Second Reading: Romans 8:8-11

The Ultimate Life Insurance Policy

Are you comfortable with your present life insurance coverage?

Popular Translation

8 Those who live just for this world cannot please God. 9 All of you do not live for this world. Instead, you live for the Spirit because the Spirit of God lives in you. If someone does not have God's Spirit, he does not belong to Christ. 10 If Christ lives in you, then you are truly alive because you are right with God. But, because of your sins, your bodies must die. 11 The Spirit raised Jesus Christ from the dead. If the Spirit of Jesus lives in you, he will raise your dying bodies simply because he is there for you!

Literal Translation

8 The (ones) being in the flesh are not able to please God. 9 (All of) you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, for indeed, the Spirit of God dwells in (all of) you. If someone does not have the Spirit of CHRIST, this (one) is not of HIM. 10 If CHRIST (is) in you, then the body (is) dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit, the (One) having raised JESUS from the dead dwells in you, the (One) having raised CHRIST from the dead will give your moribund bodies life through HIS indwelling Spirit in you.

How does the old joke go? Life insurance is a bet that you won't die anytime soon. But God's life insurance policy is a little different. His policy states that you won't die. And he has more than the integrity of the Church behind him. No, he has something much greater. The Spirit! The person and the power that made all things will insure that you and I will not die, but we will live! Even if our bodies die, the Spirit will raise us up, just as he raised Christ to life.

Like life insurance policies, we have an escape clause. We can live for now, live for the world, live for just ourselves. In this way, we can shut the Spirit out of our lives. After all, we have free will. But, if you are reading this, I bet you have not turned away from God. In fact, I bet you have not revoked your eternal life insurance policy. Why? Even though we all sin, if we try to allow Christ into our lives, the Spirit is already working in us because any movement toward our Savior is a gift from the Spirit.

While we have not revoked the policy, we need to renew it daily. We need to turn to the Spirit in prayer and in practice. God's life insurance policy is to be lived today, for its benefits are to be realized today.

How have you renewed your eternal life insurance policy today?