Redeeming our Bodies

Paul links the bodily resurrection of believers to the New Creation. Both events are vital for our complete redemption – Romans 8:1-23.

There is “now no condemnation” of anyone who is “in Christ Jesus.” This happy condition exists because the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.” In his Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul links our salvation to the inheritance of Christ and the coming redemption of our bodies and creation itself.

The disobedience of Adam condemned humanity and the Universe to bondage, decay, and death. Nevertheless, “much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus, abound to the many.”

[Photo by Preston Browning on Unsplash]

Paul connects our salvation to this coming resurrection, thus presenting a forward-looking faith. Everlasting life is an inheritance we will receive in full when God raises us from the dead and transforms living saints when Jesus returns.

• “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his  Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace” - (Romans 8:3-6).

The term “flesh” in Paul’s teachings refers to man in his mortal and fallen state, a life-orientation that “prefers death, but the Spirit prefers life and peace.” This “man of the flesh” is the product of Adam’s sin, not our physical bodies but our mortality and addiction to sin. Adam was an embodied creature before he disobeyed the commandment of God and came under the curse.

The “flesh” remains hostile to God since “to the law of God it does not submit itself, neither can it. Those who have their being in flesh cannot please God.” To be “in the flesh” is equivalent to being “in Adam” - (Romans 5:18-19).

Paul’s discussion about “flesh” and “spirit” contrasts our former Adamic life in sin with the new life free from the tyranny of sin and the fear of death. The contrast is not between our physical and nonphysical natures, but our old nature “in Adam” and the new one “in Christ.” Jesus came to liberate us from bondage:

• “Since the children are partakers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death, he might paralyze him who had the power of death, the Devil, and might deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” – (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Paul is not speaking about two “natures” that reside in the individual that are locked in mortal combat, but rather about our past life “in the flesh” of the Adamic man and our new life “in the Spirit” provided by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus and empowered by the Spirit:

• “But you have not your being in flesh but in spirit, if, at least, God’s Spirit is dwelling in you. And if anyone has not Christ’s Spirit, the same is not his. But if Christ is in you, the body, indeed, is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If, moreover, the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from among the dead is dwelling in you, he that raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will make alive even your death-doomed bodies through the means of his indwelling Spirit within you” - (Romans 8:9-11).

We have our new lives “in the Spirit… if God’s Spirit dwells” in us. This includes our physical bodies. However, if anyone does not have his Spirit, “that man is not his.” It is the Spirit that equips mortal men and women to walk uprightly and fulfill the “righteous requirements of the Law<…> who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh” - (Romans 8:4, Galatians 5:13-18).

Though our present body is “dead because of sin,” the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in us; therefore, the Spirit of God will resurrect us on the Last Day.

REVEALING HIS SONS

Paul brings the resurrection into the conversation. Essential to his concept of salvation is the bodily resurrection of the saints. Their final redemption will be actualized and fulfilled when they are raised from the dead, which, by necessity and logic, includes the redemption of the human body. We will not simply discard our mortal bodies for a disembodied state, but instead exchange them for immortal glorified bodies.

The entire man created by God was condemned to bondage - body, soul, and spirit. Therefore, if God intends to recover all that was lost to sin, His redemptive act must include the human body. Likewise, the creation that was condemned to corruption and death by the sin of Adam must be rescued from bondage, otherwise, “redemption” will remain incomplete.

Though we have been declared righteous “through the faith of Jesus,” our receipt of final salvation is not a foregone conclusion. Until Christ returns, we must not live “according to the flesh.” If we do, apostasy and eternal loss become real possibilities - (Romans 3:21-22, 8:12-14).

If we do live after the “flesh,” we will “die. But if by the Spirit we put to death the practices of the flesh, we will attain life.” We who are “led by God’s Spirit are His sons” - (Romans 8:15-20).

The Spirit of God “bears witness with our spirit that we are His children.” This means we are “heirs of God and coheirs with Christ.” However, to be his coheir entails suffering in this life for his sake so we also may be “glorified” with him. The creation itself has been subjected “to vanity” - to death and decay - because of the disobedience of Adam. Accordingly, all creation now suffers until the present hour.

However, the Universe is “eagerly waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.” When they are “revealed” for all to see, the “creation itself will be freed from the bondage of decay into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God.” That day will produce the New Creation, the “New Heavens and Earth.” The redemption of the creation is dependent on the resurrection of the “sons of God.” The promises of bodily resurrection and New Creation are inextricably linked - (Romans 8:21-23, 2 Peter 3:10-13).

We who are declared righteous in Jesus receive the Spirit of God. If we continue to live accordingly, we will receive everlasting life when Jesus arrives, raises us from the dead, and ushers in the “New Heavens and the New Earth in which righteousness dwells.”

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SEE ALSO:

• Jesus Conquered Death! - (Paul reminded Timothy of the resurrection of Jesus and his victory over death since false teachers were denying the future resurrection of believers)

• Death, the Last Enemy - (The arrival of Jesus at the end of the age will mean the resurrection and the end of the Last Enemy, namely, Death - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

• Completing our Salvation - (Central to the hope of the apostolic church was the bodily resurrection of the dead at the end of the age when Jesus returns)

• La Rédemption de notre Corps - (Paul relie la résurrection corporelle des croyants à la Nouvelle Création. Les deux événements sont vitaux pour notre rédemption complete - Romains 8: 1-23)