Holy Spirit and the Body - Rom. 8.10-13

The Holy Spirit and the Body

Rom. 8.10-13 unfolds the condition of our body. If our body is is not sound and restored while our spirit and soul are, our life shall suffer in committing blunder for who can deny the relationship of body and spirituality? Though Jesus died, He still wears this garb forever in a resurrected body. Formerly both the body and the spirit were dead; now the spirit is quickened, leaving only the body dead (Rom. 8.10). This creates a great divide between a dead body and an alive spirit. We have yet to possess a resurrected, glorious frame; "the redemption of our bodies" (Rom. 8.23).

Today's body is just an "earthen vessel,", an "earthly tent", a "lowly body" (2 Cor. 4.7, 5.1; Phil. 3.21). Sin remains in the body, therefore it is dead.

When we trust Him we receive Him as our righteousness and we are also justified by God. Christ imparting to us His very Self is a substantive transaction, while God justifying us for Christ's sake is a legal transaction. Without impartation there can be no justification. Only through justification, God will give life to our mortal bodies also (Rom. 8.11). The spirit lives because of Christ dwelling in us; this part declares the body will live because of the Holy Spirit abiding in us. The Holy Spirit will give life to our bodies. The body dead expresses the sense of it traveling towards the grave; spiritually counted as dead. The activity of that life of the body of sin is living by spiritual death.

However, we need to do the labor of the Lord in these mortal bodies which requires bodily strength. The only way to witness and serve in these bodies is to allow God Himself to give life to these bodies of death by the Spirit of God whom raised the dead body of Jesus. Verse 11 is not speaking of a future resurrection for it is simply comparing the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with our receiving life in our body. It is also not speaking of our regeneration in our spirit, but the giving of life to our bodies. Therefore, the true meaning of the Holy Spirit giving life to our body is not to make them glorious bodies now for that is not possible, but that (1) He will restore us when we are sick and (2) He will preserve us if we are not sick. The Kingdom of God will not suffer through the weakness of the body, nor shall our spirit encounter loss. Many Christians do not experience this provision because they do not present their bodies as a living sacrifice or feel it has nothing to do with them, thus living through themselves instead. As soon as the believer does something in the body they lose that spiritual sense when focused on the spirit. A little discomfort alters there very life. "So then..." in v.12 follows stating the body is dead and the Holy Spirit gives life to the body (vv.10,11). Therefore, we are not debtors to the flesh (v.12).

Weakness, illness and suffering have lost their grip as you "put to death the deeds of the body" (v.13). If we reject God's provision, we will certainly receive punishment. According to sin our body is "dead"; according to consequence it is a "body of death" (doomed to death). We shorten our lives on earth, because all sins are harmful to the body: "if you live according to the flesh you will die." Let us resist the death that is in the body, then "you will live." We should no live for ourselves and expect the Holy Spirit to be Executor and Giver of life for us. How utterly ridiculous! The life God gives to our body is so that we will live for Him, otherwise we would be energized unto ourselves. Co-crucifixion is but a teaching to many saints, not exhibiting reality. We should not crucify ourselves for we have already been crucified; we must rely entirely on the Holy Spirit. The Spirit moves together with the cross. The cross without the Spirit is ineffective.

Only the Holy Spirit can take what the cross has accomplished and make believers experience it. If we hear the truth but do not allow Him to work this truth into our lives, then we know nothing but a theory and an ideal. A recognition "that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be annulled" (Rom. 6.6 Darby) is needed, but we still have to "put to death the deeds of the body" by the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can translate the cross into experience, yet believers forget Him and persist under mere theory.