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Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:1, 3-4; 5:10-11, 17; 6:4; 7:6; 8:2, 4-6, 9-10, 14-16, 23, 26-30; 12:11; 14:17
Romans, the first Epistle, is a very basic book. As we have seen, the four Gospels present Christ as the Head, and the Acts shows us the spreading of the Head, which is His Body, the church composed of many members. Romans tells us how these members come into existence that they may be composed as the Body of Christ. This book gives us a clear picture, showing us that all the members of the Body originally were sinners under God’s condemnation. Then these sinners were redeemed, being justified by faith in Christ through His redemption.
Only through the first part of chapter 5 of Romans is the justification of sinners covered. After justification there is something deeper and further that is accomplished, not by the death of Christ but by His life. Verse 10 of chapter 5 says, “If we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” Were reconciled is in the past tense, but will be saved is in the future tense. Reconciliation by the death of Christ has been accomplished already, but salvation by His life is still going on. We have been reconciled by His death, and now by His life we are being saved. Not only are we saved in His life, but verse 17 goes on to say that we can reign as kings in this life. Following this, 6:4 says that we walk in newness of life, and 7:6 says that we serve God in newness of spirit. Having been reconciled to God, we will more and more be saved in His life, reign as kings in this life, walk in newness of life, and serve in newness of spirit.
Romans 6:4 speaks of newness of life, and 7:6 of newness of spirit. It seems that life and spirit are two things, but chapter 8 puts these two together. Verse 2 uses the title the Spirit of life, and verse 10 says, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” Romans mentions life, then spirit, then the Spirit of life. We should not think that spirit and life are two separate things. Rather, these two are one. The Spirit is the Spirit of life, and our spirit is life. To be saved by His life means that we are saved by the Spirit of life.
Verses 9 through 11 tell us who this Spirit of life is. These verses say, “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One 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 indwells you.” According to this context, the Spirit of life is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself. Moreover, this Christ is in us. We should underline or highlight this short phrase, Christ is in you, in verse 10.
In order to read the Bible in the best way, we sometimes should pick the important words in a passage, write them on a separate piece of paper, and carefully consider them. All the above phrases in Romans are very meaningful. First we have life, then spirit, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and finally Christ. The spirit is life, the Spirit is the Spirit of life, the Spirit of life is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself. Eventually, Christ Himself is life (John 14:6; Col. 3:4).
Romans 8:14-15 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery bringing you into fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!” The spirit of sonship is our regenerated human spirit mingled with the Spirit of the Son of God. Sonship is the reality of being a son; thus, the spirit of sonship is the spirit of the reality of being a son. Verse 16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Spirit of the Son of God witnesses with our spirit that we are the sons of God.
Verse 23 says that with this Spirit of life and of sonship there are the firstfruits, which are a foretaste, just as the firstfruits of an orchard are the foretaste of the harvest. The firstfruits of the Spirit indicates that the Spirit of life, the Spirit for our sonship whom we enjoy, is the foretaste and not yet the full taste of our full enjoyment of God. While someone is cooking in the kitchen, before she brings the meal to the dining table, she may taste a little of what she is making. This is a foretaste. Later, the full taste will be on the table. Today we are enjoying the Spirit of life and the Spirit for our sonship very much, but even this is only a foretaste. In the future we will have the full taste of the Spirit. In addition, verse 26 says that the Spirit helps us by interceding, and in verse 29 it is the Spirit who conforms us to the image of the Son of God.
All of the above items are included in the one phrase saved in His life. To be saved in His life is to be saved in Christ Himself as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The first part of Romans tells us that Christ redeemed us on the cross. Now the middle part of this book tells us that this very redeeming Christ today is within us. “Christ is in you” (8:10). The One who died on the cross to redeem us is now within us. In the past He was on the cross for redemption, but now He is within us for life as the Spirit. Now the redeeming Christ is one with the redeemed sinners. He is in us redeemed ones as our life, the life-giving Spirit, to do many wonderful things for our salvation.
We must be very clear that the Christ in Romans is one with us because He is in us. If Christ had not been made flesh, He could not have died on the cross for our sins as the Lamb of God. He needed to become flesh to be the Lamb of God. If Christ were not the life-giving Spirit, He could not be within us. Today Christ is the life-giving Spirit within us to be our life. In Romans 8 this Spirit is called the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit mingled with our spirit to be a spirit of sonship.
According to the book of Romans, the Spirit of life is doing a fourfold work within us, a work of four aspects. First, the Spirit of life liberates us; that is, He sets us free. Romans 8:2 says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” The Spirit of life within us today is liberating us all the time. Christians speak of identification with the death of Christ according to Romans 6. Then they learn to reckon that they are dead (vv. 6, 11), believing that it is by this reckoning that they will be freed from sin. However, this does not work. Our liberation is not in our reckoning; it is in the Spirit of life. When we walk in the Spirit of life, we are freed. There is no need merely to try to identify with the death of Christ or reckon that we are dead. More than thirty years ago I reckoned in this way very much. Eventually, I found out that this simply does not work. Liberation is not in identification or in reckoning but in the Spirit of life.
Moreover, liberation is not in any kind of doctrine. It is not even in the doctrine of the Spirit of life. It is not doctrine or teaching that liberates us. Rather, it is the Spirit of life Himself. We must walk and have our being in the Spirit of life. Whether or not someone knows this doctrine, as long as he is in the Spirit of life, he is freed. We may compare this to electricity. Whether or not someone knows the power of electricity, if he simply touches the electricity, he will be burned. It is not knowledge that liberates us; it is this Spirit of life. Therefore, we need to pray, not that the Lord would liberate us but pray ourselves into the liberation, that is, to pray ourselves into the liberating Spirit. The Spirit of life liberates us from every kind of bondage. When we are in the Spirit of life, we are released.
Second, the Spirit of life is the delivering Spirit. To be delivered is different from being liberated. On the one hand, we are bound, and on the other hand, we are fallen. Because we are bound, we need liberation, but because we are fallen, we need deliverance. To be delivered is to be saved from the fall. In one sense we have been saved already, but in another sense we are still in the process of being saved. Even up to the present time I still need to be saved. Many times I realize that there is still the element of the fall in my motives, thinking, and feeling. My way of thinking, my mentality, still needs to be delivered from the fall. Also, our physical body needs deliverance from the fall. We have been saved in our spirit, but we still need to be saved in our soul and in our body.
Romans 5:10 says, “We will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” If we walk in the Spirit of life, all day — even every hour — we will have the sense that we are being saved. In our emotion, in the way we love, and in our conversation, there is the element of the fall. Simply consider our attitude. If we are in the Spirit of life and in the light, we will realize how much deliverance we need concerning our attitude. The element of the fall still remains in our attitude, motives, intention, thinking, loving, hating, decisions, and in many other matters. Although many things may not seem wrong, there still may be the element of the fall in them. If we are in the Spirit of life, we will have a deep conviction that in all these matters we need more and more deliverance.
It is not simply a matter of being set free from besetting sins, such as a bad temper. Even within our good temper there is still the element of the fall. We all need to be delivered from our good temper. We truly need deliverance! We need to be delivered out of our temper, disposition, way of thinking, way of loving, way of hating, and many items. Throughout the day, whenever I pray, I spend more time to confess to the Lord than to ask the Lord to do something for me. Whenever I am in the Spirit of life, there is an ever-deepening conviction within me that I need deliverance. The Spirit of life liberates and delivers.
Third, as the Spirit liberates and delivers, He also sanctifies. In the book of Romans to be sanctified means to be saturated through transformation with all that God is (6:19, 22; 12:2). Originally, we were worldly; we were common without anything of God. However, now God has come into us, and our whole being is being permeated and saturated with God. In this way we are becoming holy; that is, we are sanctified by being saturated with God. This is the correct meaning of sanctification. The Spirit of life not only liberates us from bondage and delivers us from the fall but also saturates us with God.
Certain Christian teachers have taught that to be sanctified is to be set free from sin. This is not the proper meaning of sanctification. In Romans, sanctification is to be saturated with God. Thus, sanctification equals transformation in 12:2, which says, “Be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” To be sanctified is to be transformed by being saturated with God’s divine nature. A cup of plain water may be clean, but it is colorless. However, if I permeate the water with orange juice, it becomes orange. This is an illustration of the proper meaning of sanctification. Even if we are clean and pure, we are still not holy. To be clean and pure is one thing, but to be holy is another. To be holy is to be sanctified, to be saturated with God.
Eventually, the Spirit of life will glorify us (8:30). On the negative side, the Spirit of life within us sets us free and delivers us, and on the positive side, He glorifies us through sanctification and transformation. Eventually, He will saturate us with and bring us into the glory of God, not in an objective way but in a very subjective way. We may illustrate glorification with electric lights. All the lights in our meeting room are “glorified” with electricity. We may say that they are saturated with electricity until they shine in the glory of electricity. One day the Spirit of life will saturate us with the glory of God to the extent that we will be glorified in His glory. The Spirit of life liberates, delivers, sanctifies, and eventually glorifies us.
The Spirit of the Son of God for our sonship also carries out a work in five aspects. First, this Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (v. 16). Even when we are fallen and backsliding, the Spirit within us always tells us that we are a child of God. Many young Christians go to places where they should not go. While they are there, however, something witnesses, “You are a child of God; you should not be here.” Often while we are dressing, once again there is something within us witnessing, “As a child of God, you should not wear this kind of clothing.” This is the Spirit of the Son of God for our sonship witnessing with our spirit deep within that we are children of God.
Second, the Spirit is always leading and guiding us. Verse 14 says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Many times the young brothers and sisters have come to ask me what they should do. Almost every time I do not answer directly. Rather, I tell them, “You already know. Why are you coming to me?” Sometimes they argue and say, “No, I do not know.” I answer, “You do not know in your mind, but deep within your spirit you do know.” We may argue in our mind, but there is something deeper that confirms. The Spirit of the Son for our sonship leads us all the time.
Third, this Spirit helps us in our interceding (vv. 26-27). The Spirit of the Son is a Spirit of intercession. He witnesses, leads, guides, and prays for us within. There is someone within us always praying for us. If we do not know what He intends and do not have the words to utter, He still groans within us. We all need to learn how to groan. Many times groaning is the best prayer. We should pray not only with plain words. Many times we need to pray with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Fourth, because the Spirit is the reality of sonship, He is doing a work to conform us to the image of the Son of God (v. 29). This makes us true sons, sons not merely in name and not only in life and nature but also in image, appearance, and reality. He makes us the real sons of God by conforming us to the image of the Son of God. This Spirit is doing a great work within us, nearly all of which is mentioned in one chapter, Romans 8. That is why Romans 8 may be considered the greatest chapter in the entire Bible.
The fifth aspect pertains not only to the Spirit of the Son for our sonship but also to the Spirit of life. As we have seen, the Spirit of life liberates, delivers, sanctifies, and eventually glorifies us, and the Spirit for our sonship witnesses, leads, helps us to pray, and conforms us to the image of the Son of God. All this work is with one aim, which is to build us up. Although the phrase build up is not in the book of Romans, the thought and concept of building is found in chapter 12. All the sons of God are the members of Christ, and all these members need to be built up and coordinated together (vv. 4-5). This mutual membership and relatedness is the ultimate work of the Spirit of life and of sonship. He frees, delivers, sanctifies, and glorifies us, and He witnesses within, leads us, prays for us, and conforms us to the image of Christ that we may be the real sons of God. Then we become the living, true, proper members of the Body of Christ, and the Spirit of life and of sonship builds us up together. We become members one of another and are joined and knit together by the work of this Spirit. This is the inner working of the life-giving Spirit within us. Through all this inward working we become members, we are built up as the living Body of Christ, and we have the proper church life described in chapter 12.
The Spirit of life and of sonship is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ Himself as the life-giving Spirit. It is by this Spirit that we enjoy Christ as our life, and it is in this life that we are being saved, including being set free, delivered, sanctified, and glorified. We also experience His witnessing, being led, being helped in our interceding, being conformed to the image of the Son of God, and being built up together. To be saved includes many items. Eventually, sinners become the glorious sons of God, sons of God in glory, who are built up together as the Body of Christ. All these items are included in the divine salvation by Christ being life to us, and they are worked out within us by the life-giving Spirit. Today the church needs more messages telling people how much we need to experience Christ as the wonderful, all-inclusive Spirit of life.
