My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth
until Christ is formed in you! Galatians 4.19
The mood of Paul’s argument changes abruptly in Romans 8 as he assures the believer that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The believer does not live in bondage to sin’s crippling power, nor will he suffer the eschatological consequences of eternal damnation in the life to come. The chapter ends on an equally positive note. There is an extended promise that nothing can separate those who walk in the Spirit from the love of God. Those who walk in the Spirit enjoy a special relationship with God and the promise of eternal life. By itself, the Mosaic law is unable to secure anyone’s salvation because those subject to it are crippled by resident sin. God overcame the power of sin through the incarnation of his eternal Son, who, though born in the likeness of sinful flesh, was himself sinless and by his atoning sacrifice destroyed sin’s oppressive rule. Christ’s sacrificial death fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, thereby liberating those who no longer walk according to the flesh but live by the Spirit’s sanctifying power. It is the Holy Spirit’s rule in a Christian’s life that enables him to overcome the abusive power of sin: In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (8.37). This chapter highlights Paul’s discourse on the theme, the righteous will live by faith. It is a summary statement of what it means to be religious. In the introduction to Henry Scougal’s well known treatise, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, he wrote:
I cannot speak of religion without lamenting that, among so many pretenders of it, so few understand what it means. Some place it in the understanding, orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties and a model of performances … Others again put all religion in the affections, in rapturous heats and ecstatic devotion; and all they aim at is to pray with passion, to think of heaven and pleasure, and to be affected with those kind and melting expressions wherewith they court their Savior till they persuade themselves that they are mightily in love with Him. … But certainly religion is quite another thing; and they who are acquainted with it will entertain far different thoughts, and disdain all those shadows and false imitations of it. They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation in the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul. In the apostle’s words, it is “Christ formed in you.” (Scougal, pp. 2-3)
FREEDOM IN CHRIST (8.1-4)
The condemnation that stems from the universal infestation of sin in every man’s heart is repealed by the law of the Spirit of life. Adam’s sin effectively contaminated the entire world (5.15-16) so that every human being has inherited the moral and spiritual proclivities of the progenitor of the race. The resulting wrath of God is rightly visited on all who are bound to Adam by birth. But for those who have experienced the second birth through faith in Christ, this verdict is nullified. They are justified by faith and have made peace with God (5.1-2). The Spirit reveals the will of God; he is at work within the life of the believer to produce works of righteousness that are pleasing to God. In the solitary act of Christ’s atonement he accomplished two things: he destroyed the effect of sin and he effects a life of righteousness in the believer. “Our flesh is judged; our old self was crucified with Christ. Hence the will of the law that justifies us is fulfilled in us because we are subjected to the law of the Spirit. The Spirit brings to us the newness of life that furnishes us with our conduct (6:4). Our justification is based on Christ’s act and becomes effective because the Spirit determines our action. God has made his righteousness manifest (3:21) both because our flesh is condemned and because we have been given the Spirit. It happened from faith to faith (1:17), for our justification came about through the condemnation of Christ, in order for us to believe, and it comes to pass through the work of the Spirit because we believe” (Adolf Schlatter, Romans, p. 176).
The Spirit of life sets the believer free from sin and death. Those who walk by the Spirit are freed from every aspect of sin’s ruling power. God did what the Mosaic law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. Jesus, who is the eternal Son of God, destroyed the effects of sin by bearing in his body and soul God’s wrath against the sin of the whole human race. Consider what Paul has to say in Galatians 4.3-5: In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. More radical than destroying the effects of sin or breaking its strangle hold, God executes judgment on sin. God made his Son, who knew no sin, to become sin for the believer in order that in Him the believer might become the righteousness of God (cp. 2 Corinthians 5.21). It is Christ alone who has perfectly obeyed the law’s demands. “As our substitute, he satisfied the righteous requirement of the law, living a life of perfect submission to God. In laying upon him the condemnation due all of us (v. 3b; cf. v. 1), God also made it possible for the righteous obedience that Christ had earned to be transferred to us. Verses 3-4 then fit into a pattern in Paul’s presentation of the work of Christ that has been called an ‘interchange’ – Christ becomes what we are so that we might become what Christ is. In this sense, then, we may interpret ‘the righteous requirement of the law’ to be the demand of the law for perfect obedience, or for righteousness. And the law’s just demand is fulfilled in Christians not through their own acts of obedience but through their incorporation into Christ. He fulfilled the law; and in him, believers also fulfill the law – perfectly, so that they may be pronounced ‘righteous,’ free from ‘condemnation’ (v. 1). It is in this way that Paul’s stress on faith ‘establishes the law’ (3:31), for, in grasping Christ by faith, people are accounted as really having ‘done the law’” (Douglas Moo, Romans, pp. 483-484).
A MIND SET ON CHRIST (8.5-8)
The moral man is enamored with idea that he can achieve a degree of ethical and even “spiritual” perfection through the rigors of self-discipline. He aspires to master the cardinal virtues of justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude and believes they are attainable through natural constraints. In contrast to this the Christian recognizes that he is woefully bereft of true goodness and that any virtue pleasing to God must have its genesis in Him. Thus, he seeks a virtue that originates outside himself. In the Galatians letter, which has a theme similar to Romans, Paul writes: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep from doing the things you want to do. … Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. … But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5.18-24; cp. Colossians 3.1-17; 2 Peter 1.3-11). These spiritual virtues are nurtured in the life of the believer as he cooperates with the Holy Spirit (Romans 5.5; cp. 1 Corinthians 3.18; Philippians 1.6; Ephesians 3.16-19).
Paul depicts two individuals embracing opposing worldviews. First, he describes the self-absorbed person who focuses on self-gratification and worldly passions. Everyone who is dead in his sin is hostile to God, whether passively or aggressively. In another letter Paul puts it this way: And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2.1-3). The second person has adopted a new worldview instilled in him by the Holy Spirit. It is radically different from the former view; in it, the mind and the affections of the Christian are set upon pleasing God. At the end of his excursus on the apostolic mission Paul makes this remarkable observation: We are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 6.16b-7.1). Paul is not suggesting that a Christian has a choice between two competing worldviews and that he must choose one over the other. Quite to the contrary, he is merely stating the reality of things; everyone who calls Christ his Lord does so by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit and he will live in the obedience of faith with true affection for Christ (Romans 1.5; cp. 1 Corinthians 12.3).
In a society governed by philosophical relativism Paul’s comment, those who are in the flesh cannot please God, must sound radically extreme. One may ask: “Does Paul mean to say that apart from Christ the unbeliever can do nothing good?” Well, in the sense that his actions are motivated by a desire to honor God, the answer is “Yes, that is precisely what Paul is saying.” God alone ought to be the proper object of mankind’s truest affection (cp. Romans 12.1-2). This is not to say that one should not love his neighbors; indeed, the believer loves them all the more, knowing that in doing so he loves those whom God loves (cp. Matthew 25.31-46). But his loving others is grounded in his being loved by God and his own love for God. The person who refuses the love of God in Christ remains in the vice-like grip of sin. Such a person cannot focus on the things of the Spirit.
NEW LIFE IN CHRIST (8.9-11)
Paul is cut-and-dried in his summary statement: You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. If one is in Christ, then the Holy Spirit lives in him and that person will live a life that reflects that relationship. Moreover, he can be assured that he will be raised from the dead just as Jesus was. Paul does not assume that the Spirit of God dwells in his reader, but challenges him to examine his relationship with the Spirit (cp. 2 Corinthians 13.5; Galatians 6.4). Though the Christian is justified by faith alone, true faith is never alone; it is always accompanied by a delight in doing what is good (Titus 2.11-14). Jesus’ comment to his disciples in the upper room sheds light on the activities of the Christian (John 15.1-17; cp. Philippians 2.13; James 2.26). Being attuned to the Spirit’s work is the most profitable thing a Christian can do. Just as the Spirit transformed the Apostles, so too, he works in the heart and mind of the believer to advance the kingdom of God.
