Live By The Spirit: Devotions With John PiperSample

The Spirit Raises Our Bodies

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. —Romans 8:11

God is profoundly concerned with your body. If he weren’t, he would let it rot in the grave and tell you to say good riddance. But he never says that. No, God created you with a body and he created you for his glory.

Therefore he is going to raise and give life to your mortal body through his Spirit no matter how mangled, or deformed, or emaciated, or disease-ridden, and he is going to make it so strong, so healthy, so beautiful, that when I see it, I will say, “You are like the broad blue sky on a bright summer day. You are like the splendor of a million stars against the black night of space. Your radiance is like the sun; yes, in you I see the grandeur of the glory of Jesus Christ who made you, redeemed you, raised you, and glorified you with his glory for ever and ever.”

Where can a person find power to press on in a life of love when there are very few earthly rewards? Where does a husband or wife get the emotional strength to keep on giving when there is no reciprocation? Where does a man or woman who would like to be married get the strength to be content for seventy years of singleness? Where did Jesus get the strength to endure the cross and despise the shame (Hebrews 12:2)?

For the joy set before us at the resurrection we endure everything for Christ. Jesus did not promise that obedience to him would be rewarded by men in this life. Our joy flows from the unshakable hope of Romans 8:11, not from the shifting circumstances of our life. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies.”

If you really believe that God is for you and not against you, and that he will give life to your mortal body through his Spirit who dwells in you, and that whatever good you give up in this life will be repaid one-hundred-fold in the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:12-14), and that you will shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father, then you have an inexhaustible reservoir of strength to keep doing the good God has called you to do whether anyone appreciates it now or not.

Learn more: http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-spirit-will-give-life-to-your-mortal-bodies