Pentecost (Rom 8:8-17)

(Rom 8:8-17)

Romans 8:8 Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:9 But you are not under the control of the flesh, but under the control of the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to him.

Paul does not want anyone to be under any illusions: those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. This is the truth. From the acceptance of this truth arises in us the possibility of a new path. If, on the other hand, we allow ourselves to be conquered by illusion, everything ends; every path upwards becomes impossible, and will always be impossible as long as man has the illusion of pleasing God, while God does not like him because he is guided and led by his flesh.

The flesh wants self-affirmation and the annulment of God; it wants the deification of man and, consequently, the removal of man from God. Those who live according to the flesh are in revolt against God; indeed, God is considered an enemy, the one who takes away space from man because he wants to rule his life. In order to affirm himself in his flesh, he wants the death of God.

This drama became reality with Jesus Christ. He was crucified, condemned to death, because his presence required the death of the flesh in which man had fallen. The flesh killed God, hung him on the wood of the cross, and took him away. This opposition between the flesh and God will accompany man throughout his life, then it will be transformed either into eternal death or eternal life, either forever far from God or forever close to God.

We can and must please God, because we are not under the dominion of the flesh, but under the dominion of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us: 'But you are not under the dominion of the flesh'. Through baptism, man has died to the dominion of the flesh and has risen with Christ to new life. This is the truth that every Christian must make his own. Through baptism, a change of kingdom has taken place, from the kingdom of the flesh to the kingdom of the Spirit. This passage is real and true, even if it remains to be fulfilled until the end, until the resurrection of the body. This faith must be the light that moves every action of the Christian, the force that drives him towards the conquest of full freedom in Christ. He is now free; slavery is over, and the long, arduous journey full of dangers that will lead him to his heavenly homeland, in complete freedom from all slavery, has begun.

"...but of the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you." The truth that Paul never ceases to remind us is that Christians are under the dominion of the Spirit, and this is attested to by the fact that the Spirit of God dwells in them. However, Paul does not say "since," but "eiper," "if indeed," or "if this is so." Paul likes to insinuate doubt, to make us more attentive and more solicitous of the things of God.

There is now only one principle of life that must reign in Christians, and this principle is the very life of God that must become the life of believers. The flesh is falsehood, selfishness, disobedience, and separation from God. The Spirit, on the other hand, creates freedom, love, communion, obedience, submission to God; it creates in man the death of his flesh that makes him a slave to sin. This is the mission of the Spirit in the Christian. For this reason, every baptised person in whom the Spirit of the Lord dwells cannot be under the dominion of the flesh, because the Spirit is the destruction of the flesh. When we speak of being in the flesh or in the Spirit, we touch on the ontology of the believer and, therefore, his very essence, and we highlight how being a believer and being baptised deeply involve the person at every level, making him a new creature.

"If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him." This is an obvious and trivial statement, were it not for the fact that we too easily presume to belong to Christ. If the Spirit brings about the destruction of the flesh, if the Spirit creates the new man, if the Spirit leads the believer to the fullness of life and truth, it is also true that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ cannot belong to Christ. He does not belong to Christ because he belongs to the flesh, and even if Christ bought him at a high price by shedding his blood on the cross, if man has fallen back and returned of his own free will under the dominion of the flesh, this man cannot belong to Christ. Belonging to Christ is not simply a matter of belonging due to the fact that through the sacrament of baptism man has left the dominion of the flesh to enter that of the Spirit. This is an initial, incipient belonging. It is necessary that this belonging be transformed into the habitual dwelling place of the Spirit within us. We are Christ's, we belong to Him because He bought us with His most precious blood, but we can freely leave this belonging through our surrender to sin and death.In this case, the Spirit no longer dwells in us and we are no longer Christ's, we no longer belong to him. Therefore, true belonging to Christ is only that which is transformed into the habitual dwelling place of the Spirit. Any other belonging is not true, it is false, because the Spirit does not guide our steps, does not enlighten our minds.

Here, then, is the whole purpose of preaching, evangelisation, and the celebration of the sacraments: to belong to God not through sacramentalisation, not through aggregation, not because we are the visible Church, but through listening, through fulfilling His will, through realising His word. This work can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books

- Apocalypse – exegetical commentary

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

Catholics and Protestants in comparison – In defence of the faith

The Church and Israel according to St. Paul – Romans 9-11

(Available on Amazon)

41 Last modified on Tuesday, 03 June 2025 22:33

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Argentino Quintavalle

Argentino Quintavalle è studioso biblico ed esperto in Protestantesimo e Giudaismo. Autore del libro “Apocalisse - commento esegetico” (disponibile su Amazon) e specializzato in catechesi per protestanti che desiderano tornare nella Chiesa Cattolica.

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“It is part of the mystery of God that he acts so gently, that he only gradually builds up his history within the great history of mankind; that he becomes man and so can be overlooked by his contemporaries and by the decisive forces within history; that he suffers and dies and that, having risen again, he chooses to come to mankind only through the faith of the disciples to whom he reveals himself; that he continues to knock gently at the doors of our hearts and slowly opens our eyes if we open our doors to him” [Jesus of Nazareth II, 2011, p. 276) (Pope Benedict, Regina Coeli 22 maggio 2011]

«È proprio del mistero di Dio agire in modo sommesso. Solo pian piano Egli costruisce nella grande storia dell’umanità la sua storia. Diventa uomo ma in modo da poter essere ignorato dai contemporanei, dalle forze autorevoli della storia. Patisce e muore e, come Risorto, vuole arrivare all’umanità soltanto attraverso la fede dei suoi ai quali si manifesta. Di continuo Egli bussa sommessamente alle porte dei nostri cuori e, se gli apriamo, lentamente ci rende capaci di “vedere”» (Gesù di Nazareth II, 2011, 306) [Papa Benedetto, Regina Coeli 22 maggio 2011]

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