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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Romans 8:3 - 8:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
3. γὰρ explains the method of liberation.
τὸ ἀδύνατον. For abstract ἀδυνασία: cf. τὸ γνήσιον, 2Co 8:8; τὸ δοκίμιον, Jam 1:3; 1Pe 1:7 (?); τὸ χρηστὸν, supra Rom 2:4; cf. Blass, p. 155 = the incapacity, ineffectiveness, lack of power. The construction is pendent; cf. Blass, p. 283.
τοῦ νόμου. Here clearly of the law of GOD as apprehended by man.
ἐν ᾧ ἠσθένει = the quality by which it was in a state of weakness, brought to that weakness (by sin) by means of the flesh; cf. Rom 7:14 n. ἠσθένει = constantly proved weak.
ὁ θεὸς. The whole action described is the action of GOD.
τὸν ἑ. υἱὸν. “The emphatic ἑαυτοῦ brings out the community of nature between the Father and the Son, cf. Rom 8:32, Col 1:13,” S. H. Add to ‘nature’ mind and purpose.
πέμψας. In this connexion only here and in Ev. Joh.
ἐν ὁμ. σ. ἁμ. Cf. Php 2:7; Heb 2:17. ὁμ. does not mark unreality but suggests a difference; cf. Rom 5:14, Rom 6:5 n. The difference here is indicated by the addition of ἁμ. The σάρξ, which He assumed never admitted the tyranny of sin, though it included the capacity for temptation and sin. In these words S. Paul touches the very nerve of the Passion, and indicates the supreme act of the divine Love. See Moberly, Atonement and Personality, c. 6.
σ. ἁμαρτίας = human nature as it is under the dominion of sin. This phrase comes most near to describing flesh as in itself sinful; but that misunderstanding has already been fully guarded against.
περὶ ἁμαρτίας. περὶ = in the matter of, to deal with. ὑπὲρ = on behalf of. But the distinction between these prepositions is obscured in the Greek of this time. ὑπὲρ is never used with the sing. (sin as sin) but only with the plural (men’s sins): περὶ with both. It is probable that in περὶ ἁμαρτίας there is a direct allusion to the sin-offering; cf. Leviticus 4 et passim; Heb 10:6 alibi (cf. Heb 10:26); but the reference is also wider.
κατέκρινε τὴν ἁμ. Condemned it, gave a verdict against it in its claim upon man: it was just this effective condemnation which law had been unable to compass.
ἐν τῇ σαρκί. With κατέκρινε = in His flesh; cf. Rom 6:1-10, esp. 6, 7, 10. This parallel shows the reference to be primarily to the Crucifixion (cf. Rom 7:4); but the whole Incarnate Life showed the victorious power over sin which culminated in the Death and Resurrection, and constituted a verdict against sin’s claim to man’s nature. The whole was one act of redemption of the flesh, i.e. of human nature: it is that act in all its bearings which is in question here, in contrast with τὸ ἀδύνατον τοῦ νόμου.