Prayer: Lord, we worship You for Your redemption. How we thank You that we are the redeemed people. We thank You, Lord, for Your cleansing and redeeming blood. We thank You for the Spirit. We thank You for the Spirit that dwells in us. Lord, we thank You for this time that we can all come together to touch Your Word and to get into Your Word. Lord, we believe that You are one spirit with us right now. Lord, we do claim this fact. We claim Your presence and Your anointing. We claim Your up-to-date speaking. Lord, grant us new light, new thought, and even new utterance and new expression. Make today’s fellowship new. Do cover everyone and shame the enemy again. Jesus is the Lord! Jesus is the Victor! Lord, we praise You and worship You. Amen.
In this chapter we will cover just two verses in Romans 8—verses 8 and 9. In the reading of these two verses, we need to pay special attention to the little preposition in. In the New Testament and especially in Paul’s writings, prepositions mean a lot. In fact, in the Greek language the prepositions are crucial words. The meaning of certain phrases or clauses or sentences depends upon the prepositions used in them. For example, as we pointed out in the Life-study of 1 Corinthians, Paul was very careful in his choice of prepositions. In verse 2 of chapter 1 Paul writes “to the church of God which is in Corinth...with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place.” Here Paul uses the preposition with rather than the conjunction and. If the conjunction and had been used, it would indicate that these phrases were equal. But because the preposition with was used, it indicates something subordinate. This means something different. This illustrates the importance of the prepositions.
In Romans 8:8-9 the crucial words are not big words. The first crucial word is the small preposition in. It is used four times in these two verses. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But 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.”
The Chinese translation of the Bible says that those who are of the flesh cannot please God. Of course, the English translation does not use the word of. It uses the word in. But although you read the word in, I am afraid that your understanding may be of. In verse 9 you would not, of course, say that the Spirit of God dwells of you, but you might say that the Spirit of God dwells with you. That would not be wrong. Even many Christians today like to use the word with. They say that the Lord is with you or that God be with you. Not many would say that the Lord is in you or that God is in you.
Why in verse 8 and at the beginning of verse 9 does Paul use the preposition in? The preposition of indicates the source and the position. When you say that you were born of the Spirit, it means that the Spirit is the very source of your regeneration. Likewise, when you say that you were born of the flesh, it means that the flesh was the source of your natural birth.
The preposition in, however, indicates something different; it indicates the present condition. According to the source of the new birth, you are of the Spirit. But according to today’s spiritual condition, you are in the spirit. In indicates the condition of your present living. If, in your spiritual condition, you are still only of the Spirit and not in the spirit, this indicates a shortage.
Because these two verses emphasize the preposition in and not the preposition of, it indicates that they are not talking about the position or the source; they are talking about the condition, the experience. Those who are in the flesh does not refer to source or position but to condition and experience. You may be a person of the Spirit, yet you are in the flesh. You were born of the Spirit, and the Spirit is your source and position, yet your condition is not in the spirit. Your condition is that you are in the flesh. So according to your condition and present-day experience, you are not in the spirit. You were born of the Spirit, and according to your position, you are still of the Spirit. You are a person of the Spirit. You are a person in the position and of the source of the Spirit. But you do not live in the spirit, and you do not walk in the spirit. So you are not in the spirit. For example, you may be of America and yet live in another country. A person may be of the Spirit and yet live in the flesh, but a person who is merely born of the flesh could never live in the spirit.
Verse 8 says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Does this refer to believers or unbelievers? Although it may include both believers and unbelievers, I believe that Paul was referring to the believers. You have to realize that Romans 8 is not speaking about the initial salvation. This has already been covered in the previous chapters. In chapters 1 and 2 none were saved. In chapters 3 and 4 some were saved and justified. This means that by the time Paul reached chapter 8, he was not dealing with unbelievers but with believers. Check with your own experience. During the course of a day sometimes you are in the spirit, and sometimes you are in the flesh. When you come to the meetings, there is a good possibility that you are in the spirit. When you are at home, though, sometimes you may not be in the spirit; you may be in the flesh. So on the one hand, we really are of the Spirit, but on the other hand, sometimes we are not that much in the spirit. These three prepositions—in, with, and of—mainly touch the matter from our side. Now let us consider the matter from the side of the Spirit.
In verse 9 Paul says that the Spirit of God dwells in you. He does not say that the Spirit of God is of you or for you or with you or even merely in you. He says that the Spirit of God dwells in you. In Greek, the root of the word dwell means “house.” So actually it could be translated that the Spirit of God houses in you. It is not the word that is used for abiding or remaining. It is the word that is used for housing. The Spirit of God dwells in you. No husband can dwell in his wife. The most he can do is dwell with her. Sometimes he may dwell with her and yet not do anything for her. So perhaps it is better to say that he dwells for her. For you and me the best condition is to be “in.” This means to be in the spirit. And for the Spirit, the best condition is to “dwell in.” Concerning us, Paul uses a form of the verb to be, but concerning the Spirit, he uses a strong and proper verb, dwell.
Furthermore, in the last part of verse 9, Paul picks up another predicate, the verb has. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” So, in these two verses Paul uses two kinds of prepositions and three kinds of verbs. We have already mentioned the significance of the prepositions of and in. What is the significance of the use of the different kinds of verbs? If I ask whether or not you have the Spirit of Christ, you would answer that you do. But if I ask whether you are in the Spirit of Christ, you would answer that sometimes you are. The preposition in indicates a situation like the California weather. It has a lot of fluctuation. But the phrase dwells in is like Mount Rainier, standing there with no change. The Spirit dwells in you. This never changes. When you are of Him, He dwells in you. When you are in Him, He dwells in you. There is no change. Whether it is raining or not, Mount Rainier still stands. Whether the sky is clear or cloudy or stormy, Mount Rainier stands solid. But the California weather changes quite often. In verse 9 the verb has indicates stability. For example, the fact that you have a wife is settled forever. But whether she is with you in the meeting tonight or not is another matter. If you are going to know the indwelling Spirit, you must see these three prepositions—in, with, and of—and these three predicates—are, dwells, and has. Some of these indicate an unchangeable standing. Others indicate fluctuations. To say that we have the Spirit is altogether unchangeable, with no fluctuation. And to say that the Spirit dwells in us even the more indicates no change and no fluctuation. But even these two terms, which indicate no change and no fluctuation, have a slightly different meaning. To have something means to possess it, and to dwell means to occupy.
Thus far we have been speaking according to the words, according to grammar, according to position, to possession, to occupation, and to condition. Now we need to consider the matter of experience. According to the facts, we, the believers in Christ, all have the Spirit. Also this Spirit dwells in all of us. We have Him, and He dwells in us. These are the unchangeable facts. There is no fluctuation with these facts. We cannot lose Him, and He would never leave us. We have Him forever, and He dwells in us forever. With these two points there is no problem. But whether or not we are in Him is a matter of condition. How then can you care for the condition? This is a crucial point. If you say that you want to be in, right away you are out. But if you dare to say that you are in, right away you are in. You have to believe that you are in. Let me tell you why: you have Him, and He dwells in you. These are facts. In a sense you do not need to turn to the spirit. You are in already. Do not turn; just remain there. You are in. It is the same with the matter of abiding in Christ. If you see that you are in Christ, you do not need to abide. If you still need to abide, it means that you are still outside of Christ. If you have seen that you are in Christ, you are in already. You do not need to abide. You just need to remain there. Right now He is dwelling in you, and right now you still possess Him.
You do not need to turn to the spirit. You just need to stay in the spirit. In the past we have had a slogan, “Turn to the spirit.” We should drop this, and instead we should say, “Stay in your spirit.” Stay means that you are already there in the spirit. You do not need such a long prayer to cause you to stay in your spirit. Even a short prayer will cause you to stay in your spirit. When you start to lose your temper, just an “O Lord” will keep you in your spirit. Although I am so busy all the day long, I say, “O Lord,” a lot to remain in the spirit. When you say, “O Lord,” you stay in the spirit. Our experience tells us that we do have the Spirit, and the Spirit does dwell in us. This is not a kind of superstition; this is a divine spiritual fact. We may use the example of breathing. We know that there is air because we can breathe it in. And we know that we have a breathing organ because we can breathe in the air. Today the Lord is the Spirit, the pneuma, the air. And we can breathe the Spirit. I like A. B. Simpson’s hymn where he speaks of breathing, breathing, breathing. The point is this, dear saints: the Spirit really dwells in us, regardless of whether our “weather” is cold or hot or stormy or calm. None of these things bothers Him. Whether we are at home or we are in the wrong place, He still dwells in us. This is the fact. We have Him. We possess Him, and He occupies us. We only possess Him, but He not only possesses but also occupies us. This means that He is here all the time. So in a sense we do not need to turn to Him. We just need to stay in Him.
Now we are clear that we have to stay in this spirit. But what kind of spirit is the spirit? Is this the Holy Spirit? Or is this our human spirit? During the past twenty years, I have spoken a lot of messages on the mingled spirit. Some, who are short of knowledge, have condemned our teaching concerning the mingled spirit.
One verse that refers to the mingled spirit is 2 Corinthians 4:13: “Having the same spirit of faith according to that which is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak.” In translating this verse, many versions of the Bible use a small letter s for the spirit, indicating our spirit. One version, however, uses a capital letter S, indicating the Spirit. This is the Wuest translation. Furthermore M. R. Vincent, in his Word Studies in the New Testament, says concerning this verse: “Spirit of faith: not distinctly the Holy Spirit, nor, on the other hand, a human faculty of disposition, but blending both.” We all know that blending is a synonym for mingling. So when we speak of staying in the spirit, we mean in the blended spirit, in the mingled spirit. Hallelujah! We have a spirit, and our spirit has been regenerated, and the Spirit of God dwells in our spirit and mingles Himself with our spirit, making the two one spirit. This is the spirit in which we have to remain. How can we remain in such a spirit? All the time we have to say, “O Lord! O Lord!” The best way to keep you in your spirit and to save you from losing your temper is to say, “O Lord.”
