Everything I Need Is In Christ

Introduction

The Bible is the most unique book ever created. Passages like the one we read moments ago represent the complexity and beauty of the divine Scriptures. Not only is the Bible inspired unlike any other book; the Bible is also translated into 3,000 languages with several thousand more projects looking to increase the amount of languages that have access to some portion of the Bible.

It is the translation of the Bible that has become a blessing and a curse to the modern world. Each translation ultimately serves as a version or interpretation, because the task becomes communicating an ancient message given in an ancient language to a modern people. The burden of translating a text requires embedded explanations through the language of the given translation, that intends to communicate the original message. However, translations fail to serve their purpose due to the incomplete and inconsistent communication of translative practices.

That is, the modern translators, at best, are trying to use deficient languages that cannot at all communicate the totality of the original message in such simple terms as a Bible translation. Therefore, modern translations tend to add or take away from the original text—not out of malicious intent—but due to the deficiency of the language. These are things everyday readers are unaware of.

When a person picks up a Bible they assume that the Bible they are holding in their hand is exactly what the writers wrote. However, this is hardly the case and never can be. For, there’s no such thing as a literal translation of a text. We are simply getting the best we can in the language we possess.

This is not to say that the original message cannot be obtained. Rather, I boldly say that it can be, but not by reading a Bible translation. Rather, by doing the hard work of studying the language and manuscripts to see what is really there.

So, as I was doing the “hard work” in preparation of this sermon I found an interesting thing. The KJV has a drastically different rendering of Romans 8:1.

The KJV includes a part of the verse that was a later addition by the scribes of the early manuscripts. In other words, the earliest manuscripts do not include in verse 1 “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” In fact, only two other translations among the nine that I have considered include this addition.

Wycliffe: Therefore now nothing of condemnation is to them that be in Christ Jesus, which wander not after the flesh.

KJV 1611: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

KJV 1900 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

ESV There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

NRSV There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

NLT So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

The Message With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud.

CSB Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,

NET There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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

YLT There is, then, now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit;

The NET Bible notes why this is the case,

The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts, as well as a few others (א* B D* F G 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), have no additional words for v. 1. Later scribes (A D1 Ψ 81 365 629 pc vg) added the words μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν (mē kata sarka peripatousin, “who do not walk according to the flesh”), while even later ones (א‎2 D2 33vid 𝔐) added ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα (alla kata pneuma, “but [who do walk] according to the Spirit”). Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were evidently motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v. 4) to insulate Paul’s gospel from charges that it was characterized too much by grace. The KJV follows the longest reading found in 𝔐.

You, see this was not malicious intent. This was the way in which translators seek to aid the reader. Yet, in this case it only distracts the reader from the original point of the very first verse.

Paul’s point in Romans 8:1 was that those who are in Christ are incapable of being condemned. The condition is not being in the Spirit. Neither is the condition being out of the flesh. Rather, it is being in Christ.

**Paul does this because of Romans 7:7-25.**

The word condemnation means one who is worthy of punishment and guilty. It is a legal term used in a criminal case. That is, one is guilty with a complete understanding of what the punishment will be.

Judge Frank Caprio is the chief municipal judge in Providence, RI. He has developed a reputation as being a fair and just judge who is full of mercy. Countless times, he has gone on record lessening the sentences of those violators that have broken traffic laws. In fact, some like Victor Colella had their charges dismissed by the gracious judge.

Victor Colella was a 96 year old father charged with speeding through a school zone. His 63 year old son was handicap and had cancer. Mr. Colella stated he does not normally drive, unless he has to, and this particular morning he was late and needed to get his son to the doctor to have his blood work done.

Upon hearing his story, Judge Caprio was touched and commended Mr. Colella for his stellar fatherhood and dismissed his case.

What did Judge Caprio do? He removed Mr. Colella’s condemnation. It was not that Mr. Colella was innocent. Rather, he received mercy from the judge on account of his nobility.

Mr. Colella’s situation was a bit different from mankind’s. You see, mankind is not noble or worthy. Rather, God removes mankind’s punishment, because of our position in Christ.

The preposition “in” is such a little word in the Greek. Yet, it is so powerful. It means,

marker of close association within a limit, in1

1 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 327.

esp. in Paul. or Joh. usage, to designate a close personal relation in which the referent of the ἐν-term is viewed as the controlling influence: under the control of, under the influence of, in close association with (cp. ἐν τῷ Δαυιδ εἰμί 2 Km 19:44)1

1 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 327.

Doxology: Praise God for being in Christ!

We now know what it means to be in Christ. However, the next question is, how does one become “in” Christ?

What Does It Mean to Be in Christ?

This question becomes automatic when embracing the “in Christ” motif of Paul’s letters. There seems to be no clear explanation of how to become in Christ. The answer to this question is implied, as though Paul expects the reader to know the answer to this question. There are two parts to the answer.

God did something miraculous in Christ that led to mankind’s reconciliation unto God.

Man is to accept the work of God in Christ as sufficient.

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (CSB)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Christ has saved us and commissioned us!

Once one is found in Christ, there are important implications that lead to a more transformed life.

Practical Lessons from Romans 8

Condemnation is lost once a person becomes in Christ (Romans 8:1-2).

The fleshly life was man’s hindrance to life in Christ, and is therefore, defeated by God in Christ (Romans 8:3-4).

N.T. Wright says,

But what do “fleshly”…mean? ….[“Flesh”] is so problematic that it would be nice (as I have tried to do with some other technical language) to avoid it altogether, but I have found that doing so produces even worse tangles. Better to learn, once and for all, that when Paul uses the word “flesh” and other similar words he does not intend us simply to think of the “physical” world, in our normal sense, as opposed to the “non-physical.” He has other language for that. The word we translate, here and elsewhere, as “flesh” refers to people or things who share the corruptibility and mortality of the world, and, often enough and certainly here, the rebellion of the world. “Flesh” is a negative term. For Paul as a Jew the created order, the physical world, was good in itself. Only its wrong use, and its corruption and defacing, are bad. “Flesh” highlights that wrong use, that corruption and decay.

Walking in the Spirit, not the flesh produces a different mindset. (Romans 8:5-10)

Life in the Spirit, [out of the flesh] resurrects our mortal bodies. (Romans 8:11-16)

The mortal body is the entire structure of man that is subject to death. The phrase is θνητός σῶμα. That is the body’s subjection to death is destroyed and life is given.

The answer to Romans 7:24: The resurrection of our bodies grant us the privilege of suffering with Christ and receiving victory in Christ. (Romans 8:17-39)