Romans 8:11 The Spirit Affects Our Body Even While It is Dying

Romans 8: 11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one[j] who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ[k] from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.[l]

Amplified: And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead 

will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)

Our physical body is dying.  We can take care of it to last longer.  Our appointed time to die has much to do with our personal body care.

But when it dies, it will be resurrected to a new perfect body, by the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.

Verse 10 tells us we will die.  Verse 11 encourages us of the Spirit promising to give us life.

But for now, that same Spirit who gives us hope for a new physical body gives us hope for divine life now in our bodies which transforms the soul and certainly affects the body.

A transformed soul best prospers the body.

A MOMENT OF CLARIFICATION WHEN USING NAMES OF THE GODHEAD 

Let me insert a comment on using persons of the Godhead when talking about them in our heart. At times I say Christ lives in us, or the Spirit lives in us.  But technically all 3:  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit [all three being one] live within us.  We call this the Godhead [all 3 in 1].  Each entity describes a role to play in our life, but all three are one.  The Father is a fatherly role.  He is Creator, All-Wise God, etc.  Jesus Christ the Son, one and the same as Father, willingly takes a submissive role to the Father.  He is appointed Savior, Lord, King.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  He is the Door and the Word.  He speaks for the Father, from the Father.  They Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.  His role with God is instructor, guide, convector, revelatory, comforter, transforming power.  So, when one of the Godhead is mentioned, it is all God but defining a particular role.

Everything God does He does as the triune God. Each Person of the Trinity is involved in every action of God. Yet at the same time each Person has a special role to fulfill in that work....There is no good that we receive from God but it is brought to us and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. Nor is there in us any good towards God, any faith, love, obedience to His will, but what we are enabled (Ed: Note not "helped" which implies we have some ability and just need a little "push"!) to do so by the Holy Spirit. (Pneumatologia, Or, A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit)

In this verse, the Father raises the Son, through the Holy Spirit.

Acts 5:30 (NASB95) 

30 “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross.

THE HOLY SPIRIT LIVES PERMANENTLY IN OUR LIFE

through his Spirit who lives in you.[l]

living implies permanence.  When you move into a place, it is permanence.  And the Holy Spirit does not move in and move out.  The blood of Christ once and for all provided a permanent base of living and operation.

It is also a marriage with us which has no divorce.

Jesus promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Hebrews 13:5

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 

 

 

Now, each of our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Ponder on that a while.

How do you treat and use your body?  Food, dress, what you think, how you form beliefs, how you judge life and people, how you handle your emotions, how you use the Holy Spirit in treating others, how you use your eyes, mouth, hands, feet, your reproductive functions, etc.?

What is the purpose of the body?

• to glorify God
• to be used for His purposes
• to advance the kingdom of God

We are to manage our body not to be controlled by it.  We have given our life to Christ.  We are to manage our body under His rule.  This requires our participation, our partnership to carry out His directives.  To do this, our heart must compliant to His, our will must bend to His, our tasks must be to fulfill His.  Our life is not our own.  We've been bought with a price.  We have no rights of our own.  We have no will of our own.  We have no choices of our own.  We are His.  He lives in us.

This sounds frightening.  But it is the opposite.  Our life is a matter of trust.  And if we do trust to do His will with our body, blessings will come to us that are unimaginable an wonderful, more wonderful than walking by our own ways.

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Romans 8: 11 Moreover ...the Spirit of the one[j] ... will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.[l]

Many scholars believe this passage refers to the Holy Spirit's role solely on physical resurrection.  I am no scholar.  But I believe, by experience, all of us can testify the Holy Spirit living in our bodies senses the life of God in it when we obey.

My physical body tends to be lifeless when sin or self is at the rule.

My physical body tends to have more life, energy, motivation, accomplishment when I am in full union with the Godhead.  

I believe the energy working in my spirit and soul affects my body in many ways.

Another example:

When a Christian receives conviction about his health.  He improves his diet and activity.  As a result, he handles stress better, thus improving his immune system, improving his blood pressure, feeling healthier, displaying better moods, accomplishing more productivity.

We can do more when we follow the Spirit's life!

For years, I suffered from spells of physical lows.  It affected my energy and moods.  I was tired and grumpy.  

But the Holy Spirit directed me to change my eating habits, increase my exercise and activities.

I must admit that was hard.  It took a long time to improve these areas, but:

• I have no more energy lows
• I'm not as tired
• I'm not as grumpy
• I spend more time with those whom I love
• I have more desire and time spent with God
• MUCH MORE

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When a person's body feels sick, God must not be blamed.  That is a dangerous judgment of God who is Wise and Good.  

Sickness is the result of environment, our failed responsibility to give our body proper nutrition.

When the body is weakened, it does affect our attitude and perception.  Even our faith may be attacked.  Health can affect faith and faith affects health.  

Sin is another factor.  When we sin, we failed to trust God.  Self-will following our own path deprives the body of strength.  Deprived strength can lead to physical sicknesses.

Heart attacks, cancers may be the result of bitterness, covetousness, pride, sin addictions.  Physical health is diminished when we live life our way.

Periodic obedience can also lead to sicknesses that those who maintain a consistent walk of faith do not have or have not so. often.

If one is more sick more often and may not be committed to conscious sinning may also need more of the presence and knowledge of the Lord to increase their faith and strength.  Over time God grants more insight into correcting health issues.

Some individuals who walk with God may have some thorn in the flesh to keep them more reliant on  Christ.

So sickness is not always related to sin.  But sin always affects illness.

Romans 8:10 Christ lives in our dead body providing life to live in our soul and through our body.

Romans 8:10

New King James Version

10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

If - meaning "because, since" .  K. Wuest uses, "But, assuming that Christ is in you,"...

He promised He'd not leave us.  He is in us.  His Spirit is in us.  Our Heavenly Father is in us.  We are sealed by them.  They are in active work in us until we die and they bring us to their eternal presence.

the body is dead because of sin,  

    implies our human bodies have been dying ever since we were born.  So the human body is already in a death state.  Why?  Because it is the penalty of sin that will be taken care of later.  Death to the body is on God's agenda.  We're not delivered from it yet.  But our human body is continually weak and dying in parts until we die in totality.

but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  

    The Spirit of God is life and provides life because of the completed righteousness of Christ on the cross.  Christ fulfilled all righteousness for God.  He passed every temptation and suffering that He experienced in His 33 years.  Only because He fulfilled complete obedience till the moment of His death, only He could offer Himself as a perfect acceptable sacrifice for sinful man which would be pleasing to God.

Therefore, Jesus pleasing God to satisfy our obligation for the payment for sins, we are fully looked upon as sons and daughters, the judgement against us removed, love and grace now a new relationship to experience God's own life and the abilities to achieve righteousness like Him.

  John 6:63 "It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits (ABSOLUTELY) nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."

Because the Spirit of the Lord lives in us.

 

we want to practice His ways,

 

live out His character,

 

express His will in the energized power of the Holy Spirit.  

 

The Spirit is life in us.  

 

It is the life of all three:  Father, Son, and Spirit.  

 

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in us.  

 

That life has power to overcome, to grow, to change and transform.  

 

The new man God has destined for us to be can be achieved when we choose to walk in the Spirit.  

 

That Spirit produces the righteousness of God.

  

Romans 8:9 You Are Always in the Spirit So Show What the Spirit is Doing in You

Romans 8:9

New American Standard Bible

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.

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9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. 

Amplified But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. 

Barclay: but you are not dominated by the pursuits which fascinate our sinful human nature;

Wuest: But, as for you, you are not in the sphere of the sinful nature but in the sphere of the Spirit,

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WE THE BORN AGAIN ONES ARE NOT AND NEVER WILL BE IN THE FLESH

At the moment of conversion, we were baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ.  We were taken out of the sphere of the flesh and placed into the sphere of the Spirit.

Therefore, this verse confirms that a person cannot continually live and walk in the flesh and claim that Jesus lives in Him.  It is impossible.  

It is possible to get in the flesh, to act carnal, for a short time or even for a season.  But as long as Christ lives within us, though we attempt to live by the flesh, the Spirit of God will resist us doing it with great misery.  If there is no conviction and misery after sin, then God is absent in the soul, salvation is not there.

If a person does not desire to please God but willfully live pleasing himself, he does not possess the life of the Spirit.

"in the flesh" marks a person whose whole life is centered to connect and gain all the life it can from earth; money, pleasure, etc.

A person having Christ in his life sometimes gives in to the flesh, but conviction strikes him, making him aware of corrupting his soul and prompting him heavily to admit his wrong and turn back to Him.

Let me interject a thought here that is a little different but necessary to further understand sanctification.

IN CHRIST

When we are born again, we are placed "in Christ."  That term implies eternal security, payment of sin satisfied with God, adopted into the family of God, placed into the atmosphere of Christ.

CHRIST IN YOU

Then we have "Christ in you", "the Spirit of Christ in you."  We are in Christ, but Christ is in us.

That term implies something deeper:  In Christ implies safety and eternal security, belonging to the family of God.  Christ in you is a process of Christ in us, seeking to permeate every part of our life to conform us into His image.

This is called sanctification.

Sanctification is simply changing us to become like the Father, the Son, the Spirit.  It is a life long process of revealing Christ in us and to us for the purpose of showing us what needs to be changed, the "how to" to do it, and the way to do it.

But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

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Wuest: But, as for you, you are not in the sphere of the sinful nature but in the sphere of the Spirit,

You are in the Spirit!   That is the sphere we are in.  It has boundaries keeping you in and Sin from returning to get in and rule your life again.  He cannot retake the throne.  Neither can you go back to Sin.  You can never go back to its world and live how you lived.  Neither can you lose your salvation.

John Piper calls this "being in the sway [current] of the Spirit."  

We are under influence.  But we need the Spirit in us to reveal Christ and His Word to us.

You cannot see nor feel at times, but the fact is unchangeable.  The Spirit of Christ is always in you.  You belong to Him.  He can only do good to help you.

He is your home.  He is in your home.  You are in His home.  He is your interior decorator.

No matter what you do, you  display what is in your home.

Romans 8:8 Acting in the Flesh is About "Me" Being Recognized and Honored

Romans 8:8

New American Standard Bible

8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Amplified So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)

Barclay: Those whose life is a purely worldly thing cannot please God. (Westminster Press)

KJV: So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

NLT: That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. (NLT - Tyndale House)

Phillips: Men who hold this attitude cannot possibly please God. (Phillips: Touchstone)

Wuest: Moreover, those who are in the sphere of the sinful nature are not able to please God. 

Young's Literal: for neither is it able; and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.

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1.  Those in the flesh are identified as the lost.  They cannot please God.

2.  We as Christians can get in the flesh.  In that state, we cannot please God because we are acting religiously or immorally [both void of God's life]

Remember:  "flesh" is the fallen human nature from God.  It is a nature that runs away from God and His ways.  It destroys harmony.  It will not turn to  cooperate with God.  

It is visible as  "self-first", the "me",  the "I" focus for attention and gratification.  It feels "wronged" when not seen and recognized.  It reacts when not gotten what it desired. It seeks recognition, elevation, reward, and even pity.  It wallows in its feelings with no pursuit of truth how to properly respond with the use of the will.  Self, though self-willed to follow flesh, has, over time weakened the will to resist its feelings and desires.

Example:  It is offended and reacts to not being recognized, honored, thanked, etc.  It doesn't feel honored.

Self feels this way.  Though every Christian feels this way at times, this feeling must be led to the cross.  We may suffer what we feel and endure what we think.  But we must look to Christ for help denying sin, holding our tongue, and offering words that edify.

Romans 8:7. We Cannot Change a Carnal Mind, Only Christ Can

Romans 8 King James Version

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Amplified [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes]

Barclay: because absorption in the things which fascinate our sinful human nature 

Phillips: And this is only to be expected, for the carnal attitude is inevitably opposed to the purpose of God, 

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Wuest: because the mind dominated by the sinful nature is hostile to God, for it does not marshal itself under the command of the law of God, neither is it able to. 

Hodge commentary on Romans - ...The law of God, however, is the revelation of his nature,

The carnal mind hates God.  

It does not want to surrender and obey God.  It does not want to think about God and His way.  The carnal mind feels it is a god; that it can make its own decisions.  It does not want to consider anything else but what it wants.

The carnal man hates disagreement, rebuke, correction, humiliation.  It does not want to change its mind [repent].

It's own child-like tantrum ridicules spiritual matters because "they" bring objective truth that may rob its pleasures.  

Carnal souls are unwilling to be wrong.  This trait identifies how Lucifer began his rebellion; he wanted to be as God, to do as He likes, making his own rules for his own delight with no resistance, no disagreement.  He demands agreement and satisfaction.

Note carnal mind is a description of a certain kind of mind which thinks earthly as its own religious practice.  It is fed by the flesh.  The flesh is another term for the Sin nature; also called the Old Man, the lower nature.  It is a nature which lures us to connect only to the earth as experience and enjoyment.

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for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be

It will not agree.  It will not change its mind.  When a person is in a carnal mind, they are this way.  When a Christian is in a spiritual mind, he only open to correction from the Word of God.  This is how we determine a person is carnal or spiritual.

The carnal mind cannot be reformed or controlled.  But Christ has a way of providing us help dealing with this enemy.

The carnal nature targets the mind with full power, presents a sensuous picture of what might be, what might be had.  It persuades of what will be if submitted to.  It delivers a "garden" with a hidden "blight" certain to destroy a crop of character, good behavior, and productivity with mankind.

The carnal mind is a teacher who indoctrinates persuasively the idea of ego.  

• I am first
• I am to be served, others forgotten and denied
• I am right; without consideration of other knowledge
• I am going to get what I want.  I don't care what others think
• What I want is right because it feels good.
• I will not admit I am wrong
• I will never apologize
• I will not forgive or love that person.

The carnal mind is a mind bent on "what I want", "what I feel", "what I believe", "what I do or do not want to do", "It is my _________ [money, time, rights, possession, reputation, etc.]

The carnal mind aims at the desires of affections, feeling, and desire.  It arouses the emotions of me.  At that point, we are only in a temptation mode.  But if we continue to listen and act upon, agree with, and defend "the self", we sin, we violate the code of Life, opening the door of destruction to our lives.

The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God.

It will not consider submission.  It will not consider being denied.  It will not accept responsibility, admission of it being wrong.  It demands attention to the fulfillment of its desires.  It will not agree to coming under the command of any other power.  It recognizes its own lordship, its own rule, its own pursuits, its own lifestyle.

Because the carnal mind is the opposite of God, it only leads to a downward path of destruction to the soul, the character, the behavior, the lifestyle, the reputation.  When living in the carnal way, nothing good grows from it.

Yes there are many good non-Christians.  They do good.  But what they do does not always end up good.  And always, their inner lives still has darkness, deceptions, false beliefs, wrong and destructive decisions that affect them and others.

See the good brought about by great inventors of things we enjoy.  They labored hard to produce something good for mankind.  But most, at the end of their lifetime, lost their families and their souls.  They did good, but neglected and denied the ways of God.  They were too busy with their work, they neglected their other duties to God and man.

The carnal mind hates Christians

THE UNSAVED

Most all unregenerate souls hate God, hate Christians, hate certain things about the Bible.  They have cast aside even the civilized world's moral compass, which originated from the Judeo-Christian teachings.  Today's moral compass is no longer universal and objective.  It is individual and subjective.

Satan hates all Christians.  He is called the Accuser of the Brethren.  He puts destructive thoughts into carnal minds that belittle and attack the work of God. 

THE CHRISTIAN

There are times we think carnally.  We become too involved in our hurts, our trials, our offenses.  We self-pity, we spew anti-scriptural words.  We dampen the spirits of others.  We counter our faith.

Some times, we feel uncomfortable around spiritually minded Christians. Other times, we feel uncomfortable.

I remember one night, when I was in college, a group of singles went out one night to restaurant.  I was in a carnal state.  They were in a spiritual state, talking the things of God.  I felt very uncomfortable because my carnality disliked their spirituality.  Only when I repented did those feelings turn around.

The Christian message is that the Holy Spirit, in us, teaches and aids us to recognize when ego arises, to identify it, to deny it, and even suffer the death of suffering from the experience of the cross.  God's aim is to dismantle self and make us servants of selflessness, in order to display good.

If the feelings do. not go away, after full confession and repentance, keep declaring that the feelings are a product of lies we are listening to.