9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Yesterday's passage talked about the fact that unbelievers are in the flesh, bent towards the flesh, walking in the flesh, in opposition to God, unable to obey God's law and utterly unable to please God.
But today we're focusing on the good news! As believers, we are not in the flesh! We are not bent toward the flesh, we do not walk in the flesh, we are at peace with God, we are able to obey God's love out of love for Him and for His glory, and we are able to please God.
Why?
Because we're in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in us. He dwells in every single believer. Every one of us.
Notice how the Spirit is referred to both as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ? He has the same relationship to both of them in perfect trinitarian balance.
V10 & 11 show us once again that though our soul's have been redeemed, our flesh has not. Our flesh will still die, it has to, as the wages for Adam's sin are still physical death. Our physical bodies are sinful and cannot enter heaven. We have to die in order to be rid of them and enter heaven in brand new bodies transformed, perfected. Our bodies will die, but our new nature will live forever.
We have already experienced spiritual resurrection and we are promised physical resurrection as well.
MacArthur gives a quick look at the Holy Spirit...
The Holy Spirit possesses mind, emotion, will. He knows the deep things of God. He loves the saints. He makes decisions. He speaks. He prays. He teaches. He guides. He commands. He fellowships. He comforts. He may be grieved. He may be quenched. He may be lied to. He may be tested. He may be resisted. He may be blasphemed. And all of these things indicate that He is indeed a person.
And when you look at the Bible,, you find that He has all of the attributes that all the rest of the trinity have. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is eternal, that He is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, holy, and glorious. The Bible calls Him God, Lord, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Yahweh,, the Spirit of the Lord God, the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of His Son. And He is called the Comforter.
The Bible tells us that He was active in creation. That He indwelt certain people living in the Old Testament period for special empowering. That He convicts men, that He enables men to serve God, that He is the agent by which the Scriptures were written, that in the life of Christ, for example, He was involved in His birth, in His baptism, His temptation, His anointing, His teaching, His miracles, His death and His resurrection. That in the world, the Holy Spirit is involved in convicting men of sin, in calling men to Himself,, and as well, calling men into service. He is involved in witnessing to the testimony of Christ. He is involved in regenerating or bringing about the new birth.
And the Bible tells us that in the case of the believer, the Holy Spirit is engaged in glorifying Christ in the life of a believer. He indwells the believer. He fills the believer. He imparts to the believer the fruit of the Spirit. He imparts to the believer the gifts of the Spirit. He seals, communes, fellowships with, teaches, prays, wars with the flesh, comforts, prays for, sanctifies, empowers for service. It goes on and on. In every sense, fulfilling the role of God in a very special way is the third person of the trinity
He then summarizes the Spirit's amazing work in our lives....
What does the Holy Spirit do for us? Frees us from sin and death, enables us to fulfill God's law, and wonder of wonders, changes our nature so that we become all new on the inside and someday we'll become all new on the outside. What a blessed Spirit.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 8:12-17
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