“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” Romans 8:9
The Christian life begins with a great declaration from the cross of Calvary: “It is finished.” What was finished? We know that first of all it was God’s finished work in dealing totally with sin. Christ, in taking upon Himself the sins of the world, dealt with every sin in the world in a just, total, and overwhelmingly final manner. In the moment when God the Father laid upon His Son, out of love for us, the iniquity of us all, God forgave, and cleansed the believer from all sin. What does this mean? First it means that with the total forgiveness of sins, the believer who has put his faith totally in Christ, is free from all and every sin that would, or could keep him from God, being accepted before God, introduced and entering perpetually into the peace of God. The removal of all sin, and forever, has provided the believer with a secured position of peace before God the Father, so that, being accepted before Him, he might know Him.
The second reason for which the believer is accepted before God, this standing being sealed forever, is that the perfect righteousness of Christ, by Him fulfilling the entirety of the Law of God, has been given to him by the Father. That gift of righteousness, perfect and entire, is forever placed upon, and within the soul of the believer, never to be separate from him. He is accepted because of sins forgiven in their entirety, and also by the gift of Christ’s righteousness, received by faith.
There is a third reason for the believer being accepted perfectly, and entirely before God. It has to do with the action of the Father placing the believer in living union with Christ. Paul declares this in his letter to the Corinthian church. However, at the same time that this irrevocable action occurs, there is the simultaneous action of being placed IN THE SPIRIT. The union with Christ is at the same time being in the Spirit. This is why Paul writes that, from the moment of the new birth, the believer is not “in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” He goes on to write that, “…if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:10) To be in living union with Christ, with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, means that one is also in the Spirit, in living union with the Spirit of Christ. One’s union with Christ and the Spirit are, to a great extent, one and the same. Christ dwells in the heart by the Spirit. Why is this so important to faith?
It is because the believer is called to believe God the Father in heaven, with the Lord Jesus at His right hand, asking and receiving all things by the Spirit dwelling in the heart. It is the Spirit that gives life, the very life of Christ. It is the Spirit of Life that quickens the mortal body, in part while living on this earth, but one day, entirely, on the day of resurrection, or in heaven when the soul is clothed with a new, heavenly body. By the Father’s design, and the Son’s work accomplished on the cross, on earth, the Spirit of God was fully instrumental in all. This is the reason for which the believer is called upon to live by the Spirit, walk by the Sprit, be filled with the Spirit, and by the Spirit, to overcome.
When Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, was called upon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, after the end of the deportation, the Lord gave him a very clear word concerning how this was to be done: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” God’s way is by the Spirit.
Dear Father, Grant us Thy fulness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.