Romans 8, 10 – 14
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Here Paul formulates this fact in a question form:
if now... then?
And he says: "But if Christ is in you". Paul is talking to the born-again people and he knew that they have the Christ in them. But he uses "if" to make it clear what "Christ in you" actually contains. This cannot be fully considered in an instant.
Point one.
It is a fact that God's Word teaches that Christ has entered into the people who are saved. This fact that Christ is in us can be treated very superficially by believers.
This happens depending on how the hearts are still connected to the spirit of this world. In our consciousness, we should constantly know: I belong to Christ the Lord. If a situation, a test comes up and I live in the consciousness that Christ is in me, - I belong to the Lord - then I submit myself to this fact and wait: Christ will answer in this situation, not me. And then the Lord Jesus will answer. But if I do not live in the consciousness that Christ is in us, then the human being will speak from the flesh in his answer. And so we recognize whether a child of God is spiritual. Everything that is spoken against the will of God, these are things that are spoken outside the consciousness "Christ in us". And when we know that He is in us, then we have to let Him speak. The vast majority of God's children do not suffer from the fact that they should speak more, but they suffer from not being able to keep quiet enough. We should learn to become silent before Him. As long as we have not come to this silence and rest in Christ, He cannot speak in us.
It is a wonderful and important fact
that God dwells in people.
And you and I cannot reflect on this fact enough, we cannot reflect on it enough. This is the secret of godliness. Because the Almighty God has entered man, he can be blissful.
And yet God gives us the freedom to silence Christ in us or to let Christ speak in us. The more we allow Him, our Lord, to speak in us, the more heartfelt and close and deeper is the fellowship with our Lord. This is what God wants. He wants from the whole heart that we recognize how we should walk, so that we can enter into this deep cordial communion which so genuinely connects us with Him.
This is a community just like the community we have with each other. But it is up to us alone how deep this community becomes.
And that is why we should stop and come to the Lord and call constantly to the Lord, that he may descend in his goodness, in his faithfulness, in his mercy to guide us in justice. For all that is denied us personally in deep communion with Christ is nothing but our own wrongdoing. And that is why we need the grace and light of God. And this requires prayer to enter again and again into the presence of God, in order to receive from there what God has prepared for us. He wants to make us rich, but it is interesting when Scripture says here, "But if Christ is in you". then this does not mean - as believers in their ignorance think - that we have received new flesh through conversion. It is written: "All things have become new".
But we have not received new flesh.
And this is precisely what I have been told more than once before. I regretted this ignorance. One thinks one can say something and yet lives in great darkness about divine things.
Point two.
Here it says in Scripture: "If this Christ is in us, the body is dead because of sin". That is, if we are converted, if we are saved, the body is dead. It also remains dead. The body of our flesh is not reawakened by our actions or by our following Jesus. It must also be kept in death.
Every body of flesh is already marked by death when we enter this earthly life. And when we are saved, then actually the right and proper death comes only through the flesh. Died with Christ on the cross. To die with Christ in the equality of his death on the cross, that puts the dot on the "i".
Then a thing is only perfect and that is the way God wants it to be. We are to keep our bodies in death, because God has pronounced the judgment of death over our bodies. This had already happened at the Fall in the Garden of Eden. It was a long time ago, we will not be able to remember it. The body is dead because of sin.
Therefore, God could not come to the actual goal with Israel, because the Israelites were in the service of the temple with a dead body. Therefore, this ministry is also called the ministry of death. And this was the service of the law. Therefore it is explained here in the Epistle to the Romans - and this is a confrontation of the statements - that the Spirit is life because of righteousness. So we can say that if there is the Spirit of God in a person, that is "Christ in you", then there is new life through the Spirit and in the Spirit.
And this life is the righteousness of God.
You have to think about this.
What does that mean: "Christ is in you"? And how few believers walk in this awareness. They are not yet ready. They're not ready. They want to. They're praying for it, too. But still, it's not close enough for most of God's children.
I say again, Christ is in us when we are saved. I say this because I know for sure. These are not my assumptions. We only make the mistake too quickly that we have recognized Christ to a certain extent and then think we no longer need to seek Him. That doesn't get us anywhere. In the theme of knowing God there is no stop, but fellowship with Christ is - throughout a whole life - it is necessary to reach out to Him.
point three
Now this is a powerful statement that God's Word must tell us that Christ is in you.
Paul had to tell this to the believing Romans. Didn't they know? And yet, God is telling us tonight. And we would have to ask, "Why?" This biblical word that cannot be read enough, cannot be absorbed enough, cannot be moved enough. God is connected with us because HE is in us. He is in us in a body of death.
This matter that surrounds us is in itself dead. If you throw a handful of sand into a corner in the basement, you can safely assume that this handful of sand will still be in the same place next year. Unless a mouse scratched there. But every earthly matter remains dead in itself, but through creation life according to the order of God has also moved into matter.
And so we have gained from this dust, a body. And that means that the body was won from death. For the dust is decayed matter and all that is decay is contrary to permanence. We should not think that rocks cannot weather or decay. Even rocks can weather, depending on their density and water permeability, stone goes through the same process as the human body. With humans it only goes faster. And of course rocks are also older than man. This must also be the case, because this rock is the image of Christ and it is primeval.
point four
Then it's, "But if the Spirit of him". What do you mean, the spirit of HIM? The one who raised Jesus from the dead. That spirit dwells in you. The Spirit, who has just the power to lead the man Jesus out of death and back into life, if He dwells in us, then He is the same source of power that led Christ out of the dead and back into life.
Then the same one is in us. And also we who belong to the Lord Jesus, God will lead us into his glory through the power of his Spirit. Therefore, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. The subject is the mortal body. And therefore, this very body that died will come to life again.
Even now we have a spirit of man. But the spirit of man is so weak and so little and so powerless in us that it cannot prevent our body from coming to death. He cannot. So this means that to stay in life we need a very strong spirit and because we did not have one, God in Christ has had mercy on us and has given us his spirit, the spirit of God. In this spirit of God we have the source of strength to come back into life. The proof: Christ, the man Jesus, who was in death for three days, was brought back to life through the power that was in him. By what? Through the Spirit, because it is the Spirit who exercises power.
The Bible says that the flesh is weak. The spirit is strong, but we still have a spirit that is too weak to guide the weak body properly. If Adam and Eve had had a strong spirit, they would certainly not have fallen in the Garden of Eden.
This too was weakness of spirit, for the spirit that lied and tried to Eve was stronger, far stronger than the spirit that Adam and Eve had. These mortal bodies that we have, HE will make them alive. And now comes the important part, "because of the spirit that dwells within you."
Even if we have to die bodily, even if the body is laid in the earth. So it is now obvious that this Holy Spirit has a quite definite connection with our flesh, even when the body decays or is decayed. These things are invisible to our eyes. Just as invisible as you cannot lay your own soul here on the table, or as you cannot lay your spirit on the table. "Look at him, my spirit, I put it here in this saucer". You cannot say that.
That's really not possible. And yet you would be offended if you were told, "You have no spirit." Wouldn't you? But it is wonderful that we realize this: the spirit that brought the Lord Jesus back from death has this power to raise Jesus from the dead.
This is really a very great power. This can only be the spirit who gave us life at creation. A spirit among them, apart from the Creator Spirit, cannot lead us back from death into life. This is absolutely impossible and through this God has honoured us for having given us His Spirit. He has given us an extraordinary grace in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And we were rid of the old dirt. And we were freed from the cause of our separation from God. From the life-creating God.
This was Christ on the cross and after this happened, God had mercy on us a second time.
First He sent His beloved Son, then He also sent HIS Spirit.
And everyone who believes in him receives eternal life. This is why God has given His Spirit here on this earth, so that we would be partakers, not only of the forgiveness of our sins and guilt, but that we would be partakers of eternal life, and this happens through HIS Spirit alone. Of course there is still much to say, but we do not have time for this today.
point five
In 1.Cor. 6, verse 14, it says that God has raised up the Lord, and that he will raise us up through his power. That is the power of his spirit.
In 2.Cor. 5,5, it says: that no one should imagine that he did this out of his own efficiency, that makes it clear:
God has prepared us for this very purpose: that mortal existence is swallowed up by life. It means that we shall rise again. God has prepared us for this. For God has given us the pledge of the Spirit. It is called a pledge.
In practice, the pledge is like a counterpart to an original. Take the water hose, for example.
If the thread between the water tap and the hose fitting does not fit together, you will not get a drop of water out of the hose. Why not? Because they don't belong together. Because there is no community. We need fellowship with Christ so that the life given to us by God will flow. The right connection, the connection is also the prerequisite on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the day is coming soon. For the Bible does not speak in vain, and we who are saved rejoice that we are present at the Rapture. Whether we were failures or not failures on this earth, it does not matter. If we have received the forgiveness of our sins through Christ, then we are there. If we have received forgiveness through his grace, then we have his Spirit, the right piece of Christ and the pledge of fellowship with God for all eternity. And for that we thank our God.
point six
Verse 12: "For brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, but to live according to the flesh".
We have nothing to demand in the flesh and have nothing to accomplish in the flesh.
That is the meaning of this verse.
For if we make a change according to the flesh, if we live according to the flesh, says the apostle, then we will reap corruption from the flesh. That means in the end: we will die.
Whoever lives according to the principles and rules (the law) of the fleshwill experience death, for all eternity.
That is as certain as all flesh is to death, there is no exception.
That is why God wants us to become men of the spirit, to live according to the spirit and will of God. But when you kill the actions of the body through the spirit, here we are called to be active.
We see how necessary it is to become active in order to meet God's demands at all. When we kill these actions of the body and God wants us to kill them, then we will live. That means that those who have eternal life are recognized by the fact that they kill the actions of the body, namely their own body, and that is the secret of victory in Christ.
seventh point
Now we come to verse 14: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God". The Bible is precise. We humans are not precise. That is why we keep to our God. He has spoken so precisely in His Word that even simple-minded people, who are imprecise, will not go astray on this path. So it is written. Sons of God, children of God, saved, born again, are those who are led by the Spirit. To make a cult of them within the children of God is a sinful work of Satan. The Bible makes it clear that we do not have to do anything to be led by the Spirit of God. This leading by the Spirit of God happens in particular, first of all, in the main in daily life. This is the greatest requirement of all.
For on Sundays, when we are in church, it is no trick not to fall into this or that sin. I am not saying that one cannot fall into sin here. This can happen in any place on this earth, but we are in fellowship with one another, unchallenged by many, many sins. Why? Because God is in abundance where many believers are gathered in one place. There is also much light there and the believers themselves bring this light with them and that is why when we are here together, we do not notice this because we are in the flesh, then there is a lot of light. But from the spiritual perspective - as for example the angels see it - there is very much light. Spiritually speaking, Christ is light in us through the presence of believers who come together. And wherever such believers come together there is an accumulation of light and that is dominion over the enmity of light.
And the darker it is around us the brighter shines the shining light of Christ who himself says I am the light of this world. It is not our own light, but it dwells in us, Christ. We have become light because Christ is the light in us. We ourselves are not light. There is no cause in the flesh for any conceit. We know that very well, that is why we never want to give ourselves to such thoughts. All believers who are in obedience, all believers who have been saved through conversion, have been under the guidance of the Spirit of God in these processes.
All believers who walk the path of obedience and attachment to the Word of God are those whom the Lord guides. I do not have to do any special actions, otherwise some of this would be written in the Holy Scriptures. But here it says that it is the sons of God who are led.
I have to be a "son"
to get our Heavenly Father's inheritance.
If we're not "sons," we don't get an inheritance. Because we are children of God - because we are sons of God - we are able to possess the wonderful inheritance of the glory of heaven.
In faith and because we are saved, we already know this now. And soon our Lord will come, and then we will experience the glory of God with our glorious bodies. We will see with the perfect eyes of God as God sees, and we will see Him and rejoice in His wonderful light.