Prayer: Lord, how we thank You that we have come again to Your Word. We come to Your Word even through Your precious blood. Lord, we come also to Your oracle, to Your today’s speaking. Lord, we praise You for Your mercy, and we praise You even the more for Your grace. Lord, how much we need Your further mercy, Your fresh mercy, and the sufficient grace. Lord, we thank You that You are really one with us. Lord, we pray that tonight we may enjoy Your oneness. Lord, be one with us in our listening, in our understanding. Lord, grant us the deeper understanding. Oh, grant us the proper apprehension. Lord, we need You. We need You in the hearing of Your Word. Lord, especially in the speaking we need You. We do like to practice the one spirit with You in the speaking. Lord, do speak Your Word in our speaking. Make our speaking Yours. Make Your speaking one with ours. Lord, do cover us with Your prevailing blood and defeat the enemy. Destroy the power of darkness and take away all the deceit of the evil spirit. Lord, do cover our mentality; cover our entire being. We thank You for Your cleansing blood, and we thank You for Your covering blood. Lord, we do enjoy Your anointing under this blood. Grant us the light, the enlightenment, even the revelation with Your vision, that we may see the secrets of the way of life. May we see the secret of how to enjoy You and how to experience all the deeper truths revealed in Romans 8. Lord, tonight You know that we have come to these two verses: nine and ten. They are deep, and they are profound. Lord, we need You to open up these two verses. Show us the depth of all these verses. Grant us Your thought, even Your way of thinking that we may get into the depths. Grant us a clear understanding, not the natural understanding or the ethical religious understanding, but the understanding in You and in Your Spirit. Again, we say that we need You. Thank You that You are so available. You are one with us all the way. In Your precious name, amen.
In this message we need to consider Romans 8:9-10. In verse 9 the words “if indeed” actually should be “since.” Let us read the two verses with that change. “But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness.” Verse 9 begins with a conjunction “but” indicating a contrast. Verse 8 says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Verse 9 presents the contrast by saying, “but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.” Then you have the word “since.” There is a big difference between the terms “if indeed” and “since.” “If indeed” mainly refers to a condition that has not been accomplished. But “since” refers to a condition which has already been accomplished. “If” is a kind of subjunctive, but “since” refers to a fact. The fact becomes a condition for something to be done to you. According to the Greek lexicons, the word used here primarily means “since” rather than “if indeed.” “Since the Spirit of God dwells in you” indicates a fact, but this fact is a term, a condition. Since you have this fact, you are in the spirit. Since the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are in the spirit. Suppose the Spirit of God didn’t dwell in you. Then you would not be in the spirit. Two facts are here: the Spirit of God dwells in you, and you are in the spirit. The first fact becomes a condition to the second fact. As you have the first fact, then you have the second fact. In other messages I have pointed out that the Spirit of God dwelling in you is a term, or a condition, for you to be in the spirit. You have to realize both of these facts are progressive. The Spirit of God dwells in us. This is a fact which is not accomplished once for all, but is progressive. In like manner, our being in the spirit is not a fact once for all. It is a kind of fact accomplished and still going on progressively. On the one hand, it is accomplished, but on the other hand, it is progressive.
Then in verse 9 there is the matter of the Spirit of God dwelling in us. The Greek word used here has as its root the word house. It is altogether right to translate the word “dwells” as “houses.” The same root word is found in Ephesians 3:17 where it says that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith. In Ephesians, however, it has a prefix kata, which strengthens the meaning of making home. This is a strong word. We all know that to get yourself settled in your home is not a once for all matter. You get settled, and from then on you get more settled. We should let the Spirit of God get more and more settled within us. On the one hand, fifty years ago the Spirit of God got settled within me. But on the other hand, today He is more settled in me, and I believe that if I could live on this earth longer, He would become more settled. So this is a fact, yet with progression. First, it is an accomplished fact as a term or condition for your being in the spirit. Then this fact will grow or progress and your being in the spirit will also progress. We have mentioned previously the difference between the two prepositions “of” and “in.” “Of” indicates position, and “in” indicates condition. We all are of Christ, but what about our condition. To be of Christ is our position. But according to our condition today, we may not be in Him. We may not be in the spirit.