I have more commentaries on the Book of Romans than on any other book of Bible. That is not an attempt in any way to boast, because most have been given to me. And the fact is, it’s more of a curse than a blessing to have all those books. I thought that I understood this passage, until I started reading. Hodge contradicts Haldane, and Lloyd-Jones doesn’t like Luther. Wilson debates Brown, Shedd and Griffith-Thomas, etc., etc. I didn’t know that this was all so complicated, but I guess that it is. So where are the great blessings and joy? There can be no true joy until there is a Christ-based relationship with Jehovah. That is what Paul is doing in these early verses of chapter 8 – creating an understanding of that relationship.
There must be no condemnation before there can be any real joy. Blessing #1 must be firmly established before we can move on to blessings #2, #5 and #8. And blessing #1 is the removal of condemnation which is accomplished by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. What again is that condemnation? Paul is talking about the justified judgment that is due to us because of our sin. For the saint of God, “there is now no DAMNATION.” “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” If hell were a hangman’s noose, the child of God lives in a world where there isn’t a tree strong enough to hold the rope. As you pillow your heads, you who are trusting the Lord Jesus only, you may say, “If I die tonight I CANNOT be condemned.” As you wake up tomorrow morning you can say, “I am NOT condemned.” When the devil howls at you may say, “You CAN accuse me, but I CANNOT be condemned.” If your sins rise up before you can say, “I know you, but your judgment has been laid on the Lord Jesus, and I CANNOT be damned.”
Until you receive that fact, and enjoy that promise, there can be no genuine or substantial Christian joy. But can we be a little more precise in our understanding and explanation of these things? Yes we can. For example: the Law didn’t give us these blessings; it was through the gracious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. (I realize that this is review, but please note that it was review which was begun by the Apostle Paul.)
But let’s change gears and talk about another law – the law of the of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. As I say, there is a natural process of death which touches everyone, because sin lives in everyone. We can correctly call that process an unalterable principle – a law – the law of sin which results in death. There is a revealed and written version of that law, called “THE Law of God.” It expresses exactly what takes place under the principle of “sin and death.” For example it says, “Behold all souls are mine, as the soul of the father, so also the son of the son, the soul that sinneth it shall die” – Ezekiel 18:4. “Whosoever believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the son, the wrath of God abideth on him” – John 3:36. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God” – Psalm 9:17. God’s Law says, that sinners will be condemned – eternally punished – for their sin. And the Law of God is perfect in every way in regard to what it was designed to do.
Let’s illustrate that law with a sterling-silver, family-heirloom, meat fork. That’s the fork that comes out every Thanksgiving to help serve the Turkey. It only comes out on Thanksgiving. It is ornately and beautifully engraved; it is valuable as an heirloom, and as a heavy piece of silver. It has been well used for three generations and looks as beautiful today as ever did, after Mom spends an hour with the silver polish.
The Law had the capability of blessing Adam and Eve throughout eternity. That is – it had that capability in the days before Adam chose to sin. Its relationship to our first parents was different than it has been to anyone of their children. To Adam and Eve, if they had never transgressed the will of God, that law would have guaranteed their eternal existence and eternal bliss. But, God’s Law cannot pull out the meat that has been stewing in sin for a thousand generations. The beautiful, heirloom meat-fork cannot work upon us, due to our sodden sinful souls and weak flesh. We have been stewing for so long that when the tinges plunge into us, there is nothing for them to grasp, and it can’t lift us up and out any more than it can the contents of vegetable soup. God’s law shows us the way to Heaven, but it can’t strengthen our weakened legs to help us get there. It shows us what sin is, but can’t keep us from avoiding it. It tells us that purity and holiness are demanded by God, but it can’t wash us once we are filthy. It rebukes us for our transgressions, but provides no way of genuine forgiveness.
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Oh, how man wants to charge his failure to everyone and everything but himself. The other day someone sent me a silly email, which I then forwarded to a couple of people. It went something like this: If a man cuts his finger off while slicing salami at work, he blames his employer – the restaurant. If he smokes three packs of cigarettes a day for 40 years and dies of lung cancer, his family blames the tobacco company. If his neighbor crashes into a tree while driving home drunk, he blames the bartender. If his grandchildren are brats and without manners, everyone blames television. If his friend is shot by a deranged madman, his family blames the gun manufacturer. And, if a crazed person breaks into the cockpit and tries to kill the pilot at 35,000 feet, and the passengers kill him instead, the mother of the crazed deceased blames the airline because of the mean-spirited passengers. This has taught me that if I die while I’m parked in front of my computer, I want my family to sue Bill Gates. Everyone is responsible except ourselves.
The sinner accuses God of having standards too high for him to reach. He accuses the Law of being too severe and cruel. He blames his parents, he blames his environment, he blames the food he eats. He’ll say that the Devil made him commit all those sins. I read of a thief who was brought to trial and who defended himself by saying that the Devil made him do it. The judge rightly replied that the Devil wasn’t on the docket until tomorrow. But at that moment he, the accused, was the only one on trial. If he is condemned, the sinner has no one to blame but himself.
What the Son did was take upon himself human flesh like our own. It was flesh just like ours in so many ways. It was prone to hunger and pain; it demanded sleep even in a gyrating fishing boat. The Son of God took upon him flesh which could die in crucifixion. But there was one major difference between His flesh and ours. Although His was genuine flesh, it was only the LIKENESS of SINFUL flesh. “Christ did no sin, neither was there guile found in his mouth.” Who can prove that Christ sinned? Not His accusers, nor His judge, Pilate; nor the common man. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
And God sent forth his Son for the specific purpose of SIN – verse 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.” Christ was born not to be our greatest teacher; He came for sin. Jesus did not become incarnate in order to pass on the Holy Spirit to us; He came for sin. And more specifically, He came to be a SACRIFICE for sin. Galatians 1:4 – “He gave himself for our sins, that the might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” Ephesians 5:2 – “He hath given himself for us as offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” Titus 2:4 – “He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.” Galatians 3:13 – “Christ hath redeemed us from curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” Isaiah 53:5 – “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities…” If man’s greatest need had been information, the Father would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, He would have sent a scientist. If our highest need was money, He would have sent a financier. Our greatest need is righteousness and salvation, so He sent His righteous Son to be our Saviour.
And specifically, what Jesus did was to condemn sin in the flesh – Romans 8:3. That is, He judged and punished sin in the flesh. Some people think that this verse teaches that Jesus has gotten rid of sin in the flesh of the believer. Not at all – the sin is still there, often ruining Christians’ testimonies and lives. But the punishment for those sins has been laid on Jesus’ shoulders. “There is therefore now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
That righteousness could have been fulfilled in either of two ways: The first being obedience to God’s law, before the law of sin and death took over. But when Adam sinned, he forever lost his innocent righteousness. He and all of his descendants have been spiritual quadriplegics ever since. We are all soggy pot roast swimming around, and disintegrating, in the stew of our sinfulness. A miracle has become essential for any of us to approach our Holy God.
And that miracle has come.“God sent his own sin in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.” And not only did He condemn sin in the flesh, but now shares His righteousness with any sinner who repents and comes to the Lord in humble faith. Those are the people who can walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
Have you ever brought your sin-sodden soul to Christ? Will you not bring yourself to the Cross of Christ this morning? Will you cast yourself down to receive His mercy? There is no other way to remove the condemnation that your sins demand.