Romans 8 is real, practical, and subjective. It is a test to prove how real God is and how faithful we are. To speak of God far away in the heavens is not subjective to us. However, Romans 8 speaks of God in a very subjective way. It tells us that God today is the Spirit, and as the Spirit He is real, practical, and subjective to us because He indwells us. Romans 8 calls this indwelling One the Spirit, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. Because Romans 8 speaks of God as the indwelling Spirit, everything it reveals is practical and should be tested in our experience.
Romans 8 is central in the Bible and in the universe. God existed in eternity past without any beginning. When He created the universe, He came out of eternity and began to travel in time. The first stage of God’s journey was His work of creation. Creation is a great thing, for without God’s creation, the universe with the heavens, the earth, the billions of created things, and man would not exist. After creation the next major stage that God passed through was incarnation, in which He entered into man and became one with man by becoming a man (Matt. 1:23; John 1:1, 14). Incarnation is even greater than creation. Christ lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years as a lowly man named Jesus. He experienced all the sufferings of human life, including hunger, thirst, and sorrow. Then He was crucified, dying an all-inclusive death to redeem us, terminate the old creation, and solve all the problems between God and man. After three days He came out of death and entered into resurrection. The death and resurrection of Christ are the main contents of the New Testament. From resurrection Christ entered into a further, exalted stage—ascension—in which He was glorified and enthroned as the Lord of all and Head over all things (Rom. 10:12; Eph. 1:22). In Romans 8 Christ is the Spirit because He became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45).
Today God is still traveling on. In Romans 12 we see the Body of Christ, which is the fullness of God, the new man, and the house of God. All these things issue from our experience of Christ as the Spirit in Romans 8. Eventually, the Body will become the bride, and in eternity future, the New Jerusalem, the ultimate union of God and man (Rev. 21:2, 9-10). This is where God will end His journey. However, without Romans 8 there is a great gap in this journey. Thus, Romans 8 is a central and crucial focus in the Bible and in the universe.
Romans 8 mainly covers two profound items—the divine Spirit and the human spirit. Verse 2 reveals that the Spirit is the Spirit of life and possesses a law, an automatic power, that functions within us. Verse 9 calls the Spirit the Spirit of God, which means the Spirit of the One who existed from eternity past, made an eternal plan, and created the universe. Because it was God who took the initiative to create the universe, He is the origin, the Originator, and the origination. In verse 9 the Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ. Christ is God’s anointed One, God’s appointed One, and God incarnated to be a man in the flesh. He passed through human living, an all-inclusive death, and resurrection. After the old creation was terminated in Christ’s crucifixion, the new creation was germinated with a new life in His resurrection (2 Cor. 5:17). Next Christ ascended to the heavens, where He was crowned with glory and enthroned as the Lord and Head of the universe (Heb. 2:7). Then Christ descended as the Spirit into our spirit. Romans 8 reveals that this indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of life with the divine life and an automatic law, the Spirit of God with all the contents of God’s being and work, the Spirit of Christ with all Christ’s being and accomplishments, and the resurrecting Spirit (vv. 2, 9, 11).
The life-giving Spirit is all-inclusive, yet His goal is unique. The life-giving Spirit in our spirit is doing a resurrecting work. His goal is to resurrect every part of our being. We need to see a vision of the resurrecting work of the Spirit. Soon after we were saved, we may have told ourselves, “In the past I was a mess. I did not treat my family or others well. Now that I am saved, I make up my mind to be a good person. I will try my best to improve my behavior.” This is altogether wrong and in darkness. The thought that God wants us to improve our behavior is a religious misconception. God’s intention is to resurrect us by infusing His divine life into every part of our being.
Wherever God’s divine life spreads in our being, there is resurrection. Regeneration is the first step of resurrection. Before we were saved, our spirit was deadened. When we believed in the Lord and called on His name, God’s life was imparted into our spirit. Thus, our deadened spirit was resurrected by and with the divine life of God (v. 10). From our spirit God intends to impart His life into every part of our inward being. When God’s life is imparted into our mind, our mind will be resurrected, and we will have a renewed mind (v. 6). A renewed spirit is a regenerated spirit; a renewed mind is a transformed mind (12:2). Transformation is a part of resurrection. God also imparts His life into our will and emotion to make them new. This is also part of the Spirit’s resurrecting work in us. God’s intention is to eventually impart life into our mortal body to resurrect our body (8:11). The work of the Spirit in Romans 8 is to resurrect us by imparting the divine life into every part of our being.