Examine Yourselves

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. - Romans 8:9

    Those to whom God has revealed his blessed Son have been made keenly aware of their sinful nature. Our sinful nature is exposed by his sinless nature. Our sinful nature is confirmed by the Word of God, and by the indwelling Spirit of God. To deny this is insanity. However, those to whom God by regeneration has imparted the Spirit of Christ has a new nature. It is new as opposed to the old man, or the sinful nature. Christ dwells in them, effecting life where there was none before.

    The believer lives with this new life every day in the experience of grace and in the experience of life. In the text and context of the above verse there are two distinct persons. One does not have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him; the other does. These two men are still men but vastly different. The impartation of spiritual life is our salvation because if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. The impartation of spiritual life is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27). Christ in you separates the living from the dead. God imputes the righteousness of Christ to our account, establishing our righteousness, thereby justifying the believer. He imparts the righteous Christ to us and thereby gives life to those whom he justified. We cannot have the one without the other. Those sinful creatures who have the Spirit of Christ gladly confess both their sin and The Lord our Righteousness.

    Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (2 Cor 13:5).