Prayer: Lord, we worship You for Your redemption. How we thank You that we are the redeemed people! We thank You, Lord, for Your cleansing and redeeming blood. We thank You for the Spirit. We thank You for the Spirit that dwells in us. Lord, we thank You for this time that we can all come together to touch Your Word and to get into Your Word. Lord, we believe that You are one spirit with us right now. Lord, we do claim this fact. We claim Your presence and Your anointing. We claim Your up-to-date speaking. Lord, grant us new light, new thought, and even new utterance and new expression. Make today’s fellowship new. Do cover every one and shame the enemy again. Jesus is the Lord! Jesus is the Victor! Lord, we praise You and worship You. Amen.
In this message we will cover just two verses in Romans 8, verses 8 and 9. In the reading of these two verses, we need to pay special attention to the little preposition “in.” In the New Testament and especially in Paul’s writings, prepositions mean a lot. In fact, in the Greek language, the prepositions are crucial words. The meaning of certain phrases or clauses or sentences depends upon the prepositions used in them. For example, as we have pointed out in the Life-study of 1 Corinthians, Paul was very careful in his choice of prepositions. In verse 2 of chapter one Paul wrote “to the church of God which is in Corinth...with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place....” Here Paul used the preposition “with” rather than the conjunction “and.” If the conjunction “and” had been used, it would indicate that these phrases were equal. But because the preposition “with” was used, it indicates something subordinate. This means something different. This illustrates the importance of the prepositions.
In Romans 8:8-9, the crucial words are not big words. The crucial word is the small preposition “in.” It is used four times in these two verses. “And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.”
The Chinese translation of the Bible says that those who are of the flesh cannot please God. Of course, the English translation does not use the word “of.” It uses the word “in.” But although you read the word “in,” I am afraid that your understanding may be “of.” In verse 9, you would not, of course, say that the Spirit of God dwells of you, but you might say that the Spirit of God dwells with you. That would not be wrong. Even many Christians today like to use the word “with.” They say the Lord is with you or God be with you. Not many would say that the Lord is in you or that God is in you.
Why in verse 8 and at the beginning of verse 9 did Paul use the preposition “in”? In these two verses, the preposition “of” indicates the source and the position. When you say that you were born of the Spirit, it means that the Spirit is the very source of your regeneration. Likewise, when you say that you were born of the flesh, it means that the flesh was the source of your natural birth.
The preposition “in,” however, indicates something different; it indicates the present condition. According to the source of the new birth, you are of the Spirit. But according to today’s spiritual condition, you are in the Spirit. “In” indicates the condition of your present living. If, in your spiritual condition, you are still only of the Spirit and not in the Spirit, this indicates a shortage.
Because these two verses emphasize the preposition “in” and not the preposition “of,” it indicates they are not talking about the position or the source; they are talking about the condition, the experience. “Those who are in the flesh” does not refer to source or position but to condition and experience. You may be a person of the Spirit, yet you are in the flesh. You were born of the Spirit, and the Spirit is your source and position, yet your condition is not in the Spirit. Your condition is that you are in the flesh. So according to your condition and present day experience you are not in the Spirit. You were born of the Spirit, and according to your position, you are still of the Spirit. You are a person of the Spirit. You are a person in the position and of the source of the Spirit. But you don’t live in the Spirit, and you don’t walk in the Spirit. So you are not in the Spirit. For example, you may be of America and yet live in another country. A person may be of the Spirit and yet live in the flesh, but a person who is merely born of the flesh could never live in the Spirit.
Verse 8 says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Does this refer to believers or unbelievers? Although it may include both believers or unbelievers, I believe that Paul was referring to the believers. You have to realize that Romans 8 is not speaking about the initial salvation. This has already been covered in the previous chapters. In chapters one and two, none were saved. In chapters three and four some were saved and justified. This means that by the time Paul reached chapter eight he was not dealing with unbelievers, but with believers. Check with your own experience. During the course of a day sometimes you are in the spirit, and sometimes you are in the flesh. When you come to the meetings, there is a good possibility that you are in the spirit. When you are at home, though, sometimes you may not be in the spirit; you may be in the flesh. So on the one hand, we really are of the Spirit, but on the other hand, sometimes we are not that much in the spirit. These three prepositions—in, with, and of—mainly touch the matter from our side. Now let us consider the matter from the side of the Spirit.