Romans 8:1-11 English Standard Version

Life in the Spirit

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Verse 9 states “if in fact” and I must admit that is a big if. Doubt creeps in because the whispering liar can be heard saying, “You aren’t as good as you think.” We all fall short of the Glory of God because we are not the Glory, that is Jesus and Jesus alone.

Philippians 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

We want to be found in Him but the truth is even more difficult. We want to have Him found in us and seen by others because that confirms what we hope for by faith. That He is in fact abiding within us. Facts matter, truth matters, and we want to know our faith is justified. We want that even before we understand what justification means and who provides it.

Romans 3:26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

It was to show His righteousness at the present time is a particularly interesting comment that might lead us to believe that God’s righteousness wasn’t always in full view. The first time the term righteous was used was when the Lord counted Abram as righteous simply because Abram believed the Lord even though the promise of an heir had not been given to him in his old age. It would seem that belief in the promise is enough.

If the promise is enough then your belief is enough.

Romans 7:7 (parsed)

The Law and Sin

If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.

My parents were not religious. They never taught me anything about any law. If I did anything that they did not like I got the switch. Even then they did not tell me why I was being punished. I was supposed to figure it out for myself.

I lived in ignorance of the law so in that sense I was lawless, living without law.

Romans 4:7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;”

If I did not get caught then my lawless deeds were never connected to sin.

In drivers education we had a manual that stated the state’s rules that needed to be studied to pass the exam. The funny thing about that education was there was no education for what the penalty would be if we violated the law. I would have to be caught speeding before I would discover the fine.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Since I was lawless, I didn’t know sin. The offer of a free gift held no meaning for me.

Then during the Vietnam war I had to swear an oath to uphold the constitution. No sweat, I didn’t remember anything about the law in my reading about the constitution. But then I was forced to read and comply with the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), enacted by Congress, which contains the substantive and procedural laws governing the military justice system. The President prescribes procedural rules and punishments for violations of crimes in the Manual for Courts-Martial. That taught me what was expected of me as a soldier.

It did not cover civil law except to say there were civil laws that I should obey. UCONN.edu estimates that there are 300,000 federal laws that any individual might violate and that does not even include state and city ordinances. The more I know about the law, the more ignorant I become. So maybe lawless really means ignorant. As a judge once told me, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Now the law of the Spirit of life sounds like something I should study.