You are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit - Part 1: To be in Christ is to be indwelt by the Spirit

A quick review

Since chapter 5 Paul has been painting us a picture that grows clearer and clearer as his argument progresses. Our universe, our reality, our existence takes shape in one of two sides of a duality. Two parallel paths upon which man can tread.

It has taken many forms for Paul, even just in Romans. The way of wrath against the way of grace. The way of hostility against the way of peace. The way fo the first Adam against the way of the second Adam. The way of death against the way of life. And now in chapter 8, Pauls sets the way of the flesh against the way of the Spirit.

Having established that through Christ, the Spirit of life now rules in the lives of those who have been justified by faith, Paul now starts sorting through the implications of this new Spirit rule as it stands in opposition to the old flesh rule.

Paul shows us then in verse 4 that the game changer, the hinge upon which our reality turns, is the law of God. Has the law been fulfilled? Paul answers a resounding yes, by the work of Christ, the law has been fulfilled in us, and the condition is this: the Law is fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit.

Then in verse 5 he digs a little deeper. A spiritual walk must begin with a spiritual mind. In other words, the inner man sets the tone for the outer man. The talk sets the tone for the walk. If you’re walking in the flesh, it’s because you have a fleshly mind. If you’re walking in the Spirit, it’s because you have a spiritual mind.

And what characterizes these two types of minds? The fleshly mind is death, and as some commentators have said, it both leads to death and carries death within itself, even as Paul refers to the old way of life in Ephesians 2 as being dead in your trespasses and sins. The mind set on the flesh the mind of a dead man walking, a zombie if you will, a husk of a person who might be clean on the outside but the inside is a rotting corpse. The mind of flesh is hostile to God, enemies of God, waging war against Him and against His rules, His laws, His principles. This mind does not subject itself to God’s law, and instead subjects itself to a law of it’s own making. And the sad part about all of this is there isn’t even a desire to obey. There isn’t a desire for righteousness. There isn’t a desire for good. For peace with God.

And so the outcome is this: if you are in the flesh you cannot please God. And if you cannot please God you are doomed to punishment forever.

But now Paul arrives at the great hope of the Christian, and that hope is found in this simple statement: you are not in the flesh but in the spirit.

Paul juxtaposes the life of the spirit with the life of the flesh in four ways, which we will consider over the next four weeks together. I want to intentionally draw us back to Paul’s original statement back in verse 1 today, to help us tie together Paul’s argument.

To be in Christ is to be indwelt by the Spirit - Vs 9a

To be in Christ is to be sealed by the Spirit - Vs 9b

To be in Christ is to be made alive by the Spirit -

Vs 10 To be in Christ is to be resurrected by the Spirit - Vs 11

So the month of February for us will be a crash course in Pauline pneumatology, or what Paul teaches us about the Holy Spirit.

With all of that being said, let’s dive into this rich section of Romans, beginning with this amazing statement: You are in the Spirit if the Spirit of God dwells in you.

A look at the text

One of the distinctive of the Christian experience is the experience of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Paul gives us a really clear picture of that here, and I just want to break down the wording here for you by making three observations. Paul wants us to see the identity of the Spirit, the action of the Spirit, and the location of the Spirit. And how does he demonstrate this? He tells us:

The identity is divine. This is the Spirit of God, not the spirit of the age or the spirit of the devil or a false spirit. This is the Spirit of the one true and living God.

The action is dwelling. God’s Spirit dwells or abides or lives . The Greek word here is oikeo meaning to live in or inhabit or occupy.

The location is us. The Spirit of God takes up residence, builds for himself a home, within our very soul. This is part and parcel of the Christian experience and something we must not only understand but take great comfort in.

Now having a basic idea of Paul’s train of thought here, let’s try to understand this concept by looking at the indwelling of the Spirit of God through the Bible.

God’s Dwelling in Biblical-Theological Perspective

The Origin Story - Dwelling in Exodus

The first place we hear of God dwelling anywhere is in Exodus, when Moses leads the people of Israel in a song upon their deliverance from Egypt as God parted the Red Sea. In that song, recorded in Exodus 15:17, Moses’ song states that God will bring his people to the mountain of his inheritance, the place which he has made for his dwelling, there’s our word there, and to the sanctuary which His hands have established.

So what’s in view here is that God determined that the land of Israel would be the place where He would dwell on earth. You’ll notice however that the song hints to a more specific location, to the mountain of his inheritance. We know from the rest of Biblical history, of course, that the temple was built on a mountain, often called Mount Zion. No Israelite had seen that mountain or been there yet, which makes this song not only a song of praise but also a song of prophecy.

Secondly, as we continue through Exodus, we see that this theme of God’s dwelling place becomes predominant. God as he delivers the law to Moses, prioritizes the Ten Commandments, that’s Exodus 20. He then gives a brief exposition and application of those commandments to the nation. But interestingly, where Moses spends most of his time throughout the rest of Exodus is explaining God’s rules and regulations for his dwelling place. If you go to chapter 25, you see there that God commands the nation to build a sanctuary, or a holy house, in which he can dwell. What’s interesting as we compare this to the song of Exodus 15 is that God’s purpose is specifically to dwell with his people. It’s not to just dwell generically in the land, but specifically to dwell with his people. Moses spends 5 chapters discussing the details of this holy house, this sanctuary, this tabernacle, and then God shares his heart again at the end of chapter 29. He says this: [Exodus 29:43-45] Look at the personal, intimate language that is used there. Meet with them. Dwell with them. And what’s truly fascinating is that God says that his very purpose in ordaining the exodus from Egypt is so that he might dwell with his people.

So very early on we see that God has a two-fold concern when it comes to his dwelling place.

That his dwelling with his people be pictured for them, made real to them, with a physical location. This begins with the reference to the mountain and land in Exodus 15.

The dwelling of God with His people is intensely personal. He doesn’t simply dwell in His house, in His physical location on earth, or in the land, but He dwells with his people.

So God’s dwelling, even in the Old Testament, is marked by a physical presence and a personal presence.

But there’s more to be said in the Old Testament about the concept of God’s dwelling.

The Temple - Dwelling in the United and Divided Kingdoms

If you fast forward about 450 years in the history of the nation of Israel, you arrive at David, the lowly shepherd and mighty king. In Psalm 132 we have a record of the vow that David made to God to find a dwelling place for him. Up to this point, God’s dwelling place with the nation had been, as we saw in Exodus, a portable tabernacle.

David’s desire was for a permanent dwelling place for God in Israel, in fulfillment of Exodus 15.

God took that away from David because of his sin, but he did grant to his son Solomon the opportunity to build a permanent temple for God to dwell in. We see that recorded in 1 Kings 6. In 1 Kings 8, Solomon consecrates the temple and the God descends on the temple, to begin dwelling within it.

By descending into Solomon’s temple, God declares that this temple is a suitable dwelling place for Him, and it is suitable for at least two reasons:

It is a glorious house.

God can dwell in this house because it is full of glory. It is a large house, approximately 90 feet long by 30 feet wide by 40 feet tall. It took, appropriately, 7 years to build. It was constructed of valuable quarry stone. Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be an original cornerstone of the temple, and it is 3ft wide by 3ft high by 14ft long. The engineers who discovered it were blown away by the excellence of the craftsmanship and the overall beauty of the piece. Once the stones were laid and the structure was complete, the temple was adorned with only 3 materials: Cedar wood, valued for it’s strength. Olive wood, valued for it’s beauty. Gold, valued for it’s rarity. All these materials come together to make a temple that is both magnificent and meaningful, full of value and beauty, made with excellence, all to glorify the God for whom it was built.

It is a holy house.

The one condition upon which God allows Solomon build this house is that he would be a holy king of a holy nation. 1 Kings 6:11-13 tells us that God speaks to Solomon and says this:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (Chapter 6)

Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father. “I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”

But the tragedy of the Temple is that it never ended up truly being a permanent dwelling place for God. Solomon’s temple would be plundered, desecrated, and eventually destroyed as the kingdom was divided and conquered over the course of the next 400 years after it’s construction and consecration.

The longing of the nation of Israel and indeed the longing of the whole world, is that God would dwell with His people permanently, that he would abide with His people eternally, in a house that would not and could not pass away, which leads us to our third point this morning.

The House of David’s Son - The Promise of Eternal Dwelling

Our understanding of God’s dwelling is blown sky high when we begin to understand the eternal nature of God’s dwelling. In order to understand this, we have to understand the Davidic Covenant, or the series of promises that God made to David regarding his kingdom, his throne, and his lineage.

The Davidic Covenant is recorded for us in 2 Samuel 7. Specifically we’ll want to look at verses 11-17.

God makes 6 promises to David regarding his son or his descendant.

He will be of the line of David.

He will build a house for God.

His kingdom and kingship will last forever.

He will have a father-son relationship with God.

He will be punished for sins.

God’s covenant faithfulness will never depart from him.

Now this is what many theologians and Old Testament scholars call telescoping prophecy or typology. In other words, it’s a prophecy that may have multiple fulfillments or a progressive fulfillment over the course of history. What do I mean by this? All 6 of these promises are fulfilled not in one son of David, but in two. All of these promises are fulfilled in both Solomon and in Jesus.

They were both of the line of David.

They both built houses for God.

Their kingdoms will both last forever (because they’re the same kingdom!)

They both had father-son relationships with God.

They were both punished for sins.

They were both recipients of God’s covenant faithfulness.

Now this is not a class on Solomon, so I won’t go into any further depth on this, but I do want to zero in on the obvious big idea as we consider the dwelling of God, and that is the promise that David’s Son who is also God’s Son will build a house for God, and that house will last forever.

Also a small sidenote here, it is no accident that Paul introduces Christ at the beginning of Romans as the Son of David and the Son of God in the same breath. He is setting the stage for a presentation of Christ as the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant.

We just saw in our previous point the way that Solomon fulfilled that.

But I want us to look closely at what Jesus did to fulfill it.

There are three statements that Jesus made during His ministry that warrant our attention this morning.

Something greater than the temple is here. Matthew 12:6.

By making this statement, Jesus is alluding to the reality that He Himself is the true and better temple, in whom, as Paul says, the fullness of deity dwells. Solomon built the temple, Jesus is the temple.

I will tear down this temple and rebuild it in three days. John 2:19-21.

Jesus now makes himself even more clear, and John provides a bit of explanatory commentary: he was speaking of the temple of his body.

I will build my church. Matthew 16:18.

Finally, Jesus links himself inextricably to the promises of 2 Samuel 7. If we understand 2 Samuel 7 to have Christ in view, we must go hunting through his life and ministry for what house it is that he builds. And we can certainly look at this second statement and say that, in a manner of speaking, Christ built himself. Raised up, built, kind of the same idea. But Jesus explicitly says that he will build one thing and one thing only: his church. And we know that the church is nothing more, and nothing less than God’s house. How? God said that David’s Son would build him a house, and what is the only thing Jesus promised to build? His church. God’s house equals Christ’s church.

Now I want to pause here and look back on where we have been thus far and draw some connections for you. I have been intentionally making observations about the dwelling place of God over the course of this study. We’ve made five direct observations about God’s dwelling place. The implication that I want to make is that both Christ and His church, both corporately and individually, if they are to be the true and better, eternal dwelling place of God by His Spirit, must be marked by these 5 characteristics. What are they? Let’s look back.

God’s dwelling place must be physical.

You might also say visible.

God’s dwelling place must be personal.

God doesn’t dwell in a generic sense. He dwells specifically with people. Therefore people, human souls, are essential for God to abide, wherever that may be.

God’s dwelling place must be holy.

In other words, for a house to be suitable for the most high God to take up residence there, it must be a place of righteousness. It must be a place of obedience. It must be a place of sacred attention to the law of God.

God’s dwelling place must be glorious.

It must be a beautiful and excellent place, full of only the first and best of all that God has given.

God’s dwelling place must be eternal and permanent.

This house is to last forever. God is eternal and so his house must be eternal.

Let’s see how this is fulfilled in Christ. How does he prove himself to be the true and better temple?

The word became flesh, real, physical. Come, Thomas. Touch my hands. Touch my side. Jesus was a physical dwelling place for God.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Not only was Jesus a physical dwelling place, he was a personal dwelling place. He walked and dwelt and lived among us. Like us in every way...

...except without sin. He is also a holy dwelling place.

He is a glorious dwelling place, as Peter, James, and John witnessed at the transfiguration. He is glorified by His Father according to John 17.

And finally he is an eternal dwelling place. By rising from the dead, he proved that he is not like the tabernacle or the temple. He cannot be torn down forever. He rebuilt the temple of his body in three days, showing that the dwelling place of Christ’s body is eternal.

Christ is the true and better dwelling place of God.

The Church - God’s New Covenant Dwelling Place

But there is a final place where God dwells, and that place is what Paul has in view here in Romans 8:9.

God dwells in his church, both corporate and individually. What do I mean by that? Simply that there is a personal indwelling. The Spirit of God resides in you, specifically. But His Spirit also dwells in His church. There is a collective reality to the Spirit’s presence in our lives together as a church.

The reality of God’s new covenant dwelling place as being the individual and collective people of God is not unique to Paul or even to the New Testament.

God promises 7 times, through 5 prophets in the Old Testament, explicitly that He will pour out His Spirit into the hearts of His people. Ezekiel prophesies twice about this, Solomon once, Isaiah twice, Joel once, Zechariah once. All these prophets associated this outpouring of the Holy Spirit with the fulfillment of redemptive history, that when God’s work of redemption had reached it’s climax, that the Spirit would be poured out and would indwell God’s people, thus fulfilling God’s intention to truly dwell among His people. Jesus’ final words set this tone as he charges the apostles to build and shepherd his church. He says the Holy Spirit will come upon you so that they might bear witness to the work of Christ to the ends of the earth. As he writes the book of Acts, Luke takes great care to repeatedly highlight the fact that what made the church the church, what made the early Christians unique, was that they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Paul speaks to this reality in 1 Corinthians. In 1 Cor 3:16 he tells the Corinthian church collectively they they are together the temple of God, and that God’s Spirit dwells within them. Later on in chapter 6 verse 19, he speaks to the individuals within the Corinthian church, telling them that their very body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Paul believed that the full and final fulfillment of God’s intention to dwell with His people, among them, abiding with them, is in the Church. He states this clearly in 2 Corinthians 6:16 when he formally declares that every instance of this promise in the Old Testament that God would dwell among his people has been fulfilled before their very eyes and indeed in their very own lives and experiences.

Ephesians is full of references to the church as the temple, the church as the eternal dwelling place, the house of God. Chapter 2 is a magnificent exposition of the gospel, which begins with that famous statement “You were dead in your trespasses and sins” and finishes up with this: Eph 2:19-22

Ephesians 2:19–22 NASB95

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

And then finally, in Revelation 3:12, Jesus Himself declares that all who conquer in Him, he will make as a pillar in the temple of God.

The whole scope of God’s word is clear: the final dwelling place of God is within and among his church, both collectively and individually.

So when Paul makes this simple statement: you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, he is building upon millennia of divine revelation, speaking to the reality that these believers in Rome are part of the eternal dwelling place of God.

The Dwelling Place of God in Practical Perspective

So having considered in some depth the weight of Paul’s statement here, we need to now spend some time exploring what the implications are for our lives. The Spirit of God dwells in me, dwells in us. How should I then live?

In order to understand fully the implications here, we must again return to those five items that make the dwelling place of God unique, and allow them to guide our thinking.

The dwelling place of God must be physical.

In other words, it must be able to be seen and heard and touched. John Calvin tells us in Book 4 of the Institutes of the Christian Religion that this is because of our weakness of flesh. We cannot comprehend things on a purely spiritual plane, and therefore we require, for growth in Godliness, accommodation to our weakness, and that accommodation takes the form of the visible church, which, according to Calvin, is able to be identified by just three things: the preaching of God’s Word, partaking at the Lord’s Table, and baptizing believers, all things that you see and hear and touch and even taste. And the clear implication is this, in totally practical terms: you have to be present for this. You have to be here. The people of God in the Old Testament traveled for days to come into God’s presence, to physically be at the dwelling place of God. How dare we assume then that we can walk away from that, that we can deny the physical, visible reality of the church as God’s dwelling place today? So when Judah Smith tells you to download his Churchome app so you can be at church in your pajamas on your couch by yourself, or when someone tells you that you don’t need to be present on a Sunday morning to be part of the church, to be part of the dwelling place of God, you can tell them to bug off. There’s a reason we have a central building, a central gathering place to come and worship as a church. The reason is so that we have something dedicated, something sacred, as a reminder of who we are and who God is. For God to dwell there, you have to be able to see it. The truth of the matter is this: God’s dwelling place takes a physical, visible form, and if you’re part of it, you’re part of that.

The dwelling place of God must be personal.

Now I want to balance my previous point. A building is important, but we know that God does not and cannot dwell in a house made by human hands. But God does dwell in human hearts. So the dwelling place of God must be personal. Wherever God dwells, He dwells for the purpose of relationship with His people. He dwells for the purpose of meeting with his people. The thought here is that he dwells with you and in you so he might meet with you.

So we see that the physical, visible place is important, but it’s just as important as the people that are there.

The dwelling place of God must be glorious.

We saw that the temple of Solomon was beautiful, well-appointed, and excellent in all things, bringing glory to God. The first and best of the nation of Israel was put into the Temple, making it glorious as it sought to magnify the glory of the One who was to dwell there.

Therefore, God’s dwelling place today must also reflect His glory, and it does through beauty, through excellence, through the giving of our first and best, through the intentional devotion of one’s whole life to the glory of God.

For you specifically this morning, are you committed to providing God with the first and best of all you have, doing everything you do with excellence and beauty, so that you might glorify God with your whole life? So that his dwelling place might reflect his glory?

The dwelling place of God must be holy.

This should be obvious. What association has the temple of God with idols? If the spirit of God is going to dwell in you, you must be holy. Praise God that we are made holy through the work of Christ, that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us, through him. But the call of the Christian life is to walk in that holiness.

I would urge you today, consider how you might walk in greater holiness, greater righteousness, greater obedience. What needs to be thrown out, cleaned out, cleaned up, knowing that your very body is the temple, the dwelling place of God? What needs to be thrown out, cleaned out, cleaned up in our church, knowing that we are, collectively, God’s dwelling place? What practices or even people need to be rebuked or removed in order to preserve the holiness and the purity of God’s church? I think too many otherwise faithful Christians today don’t take seriously enough the purity and the holiness of God’s church. They aren’t serious about protecting God’s dwelling place from threats and trash. May we be committed to that, individually and as a church.

The dwelling place of God must be eternal and permanent.

What a hope. Christ lives forever and therefore all who rise like he rose will live forever. God’s church is eternal. The members of God’s church are eternal. We live forever because the spirit of the eternal God lives within us.

We’ve seen today, through redemptive history culminating in Christ, the truth that we are the full and final dwelling place of God. Because we are in Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in us. Because we are in Christ, God through His Spirit has made his home with us. Because we are in Christ, the reality of Immanuel is woven into our very existence.

Next week we will consider what it means that in Christ, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. I hope you’ll join us!