Death and Life
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"And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness" Romans 8:10
Man is a complex being, possessed of body and soul. Real religion has its seat in the latter—but it affects and influences the former. The whole person of man must be saved or lost. Sin affects the entire person, and so does grace. But if the entire person is affected by grace, how is it that the body dies? To this the apostle now directs our attention, saying, "And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10).
The Privilege Supposed. "If Christ is in you." Christ dwells in all his people by his Spirit, who, as infinite, can dwell in myriads of people, as well as fill heaven and earth, at the same time. This fact we can believe, and draw much comfort from it; but as the acting of the Infinite cannot be comprehended by the finite, we cannot fully understand it. That the Spirit is in us we know, and that he is also in all believers in the same way we believe.
Christ is in us as the food is in the body. He is our spiritual sustenance, the bread of life, and we feed on him. He gives the living water, and we receive it from him. Now, the body does not more really receive food, and derive from it nourishment, strength, and vigour—than the soul receives Christ, deriving from him spiritual nourishment, strength, and vigour. Christ is in us as the soul is in the body.
As the soul quickens, animates, and energizes the body, so does Christ the soul; and to his Spirit we are indebted for every holy thought, every pure desire, and every godlike purpose. Nor is the soul more truly in the body—than Christ is in the believer's soul. Nor is the soul more truly the life of the body—than Christ is the life of the soul. "Christ lives in me; and the life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Christ is in the soul as its hope. Therefore Paul, speaking of the saints, says, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Our hope of glory is founded on Christ, and on Christ alone; and our hope of glory is excited and sustained by Christ. It is founded on Christ without us—and what he has done for us; but it is excited and sustained by Christ within us—and what he communicates unto us.
Christ is in us—as the beauty of the soul. Therefore, when the apostle stood in doubt of the Galatians, such was his anxiety to present them to God in the beauty of holiness, that he experienced deep pangs of soul on their account. Hear him speak to them: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ is formed in you." Once before he had passed through deep and painful exercises of soul on their account, and now he travails in birth for them again. O for this intense love to souls in every minister's heart! Nor in every minister's only—but in every believer's!
Christ is in the soul as its new-creator. As God, when he had formed and fitted up the world for the reception of man, came into it, looked over it, rejoiced in it, and pronounced it very good, so does Christ in his new creation. "If any man is in Christ—he is a new creature." "Created anew in Christ Jesus, unto good works." Thus Christ is in us, and we are in Christ.
If Christ is in us, he will be in our thoughts; and our deepest, sweetest, and most frequent thoughts will be of him.
He will be in our affections; and as our loving thoughts will be of Christ, so our desires will ascend to Christ, and our affections will gather round him.
He will be in our hopes; all our expectations will be associated with Christ. His coming will be the object of our hope, and to be forever with him will be our highest expectation and joy.
He will be in our confidence. To him we shall confide all; with him we shall entrust all. In no one will our hearts repose with such satisfaction and pleasure as in Jesus.
Indeed, the whole soul will be more taken up with Christ than with anything or everything else. If we think at all—we shall think of Christ; if we love at all—we shall love Christ; if we hope at all—our hope will be connected with Christ; and if we have confidence in anyone—we shall have confidence in Christ.
We partake of Christ first, and then of his benefits. So says the apostle, "He who has the Son—has life." First, we have the Son; and, having the Son, we have life—eternal life. We receive Christ at our regeneration: "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him."
We abide in Christ: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit." We enjoy the manifestation and inhabitation of Christ: "If a man loves me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him—and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."
Thus there is an identification with Christ. We are in him, he is in us. In him we died, were buried, arose, ascended, and are made to sit down in the heavenly places. We were buried with him in baptism; in which also we were raised with him, by the faith of the operation of God. In us Christ lives, walks, reigns, and holds communion; he supping with us, and we with him. But here is:
A Solemn Fact Admitted. "The body is dead because of sin." It must die. It is said to be dead, because the sentence of death is passed upon it: "Dust you are, and unto dust shall you return." "It is appointed unto men once to die." The execution is begun, in the various and painful diseases which find a home in the body. It is therefore called a "vile body." It must die because of sin—because of Adam's sin: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." The margin reads, "In whom all have sinned;" for as Adam was our representative, we were involved in all he did; therefore we derive from him a corrupt nature, and are born under a sentence of death.
But our own sin deserves death, and though the guilt of it is atoned for, this natural effect of it remains, as God's testimony against it, and the proof of his displeasure: "The wages of sin is death." But death is not only retained as God's original sentence against sin, it is also his method of freeing us from all the infirmities produced by sin, and ultimately preparing us for glory. "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption." Therefore, those who are found alive at the coming of the Lord, must undergo a change similar to that we experience at death. The body is said to be dead, not death: the dead may live again—but death cannot; so the body will live again, at the coming of the Lord. We have now
A Distinguishing Experience Pointed Out. "The spirit is life, because of righteousness" "The spirit is life" not merely living, because it has eternal life, and can never, never die. We live through the operation of Christ within us, who by his Spirit quickens, revives, restores, supports, and supplies the soul. We live through communion with Christ without us, going to him, receiving from him, and having fellowship with him. "The spirit," or soul, "is life, because of righteousness;" that is, Christ's righteousness; for as we die because of Adam's sin, so we live because of Christ's righteousness. With Christ we are one, and so he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, when he was made sin for us, and was delivered for our offences; and so we receive, possess, and are entitled to all the effects of his righteousness.
O glorious mystery! Christ made sin for us, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him! O strange connection! as one with Adam—we die; but as one with Jesus—we live, and live forever! Here is life notwithstanding death, and life for body and soul forever; as Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he were dead—yet shall he live; and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." Never die—but live, and live forever!
The passage presents three contrasts:
a contrast between the body and the soul,
another between death and life, and
a third between sin and righteousness.
Paul had spoken of the law as the law of sin, before; he speaks of it as the law of death now—it is "the law of sin and death."
Death in the believer will be destruction of its parent, sin. Sin introduced death, and death will eternally exclude sin. Our souls and bodies will both live, live in union and in harmony forever. Jesus will lose nothing purchased by him, or given by the Father to him. Hence he says, "This is the Father's will who has sent me, that of all whom he has given me I should lose nothing—but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day."
Jesus may be expected to come soon, and when he comes, he will "change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." The soul is now provided for, and will enjoy the provision made for it at death, which we do not exactly understand now: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Then we come to the general assembly—to the spirits, or souls, of the just men made perfect. We must enter glory by the same way as Jesus did—through death and the grave. We must be conformed to him in death, before we are conformed to him in the resurrection. Painful and unpleasant as death may be, there is something pleasing in the thought that we go by the way Jesus went, and place our feet where he has placed his before us, and for us. Let us not think too much of the body or its death—but rather let us rejoice in the life of the spirit, and in the righteousness of Jesus, through which that spirit lives. "If a man dies—shall he live again?" Yes, and live more fully, more perfectly, yes, and eternally live! Yes, we shall live like Jesus, live with Jesus, live for Jesus, and live to Jesus forever! Jesus now lives in us; and soon, it may be very soon, we shall live with him!
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