Romans 8.34a-No One Can Condemn The Christian Because Christ Died And Rose Again For Them
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday January 28, 2009
Romans: Romans 8:34a-No One Can Condemn The Christian Because Christ Died And Rose Again For Them
Lesson # 284
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:31.
This evening we will begin a study Romans 8:34 and in this passage, Paul presents four reasons why no one can condemn the Christian for the sins he or she commits.
These four reasons further bring out the implications of Paul’s statement in Romans 8:31 that God is for the Christian, thus who can be against the Christian.
The four are in ascending order: (1) Christ’s death (2) His resurrection (3) His ascension and session (4) His intercessory prayer ministry.
Each reason presents a different aspect of Christ’s work on behalf of the Christian.
Christ’s spiritual death dealt with the Christians personal sins and His physical death dealt with the problem of the sin nature.
His resurrection provided evidence that God the Father had indeed accepted His sacrifice on the Cross as the propitiation of the sins of the entire human race-past, present and future.
Therefore, the Father could maintain His perfect integrity when He declared the sinner justified through faith in Jesus Christ.
Christ’s ascension and session at the right hand of the Father demonstrates the extent of the Father’s acceptance of His Son’s death on the Cross as the payment for sins in that Christ has been made supreme ruler over every creature.
Lastly, His intercessory prayer ministry at the right hand of the Father as the Christian’s advocate with the Father deals with the problem of Satan making accusations against the Christian when the Christian sins.
This evening we will study Romans 8:34a, which presents the first two reasons, namely that Christ died and rose again for the Christian.
Tomorrow, we will note Romans 8:34b, which presents the third and fourth reasons, namely, that Christ is interceding for the Christian at the Father’s right hand.
Let’s read this final paragraph and then concentrate on verse 34 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 8:31-39, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 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? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Let’s now concentrate on verse 34.
Romans 8:34, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
“Who is the one who condemns?” is a rhetorical question that demands or expects a negative response and addresses the problem of a hypothetical group or individual who might seek to condemn or accuse the Christian when he or she sins.
“The one who condemns” is the verb katakrino (katakrivnw) (kata-kree-no), which is a judicial term and compound word that means, “to condemn.”
It is used in relation to the personal sins and the sin nature of the Christian since both serve to condemn members of the human race.
In Romans 8:34, the verb katakrino indicates that the Christian can never be condemned because of his sins or sin nature since Christ’s spiritual death dealt with the former and Christ’s physical death dealt with the latter.
Romans 8:34, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
Some manuscripts contain the nominative masculine singular form of the proper name Iesous ( )Ihsou$), “Jesus” after the nominative masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (xristov$), “Christ” and some manuscripts don’t.
Perhaps, to break the deadlock, we should consider that in the book of Romans, Christos is never followed by Iesous when used in connection with the verb apothnesko, “died.”
This is probably due to the fact that Christos emphasizes our Lord’s Saviorhood and that He is the Deliverer of mankind from sin and Satan.
In Romans 5:6, 8 and 14:9, 15, Christos is used alone with apothnesko and is never accompanied by Iesous.
Therefore, based upon this evidence, we can be assured that Iesous does not follow Christos in Romans 8:34.
The proper name Christos is a technical word designating the humanity of our Lord as the promised Savior for all mankind who is unique as the incarnate Son of God and totally and completely guided and empowered by the Spirit as the Servant of the Father.
Romans 8:34, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
“He who died” is the articular nominative masculine singular aorist active participle form of the verb apothnesko (a)poqnhv|skw) (ap-oth-nace-ko), which refers to both the spiritual and physical deaths of the Christ on the cross.
This is indicated in that the former solved the Christian’s problem of committing personal sins and the latter solved the Christian’s problem of possessing a sin nature, both the sin nature and personal sins served to condemn the Christian before a holy God.
The response to the rhetorical question “who is the one who condemns?” indicates that the verb apothnesko is a reference to both the spiritual and physical deaths of Christ on the cross.
This is indicated in that Christ’s spiritual death dealt with the consequences of personal sin, namely spiritual death, and personal sin and spiritual death both serve to condemn the human race while His physical death dealt with the problem of the sin nature, which also served to condemn the human race.
Romans 8:34, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
“Yes, rather” is composed of the “emphatic” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), “yes” and the comparative adverb mallon (mallon) (mal-lon), “rather.”
Together, they introduce the thought that Christ rose from the dead, which is connected to and supplements the previous thought that Christ died.
They indicate that the spiritual and physical deaths of Christ are important and essential in delivering the Christian from condemnation.
However, these deaths cannot stand on their own.
Therefore, Paul uses mallon de to introduce the fact of Christ’s resurrection, which serves as evidence that the Father has accepted Christ’s spiritual death as the payment for personal sins and His physical death as solving the problem of the sin nature.
They serve to introduce the statement that Christ was raised from the dead, which advances upon Paul’s statement that Christ died and intensifies it.
Romans 8:34, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
“Who was raised” is the nominative masculine singular aorist passive participle form of the verb egeiro (e)geivrw) (eg-i-ro), which means, “to raise from physical death” and is used of impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ being raised from the dead.
The Lord was brought back from the dead by three categories of divine omnipotence.
First of all, the omnipotence of God the Father raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 1:20; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 1:10; 1 Pet. 1:21).
The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit also was an agent in Jesus Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 8:11; 1 Pet. 3:18).
The omnipotence of God the Son raised His physical body from the grave (John 2:20-23; 6:39-40, 54 10:17-18).
Here in Romans 8:34, Paul is emphasizing the Father and the Spirit’s part in the resurrection of Jesus Christ since the passive voice of the verb apothnesko denotes that our Lord is receiving the action of being raised from the dead, thus ruling out that Paul is emphasizing the omnipotence of God the Son in His own resurrection.
In our study of the book of Romans, Paul teaches how the resurrection relates to the Christian.
In Romans 4:25, Paul declares that the Lord Jesus Christ died because of the Christian’s sins and was raised from the dead because of the Christian’s justification.
Christ was raised for the Christian’s justification in the sense that the resurrection of Christ demonstrated that God the Father had accepted His Son’s spiritual and physical deaths on the cross to resolve the problem of personal sin and the sin nature in the human race.
Romans 4:25, “Who has been delivered over to death because of our transgressions and in addition was raised because of our justification.”
In Romans 6:4-5, Paul taught that just as the Christ was raised through the glory of the Father so in the same way the Christian would be as well since the Christian has been identified with Christ in His physical death and resurrection.
Romans 6:4, “Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism with respect to His physical death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead ones through the glory of the Father, in the same way, we, ourselves will also walk in the realm of an extraordinary life.”
In Romans 6:5, the apostle teaches that the justified sinner is identified with Christ in His resurrection in order that the believer might receive a resurrection body like the last Adam, Christ so as to replace his sinful body.
Romans 6:5, “Therefore, if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that we are entered into union with Him, conformed to His physical death. Of course, we believe this is true. Then, certainly, we will also be united with Him, conformed to His resurrection.”
In Romans 7:4a, he teaches that the Jewish Christians in Rome were dead with respect to the Mosaic Law through the body of Christ or in other words their identification with Christ in His physical death.
Then, in Romans 7:4b, the apostle teaches that the Jewish Christians in Rome and all Christians for that matter have been married to Christ in order to bear fruit for God the Father.
Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my spiritual brothers, all of you without exception have also been put to death by means of Christ’s body with the result that all of you have been entered into marriage with another, the one who was raised from the dead ones in order that we might produce fruit for the benefit of God the Father.”
In Romans 8:2, Paul states that there is never any condemnation, none whatsoever for the Christian who is in union with Christ because 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.
Romans 8:1-2, “Therefore, there is now, as an eternal spiritual truth, never any condemnation, none whatsoever for the benefit of those in union with Christ who is Jesus because, the life-giving Spirit’s authoritative power, by means of (the death and resurrection of) Christ, who is Jesus, has set you free from the sin nature’s authoritative power as well as spiritual death’s.”
Then, in Romans 8:11, Paul teaches that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to the Christian’s mortal body through the Spirit who indwells the Christian.
Romans 8:11, “However, if, and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument the Spirit, proceeding from the One (the Father) who raised the unique Person of Jesus from the dead ones, does dwell in all of you. Of course, He does! Then, the One (the Father) who raised Christ from the dead ones, will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who does permanently dwell in all of you.”