“But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:10
The verse got my attention. But what really got my attention was Martin Lloyd-Jones’ commentary on the verse, quoted in Stott’s commentary on Romans:
“The moment we enter into this world and begin to live, we also begin to die. Your first breath is one of the last you will ever take!…the principle of decay, leading to death, is in every one of us.”
Now, wait a minute. Don’t pick up the phone and call that mom or dad of a newborn and say something like, “You know your baby is dying. You know that great first breath she took — it’s one of her last!” That’s not quite M.Lloyd-Jones’ point. The point is that because of Adam’s sin, our bodies are mortal. But the greater point of verse 10 is that we who are in Christ are ALIVE because of righteousness. We are so alive. So very alive.
And the other good news — our dying and decaying bodies are destined for glory — for resurrection! Stott says, “This does not mean that our dead bodies will be revivified or resuscitated, and so restored to their present material existence, only to die again. No, resurrection includes transformation, the raising and chaning of our body into a new and glorious vehicle of our personality, and its liberation from all frailty, disease, pain, decay, and death. It is ‘not that the spirit is to be freed from the body — as many, under the influence of the Greek way of thinking, have held — but rather the Spirit will give life to the body.”
For further consideration:
What difference does it make to know that while your body is dying, you are made alive by the Spirit?
What difference does it make to know that your body is destined for resurrection, to be “a new and glorious vehicle of our personality’?
