We are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. We are different. When we come to Christ we change, that is why elsewhere Paul says we are a new creation, and why Jesus talks of us as being born again. We become people who live not by the flesh, but by the Spirit. Someone who lives by the flesh is a person whose life is directed, or even dictated, by what they feel, by circumstances. This can be someone who is directed by lust and greed, but it can also be someone who is directed by fear and anxiety. If our lives are dictated by anxiety and fear then we are living "in the flesh". A person whose life is directed by the Spirit is someone whose life is directed by God. This is the way we are meant to be. When we live by the flesh circumstances dictate our lives. When we live by the Spirit we have authority over the circumstances.
Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. We can take this as a judgement, or as a positive statement that if we do belong to Christ then we will have the Spirit.
Now we are all aware of the reality that we do not always live by the Spirit, there are times when we do live out of the flesh. We live in an inbetween time. Our body is dead because of sin, we still have the consequences of our fallen nature. But at the same time the Spirit is life. It is a fact that we have a fallen nature, it is equally a fact that Christ's blood has justified us. Then Paul goes immediately to the resurrection. The death and resurrection of Christ go together. Christ died for our sins, and was raised to life. So in the same way the Holy Spirit gives life to our bodies. The Holy Spirit works in us to change us, to transform us.
Our new way of living depends upon the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ and the Holy Spirit of Christ.
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