Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Romans 8:9-11


9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. ~ Romans 8:9-11


In Romans 6-8 we are given instruction about sanctification which is the process whereby God is changing our souls on a daily basis. Our souls are made up of our minds, wills and emotions. Thus, our sanctification begins with what defines our thinking.

Romans 8 chronicles the activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer in Christ. In v.1-4, we are taught that the Spirit of God teaches us that we are not condemned, even though we still struggle with sin. In v.5-8, we are taught by the Spirit to think God's thoughts. And, in v.9-11, the Spirit of God teaches us how to walk in God's ways.

In v.9 of today's passage we read, "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His."

The believer in Christ has been delivered from the penalty of his sin and has now been translated into the kingdom of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, the believer in Christ still has a daily choice to feed the Spirit of God who lives within us. When we are not feeding the Spirit or following His lead in our lives, we automatically will feed the flesh which are the evil desires that are yet within us. 

In v.10 of today's passage we read, "And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." 

If the believer in Christ feeds the Spirit of God within, we will experience life. We have, before, referred to this life which is the kind of life that is not of this world. This life essentially is the life of Christ. With His life we gain God's ability to evaluate the life that we live in this world. Thus, we are enabled to walk in God's ways, which is what the Bible calls walking in the Spirit.

The way of the Believer in Christ is unraveled in the mystery of what God wants to give us as we yield our lives to Him. This never-ending search for clues about God and His ways is primarily found in His word, the Bible. As the Believer listens to the words of God and learns His thoughts and ways, he will recognize His voice in every avenue of life. And yet, there remains the stranger that resides within. The more we learn and know about God, the more we will walk in His ways.

The tragedy of modern faith is that it seems to no longer be capable of what the Bible calls transformation. This transformation of one's life begins with the bone-chilling, earth-shattering, gut-wrenching, knee knocking, heart-stopping, life-changing fear that leaves us speechless, paralyzed, and helpless? What happened to those moments when we would open our Bibles and our hands started shaking because we were afraid of the Truth we might find there? “Truth” has different expressions, according to the Bible. 

The first way that truth is presented to us in God's word, as Mike Yaconelli once said,  "Brings with it a description of a wrestler grabbing an opponent by the throat; a word meaning to describe the humiliation of a criminal who was paraded in front of a crowd with a dagger tied to his neck, its point under his chin so he could not put his head down. That is what the Truth is really like! It grabs us by the throat, it flays us wide open, it forces us to look into the face of God. When is the last time you and I heard God’s Truth and were grabbed by the throat? We are afraid of unemployment, the collapse of our government, not being fulfilled, more than being afraid of God."

Now, I can hear someone saying, "but you told me that in Romans 8:1-4, the Spirit teaches us that we are not condemned?" This is true, but the fear that I am referring to here is different that that type of fear. This is respect, which is a product of experiencing God's grace. I would like to suggest that we become a people who hears God saying to us, “Fear not” again. Our relationship with God is not a simple belief or doctrine or theology, it is God’s burning presence in our lives. I am suggesting that the tame god of comfort be replaced by the God whose very presence shatters our egos into dust, and strips us naked to reveal the real person within. 

In v.11 of today's passage we read, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

Unfortunately, many say this verse refers to the promise of the resurrection at the end of life, when we will be given new bodies. But that is not what Paul is saying here. He is talking about the Spirit giving life to our mortal bodies. A mortal body is one that is subject to death. It is dying, but it is not yet dead. Therefore, this is not talking about the resurrection, he is talking about what the Spirit does in the believer in Christ now. We cannot reverse the processes of death, no one can. Our bodies are going to die. But we can refuse to let the members of our bodies become the instruments of sin. We do not have to give in to sin. 

After I invited the Lord Jesus into my life, just one month before my eighteenth birthday, I remember the chang that was rendered in my heart. Where up to that point in my life, I didn't want to go to church. Once I trusted in Him,  I wanted to go to church. And, all of a sudden, I wanted to read the Bible. I didn't want to read the Bible before. I wouldn't have understood it had I tried to read it. But, once I was born again, I had such a craving for reading the Bible. That did not mean that I would no longer sin. I have sinned throughout my life. But, my relationship to sin is different now than it was before I was born again. I now see how foolish sin is. So, I have been known to turn away from it. I have also been known to embrace the culture of God, and that is the wisest thing I have ever done.