The Presence of the Spirit (Romans 8:9-11)

Paul wants his readers to have spiritual comfort, which is a mark of an authentic pastor. The comfort that he mentions is one that is drawn from what God in Christ has done, is doing and will yet do for his people. In particular, he wants his readers to think about aspects of comfort that come from the work of the indwelling Spirit, whom Jesus said in the Upper Room would function as the heavenly Comforter. From these verses in Romans 8 we will consider five details of the work of the Spirit.

The spiritual location

Where do I live is a question that I answer several times a week. Or I may be asked about my national identity or similar questions. Paul reminds us here that there are only two locations in which we can live. One is what he calls the flesh and the other is what he calls ‘in the Spirit’. As we think of those two locations, there are some brief comments that we can make.

First, every human apart from Jesus is born in the land of the flesh and lives there for a while. When Adam and Eve were created, they did not belong to the land of the flesh, but they became part of it when they sinned in the garden of Eden by disobeying God.

Second, Jesus came into the world in order to take us out of the land of the flesh. The flesh from this point of view is the power that kept us captive in the chains of our sins. We were willing subjects and we needed a divine rescue, otherwise we would remain in this awful location forever.

Third, the removal from the land of the flesh to the place of the Spirit occurs at some stage in this life when we respond to the gospel and experience the Saviour’s delivering power. How this is done varies from person to person, but the outcome is the same for all of them. They find themselves taken to another place to live.

Fourthly, when we leave the land of the flesh, we take some of the flesh with us. This means that none of the people who move to live in the land of the Spirit are sinless and perfect. Instead they have with them relics of the sinful nature that once dominated them and at times they can follow the desires of those relics and live like those who live in the land of the flesh.

Fifthly, those who live in the land of the Spirit also have the Holy Spirit living inside each of them permanently. He has come to live within them for several reasons and we can think about some of them now, and then we will think of others in future sermons.

The heavenly Resident

The Holy Spirit is a divine Person, one of the Trinity. This obviously means that a very important Person lives in every Christian. Imagine what it would be like if the Queen or the Prime Minister was to come and live permanently within your house. It would make a difference to how you would describe yourself. In fact, your home would no longer be defined by you, but by your important resident. No longer would people say that you stayed at that address. Instead they would say that you and a VIP stayed there. In a far higher manner, every Christian should be described as someone with whom or in whom the Holy Spirit lives.

If the Queen or Prime Minister came to dwell in our home, would we remain in charge of it? After all, they have authority wherever they go. They had been in charge when they were not living in the home, and they would remain in charge when they came to live with us. In a far higher way, the Holy Spirit was in charge before he came to live within us. Indeed, before he came to live within us he convicted us of the sins we had committed against God. And when he comes to live within us, we can say that he comes not only to be resident, he also comes to be president. He expects and requires us to obey his instructions recorded in the Bible.

What is it like to have the Holy Spirit living within us? We can answer this question by looking at how he is described in the next line where he is called ‘the Spirit of Christ’. That description tells us that the Spirit comes to believers on the authority of Jesus. And it also tells us that he comes to believers as the agent of Jesus, which means he will do within us what Jesus would do. Unlike having the Queen or Prime Minister staying with us, there is a consequence of having the Spirit of Jesus in our heart. The Queen and the Prime Minister may turn out to have no influence at all on us, but that cannot be said of the Holy Spirit. His aim is to conform us to the likeness of Jesus.

The sign of belonging

Paul now moves on to mention several important details about the consequences of having the Holy Spirit dwell within us. First, we can consider that the possession of the Holy Spirit is a sign that we belong to Christ, a sign that we are genuine Christians. This is not the only place where Paul says that the Holy Spirit is a sign that true believers belong to God. The best known reference may be the one in Ephesians 1:13 where Paul says that the Holy Spirit is a seal that indicates believers are God’s possession. A seal was used in the ancient world to indicate that an item belonged to its owner and was therefore authentic. How do I know that I am a Christian? The answer is that I have the Holy Spirit living and working within me.

This is an opportunity to remind ourselves of what may not be the signs that I am a Christian. It is easy for us to produce lists of what may mark a genuine Christian and in the process lose sight of the signs that God has given. For example, an interest in theology is not a sign in itself that a person is a Christian. Many non-Christians like to discuss theology as an intellectual game. Nor is an interest in adopting the Christian lifestyle in an outward manner an evidence of Christianity. Many people recognise the value of living in peace with one’s neighbours. Those two examples may accompany the genuine presence of the Spirit.

Paul, in this chapter in Romans, will go on to describe some aspects of the presence of the Spirit that point to genuineness, such as mortification of sin and prayer. But for now, I want us to think of the connection that Paul makes here between the Spirit and Jesus. I would suggest that an important sign of spiritual genuineness is that the Spirit leads us to Jesus. For example, when we sin, what does the Spirit do? Obviously, he will convict us of it, but that is not all that he does. In addition he will lead us to think of what Jesus did on behalf of sinners, and the Spirit will encourage us to go to God through Jesus and confess our sins because Jesus is our Advocate with the Father. If the Spirit is not causing us to think of Jesus in a wide variety of ways, then not much is happening. A verse of a hymn can describe what our outlook should be:

More about Jesus let me learn,

More of His holy will discern;

Spirit of God my teacher be,

Showing the things of Christ to me.

Paul then moves on to further describe the effects of having the Holy Spirit within believers. One of the effects is present and the other is future.

The present provision

Paul’s words regarding the present are, ‘But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’ He is saying that in this life it is not part of the work of the Spirit to give life to our bodies. Perhaps some people were assuming that the indwelling of the Spirit of life would change our physical abilities in this life. Instead, says Paul, even although it belongs to Jesus, it remains under the influence of death because of our sins. We all know that we are going to die unless Jesus returns and prevents that from happening.

Yet Paul does not leave the matter there. Although our bodies are under the influence of death, something else is also taking place through the work of the Spirit and that is that he is giving spiritual life to our souls. The teaching here is similar to what he says in 2 Corinthians 4:16: ‘Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.’ That life was given at regeneration and cannot be taken away because the Spirit is permanently present in the heart of every believer.

What righteousness does Paul say is the reason why the Spirit is resident in the inner life of the believer? It cannot be a reference to their practical righteousness because it is the consequence of his work. Therefore, it must be a reference to another righteousness. Two options are possible. One is the overall salvation planned by God, which is described as the righteousness of God. If that is the meaning, then Paul may be saying that the work of the Spirit is part of God’s great salvation. The other option is that Paul is referring to the righteousness of Jesus that is imputed to believers when they believe in him, and which opens the way for the Holy Spirit to come and indwell them.

Whichever view is right, it is important that we grasp the point that signs of death in our physical bodies are not evidences that we do not have the Spirit. Instead we have to remind ourselves that the redemption of the body is future.

The future experience

Paul therefore summarises what will happen to the bodies of believers at the resurrection. We should observe that it is a Triune activity, in which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are involved. Moreover, there is a link between the past resurrection of Jesus and the future resurrection of believers. And we can also see that here Paul says that the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father.

The connection made by the Spirit between the resurrection of Jesus and the future resurrection of believers suggests that there is a similarity between the two events. In what ways would they be similar? First, in both cases it was a resurrection that ensured those experiencing it would not die again. There were other resurrections, such as that of Lazarus, when the raised person died again afterwards. But the resurrection of Jesus in the past and the resurrection of believers in the future is of a different kind, one that removes the influence of death from their personal experience.

Secondly, both the resurrection of Jesus in the past and the resurrection of believers in the future are resurrections to glory. In the case of the Saviour, there was a period of forty days between his resurrection and his glorification at his ascension. The case of believers will be different because their resurrection will be followed by their glorification. This experience of future glory is part of the work of the Spirit in the existence of believers. Paul probably has in mind that they will have the fullness of the Spirit then, and that the receiving of the fullness is guaranteed by the current indwelling of the Spirit.

Conclusion

It is obvious that the current work of the Spirit in the heart of every Christian is a great work as will be the future work of the Spirit in the body of every Christian when he raises them from the dead. Our response to his presence now should be one of gladness, accompanied by gratitude, with a determination not to grieve him. In order for that to happen we need his help, but it is good to know that he delights to provide it.