Prayer: Lord, how we thank You that we have come again to Your Word. We come to Your Word even through Your precious blood. Lord, we come also to Your oracle, to Your today’s speaking. Lord, we praise You for Your mercy, and we praise You even the more for Your grace. Lord, how much we need Your further mercy, Your fresh mercy, and the sufficient grace. Lord, we thank You that You are really one with us. Lord, we pray that we may enjoy Your oneness. Lord, be one with us in our listening, in our understanding. Lord, grant us the deeper understanding. Oh, grant us the proper apprehension. Lord, we need You. We need You in the hearing of Your word. Lord, especially in the speaking we need You. We do like to practice the one spirit with You in the speaking. Lord, do speak Your word in our speaking. Make our speaking Yours. Make Your speaking one with ours. Lord, do cover us with Your prevailing blood and defeat the enemy. Destroy the power of darkness and take away all the deceit of the evil spirit. Lord, do cover our mentality; cover our entire being. We thank You for Your cleansing blood, and we thank You for Your covering blood. Lord, we do enjoy Your anointing under this blood. Grant us the light, the enlightenment, even the revelation with Your vision, that we may see the secrets of the way of life. May we see the secret of how to enjoy You and how to experience all the deeper truths revealed in Romans 8. Lord, You know that we have come to these two verses: 9 and 10. They are deep, and they are profound. Lord, we need You to open up these two verses. Show us the depth of all these verses. Grant us Your thought, even Your way of thinking, that we may get into the depths. Grant us a clear understanding, not the natural understanding or the ethical religious understanding but the understanding in You and in Your Spirit. Again, we say that we need You. Thank You that You are so available. You are one with us all the way. In Your precious name, Amen.
In this chapter we need to consider Romans 8:9-10. In verse 9 the words if indeed can be translated “since.” Let us read the two verses with that change. “But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, since 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.” Verse 9 begins with a conjunction but, indicating a contrast. Verse 8 says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Verse 9 presents the contrast by saying, “But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.” Then you have the word since. There is a big difference between the terms if indeed and since. If indeed mainly refers to a condition that has not been accomplished. But since refers to a condition that has already been accomplished. If is a kind of subjunctive, but since refers to a fact. The fact becomes a condition for something to be done to you. According to the Greek lexicons, the word used here primarily means “since” rather than “if indeed.” Since the Spirit of God dwells in you indicates a fact, but this fact is a term, a condition. Since you have this fact, you are in the spirit. Since the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are in the spirit. Suppose the Spirit of God did not dwell in you. Then you would not be in the spirit. Two facts are here: the Spirit of God dwells in you, and you are in the spirit. The first fact becomes a condition to the second fact. As you have the first fact, then you have the second fact. In other messages I have pointed out that the Spirit of God dwelling in you is a term, or a condition, for you to be in the spirit. You have to realize that both of these facts are progressive. The Spirit of God dwells in us. This is a fact that is not accomplished once for all but is progressive. In like manner, our being in the spirit is not a fact once for all. It is a kind of fact accomplished and still going on progressively. On the one hand, it is accomplished, but on the other hand, it is progressive.
Then in verse 9 there is the matter of the Spirit of God dwelling in us. The Greek word used here has as its root the word house. It is altogether right to translate the word dwells as “houses.” The same root word is found in Ephesians 3:17 where it says “that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” In Ephesians, however, there is a prefix kata, which strengthens the meaning of making home. This is a strong word. We all know that to get yourself settled in your home is not a once-for-all matter. You get settled, and from then on you get more settled. We should let the Spirit of God get more and more settled within us. On the one hand, fifty years ago the Spirit of God got settled within me. But on the other hand, today He is more settled in me, and I believe that if I could live on this earth longer, He would become more settled. So this is a fact, yet with progression. First, it is an accomplished fact as a term or condition for your being in the spirit. Then this fact will grow or progress, and your being in the spirit will also progress. We have mentioned previously the difference between the two prepositions of and in. Of indicates position, and in indicates condition. We all are of Christ, but what about our condition? To be of Christ is our position. But according to our condition today, we may not be in Him. We may not be in the spirit.
Now we need to pay our attention to something further, that is, the change of the expression concerning the Spirit in Romans 8:9. Within the same verse it says, “The Spirit of God,” and then it interchangeably says, “The Spirit of Christ.” Some may have thought that these are two Spirits—that the Spirit of God is one Spirit and that the Spirit of Christ is another Spirit. This is really heretical. Not only so, in verse 2, there is another interchangeable term concerning the Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life. Actually, the Spirit of life is the major term used by this chapter concerning the Spirit of God. In verse 9 Paul goes back to the very beginning, even to Genesis 1, to pick up the Spirit of God in creation, the Spirit of God brooding upon the surface of the waters. The first time that the Spirit of God is used in the entire Bible, it refers to God’s Spirit. In Romans 8 the Spirit of life is just the Spirit of God, but Paul does not stop here. He goes on from the Spirit of God to the Spirit of Christ. Just by itself, the Spirit of God does not imply redemption or incarnation or crucifixion or resurrection. Surely it does indicate the creation. In the creation the Spirit was the Spirit of God. But now in Romans 8 this Spirit of God is no more merely the Spirit of God, but He is also now the Spirit of Christ. And Christ here indicates incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and even ascension. The title Christ indicates, or implies, a lot. It implies all the processes that the Triune God has gone through. This is the Spirit of Christ in resurrection.
Verse 10 says, “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” According to my experience and knowledge, perhaps no other verse in the whole Bible is so profound and so deep as verse 10. In this verse the Spirit is not mentioned at all; only Christ is mentioned. We have to ask why. Verse 10 begins with the Greek word de, which can be translated as the conjunction “but” or “and.” Actually, it could also be translated “and furthermore,” which would indicate strongly that verse 10 is a further addition to verse 9. Verse 9 has two or three facts, and then verse 10 goes on to imply, “not only so but also furthermore.” In verse 9 you have the fact that the Spirit of God dwells in you and the fact that you are in the spirit. It also implies another fact: that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ.
Verse 10 goes on to say, “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” Why does Paul not use the word living to offset the word dead? He uses a noun to offset an adjective. It seems it should read either that the body is death and the spirit is life or that the body is dead and the spirit is living. Instead, he uses a noun to offset an adjective. This is quite meaningful. Your body is not death; your body is dead. And your spirit, since Christ has come into it, is not only living but life itself. So in verse 10 are two more facts: the body is dead, and the spirit is life.
In verse 10 there are six questions that you have to answer; otherwise, you could not understand this verse. The first question is, Why does Paul change from the Spirit to Christ? In verse 9 he speaks about the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ—one Spirit with two titles. But when he comes to verse 10, he drops the expression concerning the Spirit and only says, “If Christ is in you.” The second question is, What does it mean to say that the body is dead? It does not say that the body was dead, in the past tense, nor does it say that the body will be dead, in the future tense. But it says that the body is dead, in the present tense. The third question is, What is meant by the phrase because of sin? The fourth question is, What does it mean to say that the spirit is life? No doubt, the spirit here should be our human spirit because it is in contrast with our body. It should not be the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. The fifth question is, Why does Paul say that the body is dead, yet he does not say that the spirit is living? In other words why does he change the offsetting word from living to life? The sixth question is, What is meant by the phrase because of righteousness? Unless you answer these six questions, you can never get into this verse adequately.
Let us come back to the first question: Why is the Spirit not mentioned, but Christ is mentioned? In this verse Paul is emphasizing that today Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit of Christ in you is exactly the same as Christ in you. In resurrection Christ is the Spirit. In the past we have given a number of messages saying that these three titles—the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ—are used interchangeably. Paul’s writing in verses 9 and 10 is to show us that these are not three but one. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is just Christ Himself. We are not the only ones who have seen the light concerning this matter. In Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament, he strongly stresses in his notes on 2 Corinthians 3:17 that Christ is the Spirit. Other writers, such as Henry Alford and Williston Walker, have pointed out that in our Christian experience Christ is identical to the Spirit.
Let me add another word according to our experience. Verse 9 refers to our experience, and verse 10 refers to the fact. The Spirit of God dwells in us. This is altogether a matter of experience. Then the Spirit of Christ is also a matter of experience. We do experience that the Spirit of God who is the Spirit of Christ dwells in us. But verse 10 does not refer to experience that much; it refers to the fact. However, you have to realize that the experience and the fact are actually the same thing in two aspects. In verse 9 there is the aspect of experience, and in verse 10 there is the aspect of fact. On the one hand, for the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us is an experience, but on the other hand, it is a fact. Verse 9 talks about the experience, and verse 10 talks about the fact. According to experience, it is the Spirit who dwells in you, but according to fact, Christ dwells in you. How can you know this? You can know this kind of thing only by experience. Although it is the Spirit who dwells in you, when you come to worship or to pray, you would rarely say, “O Spirit.” Spontaneously, you would say, “O Lord! O Lord!” When you pray, you pray based upon the experience, but you refer to the fact. You have to be careful to follow my word. To be based upon experience is one thing, but to refer to the fact is another thing. In experience He is the Spirit, but as a fact for us to refer to, He is Christ. Although it is not wrong to pray, “O Spirit, how I thank You,” it is not fitting with the fact. So you pray, “O Lord. Thank You, Lord Jesus.” This kind of praying does not refer to what you experience but to the fact that today the One who dwells in you is Christ as the Spirit.
It is altogether foolish to oppose the teaching that Christ is the Spirit. It indicates a lack of knowledge and a lack of experience. If we have adequate experience, we would fully realize that in our experience He is the Spirit, but when we refer to this as a fact, He is our Lord; He is Christ. And these are just one. The Lord Jesus today is both the Spirit and Christ. For us to experience Him, He is the Spirit; for us to worship Him, to call on Him, to mention Him, His title is Christ. Do not consider that this is a thorough answer to the first question. Later on we have to see something further of the difference between these two titles: the Spirit of Christ and Christ.
You have to realize that you are not a simple person. On the one hand, you are dead. At the same time, on the other hand, you are life. You have a body, and you have a spirit. And you yourself are a soul. The soul is understood here and implied in the plural pronouns. In the clause if Christ is in you, you implies the soul. You are a soul; outside you have a body; inside you have a spirit. Your body is dead, and your spirit is life. An unbeliever’s situation is just the opposite: his spirit is dead, and his body is really alive. But for bona fide, typical, genuine believers in Christ, part of our being—our outward part—is dead. The other part—the inward part—is life. For an unbeliever, the inward part is dead, and the outward part is living. How can you know that as a believer your body is dead? By Christ being in you. Without Christ in you, you could not realize that your body is dead. Christ in you exposes the dead situation of your body. Dead really means disabled. Our body is not only disabled but even altogether stinking. The more I have Christ within me, the more I realize that my body is altogether disabled and stinking. The unbelievers do not realize that their body is disabled. Rather, they realize and experience that their body is able. It is able in doing many things—stealing, lying, killing. But with us believers, our experience is that our body is dead. Many times I pray that the Lord would strengthen all the dear saints into the inner man. Although your body is dead, your spirit is not only living; it is life.
The problem is this: To what part should we listen? Should we listen to the outward part, which is dead, or to the inward part, which is life? When, according to our dead body, we would sometimes forget about the meeting, something rises up within us to go to the meeting. That is our spirit, which is life.
According to Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8, sin is nothing less than God’s enemy, Satan. If Satan were outside of us, he would have little to do with us, but we all know that since man’s fall Satan entered into man. When Satan entered into man, right away Satan became sin, or the law of sin. Romans 7:23 says clearly that sin is in our members. This means that sin is in our body. We become tired because sin is within us. Our body is disabled because sin is in our body. We are dying because sin is in our body. Do you realize that all the human beings are dying persons? Apparently everyone is living; actually everyone is dying because sin is in their body. Even to say that we are dying is not so accurate, because it is our body that is dying. Our soul is not dying, nor is our spirit. Our body is dying because sin is in the body. Romans 7:18 and 23 make it very clear that this sin, which is God’s enemy, is in our body. Because of this sin, your body is dead. Your body is dead because Satan is in your body.
What then is the righteousness spoken of in 8:10? Righteousness is just God Himself getting into our being. When Satan gets into man’s being, sin is within man. When God gets into our being, we have righteousness in us. In John 16:8-11 the Lord said that when the Spirit comes, He would convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment. He would convict concerning sin because they would not believe in the Lord Jesus; He would convict concerning righteousness because the Lord Jesus was going to the Father; He would convict concerning judgment because the ruler of this world would be judged. From these verses we can see that the very righteousness that counts in God’s eyes is just God Himself. When God Himself in His Son as the Spirit gets into our being, that is righteousness. Romans 5:18 and 21 say that through one righteous act there is justification of life and that we may reign through righteousness unto eternal life. This means that righteousness results in life. Why is our spirit life? It is because the Triune God as righteousness is right within our spirit. So the Triune God is righteousness in our spirit, and the enemy of God, Satan, is in our body, making our body dead. We have God in us, in our spirit, as our righteousness, making us life. And we have Satan, God’s enemy, as sin in our flesh, making our body dead, disabled, and stinking. It is not a small thing to see that in this universe the two persons in the spiritual world are both within us; one is evil, and the other is good. The evil person in our body becomes sin, and the good person in our spirit becomes righteousness. The sin in our body makes our body dead, and the righteousness in our spirit makes our spirit life. Here we enjoy the Triune God. We enjoy God, we enjoy Christ, and we enjoy the Spirit. We enjoy the Triune God as our righteousness resulting in life.
