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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.
Romans 8:10 · New Living Translation
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.
  • 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.

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 it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
  • Eph 3:17that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
  • 2 Cor 5:21For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
  • Rom 8:11But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
  • John 11:25–26Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.
  • 2 Cor 5:1–4For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.
  • John 17:23I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.
  • Phil 1:23But I am in a dilemma between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
  • Col 1:27to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
  • Col 3:3–4For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
  • John 14:19–20Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.
  • Phil 3:9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
  • John 14:23Jesus answered him, “If a man 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 also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
  • 2 Cor 4:11For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.
  • Rev 14:13I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them.”
  • John 15:5I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
  • Heb 9:27Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
  • Rom 5:21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
  • 2 Cor 5:6–8Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;
  • Heb 12:23to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
  • 1 Th 4:16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,
  • 2 Cor 13:5Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you are disqualified.
  • John 4:14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
  • Rev 7:14–17I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.
  • 2 Pet 1:13–14I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you;
  • Rom 5:12Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
  • John 6:56He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.
  • John 6:54He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 8:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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.