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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Romans 8:1 - 8:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Life in the Spirit.
Walking after the Spirit:
v. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
v. 2. For the law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
v. 3. For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
v. 4. that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
"Therefore," an inference especially from the last verse of the preceding chapter. For since the Christians with their flesh still serve the law of sin and, on account of the weakness of their corrupted flesh, sin daily and much, the conclusion might be drawn, also by themselves, that they are heaping God's wrath and condemnation upon themselves by their sins of weakness with which they are daily battling, that they, although in a state of justification through the merits of Christ, are in a state of condemnation and can never be certain of God's fatherly affection. But this feeling, which would tend also to take away the certainty of redemption, is not justified. "Although sin still rages in the flesh, yet it does not condemn, because the spirit is just and battles against it. " (Luther.) This Paul declares with great emphasis: Condemnation is in every sense out of the question; there is none, of any kind or degree; no sentence of condemnation can touch them. It is true, of course, that all sins of the Christians, also sins of weakness, are in themselves under the judgment of condemnation, that the believers must daily seek forgiveness for them in the wounds of Christ. These facts, however, have been fully discussed in connection with the justification of a poor sinner before God. But here St. Paul is treating of the great work of sanctification, which follows upon justification. There are Christians that are deeply concerned about the fact that their life and works, their conversation as believers, is still so far from perfection, that their performance of God's will remains so far behind their intention and desire. But here we are given the assurance that God, reconciled to all men in Christ Jesus, looks upon the justified sinners, upon the regenerated, believing Christians, as though they were altogether in the Spirit, as though they had no sinful flesh to hinder them anymore. To them that are in Christ Jesus, that are in Him vitally, by that wonderful union of which the Lord speaks Joh_15:1-7, that have their being in Him by justifying faith, to them that walk not, do not regulate their entire life according to the flesh, according to their sinful desires, but follow the commands of the Spirit, to these there is no sentence of condemnation.
For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death. The present, regenerated state of the Christians, in which we walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, is a proof of the fact that the Spirit has really delivered us from the law of sin and of death. The law of the Spirit of Life is the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as He determines our entire conduct and transmits to us the life which is in Christ, causing us to live in Christ and with Christ. And in doing this for us, the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and of death, of sin, which wanted to control and direct our life and deliver us into the power of death, to which we were subject by nature. Thus it is no longer sin, but the Spirit that is the controlling factor in the lives of the believers. Through the work of the Spirit we have died unto sin and become partakers of the resurrection of Christ. "Where the Spirit is not, there the Law is weakened and transgressed through the flesh, making it impossible for the Law to help a man but only unto sin and death. Therefore God sent His Son and laid upon Him our sin, and thus helped us to fulfill the Law through His Spirit. " (Luther.) So far as the weakness, the faintness of the Law is concerned, a condition of impotency which was due to its being weakened through the flesh, it should always be remembered that God, in sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and on account of sin, condemned the sin in the flesh. The Law of God is not in itself weak and impotent, but it is rendered so, its power and effect is suspended through the influence of the sinful flesh. Our depravity makes it impossible for the Law to save us, because it makes the fulfillment of the Law impossible. But when this was the situation, altogether hopeless, so far as man's salvation was concerned, the mercy of God stepped in. He sent His own Son, the Son that was equal with Him in essence and power, Possessor of the same deity. He sent Him in the likeness of the flesh of sin, like unto the sinners in humanity, a real man, and man's Substitute and Representative in bearing the sin of the whole world with all its consequences, for the sake of doing away with sin and its guilt forever. Christ was the expiation, the sacrifice, for sin And thus God condemned, spoke the sentence of condemnation upon, sin in the flesh; the sacrifice, the death, of Christ shows that God's justice condemned the sin which rules in the corrupt nature of man. Christ was made a curse, because He bore the curse which must strike sin. And thereby God has declared that sin no longer has the right to keep man in subjection and to force him to transgress the Law of God; He has delivered men from the jurisdiction of sin. And thus the precept, the rightful demand, of the Law may be satisfied, may be fulfilled in us, that is, in those persons that do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. By delivering us from the dominion of sin, Christ has made it possible for us to fulfill the Law of God, to deny and crucify the flesh and to live according to the Spirit. And the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the life in Christ, has loosed us from the bonds, from the dominion and jurisdiction of sin and of death, and now teaches us to walk, to lead our entire lives, in conformity with God's will.