The Greatest Gift!

Romans 8:9-11
You, 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. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[d] because of righteousness. 11 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[e] his Spirit who lives in you.

 As Paul moves toward application of the doctrine he has laid out in the first chapters, he focuses on the person and role of the Holy Spirit.  Before Jesus left he told his disciples, "It is good for me to go, because if I do I will send you my Holy Spirit to be with you."  John 16:7

 Paul gives us a better understanding of the Holy Spirit and how the Spirit lives within us.  Importantly he is the Spirit of Christ. Paul also calls him the Spirit of God.  Classic theology tells us that the Holy Spirit flows from the fellowship of the Triune God, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.  Each person of the Trinity is God, but also are unique in the role they play in matters of life, faith and salvation.  The Father creates.  The Son redeems.  The Spirit sustains.

 So what does this mean for us?  We are born again of the Spirit through faith in Christ.  The Holy Spirit was given to the disciples on Pentecost. The Spirit resides within us and sustains our faith and empowers us to a life that pleases God.  And as the passage says, "The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you." 

 Our faith life starts with the Holy Spirit convicting us of our need for Christ.  When we receive Christ and His Word, we are born again by his Spirit.  The life we now live we live is by the Spirit.  As Paul says in this chapter, "If we live by the Spirit, we will not have to gratify the desires of the flesh.  We can be free of the power of sin to live a new life.  The life we were intended to live.  When we do not know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with words we do not even understand ourselves.  

 Thank God for the Holy Spirit.  The greatest gift we could ever receive!  

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