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In The Realm of the Spirit?

             You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:9)

“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—(Habakkuk 2:4)

This alternative sounds wonderful. If we have the Spirit of Christ, we have life, even if our bodies are subject to death. The Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies. Of course, this begs the question of whether or not we are in the realm of the Spirit. How do we know? There are some people who seem sure. They puff out their chests and proclaim themselves special. There are others who have experiences. They are led. God works through them, but they aren’t arrogant. There are people who can just believe without asking questions and have faith without a fuss.

Then there are those who, like me, know what Scripture says. We say we believe what Scripture says. We may even be correct that we do believe what Scripture says, but I have to ask myself whether I really believe it. Would I, if given a choice between denying Christ and dying, die? To put it bluntly, I don’t have enough faith in my faith to say, “Yeah, of course. Without blinking!” I can only say, “If God gives me the strength.” The same is true of living in the Spirit. If I am wrong, if I am not living in the Spirit, then it is only as God gives me insight that I can change that. I have no particular reason to think I’m not living in the Spirit other than my imperfection, but that’s no guarantee.

But the point of today’s passage is that if we are saved, and we are saved by faith, we do have the Spirit, and the Spirit will deal the death and sin that dwell within us. He will make things right. He can and will raise us from the dead. It’s all about Him. You might say that we’re along for the ride. He is faithful even if we aren’t He knows the truth about our deceitful hearts even if we don’t.

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