Conquering the Flesh

No Condemnation

Romans 8:1 NASB95

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

There is a variant in this text that adds “who walk according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit.” Only the KJV contains this variant.

The link of the “therefore” here is back to 7:25a and the new life we celebrate in Christ in 7:6.

Romans 7:25 NASB95

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.

The Law is not Sufficient

The atonement provided temporary release from guilt. It had to be repeated every year.

No one could keep the law perfectly.

Two things are involved in the work of redemption:

Forgiveness of sin - the removal of guilt.

Imputation of righteousness - the restoration of favor.

The death of Christ accomplishes these by taking the guilt upon himself and receiving God’s punishment and by carrying away our sins from us. The life of Christ then is counted as our life. It is as if we walked in the shoes of Jesus and obeyed the law perfectly.

The Law of the Spirit of Life

Romans 8:2–4 NASB95

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

ἐλευθερόω: to cause someone to be freed from domination, free, set free, lit

to cause someone to be freed from domination, free, set free, lit

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 317.

John 8:32 NASB95

and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

The basis of our no longer being under condemnation is not because we are free from sin. The basis is Christ’s condemnation of sin in the flesh.

Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Romans Exegesis and Exposition

Hence, the word νόμος here means “principle” or “rule.” It is the Spirit who sets believers free, and the “Spirit of life” refers to “the life-giving Spirit” (A. Hultgren 2011 297).

Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Romans Exegesis and Exposition

Those who are set free from the principle of sin and the principle of death are not those who are in Adam but those who are united with Christ.

What the law could NOT do, God did.

The requirement of the law is fulfilled in us through the life and death of God’s own Son.