In Romans 8:10 Paul says, “And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness.” Because Christ, who is life, is in our spirit, our spirit is life. However, because Christ is confined in our spirit, our body remains dead. The sphere of life is limited to our spirit. Life has not yet spread into our body; therefore, the body remains dead. According to Ephesians 2 and John 5, a fallen person is dead. Ephesians 2:5 indicates that before we were saved, we were not only sinful, but also dead. John 5:25 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live.” This verse does not refer to those who are physically dead and buried; it refers to the living dead, to those dead in spirit. If you read John 5, you will see that verse 28 refers to those who are physically dead and buried in the tomb. But in verse 25 the Lord is speaking of people who are spiritually dead, yet physically alive. In this message we are concerned with the living dead, not with those who are physically dead and buried. All the unsaved people are dead. Because their body has been poisoned by the serpent, their body has been deadened. Satan, the old serpent, has injected his poison into our body and has caused it to become deadened. This deadened body has also deadened our soul and our spirit. Therefore, the unsaved people are dead in body, soul, and spirit. Every part of their being is dead.
As I was traveling through the interior of China in 1937, I stopped by a creek which was full of dried leaves that were carried along by the current. Among the leaves some little fish were swimming upward against the current. Unlike the dried leaves that were being carried aimlessly downstream, the fish, full of life, were swimming upstream with a definite purpose. When I saw that, I was so impressed that I even shouted, “Here is life and death.” All the unsaved people are like the dried leaves: they are being carried aimlessly along by the current of the age. Like those leaves, they are confused and without order. But we, the believers in Christ, are like the fish swimming against the current of the age with a definite purpose. Moreover, we are not in confusion, but in a good order. The more life we have, the more we are in order and regulated. But the more death we have, the more confused we become. The reason today’s society is such a confusion is that it is filled with dead people, with those who are dead in body, soul, and spirit. We need to sound out the gospel and give them an opportunity to hear the voice of the Lord.
When we heard the gospel and called on the name of the Lord Jesus, immediately the Holy Spirit came into our spirit and enlivened it. In this way our deadened spirit was made alive. Now that Christ is in our spirit, our spirit is life.
But what about our body and mind? Both our body and mind may still be in death. Many have a mind of death because they do not allow the indwelling Christ in their spirit to spread into their mind. When I read a newspaper, I am very careful to read only the news about international affairs. If I read other news items, I set my mind upon the flesh, and my mind is death immediately. We need to allow the indwelling Christ to spread from our spirit into our mind. If we allow Him to spread in this way, eventually life will be imparted even into our mortal body. Then the spirit and the mind will be life, and the body also will be enlivened. Romans 8:11 indicates this: “But if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from among the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who indwells you.”
By entering into our body, sin has caused it to become the fallen flesh. Therefore, in 6:6 the body is called “the body of sin.” It is also called “the flesh of sin” (8:3) because it has been corrupted by sin. Both the body of sin and the flesh of sin refer to the same thing. In the corrupted body, the flesh of sin, are so many lusts. In 7:17 Paul says, “So now it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.” To be specific, sin dwells in our flesh, thereby causing it to become the flesh of sin.