“give life to your mortal bodies” (Rom. 8:11 NKJV)
To conclude this subtheme of the teachings we want to spend a moment pondering a single Scripture which seems to say exactly the opposite of what our conclusion has been thus far. This verse is Rom. 8:11: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Certain ultra-progressive faith groups use this Scripture to prove that there will come a time when humans will no longer be subjected to mortality, and will instead exist in a state of “deathlessness” (this is however very different from the meaning first given to the term as coined by philosopher Karl Jaspers.) Enoch and Elijah (who apparently never died) are presented as prototypes of this new dispensation, and especially Heb. 11:5 is used to substantiate their argument: “By faith Enoch was translated so as not to see death …” (CAB). This is however not what the Scripture notes, and the examples that are used by them as prototypes, are also not theologically valid. [Please read the teaching of Day 572-577 again, where these examples were discussed in detail.]
One cannot but be hyper aware of the necessary nature of our earthly bodies. This is especially the case since these earthly, fleshly bodies are in conflict with the spiritual body in which you are also living. In Phil. 3:21 (ERRB) Philip rightly calls it “our vile body of humiliation”. Job (4:19) refers to this earthly body as houses of clay, “whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth”. Elsewhere he describes the human body aptly as something that “decays like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten” (Job. 13:28). The fleshly body is subjected to pain and suffering. It is by definition sinful, and cannot function in a different way.
Undeniably a living, carnal human body is not a spiritual body, and also cannot become that. 1 Cor. 15:50 (AMP) presents it in very clear terms: “But I tell you this, brethren, flesh and blood cannot [become partakers of eternal salvation and] inherit or share in the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable (that which is decaying) inherit or share in the imperishable (the immortal).”
In Rom. 8 Paul is NOT distinguishing between these two bodies, different than, say, 1 Cor. 15. Read the relevant verse in Rom. 8:11, and then read the preceding ten verses, and the following five verses. The largest problem with misunderstanding Rom. 8:11 is that the verse is taken completely out of the context of the larger chapter, and is then used to say something completely different.
In verse 1 the chapter starts with the most important distinction that is made in this pericope, namely “those … who do not walk according to the flesh,” and those who walk “according to the Spirit”. This is truth – you cannot embody both. According to verse 2 the law of sin and death works within those that walk according to the flesh, and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ in those that walk according to the Spirit. Paul makes it clear that Jesus is the one who frees you from the law of sin and death. In verses 3 and 4 he explains how the death and resurrection of Jesus is what makes it possible, how the claims of the law are overcome for those who do not walk according to the flesh, but to the Spirit instead.
In verses 5 to 8 he offers various characteristics of these two modes of living, namely those who walk according to the flesh, and those who walk according to the Spirit. It is clearly the main theme of this section. In verse 9 Paul then offers a practical key to distinguishing between these two groups of people on earth: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Remember this! Despite the fact that, according to Rom. 7:14, the body is still carnal, “sold under sin”, despite the fact that you are Spirit-filled, you are alas not redeemed from the carnal nature of your body and your natural lusts. THE ONLY CRITERIA FOR YOUR SPIRITUALNESS IS THE FACT THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD LIVES WITHIN YOU, despite the state of your body! According to Rom. 8:1 you thus walk in the spirit despite the sinful, carnal nature and tendencies of your body. This “walk” is no own endeavour at trying to walk in a blameless manner – “Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless?” (Job 22:3).
Through the death of Jesus God allowed everyone who has accepted Him (John 1:12) to be “holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight” (Col. 1:22)! What an earth-shattering truth! Therefore it is not even necessary for the salvation of my soul, as we extensively explained in the teaching of Day 1410-1412. According to 1 Tim. 6:14 these who walk in the Spirit, thus those in whom the Spirit of God lives, are kept “without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing”.
If in Rom. 8:10 Paul then makes the following statement, it is a conclusion about this argument he’s been making. He is only speaking about those who “walk in the Spirit”, those who, despite the fact that they still have a body which “is dead because of sin”, but of which the Spirit is life because of righteousness”.
Now we are getting to the main focus of this teaching, the Scripture that is often misunderstood, verse 11. Paul’s focus is only on those who walk in the Spirit (thus those in whom the Spirit of God resides), and despite this still have a body that is dead because of sin. He then says in verse 11: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” The wrong assumption hides here: If the Spirit lives within us, He will GIVE life TO MORTAL BODIES. The word life here is the beginning of the problem. In different translations we find a variety of alternatives, where it can be translated as “restore” (ABP), “give life” (ACV), “restore to life” (AMP), “quicken” (BB), “will raise you to life” (CEV), “enliven” (ERRB), “make … alive (GW) and “vivify” (JMNT).
This Scripture certainly does not point to the traditional dogma of being raised from the dead, as it speaks of “mortal bodies”, not bodies who have already died – the Holy Spirit surely cannot be in a dead body! Thus Paul refers to “your dying bodies,” as the YLT translates it, in other words the mortal bodies all people necessarily inhabit, even those who also live in the Holy Spirit. The MSG presents it as “delivered from that dead life”. Starting from this vantage point it is clear that most translations mentioned above create a wrong perception with the reader, based on their word choice. Paul is clearly speaking of a new form of life within the already-decaying body. But it is also not the case that our mortality is completely alleviated, as many ultra-progressive faith groups read this verse.
We need to understand the mystery of how 1 Cor. 15:53 is practically possible for each of us who need to live in the prison of human mortality: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” There is no exception to this rule, as each of us still needs to eat, sleep, use the bathroom, breathe. Despite what this Scripture then suggests, we are still consistently moving closer to death. We cannot be clothed with immortality in this degenerative state, for it would only serve to eternally perpetuate the brokenness of man in the garden of Eden. Remember God’s words about man’s fallen state in Gen. 3: 22: “lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever!” I don’t know about you, but I find no pleasure in the thought of eternally living in a carnal body of shame! The mere thought of deathlessness of this flesh package that eternally still needs to be bathed, whose teeth needs to be brushed, no! It is too exhausting to spend eternity in this way.
Along with Paul in Phil. 3:21 (AMP) I want to ask, “Who will transform and fashion anew the body of our humiliation to conform and be like the body of His glory and majesty, by exerting that power which enables Him even to subject everything to Himself?”
To better understand this mystery, and to understand how mortality can be clothed with immortality WHILE WE ARE STILL IN THESE MORTAL BODIES, we need to look at the foundations of natural life. I base this introduction to this mystery largely on the insights of Henry Drummond in his classic book Natural Law in the Spiritual World, written more than a century and a half ago.
As there exists an unbridgeable divide between the living and the non-living in the natural world, there is a similarly unbridgeable divide between spiritual death and spiritual life, and between the carnal way of thinking and the spiritual way of thinking.
In science there is a law that is called the Law of Biogenesis. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “The synthesis of substances by living organisms.” This law demonstrates that throughout all documented ages, life could only come into being if it is generated through some other living being. A rock can for instance not give birth to a meerkat, to use a banal example. This is why no person or experiment is able to bring about organic life from base materials of a chemical nature. Even if I take the lifeless chemical materials that the human body consists of, in the right amounts and proportions, and add them together in ideal circumstances, no human being will develop. If we have to believe the modern biological sciences, they argue that life on earth was not originally generated here, and that it derives from forms of life from an earlier existing life elsewhere in the universe. The non-organic world is completely separate from the organic world through endless distances. No change in substance, no modification of the environment, no chemistry, electricity, or any form of energy, any evolution of any nature, can add a single atom to the mineral stratum. Even if we directly intervene in this realm of death of non-organic entities the dead atoms may be able to repeat or perform the characteristics of life, but without that direct intervention of the living they would remain eternally unchanged and interact in the non-organic sphere in that dead state.
This mysterious law thus dictates all gates to the living world. What is of absolute importance for me and you is the principle that is then stated – that the complete helpless sphere of the “existence” of the dead is irrevocably separated from the living through the Law of Biogenesis. Based on this law the dead has no chance of ever living or being resurrected through its own devices. Here we get to what Scripture, in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, calls “a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us” (Luke 16:26). This unbridgeable divide (“chasm” – ABP; “gulf” – ASV; “a deep division” – BBE; “a deep ditch” – CEV; “a deep rift” – CJB; “a great chaos” – DRB; “a big pit” – ERV) symbolises the impossibility of the principle.
Over this unbridgeable divide this teaching stretches to the next in a clear cliff-hanger!
- Selah: Explain the Law of Biogenesis to someone.
- Read: 13-21
- Memorise: 13:18
