Romans 8:9-11 Display Chapter and Footnotes   9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ [to rule a man as his king, doing His will], he is none of his. [Paul has clearly said in the preceding verses that unless your sinful nature has been destroyed, including your carnal mind; that unless you are no longer walking according to your lusts, passions, and pleasures; that unless you are walking under control of the Spirit in thought, word and deed; then you are not a part of Christ — you are not in Christ — you do not belong to Christ — yet. You first must mortify your fleshly, sinful nature on the inward cross of self-denial... Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh [the sinful nature] with its passions and desires (lusts and affections). Gal 5:19-24. Click to see more on being "in Christ."] 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. [If the Spirit of Christ dwells within you, then the deeds of the body, (the flesh, the sinful nature), have been mortified, verse 13, below; then the body is dead, its fleshly, sinful lusts and passions no longer controlling your life. But when the righteous Spirit of Christ is within you, which is formed as you have carry the inward cross of self-denial, that Spirit of Christ does not die.] 11 Moreover, if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ from the dead has also restored to life your mortal bodies by his Spirit who dwells in you. [After our fleshly, sinful nature has been slain by the Spirit, rendering the body dead to its lusts and passions, the Lord is resurrected in us to be our true Lord so that we are a new creature in new life with the imputed righteousness of Christ. This is to be experienced while on earth, not to be presumed, and not to be understood to occur after normal physical death. In this verse the tense for restored to life was not specified in the original Greek; so Babylon's translators for all Bibles translated "has also restored to life your mortal bodies" to "will restore to life your mortal bodies," but your body cannot be dead unless the Lord has also restored life to your body by His Spirit. The translators made this error because their doctrines only define heaven after a man has physically died and left this earth; they don't believe that a man can be translated into the kingdom of God in union with God while still alive on earth, nor do they believe in Jesus being resurrected in a man who walks the earth.] |