Romans 8:1-4

The Demand Has Been Met

As believers in Jesus Christ, you have been given a completely new life in exchange for your old life of sin and rebellion to God.  In Romans 5-8, Paul has been writing to expound on the assurance and certainty that you truly possess this new life in Christ and it is yours for all eternity, never to be taken away.

In Romans 5, Paul stressed that the penalty due your sin has been forever removed so that you now have perfect peace with God (vv. 1-2, 6-11).  But not only have you been forgiven of all your sin (past, present, and future) you have equally been counted in God's heavenly register as being perfectly righteous and obedient through Christ's work on your behalf (vv. 18-21).

In Romans 6, Paul further explains that you have died in Christ to the power of sin, been buried, and have been raised from the dead so that you may now live a new life in obedience to God (vv. 3-5).  This has taken place through your union with Christ by faith where you have now taken on the life of Christ that he lived (vv. 8-10).

In Romans 7, you have been further redeemed from the powers of this age in that through Christ you have been made to die to the law, freed both from its condemning power and its direct authority over your lives (vv. 4-6).  You have been joined to another, namely Christ, and now that you have died to the one and been married to another, you can never return and be joined to Moses.  And what the law could not do in removing the penalty and power of sin, Christ has done for you so that we all celebrate with Paul, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Now, in Romans 8, Paul further grounds your absolute assurance of eternal life in the Spirit's complete application of Christ's work on your behalf so that you will never be subject to condemnation of any sort.  For if God is for you then who can be against you?  Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But the question we must ultimately ask is how is all of this possible?  How is it possible that these things are really true of us, especially if our daily experience is filled with the continuing effects of the powers of this age?

We continue to sin, be sickened by diseases, suffer unjustly, and in the end, die.  How can these things be true when everything in our experience tells us they are not? 

This is the subject of chap. 8.  Here Paul unfolds how your heavenly future life has broken into this present evil age in the power of God's Spirit to sustain you in your daily life of pain and suffering.  Like Israel in their wilderness pilgrimage to the land of promise, God is daily sustaining you with heavenly blessings.  As Paul says in Ephesians 1:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

Here Paul makes it absolutely clear that Jesus did not come to take your pain away, but to redefine it through his sufferings so that now all that you must endure for awhile, you will endure it in the power and presence of Jesus Christ our Lord.

In chap. 8, we come to a summing up, even a conclusion, in the midst of Paul's magnificent letter to the Romans ending in a glorious hymn of victory in vv. 31-39.  Here Paul's focus is upon the Spirit who has come to complete your salvation.

This makes sense, since the Spirit of God is always the completer/consummator of the Father's eternal plan and the work of the Son. As the Spirit came to complete the creation of the Father through the Son, so the Spirit now comes to complete the new creation of Christ.

Here Paul focuses on the end, the eschaton, the final wrapping up of our salvation in Christ but Paul's purpose is not to dwell on the future, heavenly life.  Rather, he looks to that future life that has now entered into your present experience and which is your immediate security of eternal life.

The Spirit has already united you to the life of Christ so that you will never experience condemnation, either now or at the future, end of time.  The Spirit grants you the power of the resurrected life now that you will taste more fully in death.  Because you have been united to the eternal Son, you have been adopted into God's loving Fatherhood and though you suffer for a little while, you will one day enter fully into the Son's eternal glory.

All of this is possible only because of Jesus Christ who has finished all the work for you.

In v. 1, Paul states this emphatic conclusion summarizing the entire epistle to this point:  "Therefore, NOW there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  The emphasis here is upon the word "now." 

When we think of condemnation, we think appropriately of the final judgment that awaits all mankind.  One day, every man and woman will stand before God and give an account of his or her life to God.  In ourselves, we have no hope at all.  Every mouth will be shut and every one will stand condemned for his or her sin.  Why?

Because we have lived our lives for ourselves!  We have lived in this life in a broken, sinful, rebellious state before God.  Condemnation speaks of this state of "lostness."  We have lost our way in the journey.  We have veered off-course and terribly missed the mark. 

Do you remember the kind of life that Paul describes for you at the end of chap. 7?  This is what your life was like under the law of God.  No matter how much of your own strength you mustered, at every point, in every way, you failed to keep God's holy law and instead you have lived only for that which pleases you.

We are like the creature Gollum in the Tolkien's masterful Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Once a happy hobbit dwelling in the beautiful Shire, he became so self-obsessed with what was "precious" to him that he wasted away, separate from all that brought true joy, slowing dying in his own dreams of greatness.  The end of such a life is death and condemnation.

But in Christ you have been removed from this state -- forever!  No more will condemnation of any kind be a threat to you.  As Paul says:

If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Rom. 8:31-35).

This is really true of you.  You will never stand condemned before the Holy God.  And what is true of the end of your journey is now your present possession.  But how?  How can this be possible?

Only because of what Paul says in vv. 2-4.  Here Paul provides us with the only answer to our sin sickened disease.

He begins in v. 2-3 describing what you have been able to accomplish in your strength, which is summarized in v. 3 -- "what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh."  Here Paul describes your life.  The law was impotent to save you.  But the problem wasn't with God's perfect and holy law.  The problem is found in you.  The "flesh" is Paul's whole summation of everything that belongs to this fallen world that stands in rebellion to God.  That is your life under the powers of this age -- which are sin, death, and the law (7:5, 14).  The law failed miserably because your life was weakened by the powers of this age.

It is like someone who has cancer that has progressed so rapidly and profusely throughout your body that all the chemo and radiation treatments can no longer work.  In fact, the cancer is so advanced that all the treatments, weakened by your own body, sap the last drop of your life from you.  In a healthier body, the treatments would have worked. 

But in your sin-sickened body of Adam the law only brings death.  At this point, what you need is not more law, but resurrection from the dead.

So, what the law could not do, God himself has done for you.  How? 

First, Paul focuses on the passive obedience of Christ in taking the judgment that was yours upon himself.  In v. 3, Paul says that God has saved you from death and condemnation by placing your judgment upon His own Son. 

God sent His own Son on a mission.  A mission where Christ fully entered your fallen condition -- your sinful flesh -- so that he came to the end of your sinful lives by becoming your sin and being condemned in your place.  Do you see the incredible mercy of your loving Father?  Do you now see how God has solved the dilemma of chap. 7?

This is why Paul can say what he says in v. 1!  You will never taste condemnation because Jesus, your elder brother, has been condemned in your place.  Your condemnation has been spent in full.  Jesus Christ tasted your judgment to the last drop and there is no more left.  Jesus was selfish for your condemnation -- He has drank it dry -- and left you nothing more of it.  He took it all for himself.

Christ found you fallen in a deep, muddy hole.  But he didn't leave you there.  He climbed down into the deepest, murkiest mire of your life and pulled you out making you new, whiter than snow.  But while you were freed to live anew, Jesus tasted fully your deserts at Calvary so that your judgment would be paid in full.

Therefore, your salvation is as secure as God's justice.  Now forevermore, God's justice is at stake.  You can never be condemned if God is to remain a just God.  This is your assurance.  Since, condemnation has fallen on Christ for you, God cannot condemn twice.  He cannot require two payments.  Jesus became your curse to set you free and now you are free indeed.

The condemnation you deserved was poured upon Christ in your place so that there is therefore now no condemnation for all of you in Christ Jesus.

But further, Christ became obedient, even to death, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us (v. 4).  Here Paul focuses on the active obedience of Christ in that he has fully met all the demands of the law for you.

There are two points that must be stressed here!

First, Paul is not speaking of anything you have done.  Paul's whole point throughout all this is that the law did not produce the righteousness that God requires because you couldn't obey it.  And what you could not do, Christ has done for you.

But, second, remember that because God is just, the law could not simply be cancelled in order to save you.  The righteous requirements had to be met.  Therefore, Christ not only took your curse because you failed to keep the law, but further he met the law's demand for you.

Through Christ, the just demands of God's holy law have been fulfilled for you -- in you -- not through your obedience, but through the obedience of Christ which merited God's perfect righteousness. 

Now, this is how Paul can then say that you have been declared righteousness through faith alone.  Christ fulfilled the law perfectly for you.  And through faith you have been united to the One who is perfectly righteous.  This is why it has to be by faith and faith alone.  There is no other way to be declared righteous before God.  It is only through Christ that you can be righteous and it is only through faith that you can be united to Christ.  God hasn't provided any other way of salvation but through the merciful, loving work of His Son.

Now, all of this is freely given to you by God's Spirit.  The future judgment that is due our sin has already fallen upon Christ in your place.  That is why you now know no condemnation.  The Spirit has transferred you from the old realm of sin and death to the new realm, the new creation of justification and eternal life.  And your salvation is completely sure because all the work has been finished -- your debt has been paid -- by God who sent His Son to Calvary for you.

Imagine that at just the time of harvest you suddenly fall ill and have to be hospitalized.  While you are recovering at the hospital you begin to worry that you will not be well soon enough to gather this season's harvest before it spoils.  What are you going to do?  Will you be able to keep the farm?  How will you provide for your wife and children?

The day arrives when you return home to find that all your neighbors came and harvested your fields for you and took and sold all the produce at the market and deposited all the money into your bank account.  The bills have all been paid in full.  Your children and wife have been provided for.  Your house and farm are completely secure.

The work is complete.  There is nothing left to do but rest in the finished labor that has been accomplished for you.

In the same, but greater way, Jesus Christ has finished all the work that God requires of you.  Now in Him you are "overwhelming conquerors!"

End by reading Romans 8:35-39 -- Who then will separate you from the love of Christ . . .

Amen!  -SDG-