man "in 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 Jesus from the deadf will also give life
to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
It's such a wonderful word here in verse 10.
Here Paul formulates this fact “to be in Christ” in a question form: if really. And he says: "But if Christ is in you". Paul speaks 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. You cannot fully grasp that in an instant.
Point one.
It is a fact that God's Word teaches that Christ dwells in saving people. This fact that Christ is in us can be taken very superficially. This happens depending on how the hearts are still connected to the spirit of this world. In our consciousness, we should always know: I belong to Christ the Lord. Now comes a situation, a test and I live in the consciousness "Christ is in me" - I belong to the Lord - then I submit myself consciously to this fact and wait: Christ will answer in this situation, not me. And then the Lord Jesus answers. But if I do not live in the awareness that "Christ is in us", then people talk about what comes from the flesh. And so we recognize whether a child of God is spiritual. Everything that is spoken against the will of God is something that is spoken outside of the consciousness "Christ in us". And if 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 being unable to keep silent. We should learn to be quiet 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 makes his home in a person. And one cannot ponder this fact enough, not consider it enough. It is this mystery of godliness because Almighty God chose the man who was a sinner. And yet God also gives this man the freedom to stop listening to Christ.
The more we let him, our Lord, speak in us, the more heartfelt and closer and more intimate and deep is the fellowship with our Lord. God wants that. With all his heart, he wants us to recognize how we should walk so that we can get into this deep, cordial community that connects us so genuinely with him. It is a community just like the community we have among each other. But it's up to us. And that is why we should stop and come to the Lord and continually call to the Lord to let himself down in his goodness, in his loyalty, in his mercy, in order to guide us properly. Because everything that is denied to us in deep communion with Christ is nothing other than our own wrongdoing. And that's why we need the grace and light of God that He wants to offer. And that requires prayer to keep entering God's presence in order to receive from there what God has prepared for us. He wants to make us rich, but it is interesting if the Scripture says here, "But if Christ is in you", it is not as believers in ignorance of the Word of God think that we have got a new flesh through conversion, because it is written: "everything has become new". And I've been told that more than once. I regretted this ignorance. They think they can say something and yet they live in great darkness about these things.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
Point two.
Here it is said that if this Christ is in us, the body is dead because of sin. That is, when we are converted, when we are saved, the body is dead. It also remains dead. It is not awakened by our actions or our life with Jesus. The body must also be kept in death. Every body of the flesh is already marked by death when we enter this earthly life. And when we are saved, the real death comes only through the flesh. We died with Christ on the cross. To die on the cross with Christ in the likeness of his death is the point of the "i". Then this fact of death is only perfect. And that's what God wants. We should keep our bodies in death because God has pronounced the judgment of death over our bodies. That was already with the Fall in the Garden of Eden. It's been a long time, we won't be able to remember it. The body is dead because of sin. That is why God could not reach the goal with Israel, because the Israelites were dead in their worship. That is why this service is also called the service of death. And that was the legal service.
That is why it is explained here in the Letter to the Romans that it was a service of death. And that's a confrontation of the statements. Here the service of death, and there the service in the spirit of life. So we can say here that if there is the Spirit of God in a person - that is "Christ in you" - then there is new life in man through the Spirit. And this life is God's righteousness. You have to think about it. What does this mean: "Christ is in you"? And how few believers walk in this consciousness. You are not ready yet. But that also means they want that. They want that. They also pray for it. But it is still not close enough to most of God's children. I say it again: Christ is in us when we are saved. I say this because I know it. These are not guesswork. But we make the mistake too quickly that we have recognized Christ and then think that we no longer have to search for him. We don't get any further. But there is no stop in the knowledge of God, but fellowship with Christ is - throughout a lifetime - reaching out to HIM.
Point three
Now that is a powerful statement that God's Word must tell us that Christ is in you. Paul had to say that to the Romans. Didn't you know? And yet God tells us this evening too. And we would have to ask why? This Bible word cannot be read enough, it cannot be absorbed enough, it cannot be dealt with enough. God is connected to us because He is in us. He is in us in a body of death. The matter itself is dead. If you throw a handful of sand in 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 pawed there. But matter remains dead in itself, but through creation life according to the order of God has also entered matter. And so we have gained a body from this dust. And that means that the body was won from death. Because dust is crumbled matter and everything that is decay stands in opposition to permanence. We shouldn't think that rocks cannot weather or decay. Rocks can also weather, depending on their density and water permeability, stone goes through the same process as the human body. It's only faster with humans. And of course the rocks are older than humans. That must be so, because this rock is the image of Christ. And Christ is older than us.
"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"
Point four
Then it says, "but if the spirit of him". What does it mean, "the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead?". “Who raised Jesus from the dead” lives in you. The spirit, which has the power to bring Jesus back to life from death, if he lives in us, then it is the same source of strength that led Christ out of the dead and back into life. Then the same is in us and also us, who belong to the Lord Jesus, God will lead us to his glory through the power of his spirit. Therefore, he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life. And that's why exactly this mortal body will come to life. Even now we have a human spirit. But the mind of man is so weak and without strength in us that it cannot prevent our body from dying. He can not do it. So that means that in order to stay in life we need a very strong spirit and because we did not have it, God in Christ took pity on us and gave us his spirit, the spirit of God. In this spirit of God we have the source of strength to come back to life. The proof: Christ, the man Jesus who was in death for three days, was brought back to life by the power that was in him. How? By spirit, because it is the spirit that exercises power. The Bible says that the flesh is weak. The spirit of God is strong, but we have a spirit that is still too weak to guide the weak body properly. If Adam and Eve had a strong spirit, they would certainly not have fallen in the Garden of Eden. But they were weak in spirit, because the spirit that Eve lied and tried was stronger, far stronger than that spirit that Adam and Eve had. These mortal bodies that we have will bring CHRIST to life. And now it comes: because of HIS spirit dwelling in you. Even if we have to die physically, even if the body is placed in the earth. So it is obviously the case that this Holy Spirit has a very specific connection to our flesh, even if the body decays or has decayed. These things are invisible to our eyes. Just as invisible as you can't put your own soul on the table here, or how you can't put your mind on the table. Look at him, my spirit, I put him in the saucer here. You can't say that. And yet you'd be offended if you were told you didn't have a ghost, right? But it is wonderful here that we get these things explained in this way.
The spirit that brought the Lord Jesus back from death into life, that brought him up from death, is the spirit of life. It can only be the spirit that gave us life in creation.
A spirit underneath, except the creative spirit, can no longer lead us back from life to death. It is absolutely impossible. And God loved us so much that He gave us His Spirit. He gave us extraordinary grace in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And we got rid of the old filth and the cause of our separation from the living God.
It was Christ on the cross who did it.
And after that, God took pity a second time, He gave us His Spirit.
And everyone who believes in him receives eternal life. That is why God has given His Spirit here on this earth so that we could partake not only of forgiveness of our sins and guilt, but that we would partake of eternal life and that happens only through His Spirit. There is still a lot to be said, of course, but we don't have time today.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
Point five
In 1 Cor. 6, verse 14, it is said that God has raised the Lord as well as he will raise us up by his power. That is the power of his mind. In 2 Corinthians 5: 5 it says that nobody should imagine that he should have done this out of his own ability. That makes the following clear: God does it this way: that mortal is swallowed up in us by life.
That means we will be resurrected. God has prepared us for this. Because God has given us the pledge of the Spirit. Pledge is said. In practice, this is like a counterpart to an original. Through this counterpart we can be connected to God. We have to imagine it like this: You have a garden, a hose and a tap, you can turn the tap on so much, but there is no water in the hose if you do not have the thread on the tap with the appropriate hose fitting. This is the only way to connect the hose and the tap. Do you understand? You can have a gold-plated piece, if these threaded parts, these two pieces don't fit together, then you won't get a drop of water from the hose at the other end. Why not? Because they don't belong together. Because there is no community. We need fellowship with Christ so that the life that is given to us by God flows. The right connection, the connection is also the prerequisite on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the day is coming soon. Because the Bible doesn't speak for nothing and we who are saved are happy that we are there. It doesn't matter whether we were failures on earth or not. If we have received the forgiveness of our sins through Christ, then we are there. If we received forgiveness through His grace, then we have His Spirit, the right piece of Christ and the pledge for communion with God for all eternity. And we thank our God for that.
I always thank my God for you because of the grace He has given you in Christ Jesus. For in Him you have been enriched in every way, in all speech and all knowledge, because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.
Point six
Verse 12, so brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh to live for the flesh.
We have nothing to ask for in the flesh and we also have nothing to accomplish in the flesh. That is what this verse means. Because if we make a change after the flesh - if we live in accordance with the flesh - then we will reap corruption from the flesh. Ultimately, this means: we will die.
Whoever lives according to the logic and the principles (a law) of the flesh will experience death forever, as surely as all flesh comes to death. That is why God wants us to become people of the Spirit in order to live according to the spirit and will of God. But if you "kill the body's actions through the Spirit" - here we are required to act - then we have life from God. Then we have his testimony. We see how necessary it is to take action to meet God's demands at all. If we kill these body actions and God wants us to kill them, then we will live. That is, those who have eternal life are recognized by the fact that they kill the actions of the body, namely their own bodies, and that is the secret of victory in Christ.
The mystery of godliness is great:
He appeared in the flesh,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, was taken up in glory.
Point seven
Now we come to verse 14: "because so many are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God". The Bible is precise. We humans are not precise. That is why we stick to our God. He spoke so precisely in his word that even simple-minded people, which 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 guided by the Spirit. It would be a sin to make it a cult or a new denomination. The Bible makes it clear that we don't have to do anything to be guided by the Spirit of God. This guidance through the Spirit of God is primarily and primarily in daily life. That is the biggest requirement. Because on Sundays it is not a feat, when we are in the church, we do not fall into this or that sin. I'm not saying that you can't fall into sins here. This can happen in any place on earth, but we are in communion with one another, undisputed by many, many sins. Why? Because God is in abundance where many believers are gathered in one place. There is also a lot of light there and the believers bring this light with them and so when we are here we don't notice it because we are in the flesh, there is a lot of light. But from a spiritual perspective - as the angels see, for example - there is a lot of light. Spiritually, Christ is light in us through the presence of believers who come together. And wherever such believers come together, there is an agglomeration of light and that is rule over the enmity of light. And the darker it is around us, the brighter the light shine of Christ shines. Christ himself says I am the light of this world. It is not our own light, but it dwells in us, Christ. We became light because Christ is the light in us. We ourselves are not light. There is no cause in the flesh for any imagination. We know that very well, which is why we never want to indulge in such thoughts. All believers who are obedient, all believers who have been saved by conversion, have been guided by the Spirit of God in these processes. All believers who walk the path of obedience and connection with the Word of God are those whom the Lord guides. I do not have to do any special actions, otherwise some of it would be written in Scripture, but here it is said that it is sons of God who are led. We have to be "son" to be guided to our Heavenly Father's inheritance, otherwise we don't have it. Because we are children of God - because we are sons of God - we are in
able to possess the wonderful legacy of the glory of heaven. In faith, because we are saved, we already know that. And soon our Lord will come and then we will experience it with glorified bodies. We will see with the perfect eyes of God how God sees and we will see HIM and will rejoice in His wonderful light.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
Amen