"They cannot": it is a moral impossibility. "The Law of God" is, "Thou shalt love Me with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself"; the mind of the flesh is, "I will love my self and its will first and most." Let this be disguised as it may, even from the man himself; it is always the same thing in its essence. It may mean a defiant choice of open evil. It may mean a subtle and almost evanescent preference of literature, or art, or work, or home, to God's will as such. It is in either case "_the mind of the flesh_," a thing which cannot be refined and educated into holiness, but must be surrendered at discretion, as its eternal enemy. [Sidenote: Ver. 9.] =But you= (there is a glad emphasis on "_you_") =are not in flesh, but in Spirit,= surrendered to the indwelling Presence as your law and secret, =on the assumption that= (εἴπερ: he suggests not weary misgivings but a true examination) =God's Spirit dwells in you;= has His home in your hearts, humbly welcomed into a continuous residence. =But if any one has not Christ's Spirit,= (who is the Spirit as of the Father so of the Son, sent by the Son, to reveal and to impart Him,) =that man is not His.= He may bear his Lord's name, he may be externally a Christian, he may enjoy the divine Sacraments of union; but he has not "the Thing." The Spirit, evidenced by His holy fruit, is no Indweller there; and the Spirit is our vital Bond with Christ. [Sidenote: Ver. 10.] =But if Christ is,= thus by the Spirit, =in you,= dwelling by faith in the hearts which the Spirit has "strengthened" to receive Christ (Eph. iii. 16, 17)--=true (μὲν), the body is dead, because of sin,= the primeval sentence still holds its way _there_; the body is deathful still, it is the body of the Fall; =but the Spirit[127] is life,= He is in that body, your secret of power and peace eternal, =because of righteousness,= because of the merit of your Lord, in which you are accepted, and which has won for you this wonderful Spirit-life. Then even for the body there is assured a glorious future, organically one with this living present. Let us listen as he goes on: [Sidenote: Ver. 11.] =But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus,= the slain Man, =from the dead, dwells in you, He who raised from the dead Christ Jesus,= the Man so revealed and glorified as the Anointed Saviour, =shall also bring to life your mortal bodies, because of (διὰ τὸ κτλ[128]) His Spirit, dwelling in you.= That "frail temple," once so much defiled, and so defiling, is now precious to the Father because it is the habitation of the Spirit of His Son. Nor only so; that same Spirit, who, by uniting us to Christ, made actual our redemption, shall surely, in ways to us unknown, carry the process to its glorious crown, and be somehow the Efficient Cause of "the redemption of our body."