NOW look what it says in the eighth verse, “So then they that are in the flesh” (the seventh of Romans state) “cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” What distinguishes the Christian is this, the fact that he has the Holy Ghost; and one who has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him is no longer in the flesh. In the seventh chapter of Romans you do not get the Spirit mentioned, but the eighth chapter is full of it; and thus we, clearly see that the fact that the Spirit dwells in him is the distinguishing feature of the full Christian position. He is not praying for the Spirit, he knows that he has the Spirit. “If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.”
Now look at the last part of the ninth verse. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” These are startling words. How many a person prays for the Spirit! What would they think of such a verse as this, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His”? Then you say, “If I have not got the Holy Ghost, I am not a Christian?” That is exactly what it says. We must make a difference between being born of the Spirit and being indwelt of the Spirit. It is possible to be quickened without having the Spirit dwelling in you, but the full Christian state is not only to be quickened by the Spirit, but to be indwelt by the Spirit. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” That is, he is not, as to the experience of his soul, in the complete Christian place. I believe that is the meaning of the passage. It does not say, if any man have not a Christian spirit. The apostle is not speaking of that, he is speaking of the Spirit of Christ, a divine person dwelling in me, and if I have not this, I am not in the full Christian place before God. A Christian is one for whom there is no condemnation, because he is in Christ Jesus, and a Christian is one who is indwelt by the Spirit of God.
Now it goes on to say, “If Christ be in you” (ver. 30); that is very different to what we saw in the first verse. In that verse we are in Christ, in this verse it is Christ in us; and is not that exactly what we get in the fourteenth of John, the twentieth verse? “At that day” —what day? The day which is now present. The Lord Jesus Christ was here on the earth, and He was looking forward to a day that was then future, namely, the day of the Holy Ghost’s coming, the very day in which we are now living. It had not begun when He spake the words, but it is a day which has been going on ever since Pentecost. “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me and I in you.” That is just bringing before us Christianity in its two-fold aspect. First of all, our place before God, and secondly, our place before the world. “In Christ” is the measure of my acceptance before God; “Christ in me” is the measure of my responsibility before the world. It is just as true that Christ is in the Christian as it is true that the Christian is in Christ. It is the double aspect of the one truth; it is Christianity from two points of view; first, as to our place before God of acceptance, and secondly, our place before the world of responsibility. My acceptance is to be measured by one thing—Christ; my responsibility here below is to be measured by one thing—Christ. How practical that is!
“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.” You say, “That has often been a puzzle to me, what does it mean?” I believe this is to be understood in a practical sense, that if Christ is in you the body should be held, for dead, because every movement of the body apart from Christ would be sin. That is a high standard of Christian life. But you say, “Who comes up to that?” Well, that is the standard, and we shall never raise the practical state by lowering the standard. Let us keep our eyes fixed upon the standard, and aim at it! That is the standard of practical Christianity in this world—the body not to be used for sin but for Christ. Now the other side. “The Spirit is life because of righteousness.” The only power for life, the only power for practical righteousness in this world is that of the Spirit. As we noticed before, the law and self are the two objects that fill the vision in the seventh chapter. It is nothing but “I,” “me,” “my,” which occur about fifty times, but not once “Christ.” Here in the eighth chapter the law is done with, I am gone. What is the object before the soul? Christ and the Spirit. What a change! That is the only real way of practical holiness; and the true secret of joy and happiness is to have the Spirit occupying our minds with Christ.
Then it goes on to say, “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you.” If that is true, and it is true, then “He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” That is to say, that not only the start, not only the course, but the end of the Christian life is all characterized by this great truth—the possession of the Spirit. I begin my Christian life with that, for I am not in the true Christian state until I have the Spirit. I am to carry on my life in the power of that Spirit, and even if my body should lie in the grave, God is going to raise it up from the dead by His Spirit that dwells in me, and not merely as an act of His power. The wicked will be raised by His power. But is the Christian going to be raised from the grave only by the power of God? If he should die, God will quicken his mortal body by His Spirit that dwells in him. So that the future resurrection and our present conduct are linked up with the blessed truth that the Spirit of God dwells in our bodies. Never let us forget it! Oh, may we go through the world in the power of it!