Rom 8:1-11 Therefore there is now …

we have read seven chapters, so far, in the letter to the Romans, that explain in great detail why every human being on this planet is condemned before God under the law.

• Everyone of us of is guilty
• Everyone of us is unable to bear the weight of the guilt
• Everyone of us is totally unable to pay the price for even the smallest infraction against the law
• Everyone faces eternal separation from God as a result
• Everyone of us deserves the just wrath of God

Paul has been hinting at another law …

another expression of the righteousness of God apart from the law …

a law that is invoked upon an expression of faith on part of those who realize that they cannot be declared right with God through the law

he even mentioned earlier that death is the means to pass from one law to the other.

(as if passing from one world into another)

Rom 7 is a great description of the conflict between living with one foot in both worlds at the same time.

He describes his state (resulting from the conflict of these two worlds in verse 24 (Rom 7)

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

then introduces Christ as the one who sets him free in the next verse

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

now he begins to explain how Christ does this

Rom 8

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I took a facebook poll asking what people thought this verse meant 

• Assurance
• Before we were born again we were condemned to hell for our sins.once we became co heirs with Christ, the father no longer sees our sin nature He sees us as a new creation. He sees Jesus. We are no longer condemned,We have been set free.
• God did not come into the world to condemn it , but to save it ,
  • that would be John 3:17 
  • Thanks Dave I was trying to think of where it was ,
• God, in declaring we’re no longer condemned, sealed our eternal destiny and freedom to walk on Earth as forgiven, justified, and empowered Christ Followers. He eradicated any charge Satan can bring against us and proved He is just, holy, wise, and capable of keeping us in the promises He made.
• We once were/stood, in condemnation before Christ’s atoning work on the cross set before those who trust in His saving grace free from condemnation.
• You know when we mess up and sin and then feel guilty and bad about it for days?…. that’s a time killer and unnecessary misery we put ourselves through. I think that scripture is there so we know that we can ask forgiveness, receive it by faith and move on.
• By the grace of God, believers in Jesus Christ will not face the condemnation of God.

• assurance (reassurance)
• Father (as judge) see Christ instead of us in regards to our sin
• successful mission of Christ to offer a solution to the condemned state of mankind
• promise and sealing of the promise of God of our salvation
• condemnation is removed for those who trust in the cross of Christ
• ability to move on past guilt over sin
• belief in Christ protects us from God’s condemnation

 

 

this verse is the heart of the Gospel and I think it would be good to break down this verse (rather than skating over it simply because we are familiar with it)

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

“now”

• something has changed in the timeline 
• (before it was that, NOW it is this)
• (age of law, now age of grace, the church age)
• a new dispensation is in effect
• Rom 3:21a “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested …, 
• (and Paul uses the phrase “but now” repeatedly to tell us that something has changed

“no condemnation” = removal of the just punishment for sins from a just God

• condemnation
• 2890   [2631]   κατάκριμα, katakrima, n.  [2848 + 3212]. in accord with condemnation
• refers to the penalty after the passing of a legal sentence.
• (i.e. a judge might say “I find the defendant guilty as charged and sentence you to …such a penalty”)
• the punishment that followed conviction of a crime

this word is only used three times in the entirety of the NT

Romans 5:16	And the gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin; for the judgment following the one transgression led to condemnation (katakrima | κατάκριμα | acc sg neut), but the free gift following the many transgressions led to justification.
Romans 5:18	Therefore, just as one man’s transgression brought condemnation (katakrima | κατάκριμα | acc sg neut) for all so also one man’s righteous act brought justification and life for all
Romans 8:1	There is therefore now no condemnation (katakrima | κατάκριμα | nom sg neut) for those who are in Christ Jesus.

“those in Christ”

• the saved, (the elect) 
• those who choose to live in Him and be ‘lived in” by Him
• John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
• 2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
• Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• (it does not say “those who sing songs to Him”, or “those who repeat His name”, nor “those who have a fish on their shirt or back of their car”   it says “IN Christ Jesus”

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

law here means that which has power over us, “nomos” does not only mean legal phrasing but can also mean principle of nature or reason (such as “law of gravity”) 

that which has authority

the authority of the Spirit (of life in Christ) sets us free from the authority of sin and death

3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

what does it mean that “the law be weak through the flesh” ?

unable to accomplish the most important thing needed 

what could the law not do ?

provide righteousness (in order to restore our relationship with God)

2 Cor 3:6 Who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

what is the requirement of the law ?

(righteousness)

so this verse is saying that righteousness is fulfilled IN us (not by us).

 

and then it describes the “us” in whom righteousness is fulfilled  (by Christ)
“those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit”

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

this is obviously in agreement with other major contexts of scripture

• lusts of flesh and fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:16-26)
• a tree is know by it’s fruit (Luke 6:43-45)
• Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. (Matt 12:33)
• cultivate a healthy tree and you will get healthy fruit, grow a diseased tree and you will get sickly fruit  (you will see the results of what you grew in the fruit you get)

why does the fruit match the tree ?

6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

those in the flesh cannot please God because their flesh is at war with God
(for those who are unsaved, the “old nature” is the only nature to work with.

the body of death Paul refers to in Rom 7 is the only body they have to live with)

9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

if the Spirit of God dwells in you , you belong to Him, and are in the Spirit

If you are not in the Spirit, then the Spirit of God does not dwell in you and you do not belong to Him.

10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11 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.

it is the Spirit who is the instrument by whom God raises the body of the Christian. As in v. 9, the indwelling of the Spirit suggests that the Spirit has made his home in the believer; and since the Spirit is “life” (His presence cannot but result in life for that body which he inhabits. The Spirit’s life-giving power is not circumscribed by the mortality of  the body but overcomes and transforms that mortality into the immortality of eternal life in a resurrected body. -Robertson Word Pictures

It is being in Christ (and having a new nature of the Spirit) that allows and enables us to live in the authority of the Spirit

There is NOW, no punishment for sin for those who live in Christ as the only source of salvation and life itself.

in Christ is the operative phrase to be able to the “no condemnation” clause

• John 14:6  “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me

Jesus uses this reply to Thomas who wants to go where He goes, though he does not know the way to the Father’s house.

He is saying I AM the way to the Father, 

when He says truth, a shade of meaning is often lost in english, because the word also includes the idea of “reality unveiled”

life means He is the source of both physical and spiritual life

Jesus follows this statement with what He says in the next verse

^{7 a}If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you ^bknow Him, and have ^cseen Him.”

known in greek   γινώσκω, ginōskō,  come to know, recognize, understand;

His statement about being the way, truth, and life seems fantastic to these men

because they dont yet understand who HE is

(that to really see Him for who He is, would be to see the Father)

if you consider that He is the God-man   you would say 

“of course you are the WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE. You are GOD

Being like you is the only way to be with you
You dont just define reality, you ARE reality

You dont just give life, you ARE life

only by being in you, united with you can we 

• be like you
• understand reality (to the extent that our little brains can wrap around eternity)
• receive and express life as you intend it (reflecting Your nature)

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Let us celebrate the free gift of salvation from Jesus.

He is everything, He is God, and He gives Himself to us to be in Him

 

one of the poll answers mentioned that Rom 8:1 provides a way to move on past the sense of guilt when we sin.

I think this is quite important in light of the context Paul has written this passage.
He wrote it right after explaining what a wretched man he felt like being torn in the middle of the conflict between the law of his mind and the law of his flesh

23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

It is easy to assume that his struggle between these two laws continued after writing Rom 8:1 so …
saying there is no condemnation was not meant to make us this this truth ends the war between the two laws (mind and flesh)

It is stated to remind us how Paul is able to free himself from the guilt of sin, perhaps his sense of failure

reminding himself and us, that despite our failures (our sins) we can take consolation in the fact that we are forgiven and there is no punitive sentence waiting for us when it is all done.

We may still struggle with sin, but we have been given choice, power, and freedom from it’s authority
(and being in Christ, we know we live as He lives, are sustained as a vine sustains the branches, protected from condemnation  and sealed by His Spirit as a promise from the Father Himself that nothing can separate us from)

 

 

communion

John 6:48 “I am the bread of life.

John 6:49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

John 6:50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

John 6:51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

John 6:52 ¶ Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

John 6:53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

John 6:54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.

John 6:56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

John 6:57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.

John 6:58 “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”