Romans 8 deals with the matter of life. In fact, Romans 8 speaks of life more than any other chapter in the Bible. In this it is unique. The first time life is mentioned in chapter 8 is in verse 2: “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” In verse 2 life is a life that the Spirit of God belongs to. This is not an ordinary life, a common life, nor is it a strange kind of life. It is the life to which the Spirit of God belongs.
The next verse that mentions the word life is Romans 8:6: “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” This verse indicates that the mind set on our human spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit of life, is life. Now the life to which the Spirit of God belongs has become somewhat complicated. In verse 2 it was so simple, with no complication. But in verse 6 it has surely become complicated because it is involved with our mind and also with our spirit. When we set our mind on our spirit, life is there. Is this another life different from the life in verse 2? Surely not. All these verses refer to the same one life. But in verse 2 it is the life to which God’s Spirit belongs. Then in verse 6 the life is involved with our mind and our spirit.
The third verse concerning life in Romans 8 is verse 10: “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” In this verse another complication is added, that is, Christ. Christ is involved here. It says that if Christ is in you, this Christ in you makes a clear distinction of your being. This verse says that your body is dead, but your spirit is life. Some time ago I considered that perhaps the translator had made a mistake, because it seems that it should say that the spirit is living. It seems that it should say, “The body is dead, and the spirit is living.” Or it might say, “The body is death, and the spirit is life.” Apparently, this verse is not composed well. If we get into the depths of this verse, however, we will see why Paul composed it in this way.
In this verse life is involved with Christ and the distinction between our body and our spirit. We have to realize that before Christ comes into us, our body is living, and our spirit is dead. To unsaved persons, it seems that there is not such a thing as the human spirit. But their body is active. Even with Christians sometimes the situation still remains the same as before Christ came into them. Their body is very active, but their spirit is dead. This means that life has another involvement with two things: with Christ and with the distinction He has made within us. In a saved person who is remaining in a normal and proper condition, there is such a clear distinction that his body is dead and his spirit is life. Something in his spirit makes his spirit not only living but also life. At the same time it is so clear that his body is dead.
The fourth time the word life is used in Romans 8 is in verse 11: “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.” In order to understand this verse, we must consider, who gives life to whom, and through whom? And to what part of the first whom? Actually, the One who gives life in this verse is not the Spirit but the very God who raised Jesus from the dead. Here God gives life to someone through the Spirit. This Spirit is the indwelling Spirit. The Giver is the One who raised Jesus from the dead, and the instrument is the Spirit who indwells us. Who then is the receiver of the life? Whose mortal body receives this life? In order to understand whose mortal body receives life in verse 11, we must consider the modifiers in verses 9 and 10. Do you think that the “you” in verse 11 who receives life to his mortal body could refer to a Christian living in sin or never reading the Bible or never praying? Could such a person be this “you”? This “you” surely needs some Christian qualifications. What are the qualifications of such a one? One qualification according to verse 9 is that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Of course, this also means that you are a person in the spirit. To be in the spirit and to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you are actually two aspects of one thing. This is indicated by Paul’s use of the subjunctive if indeed. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are in the spirit. When the Spirit dwells in you, you are in the spirit. In other words, when you are in the spirit, the Spirit of God dwells in you. This refers to one thing with two aspects. This is one qualification.
There is another qualification in verse 10. The first word of verse 10 is the conjunction but. This conjunction indicates that something has gone before and that something is coming after. Therefore, we must conjoin these two things. But indicates that in verse 9 there is one thing and that in verse 10 there is another thing. In verse 9 there is the first qualification, and in verse 10 there is the second qualification. The second qualification is to have Christ in you. Do not think that this qualification is exactly the same as the one mentioned in verse 9. These are two aspects. Verse 9 says that the Spirit of God dwells in you, and then the following verse says that Christ is in you. Furthermore, in verse 9 the Spirit of God is the subject, and in verse 10 Christ is the subject. Then in verse 11 the subject is shifted to God. This is a big matter. You must be qualified with the Spirit indwelling you, and you must be qualified with Christ in you in order for the Spirit to give life to your mortal body. In the last chapter we stressed the point of the Spirit dwelling in you, but in this chapter we would stress Christ being in you. When Christ is in you, a distinction is brought into you. A distinction is made between the body and the spirit. A distinction is made between the dead thing and life. The dead thing, of course, is the body, and life is the spirit.
In the last chapter I told you that if you are going to be in the spirit, you must have the Spirit of God dwelling in you, making His home in you, housing Himself in you. But now I would tell you that you may have the Spirit housing Himself in you and yet still not have the distinction between your dead body and your spirit being life. Eventually, there will be a distinction within you where you realize that your spirit is not only living, but it is life; yet your body is dead. I do not believe that many among us have this distinction. When you have this distinction, by experience you can know so clearly that your body is just a dead thing and that your spirit is life. Many of you have not yet entered into this experience, and although you can understand my speaking, I do not think that you can apprehend the taste of this distinction. But someday you will have such a distinction. You will be so clear that something within you—your spirit—is life. And at the same time something remains in you—your body—a dead thing. There will be a clear distinction. Until you enter into this distinction, your Christian life is somewhat obscure because there is no distinction between your body and your spirit. Do not consider that you have experienced the distinction between your body and your spirit. Your body is still quite active; it is not dead. In fact it is dead, but in your experience it is not dead; rather, it is active. At the same time that your spirit is active, your body is also active. You may consider, then, that this is the body enlivened by the divine life. No, that is different. The body mentioned in verse 10 is a dead body, a body that is active in a natural way. But the body mentioned in verse 11 is a body so living and in resurrection. For example, when a person has a beautiful singing voice, we have to ask whether or not this is a natural talent or something in resurrection. When a person who has a talent in singing enters into the distinction between the dead body and the spirit being life, she would not sing. It is not until one day, when all her body’s practices have been put to death, that she would begin to sing. Then it would be in resurrection.
Logically speaking, this point should be clear to you now. But if you do not have the experience, you could only understand logically. When you enter into the experience, you will realize that the very “you” in verse 11 is not so common. In a sense, the “you” should be common, but due to today’s degradation among Christians, such a “you” is not common. In other words, not too many Christians are such a “you.”
Some teachers of the Bible have used Romans 8:11 to refer to divine healing. But you must realize that in the book of Romans, and in such an excellent chapter as chapter 8, Paul has no thought to touch the matter of divine healing. Divine healing is far, far from his thought. His thought here is altogether a matter in the spirit. Strictly speaking, it does not mean that God gives life to our sick body, to our dead body. It means that God gives His life to deal with our body to make it alive to carry out His will. As we illustrated in the last chapter, a person, after a certain time of sickness, may enter into the distinction between the dead body and the spirit as life. At that time some amount of the divine life would be imparted into his dead body. This is not to heal him but to make his dead body so useful for fulfilling God’s purpose. Yet he is still sick. You could understand this only when you enter into this kind of experience.
Once again I would say that the very “you” in verse 11 who is the receiver of the divine life is a believer who is qualified with the Spirit indwelling him and with the distinction between the dead body and the spirit as life by Christ’s presence. This distinction is by Christ’s presence. When Christ is in you, there is such a distinction. You may know in fact that Christ is in you, but in experience is He in you? You may answer, “Sometimes,” but I would question even the “sometimes.”
In Romans 8 life is mentioned four times and is related to four different matters. The first time, this life is the life to which the Spirit of God belongs. The second time, this life is involved with our mind and with our spirit. The third time, this life is involved with Christ and with the distinction that Christ has brought in. The fourth time, this life is involved with our mortal body. This is the fourfold life. The first is related to the Spirit of God, and the last three are related to our three parts. God is altogether life, and we in our three parts were altogether not life. But first our spirit becomes life, then our soul becomes life, and finally our body becomes life. This is the foundation for us to see how the Spirit of life works within the saved ones, ultimately to saturate their body.
Now we come to another point: What are the functions of this Spirit of life in His indwelling? This indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of life, and He indwells us to do things. His indwelling is not His doing. But His indwelling is for Him to do things within us. First, He gives life to our mortal body. Second, He puts to death the practices of our body. Third, He leads us as the sons of God. In the first occasion God gives life through Him (v. 11). The second time He is an instrument to us, because we put to death the practices of the body by Him (v. 13).
Verse 23 gives us another item of His doings: “Not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body.” The firstfruits of the Spirit are the enjoyment of the Spirit in this age. The firstfruits of the Spirit is an expression implying that the very indwelling Spirit who does three things—who gives life, who puts to death, and who leads—satisfies us. To understand this word firstfruits we need to study the entire Bible. According to the biblical usage, firstfruits means to satisfy someone with the proper produce. In the Old Testament all the firstfruits from the land had to go to God, not to work anything for God but just to satisfy God. Then, in the last book of the Bible, those one hundred forty-four thousand overcomers are the firstfruits to God to satisfy God. You have to realize that the top firstborn Son is Jesus Christ Himself. He is not only the firstborn Son to His flesh mother, but He is also the firstborn Son in resurrection to God to satisfy God (Acts 13:33). The firstfruits of the Spirit signifies the Spirit’s satisfaction, or the Spirit satisfying us. So the Spirit is the Spirit of life, which is involved with God, with our spirit, with our soul, and with our body. And this Spirit indwells us. In His indwelling, He does three things plus one thing. He gives life, He puts to death, He leads, that He may satisfy us. What then is the result, or the issue, of the fourfold doings of the Spirit? It is a kind of groaning, with a kind of eager expectation that our body could be redeemed and have the full sonship. We need to fellowship about all these points.
