Paul had a unique definition of “life.” Life, for instance, was not what he was experiencing in his physical body. His body was merely a vessel for his sinful nature, and his sinful nature only “bore fruit for death (Romans 7:5).” To Paul, a body controlled by its sinful nature “is dead because of sin,” Romans 8:10, and talking of his own body he cried out in Romans 7:24, ”Who will rescue me from this body of death?” In Paul’s experience, there was no life to be found in his body. Instead, it was hell-bent on killing him.
“But,” he added in 8:10, “if Christ is in you…your spirit is alive.” The body may be dead but there’s this other part of us called “spirit,” and that’s the bit where life is. We’re body and spirit, but only the spirit part of us is truly alive. And then it’s only alive if Christ is in us.
For a human being to come to life, therefore, or experience life for the first time, he needs to have Christ living his life in him. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ (8:9),” and that’s important because “there is no condemnation for those who are in (or belong to) Christ (verse 1),” and that’s important because condemnation means death. But there’s no death if there’s no condemnation, and there’s no condemnation if we belong to Christ and he’s living in us. “Life,” then, to Paul, is the Spirit of Christ bringing the “spirit” part of us to life by living God’s life in us. Life for a human, therefore, is defined as God-life in us, and until we have God-life in us, we’re not alive.
Or, put another way in verse 11 - “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” That’s a startling verse because our bodies don’t automatically come with “life” when we’re born. We have to be “given life” at some later date, at whatever time the Spirit lives Christ’s life in us. There is no life in our mortal bodies otherwise.
And what is the evidence that the Spirit has given us life? It is our desire and ability to obey God and please him, verse 10 - ”your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” What righteousness? We want to “put to death the misdeeds of the body (verse 13).” That’s the Spirit at work in us, and that’s our proof we’re truly alive.
Filed under: True spirituality
