The Life-giving Spirit of God Dwells Within Us - by Pastor David Tsai

​And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
In last week’s sermon, we were reminded that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to “teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
The Apostle Paul has much to say about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Though we are embodied beings, we are not defined by our fleshly, sinful nature. Rather, we are, “however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.” (Ro-mans 8:9). We need to know that this makes all the difference in our lives! We read in verse 11: “if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you..”
Notice that Paul describes God as the God “who raised Jesus from the dead.” The death-defeating, life-giving power of God is essential and vital both to God’s nature and to our experience of God. This experience is centered in the Holy Spirit who is both “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus” and the “Spirit that dwells in you.” Through the dwelling Spirit within us, God “will give life to your mortal bodies.” Though our bodies are mortal because of sin, we will one day be raised when the Spirit gives eternal life to us.
How does this verse speak to us in the midst of our present coronavirus crisis? First, it offers the promise of life beyond this life. In a time when we are more aware than usual of our mortality, when we are reminded of the fact that we will die, it’s reassuring to know that physical death is not the end for us. We will be raised into the life of the new heaven and new earth, when disease and death are no more.
Second, this life-giving Spirit is not somewhere in the future. Romans 8:11 reminds us that the Spirit of life dwells in us right now. The very power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us in the present. Now, this does not mean that we are immune to all suffering. What it does mean is that, no matter what our situation is in this life, God is with us, and not just with us, but within us through his Spirit. Even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is right there – with us, in us, surround-ing us, empowering us, and giving us confident hope for the future.
Let us thank God for the gift of His Spirit, dwelling in us. Let us also live with confident hope in the future life that God has for us. May we be atten-tive to the presence and guidance of God’s Spirit within us, and thus, live with power and purpose in this life. For His glory, Amen!