<p>8:11&nbsp;<i>But if the Spirit</i>- Seeing Paul is talking about positions, status, and rejoicing so positively about it all, it seems appropriate to choose the equally valid translation &ldquo;Seeing that the Spirit&hellip;&rdquo;.</p><p><i>Of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you</i>- As often in the NT, the Spirit of God is paralleled with the spirit of Christ which was mentioned in v. 10 and previously. Interpretation becomes difficult largely because of the very wide range of meaning in the word &ldquo;spirit&rdquo;. I don&rsquo;t mean so much that the same word has many different meanings, but rather that within that one word is a range of meaning. God&rsquo;s &ldquo;spirit&rdquo; refers to both His power and His mind, His thinking, His attitude, His character, personality. All He does is a reflection of His mind, just as human actions, the use of human &lsquo;power&rsquo;, is a reflection of the spirit within the person. Hence to think thoughts is judged by God as if the action has been done. The spirit of God and the spirit of Jesus are therefore parallel- because Jesus was at one with the Father. Yet as His prayer of John 17 demonstrates, that unity of spirit between the Father and Son is now shared with us who are in Him. It was the Spirit of God which raised up Jesus from the dead, and that same spirit / disposition of mind is counted to us, and is indeed in us- Paul has said this in Romans 7, where he rejoices that despite his lamentable practical failures, in his heart, in his spirit, in his deepest person, he is without doubt with God and delights in His ways. Paul, and all true believers, have a heart or, a spirit for God- despite the failures of the flesh. So the spirit / personality of Jesus- which is and was the very essence of righteousness- is counted to us, as if we are Him; and yet in our deepest selves, as believers, His spirit&nbsp;<i>is</i>&nbsp;in fact&nbsp;<i>our</i>&nbsp;spirit. Because this spirit within us is the spirit of Jesus and God, we can be assured of a resurrection like Christ&rsquo;s- for the spirit of God raised up Christ from the dead, and we have identified with that hope through baptism into His death and resurrection. The spirit / mind of God is also His power; not naked power, like electricity, but a power which is at one with His mind, which acts in congruence with what He really thinks and is, without posturing or hypocrisy. It&rsquo;s therefore the case that since that spirit dwells in us- because we are in Christ and His spirit is counted as ours, and because we have a spirit / heart for God as outlined in Romans 7- therefore we shall surely be raised from the dead as Christ was. This is what Paul has said in Romans 6; but he explains here on what basis that happens. It happens on the basis of the spirit of God, or the spirit of Christ, which is counted as ours, and which is in fact actually ours within our deepest heart, the weakness of the flesh notwithstanding. The spirit of God is not just a mental attitude, it is also His power, and it was that same spirit which raised the dead body of Christ from the dead. And it shall do the same for us at the last day. The Spirit of Jesus, His disposition, His mindset, His way of thinking and being, is paralleled with His words and His person. They both &lsquo;quicken&rsquo; or give eternal life, right now. &ldquo;It is the Spirit that quickeneth present tense&hellip; the words that I speak unto you, they are right now spirit, and they are life&hellip; thou hast right now the words of eternal life&rdquo; (Jn. 6:63,68). Yet at the last day, God will quicken the dead and physically give them eternal life (Rom. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:22,36). But this will be because in this life we had the &lsquo;Spirit&rsquo; of the eternal life in us: &ldquo;He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by on account of his spirit that dwelleth in you&rdquo; (Rom. 8:11). The NT describes our final redemption as our &quot;soul&quot; and &quot;spirit&quot; being &quot;saved&quot;; our innermost being, our essential spiritual personality, who we&nbsp;<i>really</i>&nbsp;are in spiritual terms, will as it were be immortalized (1 Pet. 1:9; 1 Cor. 5:5). This means that our spiritual development in this life is directly proportional to the type of person we will be&nbsp;<i>for evermore</i>. If, for example, we develop a generous spirit now, this is &quot;a good foundation&quot; for our future spiritual experience (1 Tim. 6:19). This is a stupendous conception, and the ultimate fillip to getting serious about our very personal spiritual development. Our mortal bodies will be changed to immortal, Spirit nature bodies according to the Spirit which&nbsp;<i>now</i>&nbsp;dwells in us (Rom. 8:11 Gk.). The attitude which we have to the Lord Jesus&nbsp;<i>now</i>&nbsp;will be the attitude we have to Him at the day of judgment (Mt. 7:23 cp. Lk. 6:46).</p><p><i><br /></i><i>He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies</i>- <i>through His Spirit that dwells in you</i>- Paul&rsquo;s expectation and assumption seems to have been that Christ would return in the lifetime of his readership, and that instead of dying and being resurrected, they would come before the judgment seat of Christ in their current mortal bodies, and then be changed. He hints at the same when he speaks of how mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and our present &ldquo;vile body&rdquo; shall be &ldquo;clothed upon&rdquo; but not, he hopes, dissolved in death (2 Cor. 5:4). How could Paul, writing under inspiration, make an apparent mistake like this? I suggest that he was writing&nbsp;<i>as if</i>&nbsp;the return of Christ was imminent, because that is how we should live; part of the Christian life is to live as if we expect His return imminently. Another option is that perhaps the second coming was indeed scheduled for the first century; but the failure of various human preconditions resulted in this not happening and it being deferred perhaps issues like the repentance of Israel, the spiritual maturity and unity of the body of Christ, or their spreading of the Gospel and making converts from all nations.</p>