Romans 8:9
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“But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”
What does it mean to be “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit”? This passage represents what could be called the Christian “DNA test.” Everyone recognizes that one must have a man’s genes to be that man’s biological child. In a sense, God is the same. Without God’s Spirit, one cannot be His spiritually begotten child. But does one receive the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, the Spirit of the Father, or the “Spirit of Christ” at conversion?
We can understand more about the process of spiritual begettal by examining the actual process of human begettal. In reproduction, an egg must be fertilized by a sperm cell, which then “seals off” the egg. The egg can never be fertilized by another sperm.
Now consider. Romans 8:9 spoke of Christians receiving in the same begettal the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Are these two different Spirits—yet, Christ said, “I and My Father are One” (John 10:30)? If they were two different spirits, this still would not validate the trinity as some use this verse to suggest. It would mean there are four, not three, beings—God and His Spirit and Christ and His Spirit—in the Godhead.
Upon baptism and the laying on of hands (the point at which one receives the Holy Spirit), Christians are begotten by the Father, just as Christ was begotten in Mary’s womb by the Father. Once this has occurred, Christ lives in them (Gal. 2:20). At that point, they have the spirit of both Christ and the Father dwelling in them. These are one and the same Spirit. It is through this Spirit—the same as the Holy Spirit—that Christians take on the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5).
It is important to recognize, however, that a Christian can literally “abort” in this lifetime—if he does not continue in the right path. The begotten child of God may also not come to term—be born again.
Grasp this! It is possible to lose the Holy Spirit, and bring the new begotten life to an end. Notice: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit [the same as the mind or Spirit of Christ], and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame” (Heb. 6:4-6). Suggested reading:
• The Trinity – Is God Three-In-One?
• What Is True Conversion?