Romans 8:10-11 - In Preparation for the Concept of Vivification, Part 1 (Conciliation Series, Part LIV)

 Part IV: God’s Conciliation, Confirmed

Now if Christ is in you, the body, indeed, is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness.

“What’s the difference between vivification and resurrection? When Jesus is resurrected, the body awakens and the person walks again (Greek: anastasis, “UP-STANDING.”) Vivification is the return of the spirit (Greek: zoopoieo, “LIVE-DO.”) In this sense, vivification isn’t a new creation of the same person (Isaac being born from Sarah’s previously-dead ovaries is a new person, not a return of a spirit.) Resurrection, on the other hand, would be a new creation, as Christ is resurrected three days later as a new Being. I’ll have more to say on this at a later point, but let it be realized that Christ’s body is resurrected, as a new Creation (so much so that Mary couldn’t recognize Him,) and His spirit is vivified.”

– me, concerning Rom. 4:17

The above paragraph, I believe, is a solid foundational beginning to understanding the word “vivification,” in contrast with “resurrection.” However, this is a severely under-explained topic, in this paragraph, and I wanted to wait until these two verses to really break down “vivification.”

I’ve had a very difficult time trying to decide how I want to tackle this topic, too. On the one hand, I would love to use the next 8-10 articles to take an in-depth look at vivification and resurrection, considering each and every use of these words and writing about them. Alas, this simply would not be expedient, and could lead to some… very repetitious writing.

As such, I plan instead on breaking down the fundamentals of both resurrection and vivification, how they are used in Scripture, and the result of our study, being a fuller comprehension of Romans 8:10-11. Keeping the above quote in mind will be very fruitful for this part of the study!

For starters, this is a brief statement by Paul. The entirety of our understanding of “vivification” simply does not stem from this passage. This passage reveals vivification’s place, in the larger scope of God’s plan on that eonian calendar we studied, but it does not elaborate on vivification. God, through Paul, fully breaks down the concept of vivification for us in 1 Cor. 15:35-49, as well as who gets vivified, when they get vivified, and the effects of it in 1 Cor. 15:22-24. While I will be citing those verses on various occasions in the next couple of segments, I will not be making any major attempt to break down the full teachings there; instead, they will be saved for the 1 Corinthians study (but with that said, please study it anyway, because it’s kind of important, thank you.)

Let’s get into it! The above verse that we are considering stands in direct contrast to Romans 8:6-8, which covered the disposition of the flesh. Verse 9 transitioned us into these two verses, which concern us with the disposition of the spirit. Paul told us why the disposition of the flesh is death (8:7,) and he will now explain why the disposition of the spirit is life and peace (8:10-11.) This will complete Paul’s elaboration on 8:5, and (finally) bring us to his point in 8:12-14.

But first, we must consider verse 10! Let’s start with the word “now.” In Greek, the word translated “now” is de.

*sigh*

The reason this is rather irritating is because the Concordant Literal does a generally good job at highlighting conjunctions, as they are just as critical as the larger words in the sentence. Admittedly, it is very difficult to translate some of them into English concordantly, but there should be notations in the English translation that highlight this for us (it’s nothing serious… we’re just talking about the word of God.)

The word translated “yet” in Rom. 8:9 is the conjunction de, which, as I said already, is either adversative or continuative in nature. The same is true of its use here. Knoch interprets the use of de in this verse as continuative, and as such translated it “now.” Please, if you are an English reader, pay attention to these little nuances, so that you don’t begin interpreting things strangely!

The question here is this: what, exactly, is de continuing, here? Well, the end of verse 9 said that “if anyone has not Christ’s spirit, this one is not His.” This was a negative supposition (hence the “not.”) In contrast, we have in this verse, the consideration that Christ is in you – which makes this a positive supposition. And, just like the “if” in verse 9, we have the same “if” here, serving as a conditional truth, entirely dependent on the previous teachings.

Christ’s spirit is in you. This does not mean that you are now “Jesus Christ,” of course – that would be silly. I might as well say that “Me and Adam have the same exact personality because I’m sharing his physical death.” Your personality is distinct from Christ’s, just as clearly as mine is from yours. However, even as we suffer Adam’s physical death, thus also we are subjected to Christ’s spiritual life! The difference is felt in the closeness; Adam’s curse is on you, but Christ’s life is in you. And, whereas Adam is long gone, Christ is there, right now. You have the most intimate spiritual fellowship with the Image of the invisible God.

This takes me back to the critical nature of what we are currently studying. A believer I know and love said once to me that “Love is oneness.” This, of course, goes back to the “pantheism” idea I was criticizing during 8:9; there is not a single verse to back such a claim. God does not at all tell you that to “truly love” is to seek to understand everyone’s personal point of view and accept it as His. He does not make budget cuts this late in the game; He says that His Son is the only method by which one is made righteous, and becomes holy and flawless in His sight.

There is no joining between demonic doctrine and the living word of God. It is impossible for the two to co-align. This is where many falter, with the idea of “interpretation” and “opinion.” You can have an opinion all day long – you can sit there and tell me with a straight face that eternal torment is front and center in the original text! But you can’t tell me that God ever highlights man’s opinion as the answer to anything. He does not say, “Your opinion saves you!” He states the opposite, in fact, by willing his saints to discard vain reasoning and philosophy (Col. 2:8, 2 Tim. 2:15-23.) He is even clearer on His firm stance in 2 Cor. 6:14-15–

Do not become diversely yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what communion has light with darkness? Now what agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what part a believer with an unbeliever?

God is delineating between those in spirit, and those in flesh. This is the only distinction He is making in this current administration (8:5-9.) To be diversely yoked with an unbeliever is to be joined with whomever you may please (not merely physically, but emotionally and mentally. This is a spiritual yoking, denoted by the rest of the point Paul makes here.) The separation is between righteousness and lawlessness (Rom. 2:14-16, 3:21-23.)

There is no in-between; Christ is either in you or He’s not in you. If He is, Romans 8:10 clarifies your present state of being. If He is not, Romans 1:28-32 describes your current state of being. That said, the question remains: if Christ is in you, then why would sin be manifested in a saint anyway?

The answer is that sin’s presence still exists. Pay strict attention to each concept I am about to clarify; take this word by word: The justification through Christ’s faith establishes your true connection with the living God. However, the concept of justification does not remove the power of sin, nor does it erase sin entirely from the body. What we are currently studying, the conciliation of God, in Rom. 5:1-8:30, is the peace that delivers you from the power of sin (Rom. 6:3-9, 7:4-6.) There is a separate, third concept that we will consider later that will finally remove you from the presence of sin altogether.

It makes perfect sense, too! How can God show you that He’s at peace with you if you never screw up? With this, it becomes far clearer to understand why sin still manifests in the walk of many believers. They are in the process of being delivered from sin – they are not at the end of their journey yet, and they will not until the consummation that we will read of in Rom. 8:11. As we’ve discussed, there are fleshy saints, and spiritual saints. These two words can be interchanged with immature and mature.

These saints, who are still preferring the lies, their opinions, their interpretation of the texts, have Christ’s spirit in them, per 8:10. Christ is no less in them than in you; the Scriptures here do not say, “Christ is in you because you’re walking.” This would upend everything we’ve studied so far – the evangel is God’s power for salvation, not on you (Rom. 1:16.) It is not Christ’s spirit, but the spirit’s manifestation in your walk, that has been the focus of the first 9 verses of Romans 8.

Some may rebut that Christ isn’t in every saint, if their walk is that of the flesh. They use verses like Ephesians 3:17 to prove their point. Take a look:

Christ to dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, having been rooted and grounded in love, should be strong to grasp… to know the love of Christ as well which transcends knowledge…

These “some” would say, “Hey! But if Christ is in you, why is Paul praying for Christ to dwell in your heart??”

Thank you for asking that, “some.”

“Some” miss the word “heart” in Eph. 3:17. Christ is in all saints, per the foundational text that we are studying in Romans 8. But this is another one of those critical differences between maturity and immaturity: Christ may be in all saints, but He is not at the center of every saint’s heart. Every saint is partaking of the life of Christ, as He imparts to each; but not every saint is partaking of the heart of Christ. This is funny, of course, because it is senseless to take part in the life and not the heart – hence the immaturity.

There is a difference between knowing God and coming to a full realization of God through His Son. There are conditions to becoming a mature saint. Observe Col. 1:9-10–

Therefore we also, from the day on which we hear, do not cease praying for you and requesting that you may be filled full with the realization of His will, in ALL wisdom and spiritual understanding, you to walk worthily of the Lord for ALL pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the realization of God...

As we can see from the two cited passages, the way to bear fruit in every good work and grow in the realization of God – that is, the way to walk worthily of the Lord for all pleasing, as we have begun to consider since the start of Romans 8 – is by being given a full realization of His will, in all wisdom, and spiritual understanding.

Most saints simply do not want to take the time to discover these things. They hear “justified,” and “conciliated.” They take pleasure in these two facts, and dismiss the rest of Paul’s evangel as “not critical to be in Christ.” God never requests that we cut the word of truth like this, and to do so is a disservice to the purpose of the doctrinal portion of each letter. For Christ to dwell in the heart of a saint is for Christ to establish a permanent home as the Object of a saint’s worship.

No longer I, but Christ.

The word “dwell” in Greek is katoikeo, a verb in the aorist tense – which denotes a permanent abode. He is dwelling. Christ does not get along with unrighteous guests, and so plucks them from your heart to make room for Himself. This is a gradual realization of the Son of God (which is the mark of a mature man – Eph. 4:13.) When Christ is dwelling in the heart, He becomes the primary Object of affection, of desire, the Source of the love in the heart (Rom. 5:5.)

Where was I going with that? I don’t know.

No, wait! I do know. So yes, Christ is in every saint, because we have been baptized into His death (Rom. 6:3-4.) This is the foundation by which we can apprehend “vivification.” The present state of things with a saint is this: the body is dead, because of sin, and the spirit is life, because of righteousness.

That’s a big pill to swallow, for a few reasons. First, some will just say “oh, Paul means the body is dying.” No, he means dead! Did he say dying? No, thank you very much, he did not! He said “dead.” And he means “dead.” The contrast for “dead” is “life”, per the antithetical clause that follows (as well as the word “indeed,” which in Greek, is the word men, a conjunction of affirmation that is almost always followed by a contrastive clause.)

It’s hard, at first, to discern here whether Paul is speaking literally or figuratively. And, honestly, in my limited vocabulary, I don’t exactly know how to tell you whether it’s literal or figurative. I guess, to God, it would be literal, considering we are being educated on His perspective. The reason I would call this literal is because this is literal in relation to the subject of vivification, which we can now begin to consider, with this information.

We’ll continue this study in the next section, but first, I want to (roughly) paraphrase God. He’s saying, “Your body is dead to Me. It’s made of dirt, it has a curse on it, and it can only return to the dirt from whence it came, per My curse (Gen. 3:18-19, Ecc. 12:7.) Physically, you’re animated with this dead body. It still functions, retains its physical capabilities, but it does not have the life of Christ in it, which is the measurement for ‘vivification.’ With that, it’s dead to Me.”          

- GerudoKing