“But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him.
Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about.
But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms.
When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!” Romans 8:9, 11 MSG
Have you heard the saying, “Living above the line?” Well, that is exactly what Paul is talking about here in Romans 8.
You are experiencing life on God’s terms now. Not living the low life, the dead life. You are alive and filled-up-to-overflowing with The Spirit of Christ, i.e. the Holy Spirit. God, Himself, has taken up residency in you. He lives IN you. In other words, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead…lives in you!! Whoa! That’s some power! That’s why you are able to “live above the line”.
Once you were dead in your sin…the low life. The life that puts “I” on the throne. (You know, sIn is spelled
s I n. Notice the big “I” in the middle.) Then, you “welcomed this invisible, yet clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ” to come in and invade your life.
So now you are already delivered from “that dead life”…the life of pursuing your wants, your ways and your rights. The “low life”. With God’s Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s.
That is an amazing thought to comprehend. To steep in. To know that when I accept Him, by faith, He gladly comes in, makes His home in me, and starts cleaning every bedroom, garage, basement and closet of my life.
But before He can go to work in me, I need to give Him permission. And when I do, watch out, the greatest ongoing transformation takes place. My heart becomes God’s home.
The Holy Spirit dwells in me. He lives and breathes in me so that I can experience life to the full. The life He always meant for me. The life that lives above the line. Powerful life. No more being dragged down by the weight of low living. The weight of sin.
I am forgiven. I am free. I can fly.
No wonder I can “live above the line”!
