uly dead and truly risen men.

So Paul's intent is to make us aware that before we can become
Christians, this power must operate within us; otherwise, though we
may boast and fancy ourselves believing Christians, it will not be
true. The test is, are we risen in Christ--is his resurrection
effective in us? Is it merely a doctrine of words, or one of life and
operating power?

4. Now, what is the process of the life and death mentioned? How can
we be dead and at the same time risen? If we are Christians we must
have suffered death; yet the very fact that we are Christians implies
that we live. How is this paradox to be explained? Indeed, certain
false teachers of the apostles' time understood and explained the
words in a narrow sense making them mean that the resurrection of the
dead is a thing of the past according to Paul's words in Second
Timothy 1, 10, and that there is no future resurrection from temporal
death. The believer in Christ, they said, is already risen to life; in
all Christians the resurrection is accomplished in this earthly life.
They sought to prove their position by Paul's own words, thus
assailing the article of the resurrection.

5. But we will ignore these teachers as being condemned by Paul, and
interpret the words as he meant them, his remarks both preceding and
following making it clear and unquestionable that he refers to the
spiritual resurrection. This fact is certain: If we are, at the last
day, to rise bodily, in our flesh and blood, to eternal life, we must
have had a previous spiritual resurrection here on earth. Paul's words
in Romans 8, 11 are: "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus
from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the
dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit
that dwelleth in you." In other words: God having quickened, justified
and saved you spiritually, he will not forget the body, the building
or tabernacle of the living spirit; the spirit being in this life
risen from sin and death, the tabernacle, or the corruptible
flesh-and-blood garment, must also be raised; it must emerge from the
dust of earth, since it is the dwelling-place of the saved and risen
spirit, that the two may be reunited unto life eternal.

6. The apostle, then, is not in this text referring to the future
resurrection of the body, but to the spiritual rising which entails
the former. He regards as one fact the resurrection of the Lord
Chris