Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 8:11

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

11. But ] Here the fact of the death-state of the body is met and qualified by the prospect of life for it also.

the Spirit of him that raised, &c.] i.e. of the Father; so described here because of the following statement. See Rom 6:4, and cp. Heb 13:20. Here again the indwelling of the Spirit is practically identical with the indwelling of Christ in Rom 8:10. “ Jesus ” and “ Christ ” are not mere synonyms here: Jesus is the Risen One as to Himself; Christ the Risen One as the Head of His people. So Bengel.

quicken ] make alive. Though the word “ raise ” is not used, the reference is to the resurrection-day. Cp. 1Co 15:22. The word is no doubt chosen to include the case of those who shall “remain to the coming.”

your mortal bodies ] The Religion of Scripture alone of religions (excepting Mahometanism, whose element of truth is all borrowed from it) promises immortal bliss to the body.

by his Spirit ] Lit., and far better, on account of His Spirit. The body is the Spirit’s “temple” now, (1Co 6:19,) and as such it is for ever “precious in the sight of the Lord.” Our Lord indicates this same deep connexion between the soul’s intercourse with God now and the body’s glory hereafter, Mat 22:31-32.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

But if the Spirit of him … – The Holy Spirit, Rom 8:9.

He that raised up Christ … – He that had power to restore him to life, has power to give life to you. He that did, in fact, restore him to life, will also restore you. The argument here seems to be founded, first, on the power of God; and, secondly, on the connection between Christ and his people; compare Joh 14:19, Because I live, ye shall live also.

Shall also quicken – Shall make alive.

Your mortal bodies – That this does not refer to the resurrection of the dead seems to be apparent, because that is not attributed to the Holy Spirit. I understand it as referring to the body, subject to carnal desires and propensities; by nature under the reign of death, and therefore mortal; that is, subject to death. The sense is, that under the gospel, by the influence of the Spirit, the entire man will be made alive in the service of God. Even the corrupt, carnal, and mortal body, so long under the dominion of sin, shall be made alive and recovered to the service of God. This will be done by the Spirit that dwells in us, because that Spirit has restored life to our souls, abides with us with his purifying influence, and because the design and tendency of his indwelling is to purify the entire man, and restore all to God. Christians thus in their bodies and their spirits become sacred. For even their body, the seat of evil passions and desires, shall become alive in the service of God.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Rom 8:11

But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus dwell in you.

The indwelling Spirit

The indwelling of God the Holy Spirit is the common mark of all believers in Christ. It is the shepherds mark of the flock of the Lord Jesus, distinguishing them from the rest of the world. It is the goldsmiths stamp on the genuine sons of God, which separates them from the dross and mass of false professors. It is the kings own seal on those who are his peculiar people, proving them to be his own property. It is the earnest which the Redeemer gives to His believing disciples, while they are in the body, as a pledge of the full redemption yet to come on the resurrection morning. This is the case of all believers. (Bp. Ryle.)

The indwelling Spirit the Raiser of the dead

I. The inhabitation of the Spirit. Dwelling may relate either to a man in his house (1Jn 3:24) or of God in His temple (1Co 6:16). The Spirit buildeth us up for so holy a use, and then dwelleth in us as our Sanctifier, Guide, and Comforter.

1. He sanctifieth and reneweth us (Tit 3:5; Joh 3:6).

2. He guideth and healeth us in the ways of holiness (Rom 15:14; Gal 5:25).

3. He comforts us with the sense of Gods fatherly love and our eternal inheritance (Rom 8:16; 2Co 2:22).

II. Why this inhabitation is the ground of a blessed resurrection.

1. To preserve the order of the personal operations.

(1) The rising from the dead is a work of Divine power (2Co 1:10).

(2) This Divine power belongeth in common to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who, being one and the same God, concurred in the same work. We are raised by the Father (text), by Christ (Joh 5:21), by the Spirit (text).

(3) They all concur in a way proper to them. The Holy Ghost is the operative love of God, working from the power of the Father and grace of the Son; and whatever the Father or Son doth, you must still suppose it to be communicated to us by the Spirit.

2. Because the Holy Spirit is the bond of union between us and Christ. We are united to Him, because we have the same Spirit which Christ had; and therefore He will work like effects in you and Him. If the Head rise, the members will follow after.

3. Because the Spirit of sanctification worketh in us that grace which giveth us a right and title to this glorious estate (Luk 20:35-36; Gal 6:8).

4. Because the Spirit abides in us as an earnest (Eph 1:14).

5. Because of His respect to His old dwelling-place (1Co 6:19; 1Th 5:23).

6. Because the great work of the Spirit is to retrench our bodily pleasures, and to bring us to resolve by all means to save the soul, whatever becometh of the body in this world, and to use the body for the service of the Lord Jesus Christ (1Co 6:13; 1Co 6:20; Rom 8:13; Gal 5:16; Gal 5:24; Rom 13:14). (T. Manton, D.D.)

The completing work of the Holy Spirit

The acceptance of Christ does not prevent the death of the body. The destruction of the body by death is complete; but is it destroyed for ever?

1. Infidelity affirms that when you are dead that is the end of you.

2. Science teaches that the substance of the body can never be annihilated.

3. The Bible declares that the body shall be raised up at the last day.

I. The agent. The same power that raised up Jesus.

II. Its order,

1. Regeneration.

2. Sanctification.

3. Resurrection.

III. A complete salvation Christ brings to us.

1. It justifies us before the law.

2. It includes the redemption of the body.

3. It provides for the reunion of body and soul.

4. It establishes personal identity for ever.

5. It makes certain the reunion and recognition of friends throughout eternity.

IV. Present practical bearings.

1. We should now seek after the only possible antidote to spiritual death, with all its glorious provisions for time and eternity. If the Spirit of Christ dwell in us, we have nothing to fear from sin and death.

2. The Spirit comes only to those who welcome His coming and cherish His indwelling. (L. O. Thompson.)

The resurrection of the body

Our attention is not directed to the awakening produced by the trump of the archangel, but to the quickening produced by the Spirit of God. We have to consider here the completion of our freedom from the law of sin and death. Observe–

I. That by the resurrection the last link of the chain of corruption will be finally broken. The work of salvation is an ordered scheme, every step of which is arranged by infinite wisdom. God first uncloses the fingers of sin on the spirit, and at last frees the body from its fatal grasp. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. What if the order had been reversed? Why, then the spirit would have been placed beyond that discipline through which its purification is now being carried on. A body fit only for heavenly service would not be fit for earthly pain, sorrow, and death.

II. That this emancipation is to be effected by the Holy Spirit. It is Spirit operating, not on spirit–as in conversion–but on the body. It is the same Spirit, and it follows that it is even part of the same work. The work is effected by the Spirit dwelling in us. There is in the believer a Divine seed, which is destined to break forth from amidst the corruption of the grave into beauteous life.

III. That the resurrection of believers is associated with that of Christ. The relation is that of cause and effect, type and fulfilment, pledge and redemption. Because I live, ye shall live also. (P. Strutt.)

The resurrection maintained

First, to speak of Christs resurrection. If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead. This is a circumlocution whereby we have described unto us God the Father, under this notion of raising up of Christ. For the first, the Person here signified or implied, that is God the Father. Indeed, the whole Trinity of Persons had a share in this performance. But yet it is here ascribed to the Father, as that Person who is usually expressed to be the Fountain of the Godhead, as from whom all the actions of the Deity do originally flow and proceed. The second thing, which is here chiefly considerable, is the action attributed to this Person, and that is, the raising up of Jesus from the dead. Jesus Christ, He is thus risen. This is a main article of our Christian faith. The ground of this dispensation is first of all taken from the nature and condition of Christ Himself, who was such an One as death could not long keep in bondage to itself (Act 2:24). Secondly, He is therefore risen to manifest the completeness of that redemption which He had wrought for us, and to declare us absolved and acquitted in the sight and presence of God (Rom 4:25). The use of this doctrine in hand is especially to oppose it to the scandal and reproach of the Cross. The second is the Spirits inhabitation in those who are the members of Christ. If or forasmuch as this Spirit dwelleth in you. Thus it makes much for the honour and dignity of the servant of God, that He whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain should vouchsafe to take up His residence in such narrow rooms as our hearts. And, further, it also minds us of our duty: so to carry and behave ourselves as fit temples of the Holy Ghost to reside in, and to be continually offering up of sacrifices of praises unto Him. The second, which is principally considerable of us, is the inference in these, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. First, to look upon this passage in its simple and absolute consideration, He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead will also quicken and raise up us, who are, etc. And here, again, two things more: first, the state or condition itself which is here propounded. And that is the resurrection of the saints and true believers. He shall quicken your mortal bodies. Secondly, the conveyance of this state or condition unto them, or the grace of conferring it upon them by or because of His Spirit, which dwelleth in you. First, to speak of the former–viz., the state or condition itself which is here propounded, and that is the resurrection of the saints. He shall quicken your mortal bodies; that is, He shall raise you from death to life. It is that which hath been set forth unto us and shadowed under sundry resemblances–of Aarons dry rod budding forth and flourishing; of the prophet slain by the lion, but not devoured; of Enochs translation; of Elijahs rapture; of Elishas sepulchre reviving a dead man that was cast into it. And it is very suitable and agreeable to reason rightly qualified, though it does not depend upon it. First, to reason that it may be so in regard of the possibility. It is no way opposite or repugnant to this. Let us consider what our bodies were made of and fetched out of at first, and then it will be no difficulty at all. He that thoroughly believes the creation need never to doubt of the resurrection. Could God make the body out of the dust? and cannot He then restore it from the dust? Secondly, it is also in the equity of it, as that which should be; that so there may be an execution of the just judgment of God upon either part of man which hath done either good or evil. Thirdly, it is so also in the necessity of it, as that which must be; and here are divers and sundry things considerable of us as very much making for it. First, from the covenant of grace, I will be thy God, etc. Now to be our God is to be the God of our whole persons; not only of our souls, but of our bodies too (Mat 22:32). Secondly, from the work of redemption, which extends to the destroying of death as the last enemy, and to get the conquest and victory over that. Thirdly, from the resurrection of Christ Himself: He is risen in His body, therefore we also shall rise in ours. Fourthly, from the work of the Spirit. The Spirit of God, which is in us, He does certify and assure us hereof–namely, by these gracious effects of His wrought in our souls; while He raises us from the death of sin, He will also raise us from the death of the grave. He that hath done the one, He is ready also to do the other for us. Hence is the Spirit of God called the earnest and pledge hereof unto us (2Co 5:5). This doctrine of the resurrection is more particularly considerable of us in the expression which is here in the text fastened upon it; whilst it is said that He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. And here, again, two things more. First, to speak of the cause of it. He that raised up Christ from the dead; where the resurrection of Christians seems to be made an effect, and consequent of the resurrection of Christ. And so indeed it is, and that according to a threefold influence–first, of merit; secondly, of actual efficacy; and, thirdly, of example. The ground and reason of all is this: because Christ is the Root and Head of all believers, as Adam was of all mankind. And so much may be spoken of the first particular which is here considerable of us, and that is the cause of our resurrection: in these words, He that raised up Christ from the dead. The second is the carriage of it in these: shall quicken your mortal bodies. He shall quicken our mortal bodies by making them absolutely immortal. And so now I have done with the first branch in this second general–to wit, the state or condition itself which is here propounded; and that is the resurrection of the saints and true believers, in these words: He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies. The second is the conveyance of this state and condition unto them, or the ground of conferring it upon them, in these words: By, or because, of His Spirit that, etc., I read it both ways, either by or because, according to the different translation in the text and in the margin, and each of them different, according to different copies in the original. We may, if we please, take it either way. First, take it in the textual translation: By His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Where we see how the dwelling of Gods Spirit in the children of God is the means and cause and conveyance of resurrection to such as are His children. They rise, but they rise by the virtue of the Spirit of God that dwells in them; and that because they rise in reference to their relation to Christ, as we showed before. But, secondly, we may, if we please, take it also in the marginal translation, which is for, or because, of the Spirit that dwelleth in you, as denoting not only the cause from which, but also the reason for which, this resurrection is conferred upon them. First, I say here is that which is implied: that the Spirit of God dwells in the children of God. The second is that which is inferred: that because and in regard of the Spirit of God dwelling in them, therefore their bodies should be raised and restored again to life. This follows from hence, because the Holy Ghost will not quit His own interest, nor lose anything of that which belongs unto Him, which He should do if the bodies of the saints lay still in their graves, or were wholly annihilated and brought to nothing. The second is conditional, or connective with the words which went before in the beginning of the verse: If the Spirit of Him that raised up, etc., where resurrection to eternal life is made dependent upon the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost in such persons as shall so rise, The consideration of this point may be useful to us, to a twofold purpose. First, as matter of comfort to the saints and servants of God. Secondly, here is matter of terror to all wicked and reprobate persons in regard of the different dispensation of it from that of the children of God. First, as to the manner of it. Whereof the one shall be with rejoicing, the other with horror. Secondly, in regard of the end of it. The godly, they rise that they may receive their crown and garland. But the wicked, they rise that they may receive their punishment and torment. Thirdly and lastly, in regard of the cause and proceeding of it. The godly, they rise by virtue of their union with Christ as His members, and by virtue of their relation to the Holy Ghost as His temples; but the wicked, they rise by virtue of Gods curse upon them and designment to everlasting destruction. The godly, they rise by the power of Christ as a Mediator; the wicked, they rise by the power of Christ as a Judge. (Thomas Horton, D.D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 11. But if the Spirit, c.] This verse confirms the sense given to the preceding. He who here receives the grace and Spirit of Christ, and continues to live under its influence a life of obedience to the Divine will, shall have a resurrection to eternal life and the resurrection of Christ shall be the pattern after which they shall be raised.

By his Spirit that dwelleth in you.] Instead of , because of the Spirit of him who dwelleth in you, DEFG, a great many others, with the Vulgate, Itala, and several of the fathers, have , which gives almost no variety of meaning. The latter may be neater Greek, but it is not better sense than the preceding.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Him that raised up Jesus from the dead; a periphrasis of God the Father. The Son raised himself, Joh 2:19; 10:18; and yet the Father is said here to raise him from the dead: see notes on Rom 1:4.

Quicken your mortal bodies; raise them from a state of mortality, and all the attendants, to a glorious immortal life.

By his Spirit that dwelleth in you: q.d. If you are sanctified by the Spirit, you shall be raised up by the Spirit also, as Christ was. The wicked also shall be raised at the last day. But the righteous shall be raised after a peculiar manner; they shall be raised, as by the almighty power of God, so by virtue of their union with Christ as his members, and by virtue of their relation to the Spirit as his temples. They only shall partake of a resurrection that is desirable and beneficial to them. Therefore it is called emphatically the resurrection of the just, Luk 14:14; and these two are joined together, as belonging one to the other; the children of God, and the children of the resurrection, Luk 20:36.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. But“And.”

if the Spirit of him thatraised up Jesus from the dead dwell in youthat is, “If Hedwell in you as the Spirit of the Christ-raising One,” or, “inall the resurrection-power which He put forth in raisingJesus.”

he that raised up Christ fromthe deadObserve the change of name from Jesus, as thehistorical Individual whom God raised from the dead, to CHRIST,the same Individual, considered as the Lord and Head of all Hismembers, or of redeemed Humanity [ALFORD].

shall also quickenrather,”shall quicken even”

your mortal bodies bythetrue reading appears to be “by reason of.”

his Spirit that dwelleth inyou“Your bodies indeed are not exempt from the deathwhich sin brought in; but your spirits even now have in them anundying life, and if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from thedead dwell in you, even these bodies of yours, though they yield tothe last enemy and the dust of them return to the dust as it was,shall yet experience the same resurrection as that of their livingHead, in virtue of the indwelling of same Spirit in you thatquickened Him.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead,…. These words are not to be understood as they are by some, of the continued work of sanctification in the heart by the Spirit of God; for regeneration, and not sanctification, is signified by quickening, which quickening occurs when the Spirit of God first takes up his dwelling in the soul; besides, the apostle had spoke of the life of the spirit or soul before; and they are mortal bodies, and not its mortal souls, which are said to be quickened, for these cannot mean the body of sin, or the remains of corruption, as they are said to be, and which are never quickened, nor never can be. To understand the words in such a sense, is not so agreeable to the resurrection of Christ here mentioned; whereas Christ’s resurrection is often used as an argument of ours, which is designed here, where the apostle argues from the one to the other. The Spirit

dwells in the saints as his temples: the Spirit that dwells in them is, “the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead”; by whom is meant God the Father, to whom the resurrection of Christ from the dead is here and elsewhere ascribed. This “periphrasis” of him is used, to express the power, justice, and grace of God in the resurrection of his Son; to show that the Spirit of God was concerned in it; and the greatness of the person of the Spirit that dwells in the saints; and what reason they have to believe the sanctification of their souls, and the redemption of their bodies, since such a divine Spirit dwells in them; wherefore,

he that raised up Christ from the dead, which is the Father,

shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you; not the souls of the saints, for these die not: but their “bodies”, called “mortal”, because appointed to death, are under the sentence of it, and in which it already works; “your” bodies and not others; mortal ones, and not airy, celestial, immortal ones; the very same they carry about with them here, and in which the Spirit of God had dwelt. These shall be quickened. The Jews frequently express the resurrection by , “the quickening of the dead” some distinguish y between “the resurrection” of the dead, which is common to the wicked, and , “the quickening” of them, peculiar to the righteous: though, it is observed, this distinction does not always hold: however, this act of quickening seems here designed to express the peculiar blessing, of the saints; for though the wicked shall be raised from the dead, yet they will not rise with the saints, nor by virtue of union to Christ, nor to an eternal life of joy and happiness; in this sense the saints only will be quickened, “by the Spirit”; not as an instrument, but as a coefficient cause with the Father and Son: or “because of the Spirit that dwelleth in you”, the bodies of the saints are the temples of the Holy Ghost, they are sanctified by him, where he continues to dwell by virtue of union to Christ, and in consequence of it will quicken them at the last day; so the Jews say, that the Holy Ghost brings to the resurrection of the dead z.

y Vid. Buxtorf. Lexic. Rabbinic. p. 745, 746. z Misn. Sota, c. 9. sect. 15.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Shall quicken (). Future active indicative of , late verb from , making alive. See on 1Co 15:22.

Through his Spirit ( ). B D L have (because of the Spirit). Both ideas are true, though the genitive is slightly more probably correct.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “But if the Spirit of him,” (ei de to pneuma tou) “But if the Spirit of the one,” the Holy Spirit, (dwells or indwells the believer), and he does, 1Jn 4:13; Rom 5:5.

2) “That raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,” (egeirantos ton lesoun ek nekron) “Having raised Jesus out of the dead,” (aikei en humin) “dwells in you;”‘ “The Holy Spirit of God (the triune), even the Father, Act 2:24; Act 10:40; Act 13:37; 1Co 15:20-23.

3) “He that raised up Christ from the dead,” (ho egeiras ek nekron christon lesoun) “The one who raised Christ Jesus out of dead corpses,” God the Father, through the Holy Spirit; who “brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,” Heb 13:20.

4) “Shall also quicken your mortal bodies,” (zoopoiesei kai ta thneta somata humon) “Will also quicken (make to live) your mortal bodies,” impart life to your mortal bodies, so that they shall “put on immortality,” 1Co 15:51-53; Rom 6:4-5; Rom 8:23; 1Th 4:17-18.

5) “By His Spirit that dwelleth in you,” (dia -tou ensikountos autou pneumatos en humin) “Through or because of his spirit that indwells you,” at this moment, and to the resurrection of the dead body Eph 1:13-14; Eph 4:30.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

11. If the Spirit, etc. This is a confirmation of the last verse, derived from the efficient cause, and according to this sense, — “Since by the power of God’s Spirit Christ was raised, and since the Spirit possesses eternal power, he will also exert the same with regard to us.” And he takes it as granted, that in the person of Christ was exhibited a specimen of the power which belongs to the whole body of the Church: and as he makes God the author of the resurrection, he assigns to him a life-giving Spirit.

Who raised, etc. By this periphrasis he describes God; which harmonizes better with his present object, than if he had called him simply by his own name. For the same reason he assigns to the Father the glory of raising Christ; for it more clearly proved what he had in view, than if he had ascribed the act to Christ himself. For it might have been objected, “That Christ was able by his own power to raise up himself, and this is what no man can do.” But when he says, that God raised up Christ by his Spirit, and that he also communicated his Spirit to us, there is nothing that can be alleged to the contrary; so that he thus makes sure to us the hope of resurrection. Nor is there anything here that derogates from that declaration in John,

“

I have power to lay down my life, and to take it up again.” (Joh 10:18.)

No doubt Christ arose through his own power; but as he is wont to attribute to the Father whatever Divine power he possesses, so the Apostle has not improperly transferred to the Father what was especially done by Christ, as the peculiar work of divinity.

By mortal bodies he understands all those things which still remain in us, that are subject to death; for his usual practice is to give this name to the grosser part of us. We hence conclude, that he speaks not of the last resurrection, which shall be in a moment, but of the continued working of the Spirit, by which he gradually mortifies the relics of the flesh and renews in us a celestial life.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(11) And this vitality extends beyond the grave. It will even react upon that material body which had just been spoken of as given over to death. Die it must; but the same Spirit to which the soul owes its life will also reinfuse life into the dead body, just as the body of Christ of Himself was raised from the dead.

By his Spirit . . .The balance of authority is in favour of the reading, because of His Spirit (as in margin); the other is an Alexandrian correction. It cannot be thought that God would leave in the grave that body in which His own Spirit has dwelt, i.e., has been with not only in close but permanent contact, though the psychological question was, of course, not present to the mind of the Apostle.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit which dwells in you.’

The Triune God is now seen as in action. ‘Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead’ (the Father) is now introduced, and is also seen as indwelling us. Involved in our salvation are Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And we learn that having raised Jesus from the dead by His mighty power (Eph 1:19 ff), we can be sure that He will also raise us from the dead (Eph 2:1 ff), giving life to our mortal bodies. The assurance is of physical resurrection. And it will be accomplished through His Spirit Who dwells in us. Then will ‘the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ have finally set us free from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Rom 8:11 . According to Rom 8:10 , there was still left one power of death, that over the body. Paul now disposes of this also, and hence takes up again, not indeed what had just been inferred (Hofmann, in accordance with his view of , Rom 8:10 ), but the idea conditioning it, . .; not, however, in this form, but, as required by the tenor of what he intends to couple with it, in the form: . . . . . . In substance the two are identical, since the indwelling of the Divine Spirit in us is the spiritual indwelling of Christ Himself in us. See on Rom 8:9 .

The , therefore, simply carries on the argument, namely, from the spirit which is (Rom 8:10 ), to the quickening that is certain even in the case of the mortal body (for observe the position of the ). The apostle’s inference is: “The Spirit who dwelleth in you is the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus; consequently God will also, with respect to your bodies , as dwelling-places of His Spirit, do the same as He has done in the case of Christ.” The self-evident presupposition in this inference is, that the Spirit of God dwelt in Jesus during His earthly career (Luk 4:1 ; Luk 4:14 ; Luk 4:18 ; Act 1:2 ; Joh 3:34 ; Joh 20:22 ).

] Not , but the correlate of , Rom 8:10 (comp. Rom 8:6 ), and counterpart of and , is purposely selected. Comp. 1Co 15:22 .

] What he had previously expressed proleptically by , he here describes according to the reality of the present by . Observe, moreover, that Paul leaves out of view the fate of those still living at the Parousia . Their change is not included in the expression (Hofmann), a view which neither the sense of the word (comp. Rom 4:17 ; 1Co 15:22 ; 1Co 15:36 ; 1Pe 3:18 ; Joh 5:21 ) nor the correlation with permits. But to the readers’ consciousness of faith it was self-evident from the analogy of what is here said to them with reference to the case of their being already dead at the Parousia; 1Co 15:51 ; 2Co 5:2-4 ; 1Th 4:15-17 .

On the interchange of and Bengel rightly remarks: “Appellatio Jesu spectat ad ipsum; Christi refertur ad nos; ” for Jesus as Christ is destined to be the archetype for believers even in an eschatological respect.

. . .] on account of His Spirit that dwelleth in you . Observe the emphatic prefixing of the relating to God. How could God, the Raiser up of Christ, who was the possessor of His Spirit, leave the bodies of believers, which are the dwelling-places of the same Spirit, without quickening? The more characteristic (previously it was only ) is a climax to the representation.

Kllner’s explanation may serve to exemplify the conception of our passage in an ethical sense (Erasmus, Calvin, and many others): “So will He who raised up Jesus from the dead bring to life also your bodies that are still subject to death ( sin and misery ), that is, ennoble also your sensuous nature and so perfect you entirely .” But even apart from this arbitrary interpretation given to the simple (which ought rather with van Hengel to be interpreted: “quamquam mortalia ideoque minoris numeri sunt”), how diffuse and verbose would be the whole mode of expressing the simple thought! How utterly out of place this dualism , of the representation, as if the divine work of the moral revivification of the body were something independent, alongside of and subsequent to that of the spirit! See, moreover, generally on Rom 8:10 , and the appropriate remarks of Reiche, Commentar crit . I. p. 62 ff. Lastly, according to de Wette’s combination of the two senses the moral and the physical the thought is: “This death-overcoming Spirit of God shall destroy more and more the principle of sin and death in your bodies, and instead of it introduce the principle of the life-bringing Spirit into your whole personality, even into the body itself,” a thought which opens up the prospect of the future resurrection or change of the body. But the resurrection will be participated in by all believers at once, independently of the development noticed in our passage, by which their bodies would have first to be made ripe for it; and even the change of the living at the Parousia is, according to 1Co 15:51 ff., not a process developed from within outwardly, but a result produced in a twinkling from without (at the sound of the last trumpet), a result, which cannot be the final consequence of the gradual inward destruction of the principle of sin and death, because in that case all could not participate in it simultaneously, which nevertheless is the case, according to 1Co 15:51 . Notwithstanding, this view, which combines the spiritual and bodily process of glorification, has been again brought forward by Philippi, according to whom what is here meant is the progressive merging of death into life, which can only be accomplished by the progressive merging of sin into the righteousness of life , and of the into the (?). The simple explanation of the resurrection of the body is rightly retained by Tholuck, Umbreit, Hofmann, Weiss, and others: whilst Ewald contents himself with the indeterminate double sense of eternal life beginning in the mortal body.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Ver. 11. Your mortal bodies ] As he hath already quickened your souls.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

11. ] But ( takes up and continues the supposition in the former verse, with which in fact this is nearly identical, but with the important additional particular (whence the contrast) . . . .) if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you (which Spirit is therefore powerful over death , and besides renders you partakers of Christ’s Resurrection ), He who raised Christ from the dead (the personal name, JESUS, reminds more of the historic fact of the resurrection of the one Person, Jesus: the official and mystical name, CHRIST, of the body of which He is the Head and we the members, all raised with Him by the one Spirit dwelling in all) shall quicken (not merely , because it is not merely the resurrection of the body which is in the Apostle’s view, see below) even your mortal bodies (the higher phase of the takes place in the spirit of man: and even of that which takes place in the body, there are two branches one, the quickening it from being a tool of unrighteousness unto death (eternal), the other, the quickening it out of death (physical) to be a new and glorified body. And the joined with , here, signifies that the working of the shall not stop at the purely spiritual resurrection, nor at that of the body from dead works to serve the living God, but shall extend even to the building up the spiritual body in the future new and glorious life ), on account of His Spirit which dwells in you .

Here the reading is much disputed, whether it be the acc. or gen.: see var. readd. The gen. can only mean, ‘by means of,’ ‘through,’ His Spirit, &c.: this the acc. may include, (it not being specified for what reason it is on the Spirit’s account, and leaving it open to be His presence, or His agency,) but must be rendered ‘on account of,’ or ‘because of,’ His Spirit, &c. Thus both may imply that the Holy Spirit is the agent in the quickening; but the gen. cannot bear the other meaning, that God will quicken, &c. because of His Spirit, &c. Hence in dispute with the Macedonians , who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the gen. reading was important to the orthodox, as expressing agency, and that alone. But it seems pretty clear that the variation was older than the time of this heresy, and, however it may then have been appealed to, its origin cannot be assigned to any falsification by either of the then disputant parties. As to how far the Holy Spirit is the direct Agent in the resurrection of the body, see note on ., 1Co 15:45 , and on 2Co 5:5 . Here, His direct agency cannot be in any way surprising, for it is the whole process of bringing from death to life, extending even to the mortal body , which is here spoken of and unquestionably, ‘the Lord and Giver of Life’ is the agent throughout in this quickening. ‘Non de ultima resurrectione, qu momento fiet, habetur sermo, sed de continua Spiritus operatione, qu reliquias carnis paullatim mortificans, clestem vitam in nobis instaurat.’ Calv.: but perhaps ‘non solum de ultima resurrectione,’ would have been more correct: for it certainly is one thing spoken of.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Rom 8:11 . But though the present results of the indwelling of the spirit are not all we might desire, the future is sure. The indwelling spirit is that of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, and as such it is the guarantee that our mortal bodies also (as well as our spirits) shall share in immortality. The same argument, in effect, is used in Eph 1:18-20 . “The power that worketh in us” is the same with which “God wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places”; and it will work to the same issue in us as in Him. The reading in the last clause is very doubtful, but whether we take the accus. (according to which the indwelling of the spirit is the ground on which God raises our mortal bodies to undying life) or the genit. (according to which the spirit is itself the agent in this resurrection a conception not found elsewhere in Scripture), in either case a share in the Christian resurrection is conditioned by the possession of the Spirit of Christ. It is clear from the alternation of and in Rom 8:9 that the Spirit of Christ is the same as the Spirit of God, and the use of alone in the next verse shows that this same spirit is the alter ego of Christ. Cf. Phi 1:19 ; Gal 4:6 ; Eph 3:17 . This is one of the passages in which the presuppositions of the Trinitarian conception of God come out most clearly.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

raised up. See Rom 4:24.

Jesus. App-98.

from the dead. Greek. ek nekron. App-139.

also, &c. = quicken (Greek. zoopoieo. See Rom 4:17) your mortal (See Rom 6:12) bodies also.

dwelleth = indwelleth. Greek. enoikeo. Compare Rom 8:7.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

11.] But ( takes up and continues the supposition in the former verse, with which in fact this is nearly identical, but with the important additional particular (whence the contrast) . …) if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you (which Spirit is therefore powerful over death, and besides renders you partakers of Christs Resurrection), He who raised Christ from the dead (the personal name, JESUS, reminds more of the historic fact of the resurrection of the one Person, Jesus: the official and mystical name, CHRIST, of the body of which He is the Head and we the members,-all raised with Him by the one Spirit dwelling in all) shall quicken (not merely , because it is not merely the resurrection of the body which is in the Apostles view,-see below) even your mortal bodies (the higher phase of the takes place in the spirit of man: and even of that which takes place in the body, there are two branches-one, the quickening it from being a tool of unrighteousness unto death (eternal),-the other, the quickening it out of death (physical) to be a new and glorified body. And the joined with , here, signifies that the working of the shall not stop at the purely spiritual resurrection, nor at that of the body from dead works to serve the living God, but shall extend even to the building up the spiritual body in the future new and glorious life), on account of His Spirit which dwells in you.

Here the reading is much disputed, whether it be the acc. or gen.: see var. readd. The gen. can only mean, by means of, through, His Spirit, &c.: this the acc. may include, (it not being specified for what reason it is on the Spirits account, and leaving it open to be His presence, or His agency,) but must be rendered on account of, or because of, His Spirit, &c. Thus both may imply that the Holy Spirit is the agent in the quickening; but the gen. cannot bear the other meaning, that God will quicken, &c. because of His Spirit, &c. Hence in dispute with the Macedonians, who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the gen. reading was important to the orthodox, as expressing agency, and that alone. But it seems pretty clear that the variation was older than the time of this heresy, and, however it may then have been appealed to, its origin cannot be assigned to any falsification by either of the then disputant parties. As to how far the Holy Spirit is the direct Agent in the resurrection of the body, see note on ., 1Co 15:45, and on 2Co 5:5. Here, His direct agency cannot be in any way surprising, for it is the whole process of bringing from death to life, extending even to the mortal body, which is here spoken of-and unquestionably, the Lord and Giver of Life is the agent throughout in this quickening. Non de ultima resurrectione, qu momento fiet, habetur sermo, sed de continua Spiritus operatione, qu reliquias carnis paullatim mortificans, clestem vitam in nobis instaurat. Calv.:-but perhaps non solum de ultima resurrectione, would have been more correct: for it certainly is one thing spoken of.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Rom 8:11. , Jesus) Afterwards in Apodosis, Christ. The name Jesus has respect to Himself; the name Christ has reference to us. The former appellation, as a proper name, belongs to the person; the latter, as an appellative, belongs to the office.-, shall quicken [make alive]) comp. life, Rom 8:6. This life knows no condemnation, Rom 8:1.- on account of [or by means of]) 2Co 1:22. He is one and the same Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ, and who is in believers; therefore as Christ lives, so believers shall live: See Appendix. Crit. Ed. ii: on this passage.[90]

[90] ABC and acc. to Dial. c. Maeed. Several old MSS., Memph. and later Syr. Versions read -. But D(A)Gfg Vulg. Syr. Theb. Versions, Orig. 2, 534a, and 3, 618c, 812d, Iren. 304, Hil. 803, read -. With the accus. the meaning will be on account of the Spirit, etc. with the genit. by or through. Beng. translates it propter.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Rom 8:11

Rom 8:11

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you,-The Holy Spirit actually dwells in every obedient believer. (Act 2:38; Act 5:32).

he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.-God will by that Spirit give life to our dead bodies and raise them to immortal life. [Two things may be included in this part of the verse-(1) that the possession of the Spirit, which is the source of life, is a pledge and security that our bodies shall rise again, because it would be unseemly that bodies thus honored by the Spirit should remain under the dominion of death; and (2) that the resurrection of the saints is evinced by the rising of Jesus; for he is risen not only as their Lord and Judge, but as their head, to which they are united as members of his body, for he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18), as the first-fruits, by which all the lump is sanctified and accepted (Lev 23:9-14); so now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep (1Co 15:20). The children of God are endued with the Holy Spirit, and thereby their bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1Co 6:19). Now, as the promise of the Holy Spirit was upon the resurrection of Christ, so the gift and possession of the Spirit is an assurance of the resurrection of all those who are in Christ.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The Resurrection of the Body

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.Rom 8:11.

1. I believe in the resurrection of the body. In spite of that merciless saying of Strauss, The last enemy which shall be destroyed is the belief of man in his own immortality, there is no hope which nestles deeper in the human heart, and none which in our day has had more wistful expression. Among a thousand people there will not be one who does not wish to cast himself with all his heart and mind into this inspiring belief, and declare his conviction, if he can, that death is not the end of all his labours, his sorrows, his endeavours, his victories, his love, but that he, a complete human beingnot soul only, but body and soulwill enter into fulness of life when he passes from this world into that which encompasses us on every side.

2. Now this hope is fulfilled in Christianity. For Christianity is a revelation of energy. That is its heart of hearts. It declares the direction in which God has put out force. It professes to bring into play the full powers of the Divine will. Everything else is subordinate to that. Knowledge, for instance, is not given by it for its own sake. Nothing is told us which does not belong to and issue from the action taken on our behalf. We know God through what He does. We know Him, we see Him, in Jesus Christ whom He has sent. In that sending we learn what God is, and the sending determines and limits all our knowledge. When we go beyond what He has shown us in that mission of His Christ, we find ourselves, as much as any others, lost in an abyss. We slip off into the inane; our faculties fail us. Only in the face of Jesus Christ, only by the rigid adherence to the actual manifestation of Gods will in act through Him, only in what is there expressed through the face of Him who lived and died and rose, only so does our knowledge come.

Even such is Time who takes in trust

Our youth, our joys, and all we have,

And pays us but with earth and dust;

Who, in the dark and silent grave,

When we have wandered all our ways,

Shuts up the story of our days.

But from that earth, that grass, that dust,

The Lord shall raise me up, I trust!1 [Note: Sir Walter Raleigh.]

I

Resurrection

1. The word most commonly used in the New Testament for rising from the dead is the verb egeiro, to awaken. The angel awakened Peter, and the disciples awakened Jesus (Act 12:7; Mar 4:38). Joseph awakened from his dream, and took Jesus to Egypt, and back to the land of Israel (Mat 2:13-14; Mat 2:20-21). Here and often elsewhere the English versions have the verb arise, but the arising is only a suggested meaning. Probably the word could be uniformly translated awaked, and in many instances with the effect of rendering the sense more vivid. Read through the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, substituting awaken for be raised. Note especially the places where it comes into antithesis with asleep (e.g. Rom 8:15; Rom 8:20). You will perhaps not wish to change the familiar old rendering, but you will find it imbued with new significance. The noun of this stem is used but once in the New Testament (Mat 27:53).

2. Nearly as frequent as egeiro, and on the whole more conspicuous, are the verb anistemi and its noun anastasis. The noun is translated resurrection. The verb denotes to rise up or raise one up from the supineness of death to the vigour of life. Peter turned to the body of Tabitha and said, Rise up. She opened her eyes, saw Peter, sat up, and he gave her his hand, and raised her up. Jesus commanded the rulers daughter to awaken, and straightway the damsel rose up (Act 9:40-41; Mar 5:41-42).

3. The words of these two stems are sometimes used interchangeably, and in variant readings one is often displaced by the other. Resurrection of the dead is frequently mentioned, but resurrection from the dead still more frequently. In the first of these expressions dead persons are represented as rising to life, in the second, one is represented as passing out of the class of dead persons into another class. Perhaps we have here nothing more than two differing aspects of the same fact.

4. Whatever exceptional or unusual forms of expression there may be in the recorded teachings of Jesus and His immediate followers, the ordinary presentation is not that of buried bodies rising up from their graves, or from Hades, but that of a person awakening from unconsciousness, rising up from the powerlessness of death to the activity of life.

Twilight and sunrise,

Burden and heat of day,

Sunset and twilight

So passeth life away.

Back in my Mothers arms

Lay this tired clod,

Till a fresh sunrise

Wake mewith God.

II

The Resurrection of Jesus

1. The Resurrection of Jesus is, above all else, a display of power. He who is our strength moves out of the bonds wherewith the grave had bound Him; He shatters the gates of brass, and bursts the bars of iron in sunder. God, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, has overcome death, and opened the door of everlasting lifeopened the door. There is an uprush of pent energy; there is an eruption of might. And barriers yield and break, and doors are flung open, and a passage has been forced, and human life is carried forward as by an irresistible flood past its ancient limits. It moves out into new fields, on untravelled levels; through the doors that had so long forbidden its entry it presses onwards, driven by the power of its indwelling might.

2. That is the Resurrection as St. Paul conceives it. A tremendous action must have taken place, and all the world is convulsed with the tumult and the shock. God has come upon the scene in the greatness of His name, according to the working of the mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him on his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion; and he hath put all things under his feet, and given him to be head over all things. The words tumble over one another in their anxiety to portray this immense and overwhelming effort to which the Eternal has committed Himself.

3. This insistence on the energy put in action concentrates itself for St. Paul on the reality of the risen body of the Lord. There are critics who succeed in persuading themselves that St. Paul by his teaching of the spiritual resurrection of our own bodies in the famous chapter of the Corinthians, consciously avoids any reference to the Lords actual body which is obviously at variance with the usual belief. And yet he is most certainly and emphatically rehearsing as his own the universal tradition of the Church. He is deliberately appealing at the very time to the fact that he is but saying for himself, what he received as the authorized account which every Christian held, by sheer necessity through being a Christian.

4. And so, again, the vividness of the Apostles recognition of the humanity of the risen Christ alone explains the intensity and the immediacy of the activities which it sets in motion here on earth. The entire sum, he tells us, of our bodily conditions here in the flesh, experiences at once the result of our life hidden with Christ in God. For that which is hid there with God is one with our human realities here; it tells upon them inevitably. It is in our bodies that we become so forcibly aware of the change that has been at work. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, evil desires, and passions; put also away all anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking; lie not one to another. Why? Why is all this bound to happen? Because you are putting on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, and this through identification with that body of Christ alive from the dead, in which there can be neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. So we are alive by the Spirit working with His splendid energy in our flesh; the Spirit that is groaning and travailing, struggling and striving, helping our infirmity with His irresistible force, working for the adoptioni.e. the redemptionof our body!

III

The Resurrection of our Body

1. Jesus rose in the body. His was no mere immortality of the soul; He claimed the body as part of Himself. In the body He ascended; in the body, now glorified, He lives and rules; in the body He will appear again, the second time, unto salvation. Not only, however, has He Himself risen in the body, but His resurrection is set forth as the pledge of ours. The hope of the believer is not simply that his soul shall live hereafter, but he looks for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. The body of his humiliation shall yet be changed into the image of Christs glorious body.

It may be difficult for us to reconcile St. Pauls description of the spiritual body, but it is plain that he himself did not recognize any difficulty. He universally takes the actual body of the Lord as the very ground of his Resurrection doctrine. It is out of its reality and identity that he draws all his moral and practical teaching. He can never speak or think of the Resurrection without showing that he has the actual body before his eyes. So, in the text the Resurrection of Jesus is the proof and the pledge that what happened to the Lord will happen to us. And what is that? The raising of the body. If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in us, then He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead is bound to quicken, too, our mortal bodies.1 [Note: H. Scott-Holland.]

2. In the bodily resurrection of our Lordan organic part of the reconciling work of Christwe have the earnest of the bodily as well as the spiritual redemption of all that are in Him. For it must not be forgotten that the work of Christ is a work of reconciliation in more than one sense. Of course, primarily, it is the reconciliation between the individual sinner and the holy God against whom he has offended; then it is also the potential harmonization of the schism which sin has wrought in mans nature, so that man comes into unison with himself; and to crown all, the cross is also the potential reconciliation of the entire cosmos, including, of course, mans physical being, which has been disordered by sin. It is the plan of God to sum up all things in Christ, and through His cross.

Souls may fly off, perhaps, as the hymns tell us, to distant worlds, to unknown spheres. We may think anything we like about such winged creatures; they have nothing to do with us. But the spirits of those we have loved and cared for, the spirits who have held converse with ours, cannot be changed into birds or butterflies. They must be still human, the more they have entered into converse with the Divine. And why must we force ourselves into the conception of them as without bodies? Is it because they have dropped that which was corrupt and dead, because this has been given earth to earth, dust to dust? Was it this dead thing which we saw and heard and handled? Was it this from which sweet words came forth? That which is mortal is gone; is any life gone? Is not mortality opposed to life?1 [Note: F. D. Maurice, Life, ii. 623.]

i. The Body

1. It is a correct instinct which leads men to speak of the salvation of the soul. The same instinct asserts itself when we speak of the immortality of the soul, but of the resurrection of the body. What is the human body? Differentially, it is the complement of organs through which an individual human spirit works. Whether it is necessarily made of matter is another question. In certain conditions, we would speak of the body of a shadow or of a reflection. The Bible says little of disembodied spirits as such. It represents the human person in the life after death as a soul, a self, a spirit with whatever organism is requisite for maintaining personal identity. It never speaks of the resurrection of the flesh or of the materials of which our present bodies are composed, but it emphasizes the resurrection of the body. If the Spirit of him that awakened Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that awakened Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Rom 8:11).

2. The body is as really a part of mans personality as the soul is. It is not, as philosophy is apt to teach us, a mere vesture or accident, or, still worse, temporary prison-house, of the soul; it is part of ourselves. Not, indeed, in the sense that the soul cannot survive the body, or subsist in some fashion without it, but in the sense that man was not created incorporeal spirit. His soul was made and meant to inhabit the body, and was never intended to subsist apart from it. Hence death, in the true Biblical point of view, is not something natural to man, but can only be regarded as something violent, unnatural, the rupture or separation of parts of mans being that were never meant to be disjoined. The soul, in virtue of its spiritual, personal nature, survives the body; but, in separation from the body, it is, as many things in Scripture (e.g. its doctrine of Sheol) show, in a mutilated, imperfect, weakened condition. This view is not only important in itself as giving its due share of honour to the body, and harmonizing with the close relations between soul and body on which modern psychology lays increasing stress; but it will be found to shed much light on other doctrines of Scripturefor instance, on death, on immortality, on resurrection, on the full scope of Christs redemption.

A human body is the necessaryis the onlymethod and condition on earth of spiritual personality. It is capable, indeed, of expressing spirit very badly; it is capable of belying it; indeed, it is hardly capable of expressing it quite perfectly; it is, in fact, almost always falling short of at least the ideal expression of it. And yet body is the only method of spiritual life; even as things are, spirit is the true meaning of bodily life; and bodies are really vehicles and expressions of spirit; whilst the perfect ideal would certainly be, not spirit without body, but body which was the ideally perfect utterance of spirit.1 [Note: Moberly, Problems and Principles, 358.]

It was with keen feeling that St. Paul, with his thorn in the flesh and his many infirmities, referred to the body of humiliation, and it was with gladness that he looked forward to the body of glory, which would accomplish whatsoever his soul desired, so that he could imagine no high endeavour but this perfect servant would carry it into action.2 [Note: J. Watson.]

ii. The Resurrection Body

1. Our resurrection bodies are to be our mortal bodies made alive. That this making alive implies transformation is much insisted upon. We wait for the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory (Php 3:21).

Matthew Arnold has told us that St. Paul, without being aware of it, substituted an ethical for a physical resurrection, and an eternal life in the spirit here for an everlasting life hereafter. Now a German theologian (Kabisch) tells us that St. Paul knows nothing of a figurative life ethical in quality, but only of a physical life; that Prolongation of physical life after death is the object of his hope; that even the Spirit, in his system of thought, is physical and finely material, and communicates itself by physical means, by baptism, and even by generation through a Christian parent; that the germ of the resurrection body is a spiritual, yet physical body, existing now within the dead carcase of the old body of sin; and that the essence of the resurrection will consist in the manifestation of this spiritual body by the sloughing off of its gross carnal envelope. Such are the two extremes. Surely the truth lies somewhere between.1 [Note: A. B. Bruce, St. Pauls Conception of Christianity, 391.]

I dreamed that I was growing old

(It may be it was not a dream),

I shivered in the frosty cold

And trembled in the summer beam;

It cost me many a bitter sigh,

Until I knew it was not I.

The house my Maker for me made

Received His likeness in its form;

His wisdom all its parts displayed,

His beauty clothed its Chambers warm;

If not so fair as years go by,

What matterfor it is not I.

The lamps that light its rooms burn low,

Its music sounds more dull of late,

And oneit may be friend or foe,

Knocks loudly often at its gate;

I tremble thenI scarce know why,

My house he Claims, it is not I.

I am indeed a dweller there,

A winter and a summer guest,

Its rust and its decay I share,

But cannot look therein to rest;

Im sure to leave it by and by,

Tis but my houseit is not I.

I sometimes think, when lying down,

For the last time I lock the door,

And leave the home so long my own,

That I may find it yet once more

So changed and fair I scarce shall know

The home I lived in long ago.1 [Note: J. E. A. Brown.]

2. Of what nature, then, is the resurrection body?

(1) First, it is identical with the mortal body of the same person, in the sense of its being body to the same spirit, and constituting with that spirit the same soul, the same self. Jesus, speaking on another subject, stated an implication which Paul recognized and expanded. When a grain of wheat dies in the earth, it has a resurrection in the much fruit which springs from it (Joh 12:24). Paul calls attention (1Co 15:36-41) to the identity of the blade with the kernel that was sown: to each seed a body of its own. The kernel and the blade are alike the body to the differential principle of the kernel. The product is still wheat, not something else; still that individual type of wheat, not some other.

(2) Second, various terms are used to indicate the differences between the present body of a person and his resurrection body. One is earthy and the other heavenly, one psychical and the other spiritual, one corruptible and the other incorruptible (1Co 15:42-54). Jesus had taught that in the resurrection men die no more, but are like the angels (Luk 20:36 and parallels), and Paul expands this doctrine of a heavenly, spiritual, incorruptible body. This might be illustrated by all the numerous passages which speak of the changing of our mortal bodies (e.g. 1Co 15:51-52; 2Co 5:2; 2Co 5:4; Php 3:21; Rom 8:11).

Should it be the case that the soul had become so perfectly embodied that its covering is now its character, then the moment of death would be the moment of judgment, for the soul would carry with it, as it were, its whole history, and show the deeds done in the body. We have, indeed, I think, a hint and prophecy of this correspondence between body and soul when before our eyes a face of perfect shape grows unsightly through pride and lust, and a countenance that once was repulsive becomes attractive through the beauty of the soul. If the soul in her sin or in her loveliness can so far mould to her will this stubborn matter, what may she not do with a finer material? And so we may be writing our own books of judgment, recording every high endeavour and every base passion upon the sensitive and eternal body of the soul.1 [Note: J. Watson.]

(3) Third, emphasis is particularly placed on the idea that the resurrection body is not subject to the perpetual flux which we think of as characterizing matter. That it is incorruptible is many times reiterated. Christian teaching, except in figure of speech, does not mention the nourishing of the resurrection bodies of the redeemed by eating and drinking. Jesus expressly says that there is no marrying in the resurrection. Note the contrast with the teachings of Muhammad and others. And as if other expressions were not explicit enough, Paul expressly tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 15:50), that is, that the resurrection body is not a body of flesh and blood.

Science suggests that as the seen universe is composed of matter, the unseen is composed of ether, and at every point of investigation we are led from the visible and tangible to the invisible and intangible; and science also concludes that the visible universe will in the end be swallowed up by the invisible, and this world disappear as a species of matter out of date. The body of the future cannot therefore be material, but is likely to be ethereal, a body to which matter could offer no obstacle, and whose mobility would be incalculable. It is evident that a body of this substance would be much more akin to the soul, a more flexible instrument and a more transparent veil, so that while the body of matter hides the inner self, the body of ether would be its Revelation 1 [Note: J. Watson.]

As life wears on, and the physical freshness and beauty of the body fade, a new expression often comes out which reveals the body of the soul. In disease I have often seen faces transfigured, as though the husk of earthy matter became for a moment transparent, and an inner body, wearing the souls likeness, shone through. Death often completes this purging away of the mere fleshly carcase, and gives a truer picture than the living face of the body of the spiritual world. I have seen faces of noble Christian combatants, which wore but a common expression in this life, look grand and heroic in death.

As sometimes in a dead mans face,

To those that watch it more and more,

A likeness, hardly seen before,

Comes outto some one of his race:

So, dearest, now thy brows are cold,

I see thee what thou art, and know

Thy likeness to the wise below,

Thy kindred with the great of old.

But there is more than I can see,

And what I see I leave unsaid,

Nor speak it, knowing Death has made

His darkness beautiful with thee.

Yes, and death to those who have lived Christianly is a kind of transfiguration. He who raised up Christ from the dead, doth quicken the mortal bodyand in death we see how perfectlyby his spirit who dwelleth within.1 [Note: J. Baldwin Brown.]

3. The subject of the resurrection of the body is not devoid of practical interest. It really lies at the bottom of the ideal of a Christian State. Throughout the Epistles of the New Testament the duties of the Christian life are based upon the fact of our Lords Resurrection. Before that event polygamy, concubinage, private divorce, and even slavery, had the sanction of religion. But the Christian was required to put off all these practices; and the newness of life which distinguished him from the rest of mankind was conceived as resulting directly from the fact that Christ was raised from the dead.

Other religions may teach that there is a magical charm in asceticism; but none of them condemns as sinful the free indulgence of any natural appetite, provided it be not coupled with imprudence, or with disregard of the acknowledged rights of others. And St. Paul was apparently of the same opinionif so be that Christ is not risen. In a world where the guiding principle is common sense, he could conceive of only one alternative to life in union with a risen Lord: If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.2 [Note: E. H. Archer-Shepherd.]

And, therefore, let no difficult speculations, no haunting doubts, no attempts to be wise above that which is written, move you from this solid certainty, that, when your time comes to die, and that tired body which, perhaps, now contains in it the seed of the disease which shall one day lay it low, lies still in death, then the Holy Spirit who has disciplined you and taught you and confirmed you and led you all your life long unto that day, has yet one more loving office to discharge for that body which has been His temple for so longHe will raise it from the dead. It was an old prophecy which expressed well the undying instinct of immortality: Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption; and if that was proved true in the case of Christ, it will also be proved true in the case of a Christian.1 [Note: A. F. Winnington Ingram.]

Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore,

Never tired pilgrims limbs affected slumber more,

Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast.

O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest!

Ever blooming are the joys of heavens high Paradise,

Cold age deafs not there our ears nor vapour dims our eyes:

Glory there the sun outshines; whose beams the Blessed only see.

O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to Thee!2 [Note: Thomas Campion.]

And if the dying are to lift up their heads, then lift up your heads, ye mourners. What has happened to your dead? you ask this morning; they were here with you last Easter, you say, joining in the Easter hymns and looking with you at the Easter flowers. What has happened to them? A beautiful thing: The loving Spirit has led them forth into the land of righteousness. It was just what they had prayed for in the Psalms time after time: May thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness; and He took them at their word, and escorted them forth to be with Christ for ever

Children, in My gracious keeping

Leave ye now your dear ones sleeping.

Id a dream to-night

As I fell asleep,

Oh! the touching sight

Makes me still to weep:

Of my little lad,

Gone to leave me sad,

Aye, the child I had,

But was not to keep.

As in heaven high,

I my child did seek,

There, in train, came by

Children fair and meek,

Each in lily-white,

With a lamp alight;

Each was clear to sight,

But they did not speak.

Then, a little sad,

Came my child in turn,

But the lamp he had,

Oh! it did not burn;

He, to clear my doubt,

Said, half turnd about,

Your tears put it out:

Mother, never mourn.1 [Note: W. Barnes.]

The Resurrection of the Body

Literature

Beecher (W. J.), The Teaching of Jesus concerning the Future Life, 145.

Brown (J. Baldwin), The Divine Life in Man, 223.

Ingram (A. F. W.), A Mission of the Spirit, 217.

Jeffrey (G.), The Believers Privilege, 286.

Mabie (H. C.), The Meaning and Message of the Cross, 171.

Christian World Pulpit, xxxviii. 392 (White); lxvii. 289 (Scott-Holland).

Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., vi. 39 (Brown).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

him: Rom 8:9, Rom 4:24, Rom 4:25, Act 2:24, Act 2:32, Act 2:33, Eph 1:19, Eph 1:20, Heb 13:20, 1Pe 1:21

he that raised: Rom 8:2, Rom 6:4, Rom 6:5, Isa 26:19, Eze 37:14, Joh 5:28, Joh 5:29, 1Co 6:14, 1Co 15:16, 1Co 15:20-22, 1Co 15:51-57, 2Co 4:14, Eph 2:5, Phi 3:21, 1Th 4:14-17, 1Pe 3:18, Rev 1:18, Rev 11:11, Rev 20:11-13

mortal: Rom 6:12, 1Co 15:53, 2Co 4:11, 2Co 5:4

by his Spirit: or, because of his Spirit

dwelleth: Rom 8:9, Joh 7:38, Joh 7:39, Joh 14:17

Reciprocal: Psa 16:11 – path Joh 2:19 – I will Joh 5:19 – and Joh 6:39 – but Joh 11:25 – I am Joh 17:23 – I Act 4:2 – preached Act 10:40 – General Rom 4:17 – who quickeneth Rom 8:10 – the body 1Co 3:16 – the Spirit 1Co 15:13 – General 1Co 15:45 – a quickening 1Co 15:54 – this mortal 2Co 6:16 – I will dwell Eph 4:30 – the day Phi 3:10 – and the power Col 2:13 – he Col 3:11 – and 2Ti 1:14 – which dwelleth 1Pe 1:3 – by 1Jo 4:4 – greater

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

EASTER THOUGHTS

If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Rom 8:11

It is very hard to say on Easter Day whether the surprise of it, the triumph of it, or the hope in it most predominate.

I. Easter surprise.We must never get accustomed to the surprise of it; it is one of the many advantages of keeping Lent, as the Church directs that the sudden change from the gloom of Lent, and the darkness of Good Friday to the white flowers and the ringing hymns of Easter keeps alive in us the glad sense of surprise. Ye have a watch, make it as sure as you can, has a grim irony in the light of what had happened on Easter Day, and yet all evidence and all probability was on the side of those who thought that they had seen the last of Jesus Christ.

II. Easter triumph.But if the shock of glad surprise is the first emotion at Easter, the next is a sense of glorious triumph; the more unselfishly we entered into our Lords sufferings on Good Friday, with the more completeness do we fling ourselves into His triumph on Easter Day. It seems at first almost too good to be true; every foe is not merely defeated, but annihilated. With death broken to pieces and sin beaten from its stronghold, what wonder if the mere human agents were forgotten, and that the old hymn of triumph is repeated as one of the Easter LessonsSing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea!

III. Easter hope.But if surprise and triumph burst out in every hymn and culminate in the great Eucharist which we celebrate to-day, we must not forget the hope. This is your answer, all you who ask questions about Gods power to save, Gods power to redeem, Gods power to raise from the deadEaster, Easter, Easter is our answer. If the Spirit Which raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, then He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwelleth in you.

IV. Easter assurance.And notice how beautifully this Easter message follows upon and crowns the message of Lent. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.

(a) Has the Holy Spirit convicted of sin? Has He led us on from step to step, from penitence to confession, from confession to absolution, from absolution to service, from service to power? Has He dwelt in us and made our bodies temples of the Holy Ghost? Has He shown Himself the Comforter?and all these things we have seen that He doesthen stand still to-day and see His final triumph, and His pledge of all that final triumph means. If it was through the Eternal Spirit that Christ offered Himself without spot to God, so also that same Eternal Spirit crowned His glorious work on Easter Day, by some share which we dare not attempt to define, in raising Him from the dead. While we rightly think most of Christ Himself on Easter Day, we must not forget that the Lord and Giver of Life, the Spirit of Life from God which entered into the two witnesses in the Book of Revelation, that same loving, unselfish, glorious Spirit, shared with the Father and the Son the triumph of Easter Day.

(b) Then notice what an answer it gives to you who through fear of death spend all your lifetime subject to bondage. Lift up your heads, ye dying; you cannot really die, for if the Spirit of Him Which raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, then He Which raised up Christ Jesus shall also quicken your mortal bodies. He has given what St. Paul calls the earnest of the Spirit in your hearts, and the presence of the Spirit in your hearts is an earnest that when your natural bodies die they shall be quickened into spiritual bodies. Let no difficult speculations, no haunting doubts, no attempts to be wise above that which is written, move you from this solid certainty of Easter Daythat when your time comes to die, and that tired bodywhich perhaps now contains in it the seed of the disease which shall one day lay it lowlies still in death, then the Holy Spirit into which you were baptized, by Whom you were confirmed, Who has disciplined you, and taught you, and empowered you, and led you all your lifelong unto that day, has yet one more loving office to discharge for that body which has been His temple so longHe will raise it from the dead.

(c) And if the dying are to lift up their heads, then lift up your heads, ye mourners. What has happened to your dead? you ask this morning. They were here with you last Easter, you say, joining in the Easter hymns, and looking with you at the Easter flowers. What has happened to them? A beautiful thing! The loving Spirit has led them forth into the land of righteousness. It was just what they had prayed for in the Psalms time after time: May Thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness. And He took them at their word, and escorted them forth to be with Christ for ever.

(d) But most of all is Easter a happy day for the contrite and the humble. There are many who have found out their sinfulness and confessed their sins this Lent, but can they preserve? can they go on from strength to strength? That is their terrible doubt, and the Easter message rings back to them with marvellous comfort, He that raised up Jesus from the dead shall raise you also up by Jesus to newness of life; He that hath begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

I plead, then, with one and all of you here, enter fully into the glad surprise, the triumph, and the hope of Easter Day. We are dying men and women, it is true; we are chastened, it is true, by pain and suffering; we are sorrowful often as we lose our dear ones; we are poor, and often have a struggle to make our living; we have nothing in ourselves to encourage us to hope, but we have the Spirit; we have the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead, and that makes all the difference.

Bishop A. F. Winnington-Ingram.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

:11

Rom 8:11. The good and bad will all be raised through Christ, but the good only will be raised to life everlasting. (See Joh 11:26; 1Co 15:49-53.)

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Topical Studies

Romans 8:11 and the Resurrection Body

Robert M. Bowman, Jr.

In the debate over the meaning and nature of the resurrection of Jesus and of the future resurrection of believers, Romans 8:11 is an important and yet generally overlooked biblical text. In this paper I wish to draw attention to this text and show that it proves that the resurrection of Jesus-and the future resurrection of believers-is a bringing of the original, mortal body from death to immortal life

This study is divided into three parts: (I) translating Romans 8:11; (II) the meaning of ZWOPOIEW; and (III) the exegesis of Romans 8:11.

I. TRANSLATING ROMANS 8:11

I begin by quoting Romans 8:11 in the NASB:

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. (NASB)

Other modern translations use practically identical wording to translate the verse. Before discussing the interpretation of the verse, we ought to note and comment on certain seemingly minor but possibly significant variations in the wording of the text.

Some versions render the opening word DE but (NASB, NKJV) while others have and (NIV) and others leave it untranslated (ESV, NRSV). Oddly, the NWT renders it with now: If, now, the spirit of him. The conjunction DE is a fairly colorless conjunction and often does little more than mark the beginning of a new sentence. Verse 11 is the fifth sentence in a row that begins with DE (in its usual postpositive place, i.e., as the second word of the sentence). The NWT renders DE in these five sentences So (v. 8), However (v. 9a), But (v. 9b), But (v. 10), and now (v. 11). Some variation in rendering DE is normal, but I am unclear as to the reason for rendering it now in this verse. In any case we should not put any weight on the conjunction; the relation between verses 10 and 11 will have to be determined from context and not from the conjunction itself.

Some versions have simply Christ (NIV, NKJV, NRSV) rather than Christ Jesus (NASB, ESV, NWT) in the second half of the verse. The manuscript evidence is almost evenly divided between CRISTON EK NEKRWN and EK NEKRWN CRISTON ‘IHSOUN. The latter is likely to be correct, but it may not matter much for our purposes. I will assume the reading favored by both the NASB and the NWT.

The NRSV has that dwells in you instead of who dwells in you at the end of the verse, reflecting the judgment that Paul is not speaking of the Spirit as personal here. Similarly, the NWT has that resides in you. This is an important but separate question for our purposes. The NIV has is living in you instead of dwells in you, while the NWT, as noted, has resides in you. These variations don’t seem to have any significance.

The NRSV puts also after mortal bodies instead of after will; this is apparently nothing more than a stylistic choice and does not affect the meaning. The word also (KAI) actually occurs immediately after the verb: will make alive also your mortal bodies, which is not stylistically good English, thus accounting for the differing placements of and in the translations.

In all other respects the wording of the NIV, NASB, NRSV, and NKJV are identical.

The word translated will give life is ZWOPOIHSEI. In English most translations render this will give life and follow the verb with the preposition to, treating the noun phrase mortal bodies as the indirect object. This is good English and unobjectionable as to properly expressing the meaning of the text. In Greek ZWOPOIHSEI is followed by the noun phrase TA QNHTA SWMATA hUMWN (your mortal bodies), which is accusative and therefore grammatically functions as the direct object. The KJV uses the older verb quicken and thus treats your mortal bodies as the direct object. Today, to be more literal one might translate will make alive your mortal bodies. The NWT essentially takes this approach, rendering it as will make your mortal bodies alive.

It is probably already apparent how Paul’s statement expresses the idea that in the resurrection of both Jesus and believers the mortal body itself is resurrected. But to show that this is certainly Paul’s meaning we will take a close look at the text.

II. THE MEANING OF _ZWOPOIEW_ (MAKE ALIVE/GIVE LIFE TO)

The crux here is what Paul means by will give life also to your mortal bodies. The natural and by far most common understanding is that Paul is referring to the future resurrection of believers. If this is correct, as we shall argue that it is, then this sentence affirms explicitly the resurrection of the mortal bodies of believers and also indicates that Jesus’ resurrection involved the giving of life to his mortal body that had died. These conclusions can be disputed only by denying that ZWOPOIHSEI here refers to resurrection.

A. ZWOPOIEW in the LXX

Not surprisingly, the word ZWOPOIEW, to make alive, can and is used in contexts other than resurrection from the dead. Most of the eight occurrences of the word in the LXX seem not to be related contextually to resurrection (Judg. 21:14; 2 Kings 5:7; Job 36:6; Ezra 9:8, 9; Neh. 9:6; Eccl. 7:12). Only once in the LXX does the verb suggest resurrection:

You who have shown me many troubles and distresses

Will revive [Greek, EZWOPOIHSAS] me again,

And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth (Ps. 71:20 NASB [70:20 LXX]).

Here the Psalmist speaks hyperbolically of himself as dying and having to be made alive again. Contextually this is hyperbole because the Psalmist has not literally died; he is expressing confidence that God will deliver him from deadly trouble as he has done on other occasions. But the text shows that the word could be used with reference to literal resurrection as well.

B. Undisputed Texts (John 5:21; 1 Cor. 15:22, 36, 45)

In contrast to the LXX, most if not all of the 13 NT occurrences of ZWOPOIEW are related to resurrection. This is indisputably and transparently the case in the following texts:

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life [ZWOPOIH], even so the Son also gives life [ZWOPOIH] to whom he wishes (John 5:21).

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive [ZWOPOIHQHSONTAI] (1 Cor. 15:22).

That which you sow does not come to life [ZWOPOIEITAI] unless it dies. So also it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving [ZWOPOIOUN] spirit (1 Cor. 15:36, 45).

In John 5:21, the context of resurrection is explicit in Jesus’ reference to the Father raising the dead. The occurrences in 1 Corinthians 15 are all embedded in Paul’s extended comments on the resurrection of believers in Christ. They will be made alive (v. 22) when they are resurrected before the end (vv. 21, 23). Thus, the description of a seed being sown and then coming to life (v. 36) is a metaphor for the resurrection. The life-giving work that Christ does (v. 45) is in this context the giving of life in the resurrection (see especially vv. 42-49).

The word ZWOPOIEW has reference to resurrection life in other NT occurrences. We will consider each occurrence of the word in turn.

C. John 6:63

It is the Spirit who gives life [ZWOPOIOUN]; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life (John 6:63 NASB).

Jesus has just used this word in the previous chapter (5:21) with reference to resurrection. In chapter 6 the subject is again the resurrection life that Jesus gives through his death on our behalf:

This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:39-40, 44, 54 NASB)

To those who believe in Jesus and come to him, they begin already to possess eternal life, and yet its consummation awaits the future resurrection on the last day. The life-giving work of the Spirit to which Jesus refers, then, begins now when we believe and is fully realized in the resurrection.

D. Romans 4:17

Paul uses ZWOPOIEW in one other place in Romans, and there the context is also resurrection. Paul says that God gives life [ZWOPOIOUNTOS] to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist (Rom. 4:17 NRSV). Abraham believed God for such life in a rudimentary way when he believed God’s promise that he would bring into existence from his good as dead body the new life of the seed of many nations (vv. 16-22). This promise, which began to be fulfilled with the birth of Isaac, is in a new stage of fulfillment that began when God raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (v. 24).

E. Second Corinthians 3:6

In 2 Corinthians, Paul uses the word once:

who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life [ZWOPOIEI] (2 Cor. 3:6).

Here Paul uses almost the same wording (TO PNEUMA ZWOPOIEI, THE Spirit gives life) that Jesus used in John 6:63 (TO PNEUMA ESTIN TO ZWOPOIOUN, the Spirit is the life-giving one). The resurrection context may not be as obvious in this text, but it is definitely there. After elaborating on the comparatively greater glory of the new covenant (3:7-16), Paul states that we who are in Christ are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). Such transformation, under way now, will be completed in the resurrection (cf. Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:29). Even now, the glory of Christ’s transforming life is in us as treasures in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7), living humbly now so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body (v. 10). Paul and other Christians like him lived with death constantly near for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (v. 11). Paul is confident that the end result will be that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you (v. 14). In the resurrection that which is mortal will be swallowed up by life (5:4). Of this resurrection life, Paul then says, God gave to us the Spirit as a pledge (5:5). We see, then, that the Spirit gives life to us now as the pledge or earnest (down payment) of the resurrection life that we will receive when God will raise us just as he raised Jesus.

F. Ephesians 2:5 and Colossians 2:13

A similar point is made in both Ephesians 2:5 and Colossians 2:13, parallel texts and the only places in the NT where ZWOPOIEW has a prefix (SUN) attached to it. In Ephesians Paul says that God, when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with [SUNEZWOPOIHSEN] Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:5-6 NASB). In Colossians, Paul writes about believers: having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with [SUNEZWOPOIHSEN] Him (Col. 2:12-13 NASB).

The idea in both of these texts is that when God raised Christ from the dead, he accounted or considered that resurrection as the guarantee or beginning of our own resurrection life. That is, the historical events of Christ’s own death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation are accounted ours, resulting in our forgiveness of sins and the beginning of a new life in Christ now, with the promise of our own literal resurrection and exaltation to come. Paul elaborates on the same idea later in Colossians:

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory (Col. 3:1-4 NASB).

This is the same idea that Paul states in Romans when he writes:

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection (Rom. 6:4-5 NASB).

In Ephesians 2:6 and Colossians 2:13, then, SUNEZWOPOIHSEN is referring not simply to an imparting of a spiritual life within believers, but to their prospective association with Christ in his resurrection, an association that is anticipated in our present life in the Spirit but will eventually be realized in its fullness in the resurrection. The word in these two occurrences, then, also connotes resurrection.

G. Galatians 3:21 (Possible Exception)

The only text in Paul’s writings where ZWOPOIEW is used in a context where it does not refer clearly to resurrection life is Galatians 3:21, where Paul says that if a law had been given that could make alive [ZWOPOIHSAI], then righteousness would indeed come through the law (NRSV). The context does not indicate that resurrection is or is not in view; there simply is not enough in the context to draw any definite conclusion. Paul’s focus is on our present life in Christ (Gal. 2:19-20; 3:11-12; 5:25), but he also looks forward to the eternal life that we will reap from the Spirit (6:8-9). We should probably conclude that Paul’s use of ZWOPOIEW here is consistent with a connotation of the giving of new life that culminates in the resurrection, but this is not spelled out explicitly in this epistle.

H. First Peter 3:18

There is one other use of the word in the NT, outside of Paul’s writings, and it is something of an interpretive quagmire. Moreover, it is one of the JWs’ two main prooftexts for their doctrine that Jesus was not resurrected in his physical body. In 1 Peter 3:18, the apostle Peter writes: For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive [ZWOPOIHQEIS] in the spirit (NASB). JWs understand the last clause, made alive in the spirit, to refer to Christ’s resurrection as a spirit (i.e., as a nonphysical, nonhuman spirit). Evangelical theologians have understood this clause in at least two different ways. Some favor the translation just given (so also the ESV; NRSV) and take the view that Peter is referring here not to Christ’s resurrection but to his entrance into the realm of spirit upon death. Others translate the clause made alive by the Spirit (KJV, NIV, NKJV) and conclude that Peter is attributing Christ’s resurrection to the agency of the Spirit. A third, mediating view is suggested in the NLT, which paraphrases the clause raised to life in the Spirit. On this view Peter is referring to Christ’s resurrection, not as having been performed by the Spirit, but as identifying Christ as united with the Spirit.

JWs and many (probably most) evangelicals agree, then, that ZWOPOIHQEIS in 1 Peter 3:18 is referring to Christ’s resurrection. A minority interpretation among evangelicals (which is quite respectable) suggests that it does not. At the very least, the word occurs here in the context of resurrection (so explicitly in 1 Peter 3:21-22), and even on the minority evangelical view his having been made alive in the spirit was a kind of first stage toward that resurrection.

I. Conclusion on the Usage of ZWOPOIEW

Let us review our findings to this point. The verb ZWOPOIEW occurs eight times in the LXX, once in reference to resurrection (albeit hyperbolically). However, all or at least nearly all of its 13 occurrences in the NT do occur in the context of resurrection. This is in all but one occurrence (Gal. 3:21) either explicit in the very sentence in which the word appears or is explicit in the surrounding context (John 5:21 [2x]; 6:63; 1 Cor. 15:22, 36, 45; Rom. 4:17; 8:11 [our text; see below]; 2 Cor. 3:6; Eph. 2:6; Col. 2:12; 1 Pet. 3:18).

A fair conclusion, then, is that where ZWOPOIEW occurs in the context of resurrection, it must refer to resurrection unless the text explicitly indicates otherwise.

III. THE EXEGESIS OF ROMANS 8:11

With that conclusion in mind, let us return to Romans 8:11:

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 [ZWOPOIHSEI] to your mortal bodies

through His Spirit who dwells in you.

In Greek:

EI DE TO PNEUMA TOU EGEIRANTOS TON ‘IHSOUN EK NEKRWN OIKEI EN hUMIN,

hO EGEIRAS EK NEKRWN CRISTON ‘IHSOUN

ZWOPOIHSEI KAI TA QNHTA SWMATA hUMWN

DIA TOU ENOIKOUNTOS AUTOU PNEUMATOS EN hUMIN.

That the first two lines refer explicitly to resurrection-specifically, the resurrection of Jesus-is beyond dispute. That the third line also refers to resurrection must therefore be considered a proven fact. This is made essentially explicit by the conjunction KAI (also) in the third line: Having raised Jesus from the dead, Paul says, God will also make your mortal bodies alive. In this context KAI can only be plausibly construed to mean also or as well. The making alive of the third line, then, is a resurrection.

The symmetry of the four lines of this sentence confirms the above analysis. The first and fourth lines both speak of God’s Spirit as dwelling or residing in you, in believers. The second line refers to Christ’s resurrection from the dead, while the third line refers to the believers’ bodies as mortal. The sentence thus forms a short chiasm, and the two middle lines are for that reason as well to be seen as thematically related.

Another consideration supporting the conclusion that Paul is speaking about our future resurrection is the fact that Paul frequently does just this: predicating our future resurrection on the resurrection of Jesus (Rom. 6:4-9; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:12-23, 48-49; 2 Cor. 4:14; Phil. 3:10-11, 20-21; Col. 1:18; 2:12-13; 3:3-4; 1 Thess. 4:14).

But now we must take notice of just what it is that Paul says. In our future resurrection, God will make alive our mortal bodies. This is what Paul means by resurrection: the mortal body is made alive. Of course, in the eschatological resurrection this making alive is not merely resuscitation back to mortal life; it is more than that, the raising of the dead to immortal, eternal life. But this making alive will happen to our mortal bodies. Our present bodies are not simply left dead forever, to be replaced by nonhuman, spirit beings in a nonphysical form of existence. Rather, our present mortal bodies will be made alive.

Finally, notice that the way Paul states this expectation necessarily implies that this is also what he understands to have happened to Jesus. When God raised (Christ) Jesus from the dead, what this meant was that Jesus, who had died, returned to life-and that this included the making alive of the mortal body in which Jesus had died. The logic of Paul’s sentence makes no other interpretation plausible. If God did X for Jesus, then God will also do Y for you, where ‘X’ and ‘Y’ are normally synonymous expressions, must be taken to mean that God did ‘Y’ for Jesus. Since Jesus had a mortal body, died, and was raised from the dead, it is quite evident that Paul means that his mortal body was made alive and so will ours.

To my knowledge, the publications of the JWs have never addressed the interpretation of this verse in any substantial way. I did find one comment on the text that interpreted it (without explanation or consideration of any other view) to be speaking of the aliveness that JWs show in their ministry activities (_Holy Spirit_ [1976], 162). The exegetical considerations adduced here render such an interpretation extremely dubious. The one hint of an exegetical reason for this interpretation is a cross-reference given in the Reference Edition of the NWT, which cross-references Romans 8:11 with Ephesians 2:5 (which says that God made us alive with Christ). However, the verb refers to the union of Christians with Christ in his resurrection, and so does not support the JWs’ interpretation.

I agree with Moo:

Since reference to resurrection is so plain in the first part of the sentence, ‘will make alive’ must also refer to future bodily transformation-through resurrection for dead believers-rather than, for instance, to spiritual vivification in justification, or to the ‘mortification’ of sin in the Christian life. The cause-and-effect relationship between Christ’s resurrection and the believer’s, made so plain in Rom. 6:5 (cf. 8:17), lies behind Paul’s affirmation that God will give life to ‘our mortal bodies’ just as he raised Christ from the dead. (Douglas Moo, _The Epistle to the Romans_, NICNT [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996], 493.)

I conclude that Romans 8:11 is a strong prooftext for the following doctrinal conclusions:

1. Christ’s mortal body was made alive in his resurrection.

2. The mortal bodies of Christians will be made alive in their resurrection.

One other concluding observation: The above findings are inconsistent with the JW teaching that Romans 8 is referring specifically to a subset of Christians that will live forever as nonhuman spirits in heaven. The Christians of whom Paul speaks will have their mortal bodies resurrected to immortal life.

Fuente: The Apologists Bible Commentary

Rom 8:11. But if, etc. The body will indeed die, but despite this grace will triumph even over physical death; even the body that must die will ultimately fully share in redemption, at the resurrection, through the indwelling Holy Spirit

Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, etc. This expression has a demonstrative force here: the fact that the indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is a pledge that the spiritual quickening will be followed by the physical quickening.

Will quicken even your mortal bodies. This is most naturally referred to the final resurrection of the body; for, although quicken might of itself include something already begun, the word even (or, also) seems to limit it to the bodily resurrection. This truth of revelation is so important, and so distinctive, that it deserves the emphasis thus given to it. Even the body which here succumbs to the effects of sin, shall be quickened; the victory of redemption will be complete when this occurs.

Through, or, on account of, his Spirit that dwell-eth in you. It is difficult to decide between the two readings. The Sinaitic manuscript supports through, and has turned the current of opinion in favor of that reading. As early as the latter part of the fourth century the variation was introduced into a controversy respecting the Divinity of the Holy Spirit Through would point to the fact that the Holy Spirit which is now working moral renovation in us will be the Agent in completing the triumph in the resurrection of the body. Because of may include this thought, but would refer mainly to the indwelling Spirit as the pledge of the resurrection. If this Spirit now dwells in the body of the believer, that body will not be left unredeemed. In either case, the reference seems to be to the final resurrection, rather than to any present moral quickening. This passage moreover indicates that the spiritual body spoken of in 1Co 15:44, is a body prepared for the human spirit entirely renovated by the Holy Spirit

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

As if the apostle had said, “Although your body must die, yet it shall live again in the morning of the resurrection, and that by virtue of the Spirit of Christ which dwelleth in you, and is the bond of union with him your head; others shall be raised by the power of Christ as their judge, but you shall be raised by virtue of your union with him as your head: They are raised officio judices, you beneficio mediatoris.”

Observe here, An happy resurrection promised, the same Holy Spirit of God that raised Christ shall raise you, because the same Spirit dwelleth in you.

Learn thence, That the bodies of the saints are the temples of the Holy Ghost, his dwelling place, living, dying, and dead; if the Holy Spirit dwells in us here, sanctifying our persons, the same Spirit will not forsake our bodies in the grave, but raise them up to glory and happiness. Death dissolves all other unions, except that betwixt the believer and the Spirit of Christ; but the grave itself cannot separate them.

Observe, 2. The condition upon which this promise is made and insured, If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you.

Where note, 1. A blessed relation; the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of the Father, because the Father is the fountain and original of the Deity, and doth communicate it both to the Son and to the Spirit, to teach us to seek unto the Father, for the gift of the Holy Spirit, he being the donor and dispenser of it.

Note, 2. A glorious operation, the Spirit raised up Jesus from the dead.

Where observe, That the holy scriptures ascribe Christ’s resurrection to all the three persons in the glorious Trinity: The Father raised him, Him God raised up the third day Act 10:40; Christ raised himself, I have power to lay down my life, and the take it up again: Joh 10:18

The Holy Ghost raised up Christ, He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit 1Pe 3:18.

Note, 3. A gracious possession, and special inhabitation; He dwelleth in us, in our hearts by his gifts and graces, in our bodies as his living temples, which proves him to be really God, for none but a God possessess a temple; and also to be a distinct person, not an energy or operation, for none but a person can be said to inhabit or dwell; and should teach us to take heed of defiling our bodies by any uncleanness, which are or ought to be the temples of the Holy Ghost: for if any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Vv. 11. Now, if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you.

The , now, denotes the progress of the life which, after penetrating the spirit, takes hold even of the body. That body in which, as well as in Jesus, the Spirit of God has dwelt, will be judged worthy of the same honor as the body of Jesus Himself.

In the first proposition the apostle uses the name Jesus, because the reference is to His person merely; in the second he says Christ, or Christ Jesus, because the subject in question is the office He fills as Mediator between God and us. As Hofmann remarks, the personal resurrection of Jesus merely assures us that God can raise us; but His resurrection, regarded as that of the Christ, assures us that He will do so actually. Once again we see how carefully Paul weighs every term he uses. We have a new proof of the same in the use of the two expressions , to awake (applied to Jesus), and , to quicken (applied to believers). The death of Jesus was a sleep, unaccompanied with any dissolution of the body…; it was therefore enough to awake Him. In our case, the body, being given over to destruction, must be entirely reconstituted; this is well expressed by the word quicken.

The word , also, omitted by the Sinat. and the Vatic., suits the context well: the spirit is already quickened; the body must be so also.

The apostle had said of the body in Rom 8:10, it is dead, . Why does he here substitute the term mortal, ? It has been thought that he used this word, which has a wider meaning, to embrace those who shall be alive at the Lord’s coming, and whose bodies shall be not raised, but transformed. Hofmann takes the term mortal, of Rom 8:10, as referring to the future state of the body, the state of death to which it is still only destined, and from which the resurrection will rescue it. The true explanation of the term seems to me simpler: In Rom 8:10, Paul means to speak of the fact (death); in Rom 8:11, of the quality (mortal). For the resurrection will not only change the fact of death into that of life, but it will transform the nature of the body, which from being mortal will become incorruptible (1Co 15:43-44).

The last words of this verse played a somewhat important part dogmatically in the first ages of the church. Those who maintained the divinity and personality of the Holy Spirit were more inclined to read, as is done by some ancient Alex. Mjj., …, by the Holy Spirit who dwelleth in you.

In fact, by this mode of expression the apostle would ascribe the divine operation of raising from the dead (Joh 5:21) to the Holy Spirit, which would imply His power of free causation as well as divinity. The opponents of this doctrine alleged the other reading, which is that of Stephens, and which differs here from the received reading: , because of the Spirit that dwelleth in you. This reading is found in authorities of the three families in the oldest versions, the Itala and the Peshito, and in some very ancient Fathers, such as Irenaeus and Origen. Such being the case, we can only ascribe it to Tischendorf’s provoking predilection for the Sinat., that he adopts the first reading in his eighth edition. Indeed, so far as external authorities are concerned, the decisive fact is the well-attested existence of a reading in the documents of the various countries of the church; now in this case we find the reading …, because of, in Egypt (Vatic.), in the West (It. Fathers), in Syria (Peshito), and in the Byzantine Church (K L P, Mnn.), while the received reading is represented by little more than three Alexandrines and a Father of the same country (Clement). The meaning also decides in favor of the best supported reading. The with the accusative, because of, follows quite naturally the two similar of Rom 8:10 : because of sin, death; because of righteousness, the life of the Spirit; and because of the life of the Spirit, the resurrection of the body. The entire course of thought is summed up in this thrice repeated because of. Besides, Paul is not concerned to explain here by what agent the resurrection is effected. What is of importance in the line of the ideas presented from Rom 8:5 onward, is to indicate the moral state in consequence of which the granting of resurrection will be possible. That to which God will have respect, is the dwelling of His own Spirit in the believer; the holy use which he shall have made of his body to glorify Him; the dignity to which the Spirit shall have raised the body by making it a temple of God (1Co 6:19). Such a body he will treat as He has treated that of His own Son. This is the glorious thought with which the apostle closes this passage and completes the development of the word: no condemnation.

This difference of reading is the only one in the whole Epistle to the Romans which is fitted to exercise any influence on Christian doctrine. And yet we do not think that the question whether the resurrection of the body takes place by the operation of the Holy Spirit, or because of His dwelling in us, has been very often discussed in our Dogmatics or treated in our Catechisms.

The apostle does not speak of the lot reserved for the bodies of unbelievers, or of unsanctified believers. The same is the case in the passage 1Co 15:20-28. But the word of Rom 8:13 : If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, should suffice. That is not, especially after all that precedes, a word of salvation. Besides, what would be meant by the sharp contrast between the two propositions of Rom 8:5-6? We have to explain his silence by his aim, which was to expound the work of salvation to its completion. It is the same with 1Co 15:20-28.

We believe, finally, that after that it is quite unnecessary to refute the opinion of those who, like De Wette, Philippi, Holsten, think the expression: to quicken the body, Rom 8:11, should be applied in whole or in part to the sanctification of the Christian’s body; Paul does not mix up questions so; he spoke, in Rom 8:2, of two laws to be destroyed, that of sin and that of death. And he has rigorously followed the order which he traced for himself.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. [Moreover, if the Spirit of the Father (i. e., the Holy Spirit) who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also make alive your mortal bodies through his Holy Spirit that dwelleth in you; i. e., if God employs the same agency, we may expect the same results, and hence we may look for him to raise us from the dead by the indwelling Holy Spirit, just as he raised Christ from the dead by that same indwelling Spirit.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

11. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you. Here we have again the verb oikei, from oikos, a house, signifying that the Holy Ghost, having moved into your heart, is there keeping house. Since He is the Omnipotent Architect He is always ready to undertake a building job and faithfully stick to the work till the house is completed, after which He moves in permanently to abide. If the house is unfinished, and you meet the conditions, He will abide with you in His Omnipotent executive capacity till He finishes the edifice, i. e., sanctifies you wholly. Then He moves in, brightening, beautifying, electrifying and glorifying your heart by His perpetual presence, making your life an unbroken sunshine, and giving you constant victory over every foe, and an incessant heavenly prelibation. He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also create life in your mortal bodies by his Spirit who dwelleth in you. The glorious ultimatum assured in this inspiring promise is the transfiguration of the body, which may take place either in the translation of the saints when the Lord comes to take up His Bride, or in the resurrection; our glorious Redeemer having provided these two methods, through either of which it is possible to enter the glorified state. While the final and perfect restitution of these bodies will take place in glorification, either by translation or resurrection, yet our blessed Savior, in His condescending mercy, gives us many prelibations of this coming glorification, to comfort, revive and reinvigorate us for the labors of this life. Hence this wonderful promise not only reaches forward to final glorification when this mortal shall put on immortality, but it includes the healing mercy of the Great Physician, administered ever and anon in the recuperation of these feeble, faltering tenements, and the alleviation of our diseases indiscriminately. While you live in a house, there is at least a probability that you will repair the breaches accruing from natural dilapidation or the sudden violence of storms, thus keeping your tenement in comfortable repair. Hence it is at least a tenable conclusion that the Holy Ghost will keep His house, this body renovated and repaired while He occupies it. He has long been the blessed Healer of my body, wonderfully keeping in repair this frail tenement. Just as your house reaches a period when it is not worth repairing, and, consequently, you no longer restore the breaches; but in that case you soon evacuate it for a new edifice which you have built; so, when the Holy Ghost ceases to heal my body, I will begin to shout louder than ever, concluding that the house is no longer worth repairing, and will soon be evacuated for the occupancy of the house not made with hands, but eternal and in the heavens (2Co 5:1). Hence we see that divine healing normally, in the gracious economy, results from the overflow of the spiritual life, the Holy Ghost inundating my spirit and overflowing my body with His healing power and presence. My testimony to personal divine healing would comprise a volume. For all this I magnify the name of the great and infallible Physician. Yet, if He does not soon compliment me with a translation, this tenement will no longer be worth repairing. Then, with triumphant shouts, I will look out for heaven, which is infinitely better than health. God help us all to so sink away into Thy sweet will that we will shout over healing, but shout still louder when we are not healed, hailing the auspicious omen that heaven is very nigh, which is a million times better than health.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 11

Shall also quicken; shall sanctify.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

8:11 {13} But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that {o} dwelleth in you.

(13) A confirmation of the former sentence. You have the very same Spirit which Christ has: therefore at length he will do the same in you, that he did in Christ, that is, when all infirmities being utterly laid aside, and death overcome, he will clothe you with heavenly glory.

(o) By the strength and power of him, who showed the same might first in our head, and daily works in his members.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The Spirit in view is again God’s Spirit. The point is that the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus will also raise believers.

"The Spirit is both the instrumental cause of the resurrection-act and the permanent substratum of the resurrection-life." [Note: Gerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology, p. 169.]

This verse constitutes a powerful argument for the physical resurrection of believers.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)