“And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life^[a] because you have been made right with God.  The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” Rom. 8:10-11. NLT 

Footsteps #339. Before we move on we should note how Rom.8:9 relates to the Spirit in its implication to the doctrine of the Trinity. The passage refers to the Spirit interchangeably as “the Spirit of Christ” and “the Spirit of God. The good news about this is that each Person in the Trinity cooperates with each of the others for our salvation! 

Vs10-11 is an echo of Rom.6:2-4 which referred to being buried with Christ in baptism. Because of His resurrection, our Identification with him by baptism gives us new life in Christ! What a thought! What a reality! But what does it mean to be alive in Christ? For one thing, it indicates that we are alive to God and spiritual things. Before we became genuine Christians we may have had some dim view of God and “believed” in Him, but that’s not too significant James yells at us because even the devils believe and tremble (James 2:19). To believe in God but not in a personal sense will not save anyone. But when we come to Christ as Saviour, the Holy Spirit enters our lives and God became as real as life itself. It’s not that Christians don’t still have frustrations and doubts, but they know that God loves them and will be there for them in time of need. We come ‘alive’ to the word of God (in whatever form) because it speaks to our daily needs. We also become alive to the needs of others. We enjoy fellowship with others who love Jesus. 

Notice how Paul can’t stay away from the doctrine of the resurrection. Resurrection was an important topic to Paul, and it came in two flavours. The first is Christ’s resurrection, an event that he hammers home in 1Cor.15, that guarantees the resurrection of those who follow Him on earth. 

The second is the resurrection of the physical bodies of those who have already been alive in spirit in their earthly life (Rom. 8:10). But at this point, we need to look carefully at Paul’s wording. He said that God “raised Jesus from the dead” but that He will “give life” to our bodies. 

The two resurrections have big differences. Jesus had life in Himself and claimed the power to not only lay down His life but to take it up again (John 10:17,18). We aren’t self-existent. Thus God not only needs to raise us, but He must also give us life. And the life that he grants us according to 1Cor.15 will be immortal life. It is significant that Rom.8:11 says that God will give life to our “mortal bodies” since at the present time humans do not possess immortality. It is a gift of God at the last day. As the old hymn puts it: “What a day of rejoicing that will be!”