Romans 8:9 “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.”
Many times, while I go on vacation, I take a short Bible Study as a daily devotional time. This little study of Romans chapter 8 has been a real thought-provoking lesson for me. Paul is a complex thinker, and his arguments often hold together several complementary truths without necessarily mentioning each of them specifically. One example of this is the Apostle’s discussion of life in the flesh and life in the Spirit. I hope that you are being blessed as much as I am through this great little study.
Galatians 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
The lesson points out that due to Paul’s teaching on our need to walk in the Spirit so as not to gratify the desires of the flesh, we often think of living in the Spirit in purely subjective terms. We conceive of such life as pertaining only to what the Holy Spirit does in us as we follow Him in our sanctification (growing into the likeness of Christ). Yet the subjective experience of living according to the Spirit—while true and important—is not all that Paul has in mind when he talks about living in the Spirit.
In other words, there is an objective reality to life in the Spirit. The age of the Spirit is characterized by freedom from sin’s power, and peace with God via the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. It is not that the believers who lived before Christ did not have access to these things. They did, though not with the same knowledge and fullness that we do. As such, the old covenant saints were really citizens of the new age of the Spirit who lived, as it were, outside of the actual time that they walked the earth. They walked the earth before the ministry of Christ, but they really belonged to the era of the Spirit in which we live. In any case, there has been a decisive change with the coming of Christ. The kingdom of God has been inaugurated, and the old era of sin and death is passing away as the new era of the Spirit becomes ever more present through the growth of the kingdom. When Paul says we are in the Spirit, He often means that we have been brought into the new era of life and peace, that we enjoy the objective reality of justification (just as if we had never sinned) and a righteous status before the Lord.
Romans 3:22-24 “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
The study stated, as noted above, life in the Spirit also has a subjective dimension. Once we lived in the flesh, being controlled by all that is against God, and could not please Him. However, because we have been transferred into the new era of the Spirit, we have received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle assures us that if we have trusted in Christ, we have the Spirit, and our possession of the Spirit proves that we belong to Jesus (Romans 8:9 above). This Bible verse helps us to understand that there is no such thing as a Christian who does not possess the Holy Spirit. To belong to Christ Jesus is to possess His Spirit, so if you have believed and rested in Christ alone for salvation, the Holy Spirit does indwell you, and He is at work in your life. Let us remember this always, that we may be confident that the Spirit is working in and through us even when it is hard for us to see or feel it.
Blessings in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
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