The Spirit Gives Life

The Spirit Gives Life

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you. –Romans 8:11

When David and I share our story, we often save time at the end in case people have questions. Invariably, one of the first questions is, “How is Matt?” I have always answered this question thinking the person is wondering how he is doing emotionally, having lost two siblings. Only recently did I figure out that sometimes people are wondering if there is any chance Matt might die too as a result of Zellweger Syndrome. I was telling Matt about this when we returned from a recent speaking engagement. “What did you tell them?” he asked when I explained my new understanding of the question. “I said that you’re going to die too, but hopefully no time soon!” I told him with a smile. “Then I reminded them that eventually we’re all going to die.”

Sometimes we live in a dream world in which we deny death. But those of us advancing in years need no one to remind us that the process of physical death is even now at work in us, and we can’t stop it, although we try. We try so hard because we’ve believed the world’s lie that being truly alive means being thin, beautiful, sexually active, and young-looking. But if this is true, why are so many thin, beautiful, sexually active, young-looking people so unhappy and unfulfilled? Our bodies are not what make us happy. It is the Spirit who dwells within us that makes us truly alive. We can look good on the outside, but when we are cut to the core by the sharp edge of pain, our inner life is revealed. Unless the Spirit has made his home in us, what is revealed will be only emptiness. When the Spirit is living within us, those around us see the imprint of the supernatural in the interior of our lives when we suffer.

Our only hope in a world of pain is the life of God in our very souls. As God fills us with his Spirit, he touches us at the deepest level of our being and begins his work of transformation, leading up to the day when our very bodies will be transformed. On that day when he “will give life to your mortal body” (Romans 8:11), you’re going to be better than you ever were—even when you were at your best. What the Spirit of God did for Jesus on that first Resurrection day, he will do for us on the next.

Indwelling Spirit, you give me life and meaning and joy on the inside! Even now you are renewing me and remaking me as I anticipate the day you will resurrect my earthly body.

DIGGING DEEPER