No Condemnation
NO CONDEMNATION
ROMANS 8:1-4
As a warm pastor, Paul reminds us that as Christians we have a new status.
The chapter falls into three divisions, of which the first, which speaks of the Spirit as the principle of righteousness and life, covers verses 1-11. The opening verses are one of the great triumphant passages to which Paul sometimes rises.
The negative in 8:1 is emphatic. “There is therefore now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus …” The Holy Spirit pervades the chapter. To be “in Christ Jesus” means to be indwelt by God, to have God’s power available to the outreach of faith, to be set free, and under no bond of broken slavery.
“To walk … according to the flesh” means to live the life of the pagan world, to be the puppet and plaything of undisciplined sinful desires and to know the frustrated helplessness and pain of those who know that the fruit of such living is unhappiness and defeat, but who see no hope of deliverance. The “works of the flesh” are listed in Galatians 5:19-21.
Count how many times the word “Spirit,” the opposite of “flesh,” occurs in this chapter. To “walk … according to the Spirit” is to catch the vision of God’s liberating power (8:2), made real and visible in Jesus Christ, God’s demonstration of himself to humanity (8:3). Christ gave humanity a fresh start. In Adam all sinned. This was the contention that initiated this train of reasoning earlier in this letter. Christ broke the spell. Like a new creation, a second Adam, he faced the same conditions, confronted the same temptations, but obeyed God perfectly. So humanity could be set free of Adam’s corrupted race, and made one with Christ, in whom doom and defeat fell on sin. Humanity was given a new start, the past canceled, its slavery broken. It remained only to realize that life, and lay hold of the privilege. This is what Paul means by “liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:13).
Meditation The fulfillment of prophecy in Paul’s doctrine. See Ezekiel 36:25–37:14 and Jeremiah 31:33f. (Jesus referred to both passages in his conversation with Nicodemus—John 3.)