New Nature by Holy Spirit

Romans 8:7-11

New nature by Holy Spirit!

Romans 8:1-11, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead

because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

This chapter 8 is far reaching description of the work of God through His Spirit in us who belong to Him. Though this chapter mentions God, and though it mentions Christ Jesus repeatedly, it is really the chapter about the Holy Spirit. It defines for us life in the Spirit.

As we have been saying, the ministry of the blessed Holy Spirit in Christians is marvellous beyond description, and comprehension. We can read through the Scripture and be told that the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ to us and through us. The Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence and dwells in us.

We have become the temple of the Holy Spirit. He fills us so that we speak to ourselves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord and submit to one another.

He imparts to us spiritual fruit: Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. He grants us certain gifts so that we can serve the body of Christ in remarkable ways with spiritual power. He seals us unto the day of redemption.

He guarantees our eternal home. He communes with us and fellowships with us, so that we may enjoy the intimacy of the very presence of God. He teaches us. He teaches us the very Word which He Himself inspired, the Scripture, so that we need not depend upon the teaching of men.

He prays for us. He constantly intercedes according to the will of God on our behalf with groanings that cannot be uttered. He comforts us. He comes to us in those times when we need comfort and brings that comfort. He comes to us in times when we need exhortation and brings that exhortation. He is the other comforter that Jesus sent. He sanctifies us.

He makes us holy. He conforms us to the image of Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Holy Spirit empowers us as witness.

Acts 1:8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Our life as children of God, then, as possessors of eternal life is really life in the Spirit. It is in Him we live and move and have our being as believers. Romans chapters ³ to ⁷ show us how Jesus Christ provided a no-condemnation salvation. Romans chapter ⁸ demonstrates how the Holy Spirit secures that no-condemnation salvation. Sadly, most Christians today know about God. They could give a list of God's attributes. Most of them know about Jesus Christ and could discuss something of His character and work but understand little about the Holy Spirit.

The contemporary understanding of the Holy Spirit is not only minimal or shallow, but it is also largely incorrect.

View of the Holy Spirit would probably get a relatively untrue view. You would conclude that the work of the Holy Spirit was to make people happy, even giddy, or even lying on the floor laughing. Or the work of the Holy Spirit was to knock people out, having them fall over backwards.

Or the work of the Holy Spirit was at least to make people emotionally out of control, to cause them to speak gibberish or get healed. Or the work of the Holy Spirit was to write praise music produced by secularly owned conglomerates whose mission is to make money.

Evangelicals are running around like consumers looking for the next Holy Spirit experience. There are many people who name the name of Christ who do not really have a grasp on what the Holy Spirit is doing. This chapter gets to the real work of the Holy Spirit. This is the foundation of understanding the true work of the Holy Spirit.

Every false prophet, every false teacher, and every fake who identifies himself with evangelicalism today claims to have the power of the Spirit. The Spirit is being blamed for all kinds of things.

We need to be very careful what we ascribe to the Holy Spirit. What we blame on the Holy Spirit, and we certainly want to begin with a foundation of understanding the true character of the Holy Spirit and the true ministry of the Holy Spirit.

What should we expect? Should we expect that if we are really living in the power of the Holy Spirit we should speak in tongues? Should we expect, we ought to be falling over backwards? We ought to be in a kind of ecstasy out of emotional control?

Is that what we ought to be expecting if we are living life in the Spirit? What is the real work of the Holy Spirit?

What is life in the Spirit? Verse 1, we are in no-condemnation status before God because we are in Christ. Verses 2&3, The Spirit frees us from sin and death. All men are sinners. All have sinned and violated God's law. Therefore, all are under the curse. All come short of the glory of God, and, therefore, are sentenced to eternal death.

V 2, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. These two verses spell the great work of the Spirit in producing our no condemnation status was to free us from sin and death.

We could not be freed from sin and death by the law, as Romans 3 said, for by the works of the law, none of us could be saved or justified.

Why? Because no man can keep the law.

Who can help us? The principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit, who is the One who sets us free from the law of sin and death.

How does the Spirit do that? V 3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, It is done by the work of substitution.

We could not please God. We could not keep His law. The law could not help us.

We were in a damnable situation and condition. We were under severe and eternal condemnation. Because of His work of substitution salvation can be brought to us through the Holy Spirit. Jesus paid the penalty for sin. Holy Spirit enables us to fulfil God's law.

V 4, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

• If we are going to have a relationship with God,
• If we are going to be right with God,
• If we are going to know God,
• If we are going to come into fellowship with God,

The law of God is nothing but a transcript of His holy character. Nobody has fellowship with Him that does not bear that holy character. Justification and sanctification are inseparable. This is the initial work of sanctification. We are transformed from flesh walkers to Spirit walkers.

2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

We move from a condition of not having the power to keep the law, which condemns us, to having the power to keep the law, which no longer condemns us. The law no longer condemns us because of justification. Now we have the power to keep that law because of sanctification or regeneration or conversion.

Two kinds of people

➢ Those who walk according to the flesh, and ➢ Those who walk according to the Spirit. V 5, For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Those people operate on a different mindset. Those who walk according to the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. Those who walk according to the Spirit have their mind set on the things of the Spirit. For those who walk according to the flesh with their mind set on the flesh, there is death.

For those who walk according to the Spirit with their mind set on the Spirit, there is life and peace. The contrast. Flesh minds the things of the flesh and is death. It says it is death. Does not say it leads to death. It is death, spiritual death.

Those in the flesh, thinking with a mindset of the flesh, are dead in trespasses and sins, and it will end up in eternal death. Those who have been transformed and now walk according to the Spirit, living in the Spirit, minding the things of the Spirit are alive.

They are alive. V 6, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. They partake in life right now, the very life of God, which is full of peace.

Galatians 6:8, For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

There is an eternal consequence to this. For them, it is eternal death. For us, it is eternal life. So those are the two realms, the two categories of life. The Holy Spirit has given us new life. We walk according to the Spirit.

We have the mind of the Spirit. We live. We are alive to God, and we will live eternally. God's grace given to us. God's love shed abroad in our hearts. Peace is ours, inner assurance that all is well, and nothing can change that eternal relationship we have with God.

The two are clearly identified

We are not in the flesh. We do not mind the things of the flesh. We are not after the flesh. We are alive. But the flesh is still after us. We are still in the flesh. We are new. Our nature has changed. Our longings and desires have changed. We love the law of God. We hate sin. But we are in war.

Galatians 5:17, For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Isn't that tragic? But isn't that familiar? You long to do what is right, and you do not do it, because the flesh is so strong.

The apostle Paul draws the contrast. We are new, and it is our very newness that generates this intense battle. V 7, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be The contrast is very clear here.

For us, we do set our mind on the Spirit. We do desire to honour God and His law. We do subject ourselves to the law of God because that is our truest nature. But the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, does not submit itself to His law, and it is not even capable of doing it.

On the one hand, you have the ability of the spiritual man to love God, love His law, submit to it.

On the other hand, you have the doctrine of the total inability of the fleshly man. He cannot do anything except break the law of God. That is why there must be such a total change in his nature. That is the reason why the nature of the flesh is death, because in its nature, it is hostile to God, who alone is the source of life.

The fleshly mind is hostile. It is in opposition to God. That is how it is with carnal people.

• They are in opposition to God.
• They walk according to the flesh.
• They think according to the flesh
• They do according to the flesh.

They are hostile toward God, and they will not submit to His law. They cannot. They do not have the ability to do that. They are dead. This is the doctrine of depravity. It is more than just being disobedient. It is in the nature.

Sin is not just an act of rebellion, but it is rebellion itself. The old nature is called the unredeemed flesh.

Cannot do God's law. It is impossible and they cannot change that. Jeremiah said "Shall the leopard change his spots? The Ethiopian, the colour of his skin? No more can you change your sinful condition." The heart of man is deceitful above all things.

V 8, So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, therein lies the biblical definition of total depravity. Total depravity means sinful, to be in a sinful condition. To be totally depraved, some people might assume means that you are consummately wicked.

In other words, to be totally depraved means that you are as wicked as you could possibly be. This cannot be true. Not everybody is as wicked as everybody else. Certainly, there are some people far more wicked than others.

There are some people whose wickedness is even hard to locate because they tend to be kind people, good people. There are some people whose wickedness is multiplied and manifest because of the outrageous evil of their lives. Not

everybody is as wicked as they could possibly be. That is not what total depravity means. But everybody is unable to change their wickedness. Everybody is totally unable to please God, even the good person. Whether you are a homosexual mass murderer or a Sunday School teacher in a liberal church who's unconverted, you still cannot please God. That is what total depravity means.

It is an irreparable condition of wickedness which cannot be altered by the individual, or by any other individual, apart from the mercy of God in Christ. When you talk about the depravity of man, you are talking about an utter inability of the unredeemed to do anything that pleases God.

The unregenerate can only do bad good. Or they can do bad bad. But they cannot do good. Good is that which is not only good on a human level, but that which pleases God. Paul's point is that the only reason we can do anything that pleases God is because the Holy Spirit has changed our nature.

This is a divine miracle.

We have been regenerated, born again, born anew, given new life with a new consciousness and a new disposition granted to us by the Spirit, which loves God, loves His law.

Romans 7:4, Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

The Holy Spirit frees us from the penalty of sin and death, and even its presence. Someday the Holy Spirit enables us to fulfil the law of God and the Holy Spirit changes our nature. We are now in the Spirit. We have the mind of the Spirit as revealed to us through the Word of God and the instruction of the Spirit in our lives. We walk in the Spirit. We are filled with the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, we please God.

This is a total transformation. Men and women exist in death, hostile to God, alienated from the source of life, unable to please Him and unwilling. They will stay that way forever. Even in hell, they will hate God. Even in hell, they will be alienated from the source of life.

In hell, they would be unable to please Him and unwilling.

Do not think they are all going to be down there wishing they could do something to please God. If God does not intervene by His mercy and grace, if the Spirit of God does not regenerate us and change our nature, we will die in that condition.

Now once you become a Christian, the order of life then becomes pleasing Him. We could not do it before. We can do it now. You can please God. We exist to please God.

Who pleased God the most?

Matthew 3:17, And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 17:5, While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”

The goal of life is to be like Christ. What pleases God is obedience, submission to His law, holiness, worship, praise, and honour to Him is really pleasing Him.

You can come here on a Sunday and sing all the songs and do all the praise, but the issue is what goes on the rest of the time in your life. Are you pleasing Him?

Romans 12:1-2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Present yourself to the Lord, live a holy life, do what God has called you to do, have your mind renewed by the Scripture so that you will understand what the will of God is, which is good and well-pleasing and perfect. How are you going to be pleasing to the Lord? Make a presentation of yourself to Him. Do not let your mind get corrupted by what is around you. Keep a pure mind. Pleasing God is the issue. In Christian experience the truest expression of the new creation. If you do not have that heart desire to please Him, you are not a Christian, if there is not down in you that longing to please Him.

Romans 14:18, For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

When you live your life according to the Scripture, according to God's revelation, because that is your heart desire, you are pleasing to Him.

1 Corinthians 7:32, But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. That ought to be the concern of all of us. If you can stay single, better to have a singular focus on just pleasing the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:9, Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. Pleasing Him is everything.

Ephesians 5:10, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. Doing what pleases Him.

Philippians 4:18, Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet- smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. Paul commends the Philippians for their generosity because it was pleasing to God.

This matter of pleasing God is repeated and again. We are called to please God. "Children,”

Colossians 3:20, Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. To be in the flesh, to be after the flesh, to be carnally minded is death.

Why? Because you are cut off from God, at war with God, and unable to please Him. Now, as believers, we are not in that condition.

Why? Because we have been given a new nature. Verses 7 and 8 focuses on flesh. Verses 9 to 11 focuses on spiritually minded people. V 9, But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His Paul starts with but you!

V 5, where he talks about “they” or “those who are according to the flesh.”

V 9, “But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." That signifies a state of grace, a state of salvation, and a new creation. You are now in the Spirit. You live and move in Him. His life is your life. You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit since, indeed, the Spirit of God dwells in you.

What happens when you become a believer? At the time of your salvation, the Holy Spirit immediately takes up residence in you. Therein lies the dramatic change. You are in the Spirit because the Spirit's in you. Holy Spirit becomes pervasive in your life.

V 9, "The Spirit of God dwells in you," The word “to live in as a home,” a permanent residence. The Holy Spirit's home is in the believer. He takes up residence in the believer. Some, through the years, had the idea that you got saved, and then you got the Holy Spirit later. Not at all so.

If you did not have the Holy Spirit, you did not have the transformation that His coming brought, and so you weren't converted at all. You were not regenerated. The great fact is that not only were you justified by the declaring of God, but you also were transformed, changed, and given a new nature in which the Holy Spirit has taken up residence.

He has not only broken the power and the punishment of sin, but He has given you strength by His very presence to live a godly life. Paul reverses his statement in the middle of this verse. V 9, But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His I don't know how many times through the years I have taken people to that verse to explain to them that every Christian possesses the Holy Spirit.

People used to plead for the Holy Spirit. They used to wait for the Holy Spirit. There were many who believed that the Holy Spirit did not come until and unless you had the gift of tongues.

If you never got the gift of tongues, you never got the Holy Spirit? False! "If any man or anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to Christ." That is the opposite of saying, "If the Spirit dwells in you, you are in the Spirit."Or, "Since the Spirit dwells in you, you are in the Spirit."

• Anyone not having the Holy Spirit is left in the disposition of the flesh.
• But anyone who is given the disposition of the Spirit, the new nature, is also given the Holy Spirit and walks in the Spirit and belongs to Christ.

So, we could say then that the most notable mark of salvation is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1:13, In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember when they put Jesus in the tomb, and they sealed it?

He was in there under the protection of the Roman seal. The seal was the symbol of identity, the symbol of protection, and all the power of the Roman government was behind that seal. When God put His seal on you, He is putting His ownership, and all the divine power is behind that seal.

God is your protector. God is your owner. You are in His care and under His power. That seal given to you is, in fact, the Holy Spirit Himself.

1 Corinthians 12:13, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free— and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. Every believer possesses the Holy Spirit, even the Corinthians who were so sinful.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revellers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

The Holy Spirit lives in you. The Holy Spirit's not out there somewhere. You do not have to chase the Holy Spirit. You do not have to go to an event to find Him. You do not have to feel Him through some emotional experience.

The Holy Spirit lives in you. He has taken up permanent residence there. He will stay there as God's seal of ownership and God's sign of protection until the day when you enter into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

The Holy Spirit is your guardian. The Holy Spirit is your life. If He were not there, the life of God would not be in you.

Jude 1:19, These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

Unbelievers do not have the Spirit. They are in the flesh. They mind the things of the flesh. They walk according to the flesh, and they are dead. Believers are in the Spirit, have the mind of the Spirit, walk according to the Spirit. They are alive to God because the Spirit lives in them. Before you are a Christian there is no life of God.

Afterwards, the very life of God itself in the form of the Holy Spirit. Total transformation. Not a minor change. God Himself dwells in you.

Matthew 25:37-40, “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

The Holy Spirit is called in the New Testament the Spirit of Christ. In fact, He is called the Spirit of Christ right here in this passage.

V 9, But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His "The Spirit,” “The Spirit of God,” “The Spirit of Christ," All in the same verse.

The marvellous reality of the Trinity and how the Holy Spirit sustains the same relationship to the second person of the Trinity that He does to the first person of the Trinity. So, every believer is the possessor of the Holy Spirit.

V 10, And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Saving grace doesn't regenerate your unredeemed human flesh. Your body is still dead. It still needs a resurrection.

Romans 8:18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Romans 8:20-21, For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; ²¹ because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

The redemption of our body. Christ is in you. The Spirit of Christ is in you. Your nature has been changed. You love the law of God. You hate sin. You long to do what pleases God, and you have the power to please God. But you still are incarcerated in a body that is dead because of sin. This human flesh, not just the physical part, but the mental part, as well, this humanness is unredeemable.

It just must die. We must get a new one. This human body and all that goes with its corrupted fallenness is subject to the principle of death. It is dying. The body is the seat of death, and the body carries the principle of decay, and it is going to die. Because it's dying, we are subject to its pains, its sorrows, its injuries, its wounds, and its impulses.

Bodily death is still the wages of Adam's sin and ours.

Christians get sick and die because the body is unredeemed and unredeemable. The contrast. There is a living Spirit in you. It is a new nature, the life of which belongs to the Holy Spirit who has taken up residence in you. That is alive and at peace with God and loves the law of God.

But it is incarcerated in this deadness, this dying, Adamic fallenness. We just want to get rid of it. But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Here we are with the Spirit of life in us, the Holy Spirit, the living Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, taking up residence. Giving us a new disposition. We have been recreated, born again, made new. That inner man is ready for Heaven right now.

It is just incarcerated in this fallen flesh. So someday when these bodies finally die, our Spirit will be released to live forever, and the flesh which so incapacitates us from fulfilling all the law all the time will be exterminated.

The day of our death is far better than the day of our birth.

V 11, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. We have already had a spiritual resurrection.

We have already died and risen in Christ. We have a new nature. We have already been born again. We have already had one death, and now we have new life in Christ. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

We have the life of God in our souls. That has already happened. You do not need to fear the physical death. You really need to long for the physical death when this debilitating humanness is gone. Because when that happens, the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, who dwells in you, is going to give life to a new mortal body through the Spirit who indwells you.

You are going to have another resurrection. It's not going to be a spiritual resurrection. Next time, it's going to be a physical resurrection. You are going to get a glorified body.

To understand this is to understand the nature of the Christian. The spirit dwells in you, and He is the Spirit that raised up Jesus. The Spirit gave Christ life through death. He raised Jesus from the dead and gave Him physical resurrection life.

He that raised up Christ from the dead, who is God the Father through the Spirit, will also give life to our mortal bodies. We are going to get new bodies.

Do you want to know what it's like? 1 Corinthians 15: 35-44, But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” ³⁶ Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. ³⁷ And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. ³⁹ All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.

⁴⁰ There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is

sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. His analogy is this: You are never going to be able to tell what your resurrection body's going to be like by looking at what you have got.

It is like a seed. Seed is a little ugly brown thing that in no way replicates what comes out of that seed. You put some flower seeds in the ground, and they are just ugly little brown things, nondescript, and soon, you have a garden of splashes of the rainbow, which could never be assumed to have come out of that colourless seed.

Paul is saying that you got a little brown seed, sort of nondescript, and there is no way to comprehend what's going to happen when that dies, and the glorious resurrection takes place. It is going to be different. It is natural.

It will be spiritual.

1 Corinthians 15:46-53, However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. ⁵⁰ Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

We are all going to be what? Changed. Going to happen in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, and perishable is going to put on imperishable. Mortal is going to put on immortality. I do not know what it is going to be like, but it's not going to be like what we have got. He will raise us and give us spiritual bodies.

What a tremendous promise this is?

2 Corinthians 5:1-5, For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, ³ if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

The Holy Spirit has wrought all of this. It was the Holy Spirit who freed us from sin and death by applying the merits of Christ's sacrifice for sin to us. It was the Holy Spirit who enabled us to fulfil the law of God by applying Christ's righteousness to us.

It is the Holy Spirit who changes our nature and moves us out of living in the flesh, according to the flesh, with the things of the flesh, minding the flesh, which is death, both in time and eternity, to being in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, minding the things of the Spirit, and pleasing God, because we're alive to God, both in time and eternity.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit.