Romans 8 may be considered the focus of the entire Bible. The Bible begins in Genesis by revealing that God, according to His eternal plan, created the heavens and the earth so that man could exist to fulfill God’s eternal purpose and desire, which is to impart Himself into His chosen people as their life supply so that they could become His expression (1:1, 26; 2:9, 16). According to this marvelous purpose, God and man will be brought together in one expression with God as the content and God’s chosen people as the corporate manifestation. The Bible concludes in Revelation with this corporate expression. Revelation 21 through 22 describe the New Jerusalem as a composition of God’s redeemed people from both the Old Testament and the New Testament (21:12, 14). This composition is built with the Triune God as the content and God’s chosen people as the expression. The New Jerusalem thus fulfills God’s eternal purpose. Between these two ends of the Bible are Paul’s Epistles, which complete the divine revelation. Paul’s writings are the heart of the Bible, and Romans 8 is the focus of the entire revelation of God.
The New Testament uses three Greek words to denote three different lives. Bios, which is the root of biology, denotes the physical life. Our physical life is mysterious and difficult to define. The New Testament uses the word psuche, which is the root of psychology, to denote the soul-life. We have bios, the physical life, in our body, and we have psuche, the psychological life, in our soul. A third word, zoe, is used to denote the highest life, the divine, eternal, uncreated life of God.
The word zoe is translated as “life” in Romans 8:2, 6, 10, and 11. Verse 2 mentions the law of the Spirit of life. Within us is a mysterious and marvelous law of the Spirit of the divine life, which frees us from the law of sin and of death. According to Greek grammar, in the expression the Spirit of life, the Spirit and life are in apposition, which means that they are identical and refer to one entity. The Spirit is life, and life is the Spirit. Similarly, the titles the Spirit of God (v. 9a), the Spirit of Christ (v. 9b), and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead (v. 11) indicate that the Spirit is God, Christ, and the resurrecting One. Life, the law of the Spirit of life, God, Christ, and the resurrecting One are all one in the Spirit. To have the Spirit is to have all of these.
Verse 10 says, “If Christ is in you...the spirit is life.” Regeneration is to be born anew, to be born of the divine Spirit in our human spirit with the divine life (John 3:3, 5). The divine Spirit reached us and entered into our spirit to impart the life of God into our spirit. Thus, our spirit was made alive with the divine life. We have a regenerated spirit, a human spirit born of the divine life. By being born of God, we became a child of God (1:12-13). To be born of God is to receive His divine life. Although we are human beings, we are also children of God because we have the divine life in our spirit. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” We are much blessed to have the assurance that we have been born of God, yet this is only the beginning.
Verse 6 says, “The mind set on the spirit is life.” The spirit here is our regenerated spirit indwelt by and mingled with the divine Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). When we set our mind on our regenerated spirit, which possesses the divine life, our mind becomes zoe, divine life. This is transformation (Rom. 12:2). First, we are regenerated in our spirit with the divine life, and then we are transformed in our mind also with the divine life.
Finally, Romans 8:11 says, “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” The resurrecting One within us gives divine life to our bodies. Although our spirit is life, and our mind set on the spirit is life, our body is mortal, dying. However, He who raised Christ from the dead is within us resurrecting us. He is waiting for an opportunity to infuse zoe into our mortal bodies.
Romans 8 is the center, the focus, of the Bible and of the entire universe. Thus, if we are experiencing Romans 8, we are in the center of the universe. Romans 8 reveals that the Spirit of life, the law of the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the resurrecting One are all one in the Spirit, who is life to our spirit, mind, and body. Nothing is more precious than these aspects of the all-inclusive Spirit, which meet our every need and completely satisfy us.