But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
Parallel translations
- WEB If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
- KJV And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
- NKJV And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
- NASB If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
- NLT And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If Christ is in you, the body remains mortal because of sin, yet your spirit lives because of righteousness. Christ's indwelling brings true life now, even as the body awaits redemption.
Overview
Paul acknowledges that the body is still subject to death because of sin, a reality believers continue to face. Yet through Christ's indwelling, the inner person is alive on account of the righteousness given in Him. This sets up the promise of bodily resurrection in the following verse.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 29
- Gal 2:20I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
- Eph 3:17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love,
- 2 Cor 5:21God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
- Rom 8:11And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.
- John 11:25–26Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
- 2 Cor 5:1–4Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
- John 17:23I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.
- Phil 1:23I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better indeed.
- Col 1:27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
- Col 3:3–4For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
- John 14:19–20In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.
- Phil 3:9and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.
- John 14:23Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
- 1 Cor 15:45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
- 2 Cor 4:11For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body.
- Rev 14:13And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”
- John 15:5I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.
- Heb 9:27Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
- Rom 5:21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- 2 Cor 5:6–8Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
- Heb 12:23in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
- 1 Th 4:16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
- 2 Cor 13:5Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you actually fail the test?
- John 4:14But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
- Rev 7:14–17“Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
- 2 Pet 1:13–14I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of my body,
- Rom 5:12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
- John 6:56Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.
- John 6:54Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 8:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.