Romans 8:9-11
by:
Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor, Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com
Introduction
In verses 1-8 Paul lays down a foundation of grace. It will be God the
Holy Spirit who will work in us that we might, when we walk in the Spirit,
fulfill the requirements of the Law and fulfill the Law itself.
As God is holy we will be holy by the Spirit of God
As God loves us we will love Him and love others and fulfill the new commandment
that Jesus gives us to love one another and this love comes by way of the
Holy Spirit.
Paul includes three verse at this point to demonstrate that the glories
and power of the Spirit and taking this potential to reality is something
that is available to every Christian.
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.
Paul includes the pronoun "you", which is not grammatically necessary
and is used for emphasis.
Then there are two strongly contrasted statements: NOT in flesh BUT in the
Spirit.
Here is one of the times in Romans that he declares that what they are doing
they are doing right.
Romans 1:8, Romans 6:17-18, Romans 15:14, and here.
Paul has personal knowledge of their faith and their walk in the Spirit.
Then he includes the reason they can be in the Spirit.
"However is EIPER, used of something that is assumed and could be translated
"assuming that" or "providing that".
So, "Assuming the Spirit of God dwells in you."
The word DWELL is OIKEW, present tense, and means to be at in a particular
place of belonging.
Paul's prayer was that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and
that you, being rooted and grounded in love . . .
OKIEW was used by Paul in Romans 7:17, 18, and 20 for the sin nature dwelling
in him. He was trying to fight against it with him mind, but the mind would
end up giving it power.
So the statement Paul makes here in Romans is not a reference to the Filling
of the Holy Spirit which is synonymous with Ephesians 3:17 with Christ dwelling
in our hearts through faith, but is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit common
to all believers.
This whole argument that resolves the conflict of Romans 7 would really
fall apart if the Holy Spirit was a second work of grace or if the indwelling
of the Spirit and the potential reality of the F/HS, and walk in the Spirit
was for only a few believers.
So Paul states: But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does
not belong to Him.
Not belonging to Christ is present tense and the genitive of possession
(belonging to Christ) indicating that the person is not saved and does not
belong to Christ.
Paul uses a first class condition IF to introduce this statement and the
next. These are true statement, one defines the unsaved state of man and
the other the saved state of man.
CONCLUSION: There is no excuse for not walking in the Spirit if you are
a Christian, the Spirit dwells in you.
Romans 8:10
And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
Again, a Greek first class conditional statement, "If, and this is
a true statement..."
"If Christ is in you (and it is true that He is)"
NOTICE: Paul very easily equates the indwelling Christ with the indwelling
Spirit. This shows us the understanding Paul had of the farewell discourse
of Jesus where the Lord said that the Holy Spirit is the other of the same
kind of comforter, as Himself.
John 15:26, "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the
Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will
bear witness of Me."
Our Spiritual Life is our walk in the Spirit which is equated with our walk
in Christ.
Colossians 2:6, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in Him."
PRINCIPLE: We too often make a distinction where no distinction need to
be made.
Here in verse 10 Paul states that the believers body is dead because of
the presence of the OSN . .
But we have something as believers we did not have as unbelievers, we have
the human spirit.
This verse looks back to Romans 6:4, "Therefore we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness
of life."
Now Paul tells us what will allow us to walk in newness of life, the human
spirit, that new disposition in the believer, that is made alive because
of the imputation of +R.
Paul uses the same idiom here as at the end of Romans 7:
On the one hand . . . on the other hand.
This idiom is used to show conflict, something that is irreconcilable, not
understandable.
Here the nominative case is showing the control, the influence, the potential
power given to the believer in the imputation of +R and the creation of
the human spirit.
But the Holy Spirit is the one who makes these irreconcilable opposites,
the old disposition and the new disposition, understandable.
BECAUSE THE NEW DISPOSITION under the power of the Holy Spirit, need not
give way to the old disposition of the Sin Nature.
Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
A verse that shows us how much power the Holy Spirit possesses:
The Spirit of God has the full power of God which was able to do the impossible,
to raise Jesus from the dead never to die again.
And that same power of the Holy Spirit dwells in you, the believer. And
although you are mortal, continuing to have the OSN in your bodies, the
Holy Spirit can give you life.
Not physical life, we have that, but the spiritual life that was mentioned
back in Romans 6:4 Walking in the newness of life . . .
The word QUICKEN in the Greek means to cause to be made alive, to give a
fullness of life.
This not only looks ahead to the resurrection but also to the newness of
life we can have right now.
PRINCIPLES OF THESE THREE VERSES:
1. If you are a Christian, Christ indwells you and the Holy Spirit indwells
you.
2. If you are a Christian, you have a human spirit that is the new disposition
that the Holy Spirit influences for you to will to do the will of God.
3. The presence of the OSN in the body, every cell of the body, results
in death. But the presence of the human spirit in the body makes you spiritually
alive.
4. But it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we who are spiritually
alive in Christ can walk in newness of life which is the life God's wants
for us.
5. This is a potential for all believers, all believers have a human spirit,
a new disposition, and the Holy Spirit indwelling them.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE . . .
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