COMMENTS
The conditions upon which we may continue our relationship to the Lord, and our hope for a share in the glories of the resurrection are thus definitely stated to include mortification of the deeds of the body—restraining the fleshly inclinations, putting them to death, crucifying them, using them up in the service of the Lord and His cause. Such mortification of the deeds of the body, such a battle against the weaknesses of the flesh, is what the Apostle elsewhere speaks of as the "warfare," when he tells us that the flesh warreth against the spirit, and the spirit in turn warreth against the flesh; for the two are contrary, and will be opponents to the end of life; and if the spirit has been willing, and has fought to the best of its ability against the weaknesses of the flesh, the Lord will count the victory complete, through the merit of the Redeemer.
By the spirit the new heart, mind and will is meant; by the body the humanity is meant. By the deeds of the body the selfish, worldly, erroneous and sinful tendencies and their expressions are meant. The deeds of the body are mortified especially in two ways, by their displacement through their opposite good qualities and acts and by their restraint through good qualities and acts that are not their opposites. He who so does will gain life.
Gal. 4:6; 5:16, 17, 22-25; 6:8; Eph. 3:16; Col. 3:10; 1 Pet. 2:21; 3:4; Rom. 6:6-23; 8:11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Eph. 4:22-32; Col. 3:5-9; Deut. 30:6; Ezek. 18:21; 33:15, 16; Zech. 4:6; Matt. 16:25; 19:12, 16, 21; Luke 18:29, 30; John 12:25.
