Q&R: Romans 8:9 – Who doesn’t belong to Christ? Brad Jersak
Question:
First, I want to say how much your work has helped me grow in the faith and seeing the beautiful reality of the gospel. My question is about a verse I’m trying to understand. Romans 8:9 says in the second part of this verse that “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to him.” I just read your article, “Is Christ in All people or only in Christians?”. I get the part where you say, “Some Scriptures define our Being (all are in Christ through the Incarnation), and others describe our Relationship (not all relate to Christ by faith).”
I am having a hard time with Romans 8:9 because all of Paul’s writing in Romans up until now says that “in Adam, all die, so In Christ, all will live.” I also know the “ifs” in his writing are usually conclusive and not conditional… I also know imitating God is also key with Jesus and Paul. As you say in your article, “Are all people God’s children or only Christians?” God’s children, in the narrow sense, are those who resemble their Father by imitation.
All that said, I would appreciate any insight you have been given on Romans 8:9. Grace and Peace to you!
Response:
What an excellent and nuanced question! I will start by just giving you a raw quote from an early Christian teacher who understood Paul better than I do (followed by my comments):
Ambrioster (circle 400 AD)
- Those who are said to be in the Spirit are not in the flesh if they agree with the apostle John and do not love the world. … Paul speaks somewhat ambiguously because those who have been inducted into the Law do not yet have a perfect faith, although Paul saw a hope of perfection in them. For this reason he sometimes speaks to them as if they are perfect and sometimes as if they are yet to become perfect.
- This is why sometimes he praises them and sometimes he warns them, so that if they maintain the law of nature according to what has been said above, they will be said to be in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God cannot dwell in anyone who follows carnal things. Here, Paul says that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, for everything which belongs to the Father also belongs to the Son.
- Therefore he says that whoever is subject to the above mentioned sins does not belong to Christ. Such a person does not have the Spirit of God, even if he has accepted that Christ is God’s Son. For the Holy Spirit abandons [!!] people for one of two reasons, either because they think carnally or because they act carnally. Therefore he exhorts them to good behavior by the things which he commands. (Commentary on Paul’s Epistles).
I will respond to a keen insight by Ambrioster (who gets it from Paul), but then I will push back at the language he uses since it’s hard to interpret through modern lenses.
Ambrioster’s Insight
Here is what I think they are seeing in Romans. Taken out of context, we COULD read Paul as saying that there are two groups of people: those who are ‘in the flesh’ and ‘those who are in the Spirit,’ and that those in the flesh ‘do not belong to God’ and those who are in the Spirit ‘do belong to God.’ Thus, it would be too easy to sort everyone into two groups: saved/not saved, believer/unbeliever, Christian/non-Christian, elect/damned, etc. We’ve come to see that as a mistake.
But IN context (which is how Ambrioster is reading), Paul is not speaking about two groups: insider ‘us Christians’ who are in the Spirit versus the outsider ‘them’ who haven’t yet turned to Christ. He is describing Christians [only] in the church in Rome (Jews and Gentiles in conflict). And by extension, he is addressing the battle within each of us. Not two groups of people but two states in each of us… the struggle between ‘fleshly’ impulses and the Spirit’s leading (continuing on the theme from Romans 7).
Paul seems to be using ‘IF’ language here hypothetically to describe the opposing forces that compel our way of being. IF they listen to the flesh, they are acting as if God is not their Father and Jesus is not their Lord… but IF they listen to and follow the impulses of the Spirit, their lives demonstrate who they belong to. What we listen to will determine the type of fruit that emerges in their lives… Then he expands into Romans 8 with the glorious invitation to life in the Spirit where there is no opportunity for condemnation for those actively living ‘in Christ’ experientially and relationally.
Again, he’s not saying, “If you are a Christian, you aren’t condemned, but if you aren’t a Christian, you are.” He’s speaking to Christians: “If you are living in Christ (daily surrender), then you’ll experience the forgiveness, reconciliation, and belonging that is already yours. But if you aren’t living in the Spirit, aren’t living in Christ, aren’t abiding in Abba’s love, then I guess you’ll experience the bad fruit, painful consequences, and needless insecurities of the prodigal son who forgot he was still a son and always had a place waiting in his Father’s house.
In other words, Paul and Ambrioster are talking about two experiences (in the flesh or in the Spirit) among Christians rather than two classes of people with different ontologies (children and not children). This whole section of Romans (6-8) is about the call to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ (Romans 6) and thereby live in the Spirit rather than the flesh (Romans 8), with that battle going on through chapter 7 in the hypothetically stuck person.
Ambrioster Misspeaks
To make his point (and to be faithful to Paul), Ambrioster says a few things that aren’t literally true… he would know this. But literalists have a way of weaponizing language to suit their agendas. I’ve highlighted them in the quote, especially noting:
- * the Spirit of God cannot dwell in anyone who follows carnal things
- * whoever is subject to the above mentioned sins does not belong to Christ.
- * the Holy Spirit abandons people…
To be fair, Ambrioster is speaking biblically, all the way back to the Psalmist’s plea, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11), and, of course, Paul’s own phrase, “They do not belong to Christ.”
But given the plague of literalism today, we now need to add that the Spirit of Christ never ever literally abandons anyone. Similarly, we don’t literally acquire the Holy Spirit, even though the early Christians talked that way frequently (they see this in Scripture). But when we plumb their meaning a little deeper, they are referring to an experience of God’s felt presence or felt absence.
In other words, the Holy Spirit is everywhere, and Jesus’ promise is true: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Father, Son, and Spirit never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
HOWEVER… our orientation toward or away from God’s love (living in the Spirit or in Christ) profoundly affects whether or not we are consciously aware of the Holy Spirit’s loving presence. God no more turns from the sinner than the sun ceases to shine for a blind person, yet those blinded by self-centered, loveless lives may sense nothing but darkness. They don’t ‘have the Spirit’ in that sense. But those who live in love/in the Spirit/in Christ will generally be aware of the divine presence. They ‘HAVE the Spirit’ in that they are aware of their intimate communion with God. Meanwhile, those who refuse to live in love will normally lose their awareness of the good Gift of the Spirit because they turn from the Source of ever-present love. It is in that experiential sense that they don’t ‘belong to Christ’ … even (as Ambrioster says) they have formally assented to the right doctrine about Jesus.
One last caveat: the Holy Spirit continues to woo, to pursue, to convict, and to nag even those who turn away. His mercy does endure forever. It is not the Spirit withdrawing from us. The Spirit of Christ is forever faithful. At the same time, those who walk in the Spirit may not always experience God’s presence in a dramatic or obvious way. For them, the presence of God may be more like the air they breathe as their usual way of being. They may even go through periods of spiritual dryness that invite them to unseen faith, rather than suggesting they’ve done something wrong.
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