We must continue in Romans eight. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:9-10). Here we read that we are not in the flesh. This shows how much we have been cheated by the enemy. So many Christians are continually bemoaning the fact that they are so fleshly. But this is a lie! We are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. This is the word of Romans 8:9. Whose word is more trustworthy? Yours or the Bible’s? The Bible says that we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. So we must believe the word of the Bible. Our word is nothing. Only the word of the Bible is reality. Let us forget about our word and take the word of the Bible. We are no more in the flesh, but in the spirit. We know this because of the word of the Bible. Hallelujah! We are no longer in the flesh because the Spirit of God dwells in us. This is the indwelling of Christ. It is only the indwelling Christ that causes us to be no more in the flesh.
We can realize from these verses that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. And the Spirit of Christ is simply Christ Himself. So eventually we have these words, “If Christ be in you.” These are not small words. They are too great. We all have to shout, “Hallelujah! Christ is in us.” Isn’t this wonderful? We have such a wonderful person in us. And this person is Christ.
Therefore, we are a wonderful person in the spirit because the Spirit of life is now in our spirit. “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16). Christ is such a wonderful Spirit, and we have a spirit. And Christ as the wonderful Spirit of life is now in our spirit. This is where we are to walk. We should not look at our environment, our situation, or ourself. We should only look at Romans chapter eight. Whenever Satan comes to cause us to look at something else, we must tell him, “Satan, look at Romans eight!” Satan will only say, “Look at yourself, look at your circumstances, look at your situation.” But we do not have to look at these things. Romans eight says that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Hallelujah!
Then Romans 8:23 tells us that the indwelling Christ within us is a real taste. “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the foretaste of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Christ as the Spirit within us is a real foretaste. A foretaste means two things. It means that the taste is so fresh, and it also means that a full taste will follow. Hallelujah! Christ is the Spirit, Christ is the life, and Christ is also the taste. We can enjoy Christ before Satan. The Lord spreads a table in the presence of our enemies. The indwelling Christ is not only our life, but also our taste. How enjoyable is the indwelling Christ! And how Satan hates to see us enjoying Him! Praise the Lord that we have such a One indwelling us!
Eventually, the issue of the enjoyment of the indwelling Christ brings us to the goal of the book of Romans. “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same function: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Rom. 12:4-5). We are all members of one Body in Christ. This is also seen in the last chapter, Romans sixteen. In this chapter, we find four times the phrase, “in Christ.” Another four times it says, “in the Lord.” Sister so-and-so is a person in the Lord, and brother so-and-so is a brother in Christ. “In the Lord” and “in Christ” are altogether mentioned eight times in this one chapter.
Most of the expositors of Romans do not mention much concerning Romans sixteen. They say that it is just a chapter of greetings. They do not feel that “greet brother so-and-so” and “greet sister so-and-so” are very important. But I like Romans sixteen as much as the previous fifteen chapters. So many times we read in Christ, in Christ, in Christ Jesus, in the Lord, in the Lord. Hallelujah! Today, in the church, we are those who are “in the Lord.” If we are not in the Lord, we are not brothers and sisters. But, praise the Lord, we are all in the Lord. I have underlined my Bible eight times in Romans sixteen where it says “in the Lord” or “in Christ.” This is not some kind of vain repetition. These words really mean something. When we are in the Lord, the Lord is automatically in us. This makes us members of one Body in Christ. Then we have the church life. So, in Romans sixteen the church is mentioned several times.
For this reason, Romans fifteen tells us to be like-minded one to another according to Christ. “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:5-6). We are not like-minded according to the objective Christ in the heavens, but according to the subjective Christ who lives in us. Christ lives in every one of us, and we all have Christ as our life. This is the reason we are one. We could never be like-minded according to anything else. We only have one accord, and that is Christ. And this is for the church. The indwelling Christ is our one accord and our oneness. It is in this way that we all can have one mind and one mouth to glorify God in the church life. There may be thousands of us, yet we still all have one mind and one mouth because of the indwelling Christ. Hallelujah!
Now we are clear how Romans starts from justification by faith, goes through the indwelling of Christ, and brings us to the goal of the one Body of Christ, that is the church. Now we can enjoy Christ in the one Body, the church life.