In Romans 8:1, Paul summarizes not just chapter 7, but his whole argument up to this point. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Having carefully expounded the divine principle whereby God justifies sinners and frees them from all condemnation for their guilt, Paul now shows that the believer has much more to enjoy in terms of freedom from condemnation.

The word “now” contrasts that peace with the time before people enjoyed emancipation from sin through Christ’s justification. The believer’s judgment day is behind them, at the cross of Calvary. The unbeliever’s judgment day is ahead of them. The word “condemnation” is a legal term that includes both the sentence and the execution of the sentence.

In the same way that a law can be either a legal requirement or a scientific principle, so Paul sees the law sometimes as a divine requirement and other times as a spiritual principle. It is the operation of the principle of the “Spirit of life” in the believer that sets him free from the operation of the principle of “sin and death.” The law itself is not weak; it is weak because of humankind’s inability to keep it. To deal with this human insurmountable problem, God sent Jesus to meet the demands of the law that were rightly leveled against people.

Since “the flesh” naturally puts itself first and does everything it can to honor itself, nothing done “in the flesh” can honor or please God. We please God only when we depend on Him to do through us what we cannot. Grace does not change the nature of sin; sin leads to death, always. Grace never makes sin less deadly. Instead, grace enables us to rely on the power of the Spirit to put to death our sinful urges and desires.

The ceremonial aspect of the Mosaic law has been set aside, and the basic responsibility for the civil aspect, which shows the application of moral law in a community, has been transferred to human government. The moral law finds its basis in the character of God and is presented in outline form in the Ten Commandments; its most condensed form is in Jesus’ commands to love God and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. Although the believer is no longer in bondage to the moral law’s condemnation and penalty, the law still reflects the moral character of God and His will for His creatures. But what the external, written code was unable to accomplish, the Spirit is able to do by writing the law on our hearts and giving us the power to obey it.

To understand what Paul means by the “law of sin and death” we need to note the link between “the flesh” and “sin” in his thinking. The flesh is an attitude or inclination operating in complete rejection of the divine will that requires self-sacrificial submission, choosing rather the free expression of anything and everything that will bring self-gratification. It is in this flesh that the law of sin and death moves and has its being.

To be “in the flesh” means the same as being “in Adam,” or unregenerate; to live “according to the flesh” means to live as if unregenerate after becoming regenerate. Paul’s cry for deliverance is therefore a longing to be free from the discouraging tendency he has discovered in himself to live, although justified, as if he is not. He finds within himself a sinful propensity which is so powerful that he recognizes he, in himself, is incapable of breaking it; in fact, it is so pervasive that he feels as if he is “sold under sin” because his human nature is so thoroughly imbued with selfishness and self-serving. This is the law of sin and death from which he longs to be free.

This is a simple spiritual equation: The person with the mind set on the flesh is spiritually dead. The person with his mind set on the things of the Spirit is very much spiritually alive and at peace with God. This describes every Christian.

Christ came into our humanity and assumed our personality, but He was unique in that, while human flesh is consistently corrupt, He lived with and in our nature without in any way succumbing to the sinfulness which goes along with it. It was the inescapable fact of His sinlessness while living in the vehicle of our humanness which roundly condemned the fleshliness of our nature and the sinfulness of our lives. Having condemned sin in the flesh by His flawless 33 years inhabiting our humanity, He then assumed our sin on the Cross, and in dying for sin, He made the most thoroughgoing denunciation of sin once and for all.

Those who are “in Christ” have identified with Him in His condemnation of sin in the flesh and in so doing have taken the first step to living free of its dominion. Those who choose rather to excuse their fleshliness by blaming it on heredity or who condone it by pointing out it is “only human” cannot begin to live in liberty. But those who intelligently take their stand in Christ not only lament their sinfulness—cry for deliverance, as did Paul—but also take great interest in the operation of the “law of the Spirit of life” which “in Christ” sets them free.

No one would be able to keep the law without the indwelling of the Spirit. Law-keeping doesn’t save people; they must be saved before they can keep the law. Augustine said, “The law is given that grace might be sought; grace is given that the law might be fulfilled.” To give the Roman Christians some idea of the significance of the divine indwelling, Paul introduces another of his favorite sets of contrasts. Whereas the human body is subject to death because of sin—a concept already developed—the spirit of man through the presence of the life-giving Spirit possesses life eternal because of justification. While the body of man is not exempt from the corruption common to the race because of Adam’s sin, the spirit of man is preserved unto life through the sheer power of the indwelling Spirit. The mortal bodies of the believers which will, of course, return to the dust from which they came, will in a coming day be resurrected to a reunion with their corresponding spirit. Both the eternal preservation of the human spirit and the ultimate Resurrection of the human body are attributed to the Spirit of God. But of particular interest to us in this context is the fact that the power thus exhibited by the Spirit is the power made available to believers in the present age in order that they, through the Spirit of life, might be set free from the law of sin and death.

The phrase “in the flesh” means an absolute inability to please God. Only surrender to the Holy Spirit can guarantee motives pleasing to Him because the human heart is deceitful and wicked. Having described in detail what it means to be “in the flesh” and to live “according to the flesh,” Paul now sets out to describe the divine alternatives, which are to be “in the Spirit” and to live “according to the Spirit.” “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” either in terms of moving Him to save them because they have been good, or in terms of living such exemplary lives that He delights in watching them do it. But believers do not need to be unduly concerned about this human limitation because they are “not in the flesh but in the Spirit” and, accordingly, have the capability of pleasing the One who has redeemed them. The proof that they are “in the Spirit” is to be found in the fact of His indwelling presence. It is apparent that Paul moves freely from one title to another when writing about the Holy Spirit. In the verses we are considering, He is called “the Spirit of God,” “the Spirit of Christ,” “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead.” While each of these descriptions is synonymous with the others, they all point to a different aspect of His personality and remind us of the Triune God.

The unique Christian truth dealing with the fact of God’s indwelling presence was introduced to the disciples by the Lord Jesus. They were definitely unreceptive to what He had to say because He introduced the topic by telling them that He proposed leaving them and that they would be better off without Him. This unpalatable prospect was improved considerably for them when He explained. After He had left them, He said, the Comforter would come to them and make it possible for Him to live in them. With the same kind of free interchange of ideas which characterize Paul’s treatment of the truth, the Lord talked about the Holy Spirit’s indwelling them, His own indwelling them, and even God’s taking up His abode in them. It was the indwelling of their lives which would be far superior to anything they had as yet experienced; therefore, the departure of the Lord which would precede the arrival of the Comforter was to be to their advantage. In the body of flesh which He had assumed, the Lord was subject to the limitations of time and space common to all men. As a result He could not be with Peter in Galilee and at the same time with John in Jerusalem, but when liberated from His earthly body through the Resurrection and Ascension, He would come to them in the Spirit and live in their lives, imparting to them His grace and power.

In verses 9-11, Paul shifts from third person to second person, personally addressing his readers and urging them to yield to the Spirit’s power in their lives. He is their help and their holiness as they refuse the old patterns of the flesh. The Holy Spirit inhabits, invigorates, and ensures every believer, enabling a victorious Christian life. Paul reminds us that, when it comes to spiritual life, everything is important and nothing is to be taken casually. There is a particular danger for Christians who have worked themselves into a comfortable, undemanding situation where they are confronted with little external challenge and have so come to terms with their own lifestyle that they see little or no necessity for deepening of the spiritual life. Without realizing it, they may have ceased to be ambitious for the things of the Spirit and may have lapsed into a kind of spiritual neutrality which in reality is an ambition for the comfort of the fleshly and an identification with the purely natural.

It is worth noting that, although Paul regards the “things” of both flesh and Spirit of the utmost importance, he does not outline what they are. But from the context it would appear that he was thinking of the presence of the Spirit in the believer, which, when borne constantly in mind, has a most salutary impact on the individual’s thought processes. The contrast between the holiness of the Holy Spirit and the things that so easily captivate the believer’s thinking is underlined when it has become increasingly normal for the believer to concentrate on the Spirit’s presence.

The “walk” according to the Spirit is a most natural development from minding the things of the Spirit. It means to make definite decisions based on the intelligent appreciation of the Spirit. It is helpful to remember that there is an obvious difference between taking a step and going for a walk. While Christian experience involves taking some massive steps occasionally, the normal Christian experience is the product of a succession of relatively unimportant steps that require varying degrees of decision.

Can you imagine prospective parents saying, “We’d like to adopt Johnny, but first we want to know a few things. Does he have a house to live in? Does he have money for tuition? Does he have a ride to school every morning and clothes to wear every day? Can he prepare his own meals and mend his own clothes?”

No agency would stand for such talk. Its representative would lift her hand and say, “Wait a minute. You don’t understand. You don’t adopt Johnny because of what he has; you adopt him because of what he needs. He needs a home.”

The same is true with God. He doesn’t adopt us because of what we have. He doesn’t give us His name because of our wit or wallet or good attitude.… adoption is something we receive, not something we earn.

We are welcome in God’s house because we have been adopted by the owner. God has adopted you. God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home.

It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but He does more. He gives you His name. It would be enough if God just set you free, but He does more. He takes you home … God adopted you simply because He wanted to. You were in His good will and pleasure. Knowing full well the trouble you would be and the price He would pay, He signed His name next to yours and changed your name to His and took you home. Your Abba adopted you and became your Father.

The Spirit is every believer’s hope-the seal God has given to guarantee life forever in the presence of the Father. The words “mortal” and “immortal” always refer to the body, which is still subject to death because of sin. The Holy Spirit regenerates the human spirit upon conversion. At the time of the resurrection, human bodies will be clothed with life immortal, too.

(An audio version of this post can be found by clicking this link: Romans 8 verses 1-11 Justification Leads to Peace With God)

Bibliography

1. Jeremiah, David: The Jeremiah Study Bible: New King James Version (Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing; 2013; pp. 1554-1555)
2. Briscoe, D.S., & Ogilvie, L.J.: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Vol. 29: Romans (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 1982; pp. 149-160)
3. Stanley, C.F.: The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible: New King James Version (Nashville, TN: Nelson Bibles; 2005)
4. MacArthur, J.F., Jr.: The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers; 2006)
5. Lucado, M.; The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson; 2010)