Romans 8:10 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, the apostle describes two great blessings that belong to true believers. The first is life. Their happiness is not only that they will not be condemned, but that they are brought into a real and better life, one that will be their lasting joy (Romans 8:10, 11). He says, “If Christ is in you.” If the Spirit is in us, then Christ is in us too. Christ lives in the heart through faith (Ephesians 3:17).

Paul then shows what becomes of the bodies and souls of those in whom Christ lives. We cannot say the body is not dead in a real sense. It is frail, mortal, and always moving toward death. It is a house made of clay, with its foundation in the dust. The life Christ has bought and promised does not make the body immortal in its present state. The body is dead, meaning it is under a sentence of death. As we say of a condemned person, he is as good as dead. In the middle of life, we are already surrounded by death. Even if our bodies are strong, healthy, and beautiful, they are still as good as dead (Hebrews 11:12), and this is because of sin. Sin is what kills the body. That was the first warning in Eden, “Dust you are” (Genesis 3:19). Even without any other reason, our care for our own bodies should make us hate sin, because sin is such an enemy to them. Even the death of the bodies of believers is still a reminder of God’s displeasure against sin.

But the spirit, the precious soul, is life. It is already alive in a spiritual sense, and in a deeper way, it is life itself. Grace in the soul is its new nature. The saint’s true life is in the soul, while the sinner’s life goes no farther than the body. When the body dies and returns to dust, the spirit is still life. It is not only living and immortal, but filled up with life. Death for believers is only the freeing of the heaven-born spirit from the weight and burden of this body, so that it may be fit for eternal life. Abraham was dead, yet God was still the God of Abraham, because even then his spirit was life (Matthew 22:31, 32). See also (Psalm 49:15). This is because of righteousness.

Here the righteousness of Christ, counted to believers, secures the soul, the better part, from death. The righteousness worked in them, the renewed image of God in the soul, preserves it and, by God’s purpose, lifts it at death, improves it, and makes it fit to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Eternal life for the soul consists in seeing God and enjoying Him, and in becoming like Him. The righteousness of sanctification, meaning the holy change God works in us, prepares the soul for that. I refer to (Psalm 17:15), “I will behold your face in righteousness.”

There is also life kept for the body at last. “He will also give life to your mortal bodies” (Romans 8:11). The Lord cares for the body. Though at death it is cast aside like a broken vessel that no one values, God still “will have a desire to the work of his hands” (Job 14:15). He will remember his covenant with the dust and will not lose even a grain of it. The body will be joined to the soul again and clothed with a glory suited to it. These lowly bodies will be changed into new glory (Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:42).

Paul gives two strong reasons to believe in the resurrection of the body. First is the resurrection of Christ. “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life.” Christ rose as the head, firstfruits, and forerunner of all believers (1 Corinthians 15:20). The body of Christ lay in the grave under the guilt of all the elect, counted to him, and he broke through it. “O grave, where is your victory?” It is by the power of Christ’s resurrection that we will rise.

The second reason is the indwelling of the Spirit. The same Spirit who now raises the soul will soon raise the body. It is “by his Spirit who dwells in you.” The bodies of believers are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). These temples may be allowed to lie in ruins for a time, but they will be rebuilt. The fallen tent of David will be repaired, even if great mountains stand in the way. The Spirit, breathing on dead and dry bones, will make them live, and the saints will see God even in their flesh.

From this, the apostle draws a practical lesson, that we must walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:12, 13). We must not live by the wishes and impulses of the flesh. He gives two reasons. First, we are not debtors to the flesh, neither by relationship, gratitude, nor any other tie. We owe no service to our sinful desires. We do have a duty to care for the body, feeding and clothing it as a servant of the soul in God’s service, but no more. We are not debtors to the flesh. The flesh has never done us such kindness that it should have a claim on us. It is implied that we are debtors to Christ and to the Spirit. To them we owe everything, all we have and all we can do, under a thousand claims and obligations. We have been delivered from such great death at such great cost, so we owe our deliverer deeply (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).

Second, we must think about where this path ends. Life and death, blessing and curse, are set before us. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. That means eternal death. Pleasing the flesh, serving it, and giving in to it ruin souls. That is the second death. Death, in this sense, is the soul’s death. The death of believers is only sleep. But if you, through the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body, then you will live. You must weaken and control all fleshly lusts and desires, denying yourself the pleasure and flattery of the body, and do this through the Spirit. We cannot do it without the Spirit working in us, and the Spirit will not do it without our effort. So in short, we are brought to this choice, either displease the body or destroy the soul.

The second blessing is the Spirit of adoption, another privilege belonging to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:14-16). All who belong to Christ are brought into the relationship of children with God. Their mark is that they are led by the Spirit of God, like a student led by a teacher, a traveler by a guide, or a soldier by a captain. They are not driven like animals, but led like thinking people, drawn with human kindness and the cords of love. This is the clear mark of true believers, they are led by the Spirit of God. Since they have trusted him and submitted to his guidance, they follow that guidance in obedience and are gently led into all truth and duty.

Their privilege is that they are sons of God, received into the number of God’s children by adoption, and owned and loved by him as his children. And those who are sons of God also have the Spirit, first to form in them the spirit of children. “You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear” (Romans 8:15). This may be understood, first, of the spirit of bondage the Old Testament church was under because of the darkness and fear of that time. The veil itself showed bondage (2 Corinthians 3:15). Compare (Romans 8:17).

The Spirit of adoption was not poured out so fully then as now. Under the law, the wound was opened, but the remedy was shown only a little. So the apostle’s point is that believers are no longer under that earlier way of dealing, and they have not received a spirit like that.

Second, he is speaking of that spirit of bondage that many saints felt even at their conversion, when the Spirit pressed on them the fear of sin and judgment. That happened to the people in Acts 2:37, to the jailer in Acts 16:30, and to Paul in Acts 9:6. In that stage, the Spirit was, in a sense, a spirit of bondage to them. But the apostle says that with you, this is past. As Dr. Manton said, God as Judge uses the spirit of bondage to send us to Christ as Mediator, that is, the one who brings God and man together, and Christ then sends us back to God as a Father through the spirit of adoption.

A child of God may fall back into fear and begin to question whether he is truly a son. Even so, the blessed Spirit is not again a spirit of bondage, because then he would be giving a false witness. What believers have received is the Spirit of adoption. People may write an adoption deed, but only God can give the spirit of adoption, the nature and heart of children.

That Spirit works in God’s children a loving trust in God as Father, a delight in him, and a dependence on him. A sanctified soul, that is, a heart made holy, bears God’s image just as a child often bears the father’s likeness. This is why we cry, “Abba, Father.” Prayer is called crying here, not only because it is earnest, but because it is natural. Children who cannot speak still make their desires known by crying.

The Spirit teaches us to come to God in prayer as to a Father, with holy and humble confidence. “Abba” is a Syriac word meaning father, or my father, and “Father” is the Greek word. Why are both used, “Abba, Father”? Because Christ prayed that way in (Mark 14:36), and because we have received the Spirit of the Son. The words show loving urgency and a strong faith in the relationship. Little children asking their parents can say little more than “Father, Father,” and that is enough.

These words also show that adoption belongs to both Jews and Gentiles. Jews can call him Abba in their own language, and Greeks can call him Father in theirs, for in Christ Jesus there is neither Greek nor Jew. The Spirit also bears witness with our spirit to the fact that we are children of God, as Paul explains in (Romans 8:16). The first work belongs to the Spirit as the one who makes us holy, and this work belongs to him as the Comforter.

Many people give themselves a false sense of peace, even when God has not spoken peace to them. But those who are truly sanctified have God’s Spirit witnessing with their spirits. This does not mean some special and unusual revelation. It means the ordinary work of the Spirit, bringing comfort through the means he uses and speaking peace to the soul. This witness always agrees with the written Word, and it always rests on holiness, because the Spirit in the heart cannot contradict the Spirit in the Word. The Spirit does not witness the privileges of children to people who do not have the nature and behavior of children.