Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

When we pass beyond we will learn more in a week than in all our lives in this world. As we are
saved by faith, and “He that believeth not shall be damned,” we would better see that we believe all,
remembering that we have only a few days in which to believe, but all eternity in which to learn.
While there is but one God, He is revealed to us in three persons, accommodatory to our finite
apprehensions of the wonderful redemptive scheme. I am editor in the morning, teacher in the
afternoon, and preacher in the evening. Yet I am only one and the same man, known to the world in
three personalities. In this notable verse we would discriminate between the statement, “The Spirit
of God dwelleth in you,” as the word oikei is from oikos, “a house,” and means to abide in you, like
a person living in a house, which is peculiar to the sanctified experience; for during the regenerated
life “He is with you” (John 14:16), in the capacity of an Architect, coming and going, working on
the building, but when it is completed in entire sanctification, moving into it to permanently abide;
and “If any one have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” which is comprehensive of the
regenerated state as well as the sanctified.
10. “But if Christ is in you, the body is indeed dead as to sin, and the spirit life as to
righteousness.” This verse is very beautiful and plainly affirmative of the ostensible fact that if
whether in the capacity of an Architect in the regenerated life, or enthroned King in the sanctified
experience, your body is dead so far as sinful activity is concerned, i.e., is as free from committing
actual sin as the dead man lying in his grave from taking part in the activities of life around him;
meanwhile your spirit is responsive to all the activities and enterprises involved in a life devoted to
obedience to the divine administration.
11. “But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you.” Here we have
again the verb oikei, from oikos, a house, signifying that the Holy Ghost, having moved into your
heart, is there keeping house. Since He is the Omnipotent Architect, He is always ready to undertake
a building job and faithfully stick to the work till the house is completed, after which He moves in
permanently to abide. If the house is unfinished, and you meet the conditions, He will abide with you
in His Omnipotent executive capacity till He finishes the edifice, i.e., sanctifies you wholly. Then
He moves in, brightening, beautifying, electrifying and glorifying your heart by His perpetual
presence, making your life an unbroken sunshine, and giving you constant victory over every foe,
and an incessant heavenly prelibation. “He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also create
life in your mortal bodies by his Spirit who dwelleth in you.” The glorious ultimatum assured in this
inspiring promise is the transfiguration of the body, which may take place either in the translation
of the saints when the Lord comes to take up His Bride, or in the resurrection; our glorious Redeemer
having provided these two methods, through either of which it is possible to enter the glorified state.
While the final and perfect restitution of these bodies will take place in glorification, either by
translation or resurrection, yet our blessed Savior, in His condescending mercy, gives us many
prelibations of this coming glorification, to comfort, revive and reinvigorate us for the labors of this
life. Hence this wonderful promise not only reaches forward to final glorification when this mortal
shall put on immortality, but it includes the healing mercy of the Great Physician, administered ever
and anon in the recuperation of these feeble, faltering tenements, and the alleviation of our diseases
indiscriminately. While you live in a house, there is at least a probability that you will repair the
breaches accruing from natural dilapidation or the sudden violence of storms, thus keeping your
tenement in comfortable repair. Hence it is at least a tenable conclusion that the Holy Ghost will
keep His house, — this body — renovated and repaired while He occupies it. He has long been the