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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:4
Romans 8 is real, practical, and subjective. It is a test to prove how real God is and how faithful we are. To speak of God far away in the heavens is not subjective to us. However, Romans 8 speaks of God in a very subjective way. It tells us that God today is the Spirit, and as the Spirit He is real, practical, and subjective to us because He indwells us. Romans 8 calls this indwelling One the Spirit, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. Because Romans 8 speaks of God as the indwelling Spirit, everything it reveals is practical and should be tested in our experience.
Romans 8 is central in the Bible and in the universe. God existed in eternity past without any beginning. When He created the universe, He came out of eternity and began to travel in time. The first stage of God’s journey was His work of creation. Creation is a great thing, for without God’s creation, the universe with the heavens, the earth, the billions of created things, and man would not exist. After creation the next major stage that God passed through was incarnation, in which He entered into man and became one with man by becoming a man (Matt. 1:23; John 1:1, 14). Incarnation is even greater than creation. Christ lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years as a lowly man named Jesus. He experienced all the sufferings of human life, including hunger, thirst, and sorrow. Then He was crucified, dying an all-inclusive death to redeem us, terminate the old creation, and solve all the problems between God and man. After three days He came out of death and entered into resurrection. The death and resurrection of Christ are the main contents of the New Testament. From resurrection Christ entered into a further, exalted stage—ascension—in which He was glorified and enthroned as the Lord of all and Head over all things (Rom. 10:12; Eph. 1:22). In Romans 8 Christ is the Spirit because He became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45).
Today God is still traveling on. In Romans 12 we see the Body of Christ, which is the fullness of God, the new man, and the house of God. All these things issue from our experience of Christ as the Spirit in Romans 8. Eventually, the Body will become the bride, and in eternity future, the New Jerusalem, the ultimate union of God and man (Rev. 21:2, 9-10). This is where God will end His journey. However, without Romans 8 there is a great gap in this journey. Thus, Romans 8 is a central and crucial focus in the Bible and in the universe.
Romans 8 mainly covers two profound items—the divine Spirit and the human spirit. Verse 2 reveals that the Spirit is the Spirit of life and possesses a law, an automatic power, that functions within us. Verse 9 calls the Spirit the Spirit of God, which means the Spirit of the One who existed from eternity past, made an eternal plan, and created the universe. Because it was God who took the initiative to create the universe, He is the origin, the Originator, and the origination. In verse 9 the Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ. Christ is God’s anointed One, God’s appointed One, and God incarnated to be a man in the flesh. He passed through human living, an all-inclusive death, and resurrection. After the old creation was terminated in Christ’s crucifixion, the new creation was germinated with a new life in His resurrection (2 Cor. 5:17). Next Christ ascended to the heavens, where He was crowned with glory and enthroned as the Lord and Head of the universe (Heb. 2:7). Then Christ descended as the Spirit into our spirit. Romans 8 reveals that this indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of life with the divine life and an automatic law, the Spirit of God with all the contents of God’s being and work, the Spirit of Christ with all Christ’s being and accomplishments, and the resurrecting Spirit (vv. 2, 9, 11).
The life-giving Spirit is all-inclusive, yet His goal is unique. The life-giving Spirit in our spirit is doing a resurrecting work. His goal is to resurrect every part of our being. We need to see a vision of the resurrecting work of the Spirit. Soon after we were saved, we may have told ourselves, “In the past I was a mess. I did not treat my family or others well. Now that I am saved, I make up my mind to be a good person. I will try my best to improve my behavior.” This is altogether wrong and in darkness. The thought that God wants us to improve our behavior is a religious misconception. God’s intention is to resurrect us by infusing His divine life into every part of our being.
Wherever God’s divine life spreads in our being, there is resurrection. Regeneration is the first step of resurrection. Before we were saved, our spirit was deadened. When we believed in the Lord and called on His name, God’s life was imparted into our spirit. Thus, our deadened spirit was resurrected by and with the divine life of God (v. 10). From our spirit God intends to impart His life into every part of our inward being. When God’s life is imparted into our mind, our mind will be resurrected, and we will have a renewed mind (v. 6). A renewed spirit is a regenerated spirit; a renewed mind is a transformed mind (12:2). Transformation is a part of resurrection. God also imparts His life into our will and emotion to make them new. This is also part of the Spirit’s resurrecting work in us. God’s intention is to eventually impart life into our mortal body to resurrect our body (8:11). The work of the Spirit in Romans 8 is to resurrect us by imparting the divine life into every part of our being.
Through regeneration our deadened spirit was enlivened and resurrected. Now the all-inclusive Spirit dwells in our spirit and has mingled Himself with our spirit, making us one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). Although human words cannot adequately define this mingling, it is nevertheless a fact that the processed Triune God as the Spirit has mingled Himself with our spirit to produce one mingled spirit.
The mingled spirit is a mystery. Paul purposely composed Romans 8 in a simple way so that we could understand his utterance, yet the reality that he describes is mysterious and abstract to the uttermost. Even our physical body and the life within it are mysterious. Our psychological being, including our heart, mind, emotion, and will, is even more mysterious. We cannot physically locate these parts, yet we know that they are within us. We also have a human spirit, which is abstract and mysterious. Now that we are saved, we have something more mysterious within us—the Triune God as the Spirit mingling Himself with our spirit to be one mingled spirit.
Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” Bible translators have had difficulty discerning whether the spirit mentioned in this verse is the divine Spirit or the human spirit. We need to see that in Romans 8, the Spirit is no longer merely the Spirit of God, as He was in creation (Gen. 1:2), but also the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of the resurrecting One. Furthermore, this all-inclusive Spirit is mingled with our spirit. Romans 8:16, which says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit,” mentions the two spirits together. Thus, the spirit in verse 4 refers not merely to the divine Spirit or the human spirit but to these two spirits mingled together as one spirit. Every believer has such a mingled spirit.
According to Romans 8:4, we should walk not according to scriptural doctrines or regulations but according to the mingled spirit that is within us and is even a part of our being. The Greek word for walk in verse 4 refers to the general walk in our daily living, including our eating, dressing, marriage life, family life, school life, job life, and church life. We must have our being according to the mingled spirit.
We do not need to try to fully understand what or where the mingled spirit is. We cannot fully understand our psychological heart, yet we know that we have such a heart because of the feelings it gives us. In the same principle, we know that we have a mingled spirit within because we sense its function. Perhaps when we are speaking with our spouse, something within us does not agree with us. When we are considering whether to buy a certain item, something within us may say, “Do not buy it. Do not consider it any further.” Before we were saved, we did not have this kind of experience. Whenever we wanted to do something, such as go shopping, we would simply do it and would not be bothered. However, since being saved, we often sense a speaking within. This is the mingled spirit. Instead of trying to fully understand the mingled spirit, we simply need to believe that we have a mingled spirit and walk according to the mingled spirit in every area of our life. We need to have every corner and avenue of our being according to this spirit.
The mingled spirit is very close to the anointing. Romans is part of Paul’s completing ministry. After the time of Paul, when different teachings had damaged the church, John brought in the mending ministry. In his mending ministry John speaks of the anointing (1 John 2:20, 27). When electricity moves, it becomes a current. Just as the current of electricity is electricity in motion, the anointing is the mingled spirit functioning. When the mingled spirit functions in us, it becomes the anointing. Therefore, to obey the anointing is to walk according to the spirit.
We may exercise our spirit in the meetings, but most of us forget about our spirit when we go home. Thus, we live two different lives. In our home, marriage, school, and job we live according to our nature, culture, ethics, religion, and habit. To live according to our nature is to do things quickly if we are a quick person or slowly if we are a slow person. We should not take the excuse of our nature, saying, “I was born this way. How could you expect me to do things differently?” Neither should we take the excuse of our culture, claiming that because we come from a certain place, we must behave a certain way. If we take this excuse, it means that we move, walk, live, and have our being according to culture. In the church meetings we are all one in spirit, but after the meetings we may make excuses based on our nature or culture. We also should not live, walk, and have our being according to our ethical concepts. Perhaps we have stopped stealing or lying since becoming a believer, but we may do this according to ethics. We also have all been influenced by religion. We may think that it is good to be godly, pious, and religious. Finally, we are also very habitual. No matter if we are old or young, we have all built up habits, and much of the time we live according to habit.
Although we love the Lord, are in the church, and want to have a good testimony, we unconsciously and spontaneously live, walk, and have our being according to our nature, culture, ethics, religion, and habit. This is altogether wrong. We may understand the teachings of living Christ and practicing to be one spirit with the Lord, but these teachings must become our daily walk, living, and being. Our walk should be to daily live Christ, and we should have our being by practicing to be one spirit with the Lord.
We need to constantly live according to the spirit. Whatever we say or do must be according to the spirit. Before we say something to our spouse, we should consider whether it is according to the spirit. We are too loose in our home life. We are careful in the meetings, but we become loose as soon as we go home. We may want to relax and feel free at home, but we must not forget to walk according to the spirit. We should live a life that is according to the spirit at every time and in every place. This means that we even dress and groom ourselves according to the spirit.
If we walk according to the spirit, Christ will come forth. A daily walk according to the spirit will issue in the Body of Christ, the fullness of God, the new man, and the house of God. Walking according to the spirit will cause the bride to be prepared and will eventually usher us into eternity by bringing the Lord back. Hence, Romans 8 is practical, crucial, and central.
The meetings should be an exhibition of our daily life. If we do not walk and have our being according to the spirit in our daily life, our exercise of the spirit in the meetings will be a performance. We should come together to meet in the same way that we live and walk. Our calling on the name of the Lord when we meet should be a result of our calling during the day. Our praying when we come together should be a result of our praying unceasingly throughout the day. The meetings are not a performance but a normal, ordinary continuation and exhibition of our daily life.
We need to practice to live and have our being every moment according to the mingled spirit. It is not adequate even to live according to the Bible. The spirit’s requirement is higher than the letter of the Bible. We must reject our nature, culture, ethics, religion, and habit and take the mingled spirit as the standard of our living.
