Proof Text #2
"The body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you." (Rom. 8: 10-11)
This text sustains the same order as did Romans 5: 18. In that text we have "justification which results in life" and in the above text it is "life because of righteousness" (or justification). Hendriksen translates as: “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is life because of your justification.”
Since "life" denotes "quickening," it also denotes regeneration. Paul mentions two quickenings in the text. This is evident by the word "also" in "shall also quicken your mortal bodies." The prior quickening was the quickening of the soul and spirit. So, the "life" that is "because of righteousness" is spiritual life, and quickening is regeneration. Thus, the text upholds the order we affirm which is "regeneration life because of justification" or "because of imputation."
By "the spirit" is not a reference to the Holy Spirit, but to the human spirit because it is set in opposition to "the body," and this is acknowledged by most commentators. It is not the Holy Spirit who is living because of righteousness, but the spirit of the believer.
Our focus is upon the words "the (human) spirit is life (living) because of (imputed) righteousness (or justification)." Those words establish not only the same order we saw in the previous argument from Romans 5, that the spirit is alive (a reference to regeneration) "because of" a logically prior justification or imputation of righteousness, but all through Romans justification and imputation of righteousness are conditioned upon faith union with Christ, and regeneration, life, and sanctification follow justification.
Thus, we have again Paul's ordo salutis as Faith, Union with Christ, Justification and Imputation, New Life (regeneration), sanctification (which includes continuous renewal and transformation).
As the body is dead (like the spirit too) "because of sin," that is, suffers the penalty of death because of a prior imputation of sin and guilt, or prior condemnation, so too both body and spirit are "alive because of righteousness," because of an imputed righteousness, or a result of justification.
The order for imputation of sin is the same for the order for imputation of righteousness. There is first unbelief (sin or disobedience), then disunion (cut off from God), then condemnation and imputation of guilt, then death and degeneration (which includes continual moral decay).
Just as "death is because of condemnation," so "life is because of justification." Or, to say it in another way, just as "death results from imputed unrighteousness" so "life results from imputed righteousness." If regeneration logically precedes justification, then the text should read "righteousness because of life" or "justification as a result of regeneration."
John Witmer writes that -
"Because of God’s imputed righteousness, a believer is alive spiritually. The eternal, spiritual life of God is implanted by the indwelling Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ here and now, even though a believer’s body is mortal." (Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor) (See here)
John MacArthur is cited (MacArthur, J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press) by Witmer who said:
"if God’s Spirit indwells us, our own spirit is alive because of righteousness, that is, because of the divinely-imparted righteousness by which every believer is justified (Ro 3:21-26). In light of that perfect righteousness, all human attempts at being righteous are but rubbish (Phil. 3:8)."
John MacArthur has also stated that regeneration precedes faith and faith precedes justification. But, in doing this he sets himself in opposition to what he says above. But, he is like all other Calvinists who contradict themselves on this point.
Wrote Haldane in his commentary on the words "because of righteousness":
"Here a great difficulty is removed; for it may be said, If our bodies are dead because of sin, how is it that our souls are life, since they are stained with sin, and that it is on account of their sinfulness that our bodies are infected with the same malady? The Apostle, in answer, brings into view the righteousness of Him who is in us, and shows that it is on account of His righteousness that our souls are life. And this necessarily follows; for if we have such union with our Lord and Saviour, that we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, that we are His members, and if He and we are one, His righteousness must be ours; for where there is one body, there is one righteousness. On the other hand, through the same union our sins have been transferred to Him, as is said by the Prophet Isaiah, The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all. And the Apostle Peter says that He bore our sins in His own body on the tree; He bore their punishment. He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. An exchange, then, of sin and righteousness has taken place. By imputation He has been made sin, and by imputation we also are made righteousness. Jesus Christ, as being the surety of the new covenant, has appeared before God for us, and consequently His righteousness is ours."
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