⁹ However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

There’s a difference between being “in the flesh” (vs. 8) and having a “mind set on the flesh.” Our passage today indicates that the readers (“beloved of God in Rome, called as saints”) are “not in the flesh but in the Spirit.” By extension that would include all believers. Paul was not making a statement about the Roman believers having reached a state of spiritual holiness that excluded any experience of sin—for he himself struggled with sin (chapter 7). But mark it well, God has declared us to be “not in the flesh but in the Spirit.”

Having said this, there is one caveat: a person can only believe this is true about himself if the Spirit of God dwells in him, as our verse says. Much has been written and debated about the work and role of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life. Suffice it to say that having the Spirit dwell in a person is synonymous with being declared righteous (that is, justified). One cannot be a genuine Christian unless the Spirit fully dwells in him. That is bottom line truth. There is another concept called the filling of the Spirit (Eph 5:18). That has to do with the Spirit’s control over a person’s life, and is there presented in contrast to drunkenness, where alcohol has control over a person. But this is different from being indwelt by the Spirit.

Now we know from other Scriptures that we are “… sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:13–14). So the Spirit is given to the believer as a security and will never be taken away—unlike the case for Old Testament believers who were given the Spirit for specific tasks and it could be taken away (see 1 Sam 16:14, 13, Ps 51:11). The Spirit today is given as God’s pledge to us, His seal that we belong to Him.

As believers then, we must set our minds on the Spirit, not on the flesh. We must be convinced that we are indeed justified and made right with God, and that our motive now is simply to please Him and not to earn a standing with Him. Nothing could be more foundational to our spiritual growth as believers, our sanctification. It begins with believing what God has done and putting our trust in Him and not our efforts. And we continue with that mindset of belief.

Lord, I stand firmly on the foundation of Your work through the Lord Jesus Christ. I am no longer judged in the flesh, for I have been justified in Him.