What is the result of being born of the Spirit?
"If Christ's Spirit is in you,
1. your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit (of Christ) is your (eternal) life [zoe] because of (Christ's) righteousness.
2. Moreover, if the Spirit of the one who raised [egeiro] Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised [egeiro] Christ from the dead will also quicken [zōopoiéō] your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you." (Romans 8:10-11).
Therefore in Colossians 3:4 Paul wrote:
"When the Messiah, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."
"Ye are buried with him [sunthapto] in baptism, wherein also all of you are risen with him [sunegeiro] through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him [egeiro] from the dead.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him [syzoopoieo], having forgiven you all trespasses." (Colossians 2:12-13) *
* Christ's dead body was quickened - not His Spirit:
"If the Spirit of the one who raised [egeiro] Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised [egeiro] Christ from the dead will also quicken [zōopoiéō] your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you." (Romans 8:11).
So using the same Greek words in Ephesians 2:4-6 that he used in Colossians 2:12-13, Paul says,
"God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins,
(1) He has * syzōopoiéō (quickened together with) Christ, (by grace ye are saved);
(2) and has * raised us up together (synegeírō)
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).
* The word "has" in Ephesians 2:5-6 is past tense: Christ's dead body has (past tense) been quickened and raised, and those who belong to Him have been (past tense) quickened and raised together with Him.
"Ye are buried with him [sunthapto] in baptism, wherein also all of you are risen with him [sunegeiro] through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him [egeiro] from the dead.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him [syzoopoieo], having forgiven you all trespasses." (Colossians 2:12-13)
It's talking about the positional reality in Christ of those who belong to Him, and it's because (and through) the following two facts:
"Christ is risen [egeiro] from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection [anastasis] of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be quickened [zoopoieo: made alive]." (1 Corinthians 15:20-22 ).
Paul never conflates quickening of the resurrection of the body with quickening and resurrection of a so-called dead human spirit.
"I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." (John 14:19b-20b)
Paul called this "the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints,
which is Christ IN you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27),
So Paul says,
"If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life [zōḗ] is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life [zōḗ], shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4).
The word zoopoieo (quickening, being made alive) is being applied to the mortal body in all the above verses.
When your body dies one day, it will go to the grave. Your soul will go to be with Christ - WHO IS YOUR LIFE. His Spirit will quicken your mortal body that died - because you have part in the quickening and resurrection of HIS body BY HIS SPIRIT IN YOU, WHO IS YOUR LIFE.
When the body of someone who is NOT born again dies, it goes to the grave. The soul goes to hades. The spirit of the life it had goes back to its only source - because
- the One God who exists from eternity unto eternity is a Spirit (John 4:24
- and the source of all existence, and all life [zoe]. The life [zoe] that is in Him is eternal life [zoe aionios].
God alone has/possesses life [zoe] in Himself (John 1:4; John 5:26).
Have you ever heard someone say, "I have eternal life because God has given me eternal life"?
Eternal life [zoe] never becomes something we have in ourselves. Of all human beings ever to have walked on the earth since Adam and Eve, only to the Son of God (the Man, Jesus Christ) has it been given by God to have eternal life in Himself (1 John 5:11-12 & John 5:26).
Eternal life [zoe] is given in Christ Jesus to the seed of created human beings (1 John 5:11-12) but it never becomes something we possess in ourselves; hence it never becomes the possession of the seed of created human beings.
"If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life [zōḗ] is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life [zōḗ], shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4).
I must go now. Will carry on with this another day.