And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life 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.
- BSB But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive 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 am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
- Eph 3:17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
- 2 Cor 5:21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
- Rom 8:11But 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 dwelleth in you.
- John 11:25–26Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
- 2 Cor 5:1–4For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
- John 17:23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
- Phil 1:23For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
- Col 1:27To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
- Col 3:3–4For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
- John 14:19–20Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
- Phil 3:9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
- John 14:23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
- 1 Cor 15:45And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
- 2 Cor 4:11For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
- Rev 14:13And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
- John 15:5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
- Heb 9:27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
- Rom 5:21That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
- 2 Cor 5:6–8Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
- Heb 12:23To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
- 1 Th 4:16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
- 2 Cor 13:5Examine 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?
- John 4:14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
- Rev 7:14–17And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
- 2 Pet 1:13–14Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
- Rom 5:12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
- John 6:56He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
- John 6:54Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath 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
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