Romans 8.9b-The Christian Is Indwelt By The Spirit But The Unbeliever Is Not
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 30, 2008
Romans: Romans 8:9b-The Christian Is Indwelt By The Spirit But The Unbeliever Is Not
Lesson # 251
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:1.
This evening we will complete our study of Romans 8:9 by noting Romans 8:9b, which teaches that the Christian is indwelt by the Spirit but the unbeliever is not.
Romans 8:1-9, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you 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, he does not belong to Him.”
“If indeed” is the emphatic conditional particle eiper (ei&per) (i-per), which is employed with the indicative mood of the verb oikeo, “dwells” in order to explicitly convey a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
As we noted many times in our studies of the first class condition in the book of Romans, the idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume for the sake of argument, then...”
In Romans 8:9, the protasis is “if, in fact and let assume that it is true for the sake argument the Spirit of God indwells you.”
The apodasis, “Of course we know for certain that this is true and this means that we are not in bondage to the flesh (positionally).”
In Romans 8:9, the basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “evidence-inference.”
The “evidence” is that the Christian is indwelt by the Spirit.
The “inference” is that the Christian is not in bondage to the flesh in a positional sense.
The response to Paul’s protasis by his Christian readership would be obvious.
Of course they believe that they were indwelt by the Spirit!
The first class condition would persuade the reader to respond to the conclusion that is clearly implied though omitted due to Paul’s use of ellipsis where he deliberately omits the apodasis.
Therefore, Paul’s audience would have to come to his conclusion if they submit to this line of argumentation.
This would encourage Paul’s Christian readers and would serve to motivate them to appropriate by faith the power of the Spirit in order to experience deliverance from the bondage to the sin nature.
Romans 8:9, “However, you 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, he does not belong to Him.”
“The Spirit of God” is composed of the noun pneuma (pneuma), “the Spirit” and the noun theos (qeov$), “of God.”
The noun pneuma is an obvious reference to the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit and not the Father since the word functions as a “genitive of apposition” or “epexegetical genitive” meaning that it is identifying or defining who the Spirit is, namely, God.
God the Holy Spirit has the same divine attributes as both God the Father and God the Son: (1) Sovereignty (1 Cor. 12:11) (2) Righteousness (Spirit: Psa. 51:11) (3) Justice (Neh. 9:20a; John 16:8-11) (4) Love (Rom. 5:5; 15:30) (5) Eternal life (Heb. 9:14) (6) Omnipotence (Rom. 15:13) (7) Omniscience (Isa. 11:2) (8) Omnipresence (Psa. 139:7) (9) Immutability (John 14:16; 1 John 5:7) (10) Veracity (John 14:17; 1 John 5:7).
His deity is demonstrated by His Works: (1) Creation (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 104:30). (2) Inspiration of Scripture (2 Ti. 3:16; 2 P. 1:21). (3) Regeneration, illumination and sanctification (Jo. 3:5-8; Tit. 3:5; R. 8:11; Eph. 3:16-19).
Romans 8:9, “However, you 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, he does not belong to Him.”
“Dwells” is the verb oikeo (oi)kevw) (oy-keh-o), which is used of the “indwelling” of the Holy Spirit in the body of the Christian.
“In you” indicates that the Holy Spirit indwells the body of every Christian in Rome.
That the Holy Spirit indwells the body of every Christian during the church age is indicated in that it is given as a gift from God to the sinner the moment he or she is declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior (John 7:37-39; Acts 10:45; Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Galatians 3:1-2, 13-14; 1 John 3:24).
The indwelling of the Spirit serves as the principle of victory over the indwelling old sin nature and provides the believer the spiritual capacity to understand the Word of God since the Spirit serves as the believer’s true teacher and mentor in place of the absent Christ.
The indwelling of the Spirit is “permanent” because the Lord Jesus taught that the Spirit will be with them forever, thus obedience is not a condition for the indwelling of the Spirit.
John 14:16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever that is the Spirit of truth.”
The believer must be aware of the fact that there is a distinction between the “indwelling” of the Spirit and the “filling” of the Spirit.
The former occurs at the moment of salvation and is permanent meaning it cannot be lost (Rm. 8:9; 1 Cor. 3:16) whereas the latter also occurs at the moment of salvation but can be lost through any mental, verbal or overt sin by the believer.
The “indwelling” of the Spirit is the principle of victory over the old sin nature whereas the “filling” of the Spirit is the function of victory over the old sin nature.
The word “principle” means that the “indwelling” is the reason or the basis for our victory over the old sin nature whereas the word “function” refers to how we are to operate to gain a moment-by-moment victory in our lives over the old sin nature.
The “filling” of the Spirit is “dynamic,” whereas the “indwelling” is “static.”
The Christian is commanded to be “filled” with the Spirit whereas he is never commanded to be “indwelt” by the Spirit.
Romans 8:9, “However, you 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, he does not belong to Him.”
“But” is the “adversative” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s previous statement that the Christian is indwelt by the Spirit.
“If” is the conditional particle ei (ei)) (i), which introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
Here the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument a person does not have the Spirit of Christ.”
The apodasis is “(then) that person does not belong to Him (Christ).”
The basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “equivalence” meaning that if a person does not have the Spirit of Christ, then, that person is not Christ’s.
Romans 8:9, “However, you 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, he does not belong to Him.”
“Anyone” is the indefinite pronoun tis (ti$) (tis), which introduces a member of the human race without further identification.
“Does not have” is composed of the emphatic negative adverb ou (ou)) (oo), “not” and the verb echo (e&xw) (ekh-o), “does have.”
The verb echo means “to possess” a particular object that is identified by the noun pneuma, “the Spirit” and is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ou, which emphatically negates the idea that a person possesses the Spirit in the sense that He indwells that person’s body.
Therefore, Paul is saying that if anyone does not possess the Spirit of Christ at all, then, that person does not belong to Christ.
“The Spirit of Christ” is composed of the noun pneuma (pneuma), “the Spirit” and the proper name Christos (xristov$), “Christ.”
Christos functions as a “genitive of source” indicating that the Spirit “originates” or “proceeds from” Christ (See John 15:26-27).
“He does not belong to Him” denotes that if a person does not possess at all the Spirit proceeding from Christ, then this person does not belong to Christ.