According to Romans five, six, seven, and eight, sin is nothing less than God’s enemy, Satan. If Satan were outside of us, he would have little to do with us, but we all know that since man’s fall Satan entered into man. When Satan entered into man, right away he became sin or the law of sin. Romans 7:23 says clearly that sin is in our members. This means sin is in our body. We become tired because sin is within us. Our body is disabled because sin is in our body. We are dying because sin is in our body. Do you realize that all the human beings are dying persons? Apparently everyone is living; actually everyone is dying because sin is in their bodies. Even to say we are dying is not so accurate because it is our body which is dying. Our soul is not dying nor is our spirit. Our body is dying because sin is in the body. Romans 7:18 and 23 make it very clear that this sin which is God’s enemy is in our body. Because of this sin, your body is dead. Your body is dead because Satan is in your body.
What then is the righteousness spoken of in verse 10? Righteousness is just God Himself getting into our being. When Satan gets into man’s being, sin is within man. When God gets into our being, we have righteousness in us. In John 16:8-11 the Lord said that when the Spirit comes He would convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment. He would convict concerning sin because they would not believe in the Lord Jesus; He would convict concerning righteousness because the Lord Jesus goes to the Father; He would convict concerning judgment because the ruler of this world would be judged. From these verses we can see that the very righteousness which counts in God’s eyes is just God Himself. When God Himself in His Son through His Spirit gets into our being, that is righteousness. Romans 5:18 and 21 say that through one righteous act there is justification of life and that we may reign through righteousness unto eternal life. This means righteousness results in life. Why is our spirit life? It is because the Triune God as righteousness is right within our spirit. So the Triune God is righteousness in our spirit, and the enemy of God, Satan, is in our body, making our body dead. We have God in us, in our spirit, as our righteousness, making us life. And we have Satan, God’s enemy, as sin in our flesh, making our body dead, disabled, and stinking. It is not a small thing to see that in this universe the two persons in the spiritual world are both within us; one is evil and the other is good. The evil one in our body becomes sin, and the good one in our spirit becomes righteousness. The sin in our body makes our body dead, and the righteousness in our spirit makes our spirit life. Here we enjoy the Triune God. We enjoy God, we enjoy Christ, and we enjoy the Spirit. We enjoy the Triune God as our righteousness resulting in life.