The Spirit of Life
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9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him 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 dwells in you.
We looked a couples of weeks ago at vs 5-8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
I mentioned at that time that Paul is describing two different kinds of people in this passage. Those who live according to the flesh and those who live according to the Spirit. We might say
those who are believers and those who are non believers, or,
those who are lost and those who are saved or,
those who are Christians and those who are not Christians.
We all exist in the flesh when we are born but only those who have been born again exist in the spirit.
44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
But what makes the distinction? That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. so the Spirit is the difference between a Christian and a no Christian.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
The Spirit Inhabits
The Spirit Inhabits
The Spirit of God indwells the believer Those who are born again. This is the most incredible truth in God’s Word concerning us. That the very Spirit of God dwells in you. The word translated “dwell” does not have the meaning that the Holy Spirit visits you, it has one meaning that is that the Holy Spirit takes up residence in you. You become the dwelling place of the Spirit. That means He is always in you… Always! We where talking last Thursday prayer meeting about how that sometimes we don’t sense the presence of God. If we are honest with ourselves we would have to say that we don’t always feel like God is with us or that we are in His presence right? But guess what. God the Spirit is always with us He has taken up residence with in us.
So what does that mean?
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
You body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In the old testament there was first in the wilderness a tabernacle and later Solomon build the temple. Guess what the word tabernacle means? Residence. Dwelling place. So in the old testament God’s presence and dwelling place among the Hebrews was in the Holy of Holies within the vail on the with the ark of the covenant. So when Paul says that your body is the temple it means that God dwells in you.
Implications
1. You are holy. Where the Spirit of God dwells in sanctified and holy.
2. You are not your own. The context of 1 cor 6:19-20 is that we should flee sexual immorality
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
3. The fact that you have been bought and the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in you means that you are sealed.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
4. That the purpose of our body is to glorify God To the praise of His glory
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Christian, you do not belong to yourself. The purpose of you body is not for self gratification. You belong to God, He purchased you with the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit.
How doe we glorify God in our bodies? I have heard this passage used you say that you shouldn’t smoke or do drugs more than the purpose of it’s original context. And I will say this, that is I believe valid application. People often say that their body is their temple in reference to eating healthy and exercising. But for the Christian your body is not your temple it’s God’s temple and so should not be used and abused for you fleshly appetites what ever they may be.
But as I mentioned before the context of this passage it talking specifically about sexual immorality. He say that every sin a man does is outside his own body but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his or her own body. So we glorify God in our body when we abstain from illicit sex. That is sex before marriage, infidelity within marriage. That’s includes pornography. By abstaining from these things we glorify God with our bodies.
Back you our passage in Romans and continuing with the question “what sets the Christian apart?” We have seen that the Spirit indwell us next we see that the Spirit Quickens us
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The Spirit Quickens
The Spirit Quickens
So if Christ is in you (which is the same as saying the Spirit of God dwells in you or that you have the Spirit of Christ in you these phrases are used interchangeably) then we see two important truths about who we are as Christians
1. The body is dead because of sin.
Any ideas of the possibility of sinless perfection in this current body should be put to rest right here in this statement. If Christ is in you the body is dead because of sin. This human body is subject to all manners of illness and disease and ultimately death and the reason given here is because of sin.
It is right to say that this body that I have now is dead. It is dead because its destiny is death.
Why should this put to rest any ideas of sinless perfection because if we could completely eradicate sin from our life and bodies then we would not die. Death is a constant reminder that we have sin. From the moment we draw our first breath each breath is numbered and this body must eventually die. That’s the negative but the positive is
2. The spirit is life because of righteousness. Some translators have spirit capitalised referring to the Holy Spirit and some do not referring to our spirit. although both can be said to be true I prefer the later. if Christ is in you then your spirit is life because of righteousness.
So even though this body will die my spirit, born of the Spirit of God will live forever. In this i have eternal life. This spirit in me, born of God is not sinful and will never die.
now coming to the climax of this paragraph we have seen that the Spirit of God dwells in us and although this body will die because of sin my spirit will never die but not only that. This body will be resurrected.
The Spirit Resurrects
The Spirit Resurrects
11 But if the Spirit of Him 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 dwells in you.
Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit which dwells in us is the very same Spirit of The Father who raised Jesus from the dead. He tells us that He (who is the Father) who raised up Christ from the dead will also ( in the same way that Christ was resurrected) give life to our mortal bodies and He will do it through His Spirit who dwells in us. So this means that for us who believe the Spirit has already quickened our spirit so we are alive in Christ now. But not only that, even though this body must die because of sin, it will be raised but not as the sinful mortal body that it is now which is subject to disease and illness, pain and suffering but a new body and immortal body, a righteous body.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
This is what we wait for, what we look forward to.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Lets pray
Benediction
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
