Who Dwells In You

Romans 8:9-11 (ESV Strong's)

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Within each believer there is the tension between the light of God and the darkness of man. It is the work of the Spirit to separate the two and let the truth of the light prevail. Faith in the Lord will enable us to overcome the world and the shadow of death. The Spirit will raise us up in the life of Christ and our flesh will be transformed into the redeemed flesh of Jesus Christ. 

The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ is the same Spirit who dwells in us. We are one. 

In The Flesh

Romans 8:7-8 (ESV Strong's)

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Man without the Spirit is dominated by the flesh. The whole of man is contained in these mortal bodies which will fade and fall back into the earth. Death is the opposite of the life of God, and is thus opposed to it as light is to darkness. For that reason, those whose minds are set on the darkness of the flesh cannot please God. 

It wasn’t until the Son of God entered the flesh of man that the light of God could be truly seen. It will show the way out of the grave that awaits us and into the presence of the Lord. 

Who Will Deliver Me

Romans 7:19-25 (ESV Strong's)

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

When a person becomes alive to Christ, the light of God enters the darkness within that person. The light is not compatible with darkness, so God begins to separate the two. This new creation takes place in the soul and begins to manifest in the world. This separation process is the sanctification of the believer which continues until we are transformed into the image of God. We will see Christ as He is and we will be like Him. 

Righteous And Good

Romans 7:11-12 (ESV Strong's)

11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Sin becomes sin by transgressing the will of God. If there was no God, there could be no sin. 

The Law and commandments of God are holy because He is Holy. They are righteous and good because He is righteous and good. They reveal the need for a holy solution for the problem of mankind. The problem of mankind is being apart from God. It is through grace that we can become righteous and good, and thereby be reconciled with Him. 

Under Grace

Romans 6:12-14 (ESV Strong's)

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Before we received the grace of Christ, we had no power to resist sin. We were slaves to the whims and passions of our mortal bodies. Now we have a choice on how we live. We can live a life that ends in death or live a life that never ends. That’s the power of grace. 

Interpretations

Genesis 40:8 (ESV Strong's)

8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

We have been given life, but what does it mean? We might wonder and search for answers, only to be left with the conclusion that life is a mystery. It is just that. It is the mystery of God. 

Only God can interpret the mystery of life, for He is the giver of life. When we go to Him and listen to His word, we find the answers we need to assure us of our place in His plan for creation. The voice of the Holy Spirit gives us the breath of eternal life. 

Into Christ Jesus

Romans 6:1-4 (ESV Strong's)

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

When we are “buried with him by baptism into death”, we break the chains of the old man that bind us and enter into the newness of life. The abundance of that life becomes ours when we begin walking with Him. In doing so, we transform into His image. Christ is the image of God and we are made in His image. We are the body of Christ.