Substitutes of Consequence
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11 NASB
Him/ He/ His – Who is the active agent in this verse? Who is “He, Him, His” referring to? The answer is obvious: God. But think about this obvious answer for just a minute. Paul says that God raised Yeshua from the dead. We expected that, right? Despite the claim of John 10:18, Paul clearly says that God (theós) not only raised Yeshua but is the One Who gives life to us through His spirit. Hold that thought while we consider an evangelical objection.
John Piper counters Paul:
When Jesus was on the earth, he raised four people from the dead. He raised the widow’s son in the village of Nain (Luke 7:15). He raised the 12-year-old daughter of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue (Mark 5:42). He raised Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha in Bethany after he had been dead four days (John 11:44). And he raised himself from the dead after he had been crucified.
It’s true that the New Testament teaches that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 6:4; Acts 2:32). But it is also true that Jesus himself was acting to bring about his own resurrection. We know this because he said in John 10:18, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” God the Father gave Jesus the authority to take up his life again from the grave where his body lay dead.[1]
Of course, Piper and others must assume that the Trinity explains this supposed discrepancy. The fact that Yeshua was given the authority to raise people from the dead does not, in itself, imply that he raised himself. On the face of it, that sounds ridiculous. Does any dead man raise himself? What does it mean to be dead if this can happen? The answer to this clear violation of the logic of “dead” is the Trinity. “Jesus” was dead as a human but still alive as God. Once again we are confronted with the dual-nature doctrine and its equivocation on ordinary human language. I suppose we could argue that Paul just got it wrong (since he wasn’t a Trinitarian). We know better now. We have a doctrinal answer.[2]
Regardless of your attempt to resolve this problem, this particular verse provides another conundrum. Earlier Paul writes, “the Spirit of life in Christ” (v. 2), “according to the Spirit” (v. 4, 5), “the things of the Spirit” (v. 5), “the Spirit of life and peace” (v. 6), “the Spirit of God dwells in you” (v. 9), “the Spirit of Christ” (v. 9), and “the spirit is alive” (v. 10). Now he pens, “the Spirit of Him,” referring to God. When we remove the capitals from the translations (there are none in Greek), we are struck with the fact that Paul seems to mix the spirit of the Messiah and the spirit of theós. In some places it seems that we are alive through the action (pneúma) of God. In other places Paul says life is in the pneúma in the Messiah. Which is it?
Trinitarians easily resolve this problem. It’s both because they are equivalent. But this is a doctrinal solution to a textual problem. If Paul isn’t a Trinitarian, what does he mean? Can we resolve the issue by reading pneúma in the sense of its classical Greek meaning, rather than reading it with a capital S (in some places) as a backhanded reference to another divine person? If we read Paul’s use of pneúma as “vital force,” we may have answered our question. The vital force of life in the Messiah originates in the vital force God provides. It is this vital force, coming from God Himself, that accounts for the resurrection of the Messiah and for our animation in the Messiah. The problem is resolved when we stop reading pneúma as if it refers to the third, divine person of the Trinity. But that means we can’t read the translation as it is printed because it assumes that (when convenient) pneúma is Spirit (capitalized).
Oh, my. Now my head hurts. Maybe Paul wasn’t as confused as we are.
Topical Index: pneúma, Spirit, vital force, Him, Piper, Romans 8:11
[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/jesus-raised-jesus-from-the-dead
[2] https://bible.org/question/did-god-father-raise-god-son-or-did-jesus-raise-himself-dead
