But *ye* are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God's Spirit dwell in you; but if any one has not [the] Spirit of Christ *he* is not of him
Paul has just said that those "in the flesh cannot please God." Now he describes what a Christian is. The verse states a settled position and then gives a test. The dividing line is the Spirit living in a person.
To be "in the flesh" is the natural state of every child of Adam. One writer sets it against the Christian's place:
To be in flesh is hopeless ruin. Its mind is opposed to God, and it will not submit to His law at all. This is the sad condition of all the sons of fallen Adam. It is not, however, the standing of the Christian. The beginning of our chapter says he is in Christ, and therefore outside every possible condemnation. So here it says, "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you." So the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the witness and proof that we are "in Spirit," and so not in flesh.
The verse's closing clause leaves no third category:
The part of the verse that says, "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him," is an aside. You are either a Christian with the Spirit and of Christ, or a natural man without the Spirit and not of Christ.
Being "in the Spirit" is not a mood that rises and falls. It is the condition on earth that matches the believer's place in Christ:
He indwells us so that He may control us. He gives us the capacity to walk in newness of life and to serve in newness of spirit. He produces in us a state that matches our standing outside ourselves. If "in Christ Jesus" expresses our standing, "in the Spirit" expresses our state.
Notice what the condition is not. It is not "if you are sincere," nor even "if you are born again":
Here man's natural condition stands in contrast with the full Christian condition. There is no middle condition in view. The contrast is not between the natural man and a man born again. It is between the natural man and what is true of a Christian — someone in whom the Holy Spirit lives. Old Testament saints were born again by the Spirit as truly as New Testament saints. But this passage is not speaking of them.
The words "dwell in you" point to a Person: "it plainly refers to the Spirit personally... He is distinct from the person He dwells in" (J. N. Darby).
The verse names the same Spirit twice, but with different titles, and the shift carries meaning:
There is only one and the same Spirit, yet the change in the descriptive title is significant. Christ is the One from whom we derive our origin spiritually, the One to whom we belong. If we truly are His, we have His Spirit. So we should be Christlike in our spirits, clearly enough for everyone to see that Christ is in us.
The Spirit carries three titles in these verses:
Three characteristic names are given here to the Holy Spirit. First, the Spirit of God (v. 9), in contrast with the flesh. Second, the Spirit of Christ, as the forming power of the new man. Third, the Spirit of Him who raised up Christ from among the dead, because He is in us the pledge of our resurrection.
Older versions end the verse, "he is none of His." The Spirit is an owner's mark, and where the mark is missing the claim fails:
So, among those owning Christ we can say, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." The seal of the Spirit is Christ's mark upon His own. So among those professing to be His, if the mark is not there, it is a false profession.
Commentators differ over how sharply the warning lands. Some read it as an outright exclusion. Others soften the tone: "'None of his' alarms people; it is simply that he is not yet His, any more than the prodigal son was in a son's place until he reached his father" (J. N. Darby).
If the Spirit's presence is the test, doubting His presence is serious:
Understand this as clearly as possible: this indwelling is not because of anything in us, either at the beginning or at any stage of the Christian life. From first to last, the Spirit dwells with us because of the unchanging value of the work of Christ. Stop dishonouring the value of that work by doubting the presence of this Holy Person. Your feelings and your faithfulness have nothing to do with this basic fact.
- Two places. There is no middle ground — in the flesh without the Spirit, or in the Spirit and Christ's.
- One test. The condition is not sincerity or even new birth, but "if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you."
- The mark. The Spirit is Christ's mark of ownership. Where the mark is missing, the profession is empty.
- Likeness. The mark is the Spirit of Christ. So the one who has Him should look like Christ, clearly enough for others to see.
- Certainty. He dwells in us because of the unchanging value of Christ's work. Feelings and failures never settle the question.
but if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness.
Earlier in the letter the believer stands in Christ; here Christ is in the believer. Two results follow — one about the body, one about the Spirit — and each has a cause: sin in the first, righteousness in the second.
Being "in Christ" describes where God has placed the believer. This verse states the matching truth from the other side:
We have already seen that the ground and title of the believer's blessing is his being in Christ. Here we have the counterpart of that truth. A Christian is not simply a man who has Christian ideas and notions, as people say, but one in whom Christ is; who lives — yet not he, but Christ lives in him.
The reason is sin. When the body acts on its own will, nothing else comes out of it:
"If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin." The body can only produce sin. Now, because of Christ, the Christian counts it as dead. If it acts in its own will, there is nothing but sin. The body is only an instrument of righteousness so far as it is dead.
Some take "dead" to mean the body is still mortal and must die, since sin brought death in. Others read it as a reckoning the believer makes. One writer preferred the second reading:
"Mortal" hardly fits with this. The other sense makes "the body is dead" depend on what goes before. If Christ is in you, the body is dead — that is, reckoned dead according to Romans 6 — because sin is its character if it is alive in flesh. And the spirit is life, because righteousness is the will of God and in us the fruit of the Spirit.
The first view also has support. One writer takes the phrase to mean the believer is still mortal in an unchanged body, though he is heir to immortality. So far he differs from other people only in what he knows and hopes.
If sin could be rooted out of a person's nature, this half of the verse would collapse:
This does not mean that sin is rooted out, or the evil nature improved… If the doctrine of perfection in the flesh were true, the body could neither be dead nor could it die. Death came in by sin. We see the effect of sin in the body — death itself.
The second half names righteousness as the reason life is there at all. God had to have a just basis before He could give life:
On the ground of the righteous claims of God being met at the cross, God has a righteous basis on which to communicate life, and this is a necessity if a man is to know and enjoy justification, and the stirrings and actions of new and divine life are to be pleasing to God.
That righteousness is not something the believer supplies. It is settled first, and the Spirit then indwells on that footing:
I must not look to the body for the display of life or righteousness. For now it is still linked with sin and death. But the Spirit of God dwells within me, on the only righteous basis — the death of Christ. Life is linked with Him. God has secured righteousness for me first, so the Spirit, who is life, is free to act.
Righteousness is the ground of this life. It is also what the life produces:
The old man in us is as dead, stripped of will, for I judge it. But the Spirit is life, already showing the fruits of righteousness in us, to the praise of the glory of God.
Holding the body dead is not a theory. It decides what gets fed and what gets refused:
The body is dead. So treat it as dead. Neglect its lusts and deny its desires. Use it, do not serve it. Govern it, do not obey it. Bring it into subjection and yield it to God.
Some have used this verse to argue that the believer has only the Spirit now, and no eternal life yet. One writer answered:
It is a foolish and evil twisting of Romans 8:10 to shut out our having eternal life in the Son now, on the plea that without it "the Spirit is life." Even verse 2 had joined Christ with the Spirit, just like the verse they twist into the opposite. For what does "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" mean, if not that? What God joined together, let no man dare to separate.
- Counterpart — "In Christ" is the believer's standing. "Christ in you" is its inward side. A Christian is not a man with Christian notions, but a man in whom Christ lives.
- Cause: sin — Left to its own will, the body yields nothing but sin. So the believer counts it dead, and only then does it serve righteousness.
- Cause: righteousness — God secured righteousness first, through the death of Christ. On that basis the Spirit, who is life, lives in the believer.
- Consequence — The righteousness that grounds this life also shows up as its fruit. The believer governs the body instead of obeying it.
- Guard — Commentators differ over whether "dead" means mortal or reckoned dead. They agree on this: sin is not rooted out of our nature, and eternal life is the believer's now.
But if the Spirit of him that has raised up Jesus from among [the] dead dwell in you, he that has raised up Christ from among [the] dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of his Spirit which dwells in you.
This verse turns the Spirit who lives in the believer into a promise about the believer's body. The question is what God will do with the dying body He lives in — and why the Spirit's presence settles it.
The verse gives the Spirit a new title, drawn from God raising Jesus from the dead. The names also change between the two halves of the verse.
God, the God of resurrection, raised up His Son Jesus from the dead. That same Spirit carried Him through this unclean world to the glory of God, and He was never stained by it. That Spirit was the guarantee that death could not hold Him... Now that same power lives in believers, because we have received the Spirit from the risen Christ. And since that is so, He who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies by that same Spirit. When only God and His Son are in view, the wording is "Him who raised up Jesus." When others are included, it is "He who raised up Christ." Jesus is His own personal name. Christ is the title of the last Adam, the Head of the family He has redeemed.
Some readers take the word "if" as a challenge to reach a higher level of spiritual life. It tests something simpler than that, and it also rules out healing.
There are two things to say in reply. First, there is an "if" in the verse. But it is not "if we claim the fullness of the Spirit." It is "if the Spirit dwells in us" — and He does, if we are believers at all. Second, the question is not healing but the giving of life from God. Once the mortal body is made alive, it is no longer mortal. This has clearly not yet happened to any believer living on earth. If Paul's mortal body had been quickened, for instance, the executioner's axe could never have killed him. He would still be walking among us!
Notice the word "mortal." The promise is made about the failing body you have now, and that is what makes it remarkable.
Even this mortal body will be made alive — not a new body created and handed to me, but this same mortal body changed. This is not simply a fresh creation. It is the most glorious proof of God's love and grace toward us. The mortal body will be raised because of His Spirit who dwells in us. The Holy One who lives in us now will never give up His claim on the body He lives in.
Commentators differ over the last phrase. Some read "by His Spirit." Others read "because of His Spirit," which makes the Spirit's presence the reason God acts, not just the means.
A day is coming when a change will take place. To that we are here pointed. In view of that day the Spirit receives a new title: "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead." If that Spirit dwells in us, He who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies — because of His Spirit who dwells in us, not merely by Him. The body belongs to God. That of the Christian is precious to Him, since it is now a temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of that God will quicken it.
The promise is future, and it covers two groups of believers.
Verse 11 calls our bodies "mortal bodies." They must die; the seeds of death are in them from the start. At the coming of the Lord they will live again. The God who raised up Christ from the dead will do this by His Spirit... He lives in us in this character, and He is the pledge of the life to come. That life reaches some of us by resurrection of the body. It reaches others by the change God works in the bodies of believers who are still alive at the Lord's coming.
Earlier in the letter a man cries out for rescue from "this body of death." This verse is where that cry finally gets its full answer.
There is a third title: "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead." It is always the same Spirit, but with different results. Here my resurrection is the outcome of the Holy Spirit living in me. The body itself is set free... The cry, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" is fully answered. First we are set free in spiritual power. Then we are given objects that belong to that new life and suit it. Finally we are set free in a body of glory.
The date is fixed and the outcome is certain, so present weakness loses its power to discourage you.
It is a settled and secure prospect, and faith can wait for it in quiet joy. So there is no need to be discouraged by the presence of sin in our mortal bodies. We should expect it until that blessed day. Still, it is our privilege to live above it, by the power of the Spirit who dwells in us.
- Resident — The Spirit does not visit; He moves in. That is true of every believer, not of an advanced few.
- Reason — His presence is the ground of the promise. The body He lives in is God's temple, and God will not leave His temple in death.
- Same body — What is raised is this mortal frame, changed — not a fresh creation handed to you in its place.
- Set date — The promise is future, at the Lord's coming. Those who have died will rise; those still living will be changed.
- Result — The cry "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" is answered all the way through: soul now, body then.