Romans 8
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
(NAS95)
In seeking to properly interpret the Scriptures, it always troubles me when I come to conclusions that are not supported by the commentators that I typically turn to. As I contemplated Romans 8:10, 11 in light of their context, I began frantically looking through my commentaries with increasing concern. Then I picked up Calvin, and breathed a sigh of relief. At least one other person saw it the way I did, and Calvin is no lightweight. But as I continued my search, not a single one of the other 19 commentaries on my shelf agreed with Calvin. More than that, almost none of them interacted with Calvin’s interpretation, in spite of the fact that 18 of the 19 were written after Calvin. I would love to see someone tackle this interpretation head on, because I find it very persuasive, and I would love to see if it can take a beating from a well trained critic. Below are Calvin’s relevant comments for your consideration and edification.
10 And if Christ is in you. Paul now applies his previous remarks concerning the Spirit to Christ, in order to signify the manner of Christ’s dwelling in us. For as by the Spirit He consecrates us as temples to Himself, so by the same Spirit He dwells in us. He now explains more distinctly what we have already alluded to, that the sons of God are not reckoned spiritual, on the ground of a full and entire perfection, but only on account of the newness of life which has begun in them. He here anticipates a doubt, which might otherwise have caused us uneasiness; for although the Spirit possesses part of us, yet we see another part still being held by death. He therefore gives the answer that the power of quickening exists in the Spirit of Christ, which is able to absorb our mortality. He concludes from this that we must wait with patience until the remains of sin are entirely abolished.
Readers have already been reminded that the word Spirit does not mean the soul, but the Spirit of regeneration. Paul calls this Spirit of regeneration life, not only because He lives and flourishes in us, but also because He quickens us by His power, until He destroys our mortal flesh and at last renews us perfectly. So, on the other hand, the word body signifies the more stolid mass as yet unpurified by the Spirit of God from earthly defilements, which delight only in what is gross. It would be absurd otherwise to ascribe to the body the blame for sin. Again, the soul is so far from being life, that it does not even of itself have life. Paul’s meaning, therefore, is that, although sin condemns us to death in so far as the corruption of our first nature still remains in us, yet the Spirit of God is victorious. It is no obstacle that only the first-fruits have been bestowed on us, for even one spark of the Spirit is the seed of life.
11 By mortal bodies he means all in us that still remains subject to death. Paul’s general practice is to apply this name to the grosser part of us. We conclude from this that he is not speaking of the last resurrection, which will take place in a moment, but of the continual operation of the Spirit, by which He gradually mortifies the remains of the flesh and renews in us the heavenly life.
(Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, Vol. 8, Translated by Ross Mackenzie, 1960, p165-166)
