Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:1-11
In this message we shall consider 8:1-11. In 8:1 Paul says, “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” It is easy for us to take this verse for granted and assume that we understand it, perhaps thinking that the condemnation here is the same as that spoken of in chapter three. But the condemnation described in chapters two and three has been removed before 8:1. Hence, the condemnation in this verse is of another kind, a condemnation that is within us. The condemnation in chapters two and three is something before God, not something according to our inward sense or consciousness. It is an objective condemnation, a condemnation according to God’s law. Before we were saved, we probably did not have any realization that in the sight of God we were condemned according to His righteous law. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, that condemnation was removed by Christ’s redeeming blood. Hallelujah, this condemnation has been washed away by the blood of Jesus! Therefore, we no longer have this condemnation.
We should not confuse the condemnation in chapters two and three with that in 8:1. The condemnation in this verse is subjective; it is something inward that is according to our inner sense and also according to our Christian conscience. This is clear when we realize that 8:1 immediately follows chapter seven. If we read chapter seven carefully, we shall see that it describes a war within the various parts of our being. We know that as human beings we are made of more than one basic part. As a result of the fall, the various parts of our being are not in harmony with one another.
In chapter seven Paul, the writer of the book of Romans, tells us that a war is raging among his inward parts. One part wills to keep the law of God perfectly and to the uttermost. This part desires to delight in God, to please God, and to satisfy God. Thus, in 7:22 Paul says, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man.” However, when this part of our being is exercised to do good and fulfill the law, another part rises up to fight. This part always defeats that part which delights in the law of God. Therefore, 7:23 says, “But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me a captive in the law of sin which is in my members.” The good part is defeated every time. We may take sides with this good part and stand with it against the other part, but we always suffer defeat and lose the battle.
We have pointed out that in 7:23 Paul speaks of being made a captive in the law of sin which is in his members. Is it not a pitiful situation to become a captive in this way? Yet we must realize that as Christians we may be captured every day by this law of sin. We are not captured by giant enemies outside of us, but by small enemies within us, for example, by our temper. Often we speak of losing our temper. Actually, it is more accurate to speak of being captured by the law of sin. It is not a matter of losing our temper; it is a matter of being a captive in the law of sin in our members.
Romans 7:24 says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” This cry is related to the condemnation in 8:1. This is not the condemnation that is objective and before God; it is the condemnation that is subjective, the condemnation within us. Furthermore, this condemnation is not a problem to God, but it becomes a problem to us.
Not many unbelievers experience this kind of condemnation. However, nearly all seeking Christians have a problem with it. When you did not seek the Lord but instead loved the world, you did not have this problem. But when you began to love the Lord and seek Him, you spontaneously made up your mind to improve, even to be perfect and love the Lord to the uttermost. This decision gives rise to the war described in Romans 7. Making up our mind to do good or to improve ourselves stirs up the law of sin in our members. It causes all the little enemies within to rise up and fight against us. There are many enemies within us. However, if a Christian does not love the Lord very much, or if he does not make up his mind to please the Lord, these enemies will not bother him. But as soon as he makes up his mind to do good, the enemies rise up.
In verse 25 Paul goes on to say, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve as a slave the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” This is the conclusion of chapter seven. In this chapter we are not given the way to be delivered from subjective condemnation. Therefore, chapter eight is necessary.
Paul begins chapter eight with a word concerning condemnation: “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Once again I would say that the condemnation here is inward. Here the writer can praise and declare that there is no longer any condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. When some read this verse, they may say, “I am in Christ Jesus. But how come I don’t have such a cry of victory? Instead, I am still sighing and moaning.” The reason is that actually and practically we may be in 7:24 and not in 8:1. When we enjoy the Lord in a church meeting, we may have a sense of victory. We are then in 8:1. But after the meeting, we may be defeated again and find ourselves once more in 7:24.
We need to pay attention to the tense of 8:1. This verse is in the present tense, not in the future. Paul does not say, “There will be no condemnation”; he says that there is now no condemnation. When a problem comes up, we should remember this and declare, “There is now no condemnation.” For example, when you come home after a meeting and your husband or wife is about to bring up a troublesome matter, you need to remember that at that very moment there is no condemnation. If we declare 8:1 in the midst of our daily situations, we shall see how effective the word of God is.
We need to proclaim God’s word to the enemy, to the demons. Wherever we go, we must declare the word of God. In particular, we must declare that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Satan will lie to us and say that we are defeated, even though we are in Christ. Do not accept this lie, and do not believe it. Instead, declare the word of God. Declare that to those who are in Christ there is now no condemnation.
Paul’s shout of victory in 8:1 is not vain. He has a definite base, ground, to make such a statement. In verse 2 he says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and of death.” In the next verse he goes on to say, “For, the law being impossible in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” According to this verse, God sent His own Son not only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but He also sent Him concerning sin.
In 8:3 sin does not refer to sinful deeds such as stealing. Of course, stealing is a sin. But this is not the sin this verse refers to. In order to understand the word sin in this verse, we must go back to chapter seven. According to chapter seven, sin must be a person, for it can war against us, deceive us, kill us, and capture us. Verse 11 says, “For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.” The fact that sin can deceive and kill indicates that it is not only something personified, but that it is a person. According to chapters five, six, seven, and eight, sin is not merely a thing or a matter; it is a powerful, living person who can capture us and even kill us. To be sure, this sin is much more powerful than we are. Who, then, is this person called sin? Who is this living sin which can deceive us, capture us, and kill us?
Concerning this sin, God sent His Son in the likeness, in the form, of the flesh of sin. This indicates that sin dwells in a certain element, and this element is man’s flesh. Our flesh is thus the habitation of sin. Sin dwells in our flesh. Furthermore, sin has actually become one with our flesh, making our flesh virtually the incarnation of sin.
Most Christians know the meaning of the word incarnation. Incarnation refers to one thing which formerly was outside another thing entering into that thing and becoming one with it. The Lord Jesus is God. But one day He was incarnated; He came as a man. In this way, man became Christ’s incarnation. In the same principle, sin has become one with our flesh, making it the very incarnation of sin. We cannot say exactly when this incarnation took place, but we know that it is a fact. Thus, our flesh is called “the flesh of sin” because sin has become one with the flesh.
Now we must see that when God the Father sent God the Son concerning sin and to deal with sin, even to abolish it, He sent Him not in the reality of the flesh of sin, but in the likeness, the appearance, of the flesh of sin. This means that He sent Him in the likeness of the flesh, which had become sin’s incarnation. In the likeness of the flesh of sin, God sent His Son concerning sin and to deal with sin, to condemn it.
In order to understand verse 3, we need to identify the subject and the predicate. The subject is God, and the predicate is condemned. This verse tells us that God condemned sin. He condemned the enemy that deceives us, wars against us, defeats us, captures us, and kills us. Where did God condemn this sin? He condemned it in the flesh. Now we must ask another question: In whose flesh did God condemn sin? The answer is that God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ, the One who was sent in the likeness of the flesh of sin. In this flesh God condemned sin. According to John 1:1 and 14, the Word, which is God, became flesh. In this flesh, the incarnation of the eternal Word, God condemned sin through crucifixion. When the man Jesus was crucified in the flesh, that was the time God condemned sin in the flesh. Therefore, in the flesh of Jesus Christ and through His all-inclusive death, God condemned sin.
Verse 3 does not end with a period, but with a comma. This indicates that verse 4 is the continuation of verse 3. According to these verses, God condemned sin in the flesh so that “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.”
Romans is a book on both the Christian life and the church life. Regarding the Christian life and the church life, chapter eight of Romans is crucial. If we do not have the experience revealed in this chapter, it is impossible for us to have a proper Christian life and a proper church life. Among the millions of today’s Christians, few have a proper Christian life and proper church life because very few know the crucial secret found in chapter eight.
In the universe there are two worlds, two realms, a spiritual world and a physical one. In this spiritual world there are demons, evil spirits, and many negative things which bother us. Paul had a revelation of the spiritual world. In Colossians 2:14 and 15 he points out that when the Lord Jesus was crucified, He stripped off the rulers and the authorities, making a display of them openly and triumphing over them. Those who crucified the Lord Jesus did not know what was taking place in the spiritual world while the Lord was on the cross. But the demons and the evil angels realized that the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross meant their defeat. According to Colossians 2:15, God the Father came in to clear the way so that Christ’s crucifixion would not be frustrated. Therefore, through the death of Christ on the cross, the rulers and authorities were defeated. This indicates that during His crucifixion Christ was fighting against the evil powers. The evil powers could not prevail against Christ on the cross.
After the Lord Jesus died, He was buried. In a sense, the evil angels were glad that Christ was buried. When He was about to rise up from the dead, the enemies of God once again tried to frustrate Him. The evil powers did their best to hold Him, to retain Him, in death. But according to Acts 2:24, it was impossible for Christ to be held by death. He arose from among the dead and ascended into heaven. When He ascended, He stripped off the evil powers and captured them. My purpose in mentioning this is to point out that the Christian life is not only related to the physical world, but is also involved with the spiritual world.
Our problems in the Christian life are not mainly with the physical world, but with the spiritual world. Even sin is not actually a physical matter. On the contrary, it is something spiritual and exists in the spiritual realm. Therefore, if we would overcome sin, we need spiritual power, spiritual strength. Mental power, which is actually related to the physical world, cannot release us from the power of sin. Sin is spiritual, and it can be overcome only by means of spiritual power. Concerning this spiritual power, Romans 8 is vital.
In 8:4 Paul refers to both the physical world and the spiritual world. He says that we “do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.” The expression “according to flesh” refers to the physical realm, but the expression “according to spirit” refers to the spiritual world. The Christian life is complicated. On the one hand, we have a physical part related to the physical world; on the other hand, we have a spiritual part — our spirit — which is related to the spiritual world. We need to see that the Christian life is involved with both worlds and that these worlds exist within us. We have the flesh, and we also have the spirit. We need to consider whether we are living in the flesh, in the physical world, or in the spirit, in the spiritual world. Are we walking according to the flesh or according to the spirit?
In 8:3 we see that concerning sin God did a great thing: Through the incarnation of the Son of God, God dealt with the problem of sin, condemning sin in the flesh. Verse 3 includes both the incarnation and the crucifixion. God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin: this refers to Christ’s incarnation. Then God condemned sin in the flesh; this is related to Christ’s crucifixion.
God condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Notice that in verse 4 Paul says fulfilled, not kept. If he had said kept instead of fulfilled, this verse would mean that we must keep the law. However, here Paul refers not to keeping the law, but to the fulfilling of the righteous requirements of the law in those who walk according to spirit. This means that the requirements of the law are fulfilled not in those who keep the law, but in those who walk according to spirit.
Romans 8 is deep, profound, and very experiential. Without adequate spiritual experience, we cannot understand this chapter. According to verses 3 and 4, God sent His incarnate Son concerning sin. Through the death of His Son on the cross, God condemned sin in the flesh. His purpose in condemning sin was that the righteous requirement of the law of God may be fulfilled in us, not by our efforts to keep the law, but by our walking according to spirit. Thus, we are not law-keepers; we are those who walk according to spirit.
