[Chapter 8-3] Who is a Christian? (Romans 8:9-11)
(Romans 8:9-11)
“But
you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is
not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but
the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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.”
Whether
someone is a true Christian or not is distinguished according to
whether the Spirit of God dwells within him/her. How can someone be a
Christian, whether he/she believes in Jesus or not, if he/she does not
have the Holy Spirit within his/her heart? Paul tells us that whether we
believe in Jesus is not the most important question, but whether we
believe in Him having discovered the righteousness of God or not. The
true faith required by the saints is the faith that is ready for the
Spirit to dwell in them. The presence of the Holy Spirit in you will
determine whether you are a Christian or not.
Thus,
Paul said, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not
His.” He said “anyone.” It does not matter whether the person is a
minister, evangelist, or revivalist. If one does not have the Holy
Spirit within his/her heart, the person is not His. You must keep in
mind that if you do not believe in God’s righteousness that leads you to
receive the Holy Spirit, you are a sinner who is destined to go to
hell. We should thus be all concerned about the gospel of the water and
the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God.
If
the Holy Spirit dwells in us, this means that we died to sin through
our faith in the baptism of Christ. But our spirit is alive because of
the newly attained righteousness. Moreover, on the day when our Lord
comes again, our mortal bodies will receive life as well. This is why we
must think about the One who has given us the Holy Spirit.
If
you do not have the faith that believes in God’s righteousness, you do
not belong to Christ. If, on the other hand, you do have this faith in
God’s righteousness, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Without this
faith, the Holy Spirit would not reign over you. Therefore, if you do
not have the Word of redemption that contains the righteousness of God,
you do not belong to Christ, even if you were to outwardly confess and
recite the Apostles’ Creed in every Sunday service. If you do not belong
to Christ, your spirit will be cursed and it will lead you to eternal
destruction, no matter how much you might have wished to do good.
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