Romans 8.3b-God The Father Executed The Sin Nature Through His Son's Physical Death
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 16, 2008
Romans: Romans 8:3b-God The Father Executed The Sin Nature Through His Son’s Physical Death
Lesson # 243
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:1.
Sunday we studied Romans 8:1 and in this passage, Paul assured his Christian readers in Rome that because of their union with Jesus Christ they are no longer under condemnation because of their inability to obey the Law perfectly.
Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Tuesday, we noted Roman 8:2 and in this passage, Paul taught the Christians in Rome that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set them free from the law of sin and of death.
Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
Last evening we began a study Romans 8:3 and in this passage, Paul “explains how” or presents the “reason why” the life-giving Spirit’s authoritative power, by means of (the death and resurrection of) Christ Jesus has set them free from the sin nature’s authoritative power as well as spiritual death’s.
Last night, we noted the first statement in this passage where Paul teaches that the Law was unable to deliver sinful humanity from the sin nature and real spiritual death.
This evening we will complete the verse by noting that the Spirit was able to set the Christian free from the sin nature and real spiritual death because the Father executed the sin nature through Christ’s physical death.
Romans 8:3, “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.”
“God” is the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the first member of the Trinity, God the Father since the Scriptures teach that the Father and not the Spirit sent the Son into the world to die as a substitute for sinners.
Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”
John 3:16-18, 1 John 4:9-10 and 14 also teaches that God the Father delivered over His Son to death because of His love for sinners.
Peter declares on the day of Pentecost that it was according to the Father’s plan from eternity past and His foreknowledge that His Son was delivered over to sinners to suffer spiritual and physical death (Acts 2:22-23).
It was the will of the Father that His Son might suffer spiritual death as our Substitute in order to rescue us from the cosmic system of Satan (Galatians 1:3-4).
Galatians 1:3-4, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”
In our study of Romans 3:25, we studied that God the Father offered publicly at the Cross of Calvary His Son Jesus Christ to sinful mankind as a propitiatory gift.
Romans 3:23-25, “For each and every person has sinned consequently, they are always failing to measure up to the glory originating from God with the result that they might, as an eternal spiritual truth, be undeservedly justified based upon His grace by means of the redemption, which is by means of the spiritual death of Christ who is Jesus whom God the Father offered publicly as a propitiatory gift through faith by means of His blood in order to demonstrate His righteousness because of the deliberate and temporary suspension of judgment of the sins, which have taken place in the past on the basis of the tolerance originating from the character and nature of God the Father.”
Romans 8:3, “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.”
“Sending” is the verb pempo (pevmpo), which means, “to send” and is used of God the Father sending His Son Jesus Christ to the Cross to die both spiritually and physically so as to deliver sinful humanity from the sin nature and real spiritual death.
“His own” denotes the close, intimate personal relationship between the Father and His Son Jesus Christ indicating that the Father did not send one of His moral rational creatures such as an angel but rather He sent someone who possessed a close, intimate relationship with Himself, namely, His own Son.
“Son” is the noun huios (ui(ov$) (hwee-os), which is employed here as a title for the deity of Christ.
The noun expresses three fundamental concepts regarding the Lord Jesus Christ: (1) His eternal relationship with the Father. (2) His appointment to the office of Savior and Messiah. (3) His divine essence.
This word expresses the Lord Jesus Christ’s equality with the Father and His eternality.
The Lord Jesus Christ is infinite and eternal God (John 1:1-2; John 8:58; 10:30a; Col. 2:9a; Rev. 1:8) and is therefore, equal with the Father (John 10:30, 37-38; 14:9; 17:5, 24-25).
“In the likeness of sinful flesh” emphasizes that the Son of God was a human being yet without a sin nature.
Jesus Christ was similar to the rest of the human race but not identical since He was first of all, God and also He did not have a sin nature and was sinless because He did not have a human father that passed the sin nature down.
Jesus Christ did not have a sin nature and did not have a human father since the sin nature is passed down through sex.
Romans 8:3, “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.”
“And” is the “intensifying” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which introduces a statement that is not new in relation to the previous statement but rather is connected to it and in fact explains further this statement and completes the idea.
In the previous statement Paul says that God the Father accomplished man’s salvation, which the Law was powerless to do because of the presence of the sin nature in man and He did this by sending into the world His Son in the likeness of sinful humanity.
Now, he is going to complete this thought by explaining specifically how the Father accomplished man’s salvation.
Therefore, Paul is saying because of the Law’s inability in which it was always powerless through the flesh to deliver men from sin and spiritual death, God the Father accomplished by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. “In fact,” concerning the sin nature, He condemned the sin nature in His human flesh.
“As an offering for sin” indicates that the Father sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh “with regards to” the sin nature.
“He condemned” is the verb katakrino (katakrivnw) (kata-kree-no), which refers to a “judicial action” in the form of the physical death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
The word emphasizes the “execution” of the sentence against the sin nature by the Supreme Court of Heaven, God the Father, through the physical death of the impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
It involves both the pronouncement of the sentence and the execution of it.
First, the Father pronounced the sin nature as guilty, rendering it evil and sentencing it to destruction and then executed that sentence.
The verb katakrino emphasizes the “execution” of the sentence of destroying the sin nature and removing it from God’s creation through the physical death of the impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ.
In Romans 8:3, the verb katakrino is personifying the sin nature, portraying the sin nature as a litigant in court where God the Father has judged and sentenced the sin nature to destruction and has executed that sentence through the physical death of His Son Jesus Christ on the Cross.
The verb katakrino is personifying hamartia portraying the sin nature as being a litigant in court who has received a guilty verdict from the judge and has received the execution of his sentence.
Romans 8:3, “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.”
“In the flesh” refers to the human nature of Jesus Christ.
“In the flesh” indicates that the physical death of the impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union was the means by which God executed the sin nature whereas His spiritual death dealt with the issue of personal sins.
The Lord Jesus Christ died physically in order to deal with the problem of the sin nature in the human race, which is located in the physical body of a person as a result of God imputing Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden to every person at the moment of physical birth.
Therefore, the Christian’s problem with his indwelling Adamic sin nature is resolved when he is identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
In Romans 8:3, the apostle Paul is referring to the physical death of Jesus Christ, which the Christian was identified with through the baptism of the Spirit, which in turn delivers them or sets them free from the tyranny of the sin nature and real spiritual death.
