Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:3-4; 4:17, 24-25; 6:4-5, 8-9; 7:4; 8:9-11, 34; 10:9; 14:9
Ⅰ
The book of Romans reveals the intrinsic significance of the resurrection of Christ—4:17; 6:4; 14:9; 1:3-4:
A
God is the One who gives life to the dead; this is God's great power of resurrec-tion—4:17; Heb. 11:17-19.
B
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, that is, through the manifestation of divinity—Rom. 6:4; 1:4; 8:34.
C
The Lord Jesus was raised from the dead for our justification—4:25.
D
Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living; we live to the Lord, and we die to the Lord; therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's—14:8-9.
E
Christ was designated the Son of God out of the resurrection of the dead, and His resurrection was His birth as God's firstborn Son—1:4; 8:29; Acts 13:33:
１
Before His incarnation Christ already was the Son of God, the only begotten Son—John 1:18; Rom. 8:3.
２
By incarnation Christ put on an element, the human flesh, which had noth-ing to do with divinity; that part of Him needed to be sanctified and uplifted by passing through death and resurrection—John 1:14; Rom. 1:3-4.
３
By resurrection His human nature was sanctified, uplifted, and transformed; hence, by resurrection He was designated the Son of God with His humanity, and now, as the Son of God, He possesses humanity as well as divinity— Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5.
４
By incarnation Christ brought God into man; by resurrection He brought man into God; that is, He brought His humanity into the divine sonship— Acts 7:56; Matt. 26:64; Dan. 7:13.
５
In this way the only begotten Son of God was made the firstborn Son of God, possessing both divinity and humanity—Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:5.
６
God is using such a Christ, the firstborn Son, as the producer and as the pro-totype, the model, to produce His many sons—Rom. 8:29-30.
F
In resurrection Christ is the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit—vv. 9-10:
１
Christ's resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit in order to enter into the believers—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:18; John 14:16-17.
２
The reality of resurrection is Christ as the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:3-4, 20, 45b.
３
If we know and experience Christ as the pneumatic Christ, we will be brought into resurrection and live in resurrection—John 11:25; Phil. 3:10.
Ⅱ
The book of Romans unveils crucial aspects of the believers' experience of Christ in His resurrection life—4:24; 10:9; 6:4-5, 8-9; 7:4; 8:11:
A
If we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved—10:9:
１
Although Christ's death has redeemed us, it is His life in resurrection alone that can save us—3:24; 5:10.
２
Only when we believe in the great miracle that God performed in Him in raising Him from the dead can we be both redeemed and saved—6:4; 10:9.
B
After baptism we become a new person in resurrection, and we walk in new-ness of life—6:3-4:
１
Resurrection is not only a future state; it is also a present process—8:11.
２
To walk in newness of life is to live today in the realm of resurrection and to reign in life—6:4; 5:17.
３
Living in the realm of resurrection is a living that deals with all that is of Adam in us until we are fully transformed and conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God—12:2; 8:29.
４
Just as the element of Christ's death is found only in Him, so the element of Christ's resurrection is found only in Christ Himself; He Himself is resur-rection—John 11:25.
５
After experiencing a proper baptism, we continue to grow in and with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection; this is to walk in newness of life—Rom. 6:4-5.
C
In His resurrection Christ is transcendent over corruption and death; since we are one with Him in this resurrection, we also are transcendent over corruption and death—vv. 8-9.
D
We have been joined to Him who has been raised from the dead, to the resur-rected Christ as our Husband; this joining indicates that in our new status as a wife, we have an organic union in person, name, life, and existence with Christ in His resurrection—7:4.
E
If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal body and to our entire tripartite being so that we may carry out God's will to have the Body of Christ—8:2, 6, 10-11; 12:1-2, 4-5.
F
The church as the Body of Christ is absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ— 8:11; 12:4-5; 1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; Matt. 16:18; cf. Gen. 2:21-24:
１
The church is a new creation in Christ's resurrection—2 Cor. 5:17.
２
To be in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ—John 11:25; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 1:9:
ａ
The Body of Christ is in resurrection, that is, in the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit—Rom. 8:9-10; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17.
ｂ
The Body of Christ is the issue of our living by the resurrection life of Christ—Rom. 6:4-5, 8-9; 8:11; 12:4-5.
３
In order to live the Body life in the local churches, we need to live in the organic union with the resurrected Christ—vv. 4-5; 16:1, 3-5, 7-13, 16.