Romans 8:1-4 No Condemnation in Christ Jesus
The Text
Romans 8:1–4 (CSB)
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering,
4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The Support
Line by line:
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,
Psalms 32:1-2 (CSB)
How joyful is the one
whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered!
How joyful is a person whom
the LORD does not charge with iniquity
and in whose spirit is no deceit!
John 3:16-18 (CSB) For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 6:6-11 (CSB) For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
Where do you see God in the text? What does the text say about God?
God
Chrst alone is our fulfillment of the law.
James 2:10 (CSB) For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.
Matthew 5:17-20 (CSB) Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
Hebrews 10:4 (CSB) For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Matthew 12:7 (CSB) If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.
The Gospel
3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering,
Hebrews 9:22–28 (CSB) According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another.
Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment— so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Ephesians 5:2 (CSB) and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
Matthew 5:17-20 (CSB) Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Our Response
4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 1:16–17 (CSB) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
Romans 9:25–26 (CSB) As it also says in Hosea, I will call Not my People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.
Romans 12:1 (CSB) Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
If you are in Christ, you are saved.
If you are in Christ, you are a new creation.
If you are in Christ, you possess his righteousness.
If you are in Christ, then you need to give up your sin to the One who has purchased it with his own blood: Jesus Christ. Your sin doesn't belong to you anymore. It belongs to Christ.
Why?
If you are in Christ,
then he is your God
he is your Lord
he is your King
he is you Savior
and He rightfully demands your obedience, your idols, and your sin. He wants your hearts. He doesn't give a rip about what you did or what sacrifices you made. Why would the Almighty Living God be satisfied with your appeasement? "Lord, I am going to do this one thing for you but you got to leave me alone." How do you think that is going to go over?
We are so quick to give our lives over to a job, a hobby, a idealogy, politics, religion, sex, or gender but we are so ignorantly, sinfully slow to give our lives and our hearts and our passions and our sin over to God. Why are we so slow?
Don't be slow.
Be quick about it. Do it right now. Wake up tomorrow, do it again. And the next day and the next day.
We don't get to walk in the flesh. We don't get to look like the rest of the world. The world spits on our Savior. They reject him because they are in slavery to sin. We are to walk in a manner according to the calling of God upon on our lives.
Do so right now. Go, in Jesus' name.