Paul's Epistle to the Romans — page 31

The chapter begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation from God and His love. He sees the believer on Earth, and thus, sees him passing through two kinds of trials – one that comes from being part of the creation that groans (vv. 20-30), and another that comes from being a faithful witness of Christ (vv. 31-39). While the believer waits in hope for his future deliverance, he is seen under the support of two divine intercessors: Christ in heaven (v. 34) and the Holy Spirit on Earth (v. 26).

In verses 1-11, Paul outlines a series of new things that mark the full Christian position and condition, which result from his being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We see immediately that everything has changed in relation to what he had described in chapter 7, regarding the state of the person.

A NEW POSITION BEFORE GOD IN CHRIST (chap. 8:1) The first thing that marks normal Christianity is that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ know their acceptance before God in Christ. Paul indicates this in his opening statement: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. The great point Paul emphasizes here is that, resulting from being justified, the believer is placed in a new position before God, where it is not possible for him to come into condemnation. He is in the same place of acceptance in which Christ Himself is! This is the meaning of being “in Christ” – it is to be in Christ's place before God. This certainty belongs to the believer as a result of resting in faith in the finished work of Christ, and of believing what the Word of God says about it. Verse 1 is essentially the conclusion of the truth that Paul taught in chapters 1-5:11.

Note that Paul does not say (as some suppose): “Now there is no longer condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This would imply that believers were condemned before their conversion, but escaped by coming to Christ in faith for salvation. However, this is not correct. As mentioned in our comments on chapter 5:16, unbelievers are currently under judgment, but are not under condemnation – at least not yet. Condemnation is something final and irrevocable, to where sinners in this world are going, and where they will remain (in a lost eternity), if they are not saved.

Paul says that we have this certainty of never entering into condemnation “now” while we are here on Earth. This is one of the main reasons why the Spirit was sent into this world; it is to give the believer certain knowledge of his place of acceptance before God (John 14:20; Eph. 1:13, 4:30). This is normal Christianity.

The last ten words of verse 1 (in the KJV [also in the ARC]) are not in most Greek manuscripts, and should not be in the text. If those words were in the text, then it would make the believer's justification and acceptance in Christ something that would result from his walk according to the Spirit. That could not be right, because then our salvation would be a consequence of our works! That is contrary to everything Paul taught in chapters 3 to 5, where he shows that our salvation is not by works, but only by grace. This sentence (the last ten words of verse 1) really belongs to verse 4 where it is repeated there.

1. N. Darby observes that the line of truth that the apostle

develops in Romans does not go so far as to present what is positively ours “in Christ”; it gives only its negative side. It is said that there is “no condemnation” for those who are in Christ Jesus. While in Ephesians, Paul presents the higher truth, declaring what we have positively “in Christ”, being blessed “with every spiritual blessing” in Him (Eph. 1:3).

A NEW LAW (PRINCIPLE) THAT GOVERNS OUR WALK (chap. 8:2-4)

The second thing that marks normal Christianity is that believers have in themselves a new law (principle), through the indwelling of the Spirit, which empowers their lives and enables them to live above the inclinations of the flesh. Paul says:

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death”. Verses 2-4 summarize what Paul taught in chapters 5:12–7:25 – that is, deliverance from the power of sin. Therefore, in verse 1, we have acceptance and in verse 2, deliverance. The fact that acceptance is mentioned first shows that we first need to be resting in the finished work of Christ and to know our position before God in Christ (at the moment the Holy Spirit is received – Eph. 1:13), before we can have the practical power of deliverance in our lives by the Spirit.

It is important to understand that the new life is dependent upon and needs the power of the Holy Spirit to be lived according to the will of God. Having received the Spirit, there is now a new controlling power in the Christian that is greater than that in the sinful nature. It transcends the evil influence of the flesh and enables the believer to live a holy life that the new life desires.

The scientific law of gravity illustrates this. As we know, every object is being pulled downward toward the center of the Earth by the invisible force of gravity. It is universal; this happens all over the Earth. If we took a solid object in our hands – a book, for our illustration – and held it at a certain height from the floor, and then let it go, the book would fall to the floor. Regardless of how many times we did this, it would always fall to the floor. This is like our sinful nature; it wants to go in one direction – morally and spiritually downward, toward sin. That principle of evil in us is called “the law of sin and death”. It is a universal principle present in every human being, and its end is always death.

Taking our illustration a little further, suppose we wanted to change things so that, when we released the book, it would not fall to the ground by the force of gravity. So, to accomplish this, we tie to the book some balloons filled with helium gas, which is lighter than air. And, if we had enough balloons, so that their upward force was greater than the weight of the book, when we released the book, it would not fall, but would rise into the air. We all understand why; the principle of gravity was not removed or deactivated, but a more powerful and predominant principle was applied over the book.

This illustrates what God did with the believer by giving him the Holy Spirit. As we know, our fallen nature was not taken away when we were saved. We will not be free from this enemy until the Lord comes. God saw fit to leave us here in this world with the fallen nature still in us (and the state of our hearts is constantly tested by it), but He has made full provision for us to live above the power of that evil thing, through another law working in us, which Paul calls “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”.

Verses 3-4 indicate that, in securing a means for the believer to live a holy life, free from the power of sin, God did not intend to do so through the rehabilitation of the flesh. This is not God's way of holiness. Christianity is not an improvement of the flesh. From the fall of man to the cross of Christ, God kept man in the flesh under testing. That was for about four thousand years, or forty centuries. (Forty, in the Scriptures, means testing.) During that period, the flesh was tested in man in every way, and proved to be useless. The testing came to an end at the cross, where God judged the whole order of things that is according to the flesh (chap. 6:6). Thus, God “condemned sin in the flesh” and set it aside as useless. It was condemned because – as someone has said – “What cannot be mended must be ended!” Thus, God is no longer seeking fruit from man in the flesh, and deliverance from the power of sin will certainly not come from the flesh, but through what God accomplished in grace through Christ.

Nevertheless, many Christians mistakenly think that when a person is born again, God performs a miracle in him, by which his human nature is renewed or remade. They mistakenly call this regeneration (Titus 3:5). Since the word “regenerate” means to restart something, they imagine that the new birth is a regeneration of the old nature, infusing new life into it. Based on this mistaken belief, most Reformed theologians and many evangelical preachers teach that Christians do not have two natures, but rather one “regenerated nature!” However, this makes regeneration and the new birth nothing more than a rehabilitation of the flesh. The truth is that the flesh cannot be improved. The Scriptures say that “it does not submit to God's law, nor indeed can it”. (Rom. 8:7). The Lord taught this to Nicodemus. He said: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). That is, whatever men may do to improve man in the flesh – whether to instill the influence of culture, education, religion, or to deprive of food, or to scourge, etc. – the final result is that it is still nothing more than sinful flesh. Therefore, the only thing to do with the flesh is to condemn it and set it aside, and that is exactly what God has done.

The point in verses 3-4 is that grace succeeded in doing what “what was impossible for the Law” (Mosaic)” – that is, giving man (the believer) the power to walk in holiness. Paul says that the Law was “weak [feeble

• JND] through the flesh”. This does not mean that there is something wrong with the Law, but

that it could not produce anything good from the flesh because the material (the sinful nature) was completely bad. Note that it says God condemned sin in the flesh; He did not condemn the Law. There is nothing wrong with the Law; the problem is with the flesh.

Verse 4 shows that through what God accomplished in grace, the believer is now able to fulfill “the righteous requirements of the Law” (JND), without being formally under the Law (W. Kelly Translation). This means that the Christian does the righteous things described in the Law, not because he has any legal obligation to the Law, but because, in his normal occupation with Christ, the Spirit of God produces holiness in him.

A NEW SPHERE OF LIFE IN WHICH WE LIVE FOR GOD (chap. 8:5-7)