Spirit, Redemption and Resurrection

Paul connects the bodily resurrection of believers to the New Creation. Both events are vital for our redemption and our salvation. There is “now no condemnation” of anyone who is “in Christ Jesus.” This happy condition exists because “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.” In his Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul links our salvation to the inheritance we have through Christ and the coming redemption of our bodies when Jesus returns – (Romans 8:1-2).

The disobedience of Adam condemned humanity and the Cosmos to bondage, decay, and death. Nevertheless, “much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus, abound to the many.”

[Rainbow - Photo by David Cashbaugh on Unsplash]

The future resurrection is pivotal to our salvation. Everlasting life is an inheritance we will receive in full when God raises us from the dead and transforms living saints when Jesus arrives from Heaven:

• “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his  Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace” - (Romans 8:3-6).

The term “flesh” refers to man in his mortal state, a life-orientation that “prefers death, but the Spirit prefers life and peace.” This “man of the flesh” is the product of Adam’s sin. It refers not to our physical bodies but to our mortality and addiction to sin. Adam was an embodied creature before he disobeyed the commandment of God and brought humanity under the curse:

• “Therefore, as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death passed to all men, for that all sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not accounted when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression” – (Romans 5:12-14).

• “For as many as are from the deeds of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” – (Galatians 3:10).

The flesh remains hostile to God since “to the law of God it does not submit itself, and neither can it. Those who have their being in flesh cannot please God.” To be in the flesh is equivalent to being in Adam, and therefore, under the curse - (Romans 5:18-19).

Paul’s discussion about flesh and spirit contrasts our former Adamic life under the bondage of sin with the new life we now have free from the tyranny of sin and the fear of death. The contrast is not between our physical and nonphysical natures, but our old nature in Adam and the new nature conformed to the image of Christ:

• “Since the children are partners in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death, he might paralyze him who had the power of death, the Devil, and might deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” – (Hebrews 2:14-15).

The Apostle Paul is not speaking about two “natures” that reside in the individual and are locked in mortal combat, but rather about our past life “in the flesh” of the Adamic man and our new life “in the Spirit” provided by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus and empowered by the Spirit of God:

• “But you have not your being in flesh but in spirit, if, at least, God’s Spirit is dwelling in you. And if anyone has not Christ’s Spirit, the same is not his. But if Christ is in you, the body, indeed, is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If, moreover, the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from among the dead is dwelling in you, he that raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will make alive even your death-doomed bodies through the means of his indwelling Spirit within you” - (Romans 8:9-11).

We have our new lives in the Spirit if God’s Spirit dwells in us. If anyone does not have his Spirit, however, “that man is not his.” It is the Spirit that equips us to walk uprightly and fulfill the “righteous requirements of the Law” - (Romans 8:4, Galatians 5:13-18).

REVEALING HIS SONS

Though our present body is “dead because of sin,” the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that dwells in us will resurrect us on the Last Day. Paul now brings the resurrection into the conversation.

Essential to the Apostle’s concept of salvation is our bodily resurrection. Our final redemption will be actualized when we are raised from the dead, which, by necessity and logic, includes the redemption of our bodies. We will not simply discard our mortal body for a disembodied state; we will exchange it for our glorified body.

• “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruptibility, and this mortal has put on immortality, then will be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory!” – (1 Corinthians 15:52-54).

The entire man created by God was condemned to bondage - body, soul, and spirit. Therefore, if God intends to recover all that was lost to sin and the curse, His redemptive act must include the human body. Likewise, the creation that was condemned to corruption and death by the sin of Adam must be rescued from bondage; otherwise, “redemption” will remain incomplete.

Though we have been declared righteous “through the faith of Jesus,” our receipt of final salvation is not a foregone conclusion. Until Christ returns, we must not live “according to the flesh.” If we do, apostasy and eternal loss become real possibilities - (Romans 3:21-22, 8:12-14).

If we do live after the “flesh,” we will “die. But if by the Spirit we put to death the practices of the flesh, we will attain life.” We who are “led by God’s Spirit are His sons” - (Romans 8:15-20).

The Spirit of God “bears witness with our spirit that we are His children.” This means we are “heirs of God and coheirs with Christ.” However, to be his coheir means suffering in this life for the sake of Jesus so we also may be “glorified” with him.

The creation itself has been subjected “to vanity” - to death and decay - because of the disobedience of Adam. Accordingly, all creation now suffers until the present hour.

However, the Universe is “eagerly waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.” When they are “revealed” for all to see, the “creation itself will be freed from the bondage of decay into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God.”

• “Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for the new heavens and the new earth, in which righteousness dwells” – (2 Peter 3:13).

The Last Day will produce the New Creation. The redemption of the creation is dependent on the resurrection of the sons of God. The promises of bodily resurrection and New Creation are inextricably linked in Paul’s teachings - (Romans 8:21-23).

We who are declared righteous through Jesus receive the Spirit of God. If we continue to live accordingly, we will receive everlasting life when Christ arrives, raises us from the dead, and ushers in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Last Days - (The Last Days, the Age of Fulfillment, began with the Death, Resurrection, and Enthronement of the Son of God)

• "My Words are Life!" - (Jesus grants the Life-Giving Spirit to men and women without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life)

• Victory over Death - (The arrival of Jesus will mean the end of death, our resurrection, and our receipt of immortal bodies - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

• L'Esprit et la Rédemption - (Paul relie la résurrection corporelle des croyants à la Nouvelle Création. Les deux événements sont vitaux pour notre rédemption et notre salut)