condition, not a description of an already-closed class.

Calvin: he adds a threatening to shake off torpor, and to confute those who boast of justification by faith without the Spirit of Christ. We are justified in Christ through mercy alone; equally certain, all who are justified are called to live worthy of their vocation. He promises life provided we strive to mortify the flesh—not requiring its total destruction, but every exertion to subdue its lusts.

Putting to death grows from indwelling, not a condition that might undo the adopted. The same people the Spirit indwells are the people who mortify. The “if” names how the sons live, not a maybe that could cancel sonship. Those who live after the flesh show they are not the Spirit’s.

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. Wesley: led—in all the ways of righteousness. They are the sons of God. Sonship is not a title worn without the leading. The mark is present, ongoing guidance in righteousness.

Arminian readers find a living identification: the sons are those actually led who continue. Leading can be refused; those who cease to follow the Spirit cease to be marked as sons. Do not flatten “are children” into an unconditional status irrespective of the walk the verse names.

Calvin: those only are deemed the sons of God who are ruled by his Spirit; by this mark God acknowledges them as his own people. Empty boasting of hypocrites is taken away; the faithful are encouraged with unhesitating confidence to expect salvation. All who are led by God’s Spirit are sons; all the sons are heirs of eternal life; therefore those so led ought to feel assured of eternal life.

The Spirit leads the sons. Leading is the sanctification with which the Lord favors none but his own elect, and by which he separates them for sons to himself. The mark does not create a maybe; it identifies the people the Father has taken. Being led is fruit of sonship, not a condition the child might fail and so fall out of the family.

You didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” Wesley: ye who are true Christians. We—all and every believer—cry: a vehement speaking, with desire, confidence, constancy. Abba, Father: the latter word explains the former; Jewish and Gentile believers cry together.

Classical Arminians hear adoption as the gift of those who are true Christians, the people who have the Spirit and cry. The cry is living confidence, not a slave’s terror. Fall back into fear is a serious danger named; the Spirit of adoption is for those who remain in the Son, not a stamp that cannot be left.

Calvin: the Spirit was not given to harass us with trembling but to calm perturbation and stir us to call on God with confidence. Under the gospel the Spirit of adoption exhilarates our souls by bearing a testimony as to our salvation. The word cry expresses confidence: we pray not doubtingly, but we confidently raise up a loud voice to heaven.

Abba is the adopted child’s cry, poured in by the Spirit. The Father has taken these people; the cry is the Spirit’s own work in them. Fear is not the last word over the sons. Adoption is God’s act; the cry is its fruit, not a condition we might fail to meet and so lose the family.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. Wesley: with the spirit of every true believer, by a testimony distinct from that of his own spirit, or the testimony of a good conscience. The witness is given to true believers—those who walk in the Spirit.

Arminian readers take the witness as a present testimony to those who remain true believers. It is distinct from mere conscience, and it is enjoyed as they continue as children. The witness does not make perseverance automatic; it attends those who remain in the Son.

Calvin: the Spirit of God gives us such a testimony that, when he is our guide and teacher, our spirit is made assured of the adoption of God. Our mind of its own self, without the preceding testimony of the Spirit, could not convey this assurance. When the Spirit testifies that we are the children of God, he pours into our hearts such confidence that we venture to call God our Father.

The Abba-witness is the Spirit’s seal on the adopted. It is God’s own testimony, not a mood we manufacture. The seal does not hang on our constancy as a maybe; it is how the Father assures the children he has taken.

If children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. Wesley: joint heirs—that we may know it is a great inheritance, for God has given a great one to his Son. If we suffer with him—willingly and cheerfully, for righteousness’ sake. This is a new proposition, referring to what follows.

Arminians take “if indeed we suffer with him” as a living condition of heirship. Children who suffer with Christ are glorified with him; the “if indeed” is not decorative. Heirship is for those who continue in the Son’s path. A believer who refuses the cross steps outside the provision. Suffering with him is the appointed way, and it is a true “if.”

Calvin: since God has adopted us as his children, he has at the same time ordained an inheritance for us. We are co-heirs with Christ, provided, in entering on our inheritance, we follow him in the same way in which he has gone before: Christ came to it by the cross; then we must come in the same manner. He denotes the order the Lord follows in dispensing salvation, rather than the cause. He has already defended the gratuitous mercy of God against the merits of works.

Heirship with Christ is certain for those the Father has adopted. Suffering with him is the path of the same people, not a maybe that undoes adoption. The “if indeed” names how God governs the heirs—through the cross to glory—not a condition that could cancel the inheritance already conferred on Christ, whose partners we have become.