Sunday School Notes: Romans 8:9-11

⁹ But you yourselves are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this one is not of him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the spirit is alive on account of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Jesus from the dead will give life even to your mortal bodies through His indwelling Spirit in you.

We ended last week discussing how the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God, and doesn’t subject itself to God. Paul says that the reason for this is inability. We didn’t get to address that last time, so we began this week by discussing the inability of natural, sinful man to be subject to God. There are non-Christians, atheists even, who are openly hostile to God and anything to do with God. They are often the ones we see on TV or interviewed for newspapers on religious subjects. These people wear their hatred for God on their sleeve. Others, however, can appear to be tolerant, and perhaps show a guarded interest but say “that’s not for me–it might be good for you, though.” Such people may even acknowledge that the way of life Jesus advocated is good and would make for a better world if everyone lived by it. But they have no interest personally in submitting to God. Paul says the reason is not will, it’s ability. Without the Spirit of God changing the heart, they cannot love God or submit to Him and His word.

Further, Paul says that there is not even an ability to please God. Even those who seem like nice people at heart are in rebellion to God. While they might think their good works please God, they fail to do the most fundamental things that would please God: have Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and submit to God and His word. As long as they don’t do these things, they can never please God. And these are things they cannot do, unless the Spirit of God enables them.

We spent a little time talking about the ways in which God saves, and how our environment or personal circumstances alone do not determine whether or not we become Christians. Some in the group did not grow up in Christian households, and, therefore, lacked any parental or familial influence in their conversion. In such cases, the hand of God moving their lives, drawing them to Christ is perhaps more obvious. Even for those who grew up in a Christian home, however, that drawing hand is still present. After all, it is God who determines our circumstances. He calls to Himself some whom he has placed in a Christian environment, and some He ordained to be raised without godly influence. For these latter people, God brings external influences to bear–a school friend sharing the gospel, a co-worker faithfully witnessing, and so on. In all these situation, God is as work behind the scenes drawing His people to Himself in the way He ordains is best.

Returning to the passage, in verse 9, Paul affirms emphatically that the Roman Christians are indeed among those who are in the Spirit. “If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” should not be taken as if Paul had doubts about any of the Roman church. He is simply stating as fact the condition necessary to be in the Spirit: you must have the Spirit of God dwelling in you. Further, if anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not Christ’s. Again, Paul is underscoring the point: you must have the indwelling Spirit in order to be among those who are in the Spirit.

Paul uses “dwells” more than once in this passage to describe the relationship of the Spirit to the believer. The Greek verb, oikeô, refers to taking up residency–living in, just as you live in your house or apartment. It is an incredible concept to consider, that God was not satisfied to simply change the sinner’s heart so that he would repent and believe. God is so invested in the lives of His people that He causes His Spirit to take residency in them, so they constantly have God’s presence with them, and continually have access to Him. The Spirit of God is always with the believer to give strength and guidance, just as Jesus promised in John 14:16-18. “I will not leave you as orphans,” Jesus said, and indeed he has not.

Notice also in this passage how sin brings death to the mortal body (and here Paul probably primarily means spiritual death), and Christ brings life–even to the mortal body. In verse 10, he says that the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness. This sounds like a physical-spiritual divide, implying that the physical is associated with sin and death, whereas the spirit is associated with righteousness and life. In a sense this is true. Through sin, both physical and spiritual death came into the world, and as a result, we will all experience physical death one day, but we all experience spiritual death immediately. However, because of Christ, we are made spiritually alive, and though we will still suffer physical death (unless Christ returns before that time), we will live spiritually, joined with Christ in glory, until that final day when the resurrection occurs (1 Corinthians 15:42-58).

And yet, just as Christ was raised from the dead, as we are united with him, even our mortal bodies will experience new life through the indwelling Spirit. This is not life such that we will all avoid physical death, but this is regeneration, and the ongoing work of sanctification that is wrought in us by the Spirit of God as we are slowly conformed into the image of Christ. We are positionally righteous before God, and we have a new nature that desires to please God. Our fleshly habits and weaknesses need to be re-trained, however, and this is the all part of the life-giving work of God by His Spirit within us. Not that we passively sit back and let Him do everything, but that He gives us the desire to love and serve Him, and He enables us to do the works that please Him–things that without His Spirit we could not do. Because of this, we naturally desire to please God, and do things that please Him. And when we fail, we repent, pick ourselves up, and continue in the work of sanctification that He has begun, and that He will complete (Philippians 1:6).