Verse 9
"However" marks a contrast. Paul’s readers were not those who only had a sinful human nature. They also had the indwelling Holy Spirit. We could translate the first "if" as "since" (first class condition in Greek) because here it represents a condition that Paul assumed was true to reality. Everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ in the age in which we live possesses the indwelling Holy Spirit (cf. Ephesians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 12:13).
"Here the great mark of a true Christian is, that the Spirit of God dwells in him." [Note: Newell, p. 299.]
This is one of the clearest statements in Scripture that corrects the false notion that baptism with the Spirit is a second work of grace for the Christian.
"Nowhere in Scripture do we find a clearer indication that the Spirit enters a person’s life at the moment of conversion (cf. also 1 Corinthians 12:13). If the Spirit needed to wait for some subsequent commitment to holiness, it follows that he would be absent between conversion and that later point in time. But that cannot be because Paul clearly indicated that a person without the Spirit does not belong to Christ." [Note: Mounce, pp. 178-79.]
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