As believers, we have Christ within us as resurrection, and this resurrection is our life-power. Day by day this power functions to conquer death. Death has many aspects: weakness, hatred, darkness, pride, criticism, rumors. Even if you murmur or engage in a little gossiping, you will touch death. All negative things are included in the content of death. The resurrection within us conquers every form of death and swallows it up. It swallows our pride, our criticism, our false humility. Furthermore, this life-power causes growth, transformation, and shaping. It also releases the positive things, and it causes us to rise above every “muddy” situation.
Even if we do not have the realization that this life-power is within us, we do have the reality of this power. If we look back upon our experience with the Lord over the years, we shall see that the resurrection within us has been conquering death and swallowing up negative things. Our experience also testifies that this life-power has caused us to grow, to be transformed, and even to be somewhat shaped into the image of Christ. Furthermore, our experience reveals that the life-power has released so many positive things from within us. As resurrection releases, it also rises up within us.
Satan is always doing his best to hold us down. He does everything he can to suppress us, depress us, and oppress us. But praise the Lord for the rising calamus within us! The Lord sometimes allows the enemy to cast us into a “muddy” situation just so that resurrection has an opportunity to function by raising us far above that situation. This subjective resurrection is the resurrection spoken of in the book of Romans. It is in this resurrection that Christ in His humanity was designated the Son of God. By means of such a resurrection we also are in the process of being designated the sons of God.
Romans 8:11 says, “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.” In this verse resurrection is linked to the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of resurrection. The Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from among the dead dwells in us as the reality of resurrection. If a person does not have the Holy Spirit, he cannot have resurrection. The resurrection we experience is actually the Holy Spirit Himself. If we had Romans 6 without Romans 8, we would not be able to participate in Christ as resurrection in a practical way. In Romans 8 we have the reality of resurrection; that is, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We should never separate resurrection from the Spirit.
We are being designated as sons of God by resurrection. We are daily undergoing the process of designation, and this designation is by resurrection. We all need to see that what the Lord is doing within us today is a matter of designation.
I would like to continue with the illustration of a carnation seed. A carnation seed is designated, not by being labeled, but by being sown into the earth and by growing gradually into a mature, blossoming carnation plant. The seed is designated as it grows. The more it grows, the more it is designated. When it reaches full bloom, it will be designated in a complete way. This means that the full blossoming of a carnation flower is its full designation. Like the carnation seed, we all are in the process of designation. The more we grow and are transformed, the more we are designated the sons of God.
According to the flesh, we all are troublesome, both to the church and to those with whom we live. The husbands trouble the wives, and the wives trouble the husbands. But we do not need to have our being according to the flesh, for we have the option of being according to the Spirit. When the brothers and sisters have their being according to the Spirit, they are wonderful and glorious. Whether you have your being according to the flesh or according to the Spirit depends on the choice you make. By your own will you may decide either to have your being according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. May the Lord be merciful to us so that we may choose to live according to the Spirit. We urgently need to learn how to walk according to the Spirit. If we walk according to the flesh, the church life will be most unpleasant. But if we walk according to the Spirit, the church life will be in the heavens.
The sonship is realized by resurrection and in the Spirit. The Spirit who dwells in us is the rising-up Spirit and the designating Spirit. Day by day, this Spirit is designating us the sons of God.
If, like Paul, we would serve God in the gospel concerning His Son, we must know what sonship is and how it is realized. Thank the Lord that Paul wrote this Epistle to the Romans! This book reveals that we should help others not only to be saved, but also to experience the sonship. This means that we need to help them to see the matter of designation by resurrection, including sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification.