Question: Please give me your explanation of the text,

“He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you.”

Does it refer to the resurrection of the saints at the coming of Christ referred to in 1 Cor 15?

If so, how shall we harmonize this statement with the one there made, viz.:

“It is sown a natural body; raised a spiritual body.”

“It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.”

Now, if God merely makes alive (quickens) the mortal body, would it be anything more than a living mortal body?

Can it be properly termed “a spiritual body?”

Answer: Undoubtedly a living mortal body is not a spiritual body; and Paul is not in the text quoted referring to the same thing as in 1 Cor 15. But before we explain, please read the text referred to, Rom 8:11. Now read the ten preceding and the five succeeding verses.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh; God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

¹² Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba,^[e] Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Christians die literally and will have an actual resurrection, as mentioned in 1 Cor 15, and elsewhere but they are frequently spoken of as dying in another sense, as in Rom 6:11: “Reckon you yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let not sin, therefore, reign in (control) your mortal bodies…but yield yourselves [while still mortal bodies] unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.”

So also, in the text you quote. The preceding verse declares that “If Christ be in you, the body is dead,” but the spirit is alive, and in this Verse 11, he assures that the power of God, which was mighty enough to raise up Jesus, is able and “shall quicken our mortal bodies by His spirit which dwelleth in us.” In other words, the same spirit, by which we crucify the flesh and reckon ourselves dead, is able to so subdue and control this mortal body, that it will be alive and active, in harmony with our new or spiritual nature. Would that more of God’s children knew, experimentally, of this death and this quickening. We become alive toward God just in proportion as we become dead to sin. R93