Some Key Words (9/16/00)

Condemnation (katakrima [2631]):

to divide or separate as the result of judgment, to be decided against anyone; damning sentence; an adverse sentence

Weak (astheneo [770]):

without strength, powerless, sick or infirm, spiritually weak, poor, destitute of dignity, contemptible; to be feeble, without strength, to be powerless, to be needy or poor, to be sick; to be feeble in any sense

Likeness (homoioma [3667]):

resemblance, likeness; what has been made after the likeness of something, a figure, image, representation, a resemblance bordering on equality or identity; resemblance

Sinful (hamartia [266]):

sin, missing the true purpose of our lives, an offense in relation to God – emphasizing the guilt; to be without a share in, to miss the mark, err, be mistaken, to wander from uprightness and honor, to do wrong, to wander from God’s law in thought or act; a sin

Requirement (dikaioma [1345]):

the result of justification, the claims one has before God as His child by faith in Christ, legal rights; what has been deemed right carrying the force of law, an ordinance, a judicial decision, God’s sentence – favorable or not, a righteous act or deed; an equitable deed, a statute or decision

Fulfilled (pleroo [4137]):

to fill, as a net with fish or a house with the smell of perfume, to fill up, supply, fulfill, complete, to perfect, finish, perform fully; to cause to abound, to supply liberally, to render full or complete, to consummate, to render perfect, to carry through to the end, to bring to realization, to accomplish a promise or prophecy, to cause God’s revealed will (the Law) to be obeyed as it should be; to make replete, to cram, level, to satisfy, execute, finish, verify

Walk (peripateo [4043]):

to make one’s way, progress, to make due use of opportunities, to regulate one’s life, conduct oneself; to tread all around, walk at large, live, deport oneself, follow as a votary

According to (kata [2596]):

down from, upon, or in, general motion down from a higher to a lower place, toward or through, that toward which something tends, by virtue of, because of – implying accord and adaptation; down from, throughout, according to, toward, along; down in place or time

Paraphrase: (9/16/00)

1 For those who have believed in the work of Jesus, there is no condemnation remaining in the Law. 2 For in Christ Jesus is life for those ruled by the Spirit, and His rule frees you from the death that sin’s rule leads to. 3 The Law couldn’t break sin’s hold for it worked on the flesh. So God sent His own Son in that flesh to be the offering for sin, and to thereby condemn sin, 4 so that the demands of the Law upon us might be fulfilled. For we do not live according to the flesh, but rather according to the Spirit.

Key Verse: (9/16/00)

8:3– God filled our lack. What we could not do, even with the Law as a guide, He did for us in His Son. Jesus fulfilled the physical death demanded by the Law, and so passed a death sentence on sin.

People Mentioned: (9/16/00)

N/A

Some Parallel Verses (9/16/00)

8:1

Ro 5:16 – The judgment of one sin condemned many, but the free gift of grace answered many sins with justification. Ro 16:3 – Paul commends his fellow workers in Christ.

8:2

1Co 15:45 – The first man became a living soul, but the last man became a life giving spirit. Jn 8:32 – In Christ, we know the truth, and the Truth makes us free, Jn 8:36 – and His freedom is true freedom. Ro 6:14 – Sin is not master of those under grace, Ro 6:18 – for grace has freed us from sin, to become willing slaves of righteousness. Ro 7:4 – Through Christ’s body [physical death], we died to the Law, allowing us to be joined in wedlock to the risen Christ and be fruitful for God.

8:3

Ac 13:39 – Through Christ, the believer is freed from all things, which the Law could not do. Heb 10:1 – Since the Law is only the foreshadowing and not the reality, its sacrifices were never enough to perfect those who offered. Ro 7:18 – Our flesh is unable to follow the desire of our heart and mind for righteousness. Heb 7:18-19 – The Law was set aside due to its weakness and inability to perfect, allowing a better hope to come through. Php 2:7 – Jesus emptied Himself to take on a physical form, and a physical life of servanthood to God. Heb 2:14 – Through His death, he took away the devil’s primary power, which is death, leaving him powerless against Christ’s family. Heb 2:17 – He had to become one of us, so that He could understand our weakness and be merciful and faithful as our eternal High Priest, making propitiation for our sins. Heb 4:15 – He was tempted in all things without sinning. There is no temptation we will experience that He hasn’t faced and overcome. He knows our weakness and sympathizes with us.

8:4

Lk 1:6 – Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s sight, blameless in their adherence to all of His commandments. Ro 2:26 – If an uncircumcised man keeps the Law’s requirements, he will surely be regarded as circumcised. Gal 5:16 – If we walk by the Spirit, we won’t do as the flesh desires. Gal 5:25 – If we claim to live by the Spirit, walk it out.

New Thoughts (9/17/00)

How is the Law spiritual, and how is it fleshly? In the study of Romans 7:7-7:14, we saw that the implications of the Law are indeed a matter of our spirit, they are issues that must be addressed in the heart, if our actions are to come into any accord with God’s will. Here, and in other places, the weakness of the Law is noted. Is the Law itself weak? I think not. God’s command is firm, and His rule absolute. The law (as is said here) is made weak by our fleshly inability to follow it’s principles. The essence of the matter is that it is our flesh that is weak, and it is our flesh that keeps the Law from completing its main purpose in us. And yet, there’s that deeper, fully spiritual purpose of the Law which was to show us our own desperate need, to show us that we were so weak, for that is not something we readily believe. To that end, the Law is indeed strong. It has indeed served its purpose to the perfection its Creator and Author could not fail of. In our weakness, He is strong. Where our flesh could not even hope of upholding God’s Law, and the demands it makes, God came in Christ Jesus to do that very thing. When we finally realize that we can’t save ourselves from ourselves, Jesus comes in strength and mercy to draw us out from our sinful ways, and free us from the chains we have bound ourselves in. Thanks be to God, that we can know such freedom in spite of ourselves!

How can we know accord with the Spirit? The freedom we have been given, we are told here, is for those whose lives are lived in accord with the Spirit, rather than the flesh. This is another of those tests God blesses us with so that we may verify our progress. It will be either a source of confidence or a spur to greater effort and dependence. I think the key to this confidence, the root question that has to be answered, lies in the definition of ‘walk’ that we saw above. For in that definition we see that to walk means to make due use of opportunity. If we wish to lay claim to the fulfilling work of Christ, we need to be sure that we have made due use of the opportunities presented to us by the Holy Spirit. We need to be sure that we are – to the best of our meager abilities – not making due use of the opportunities our fleshly lusts bring before us, neither to do them nor to dwell on them in thought. In Ephesians 2:10, it is noted that we have been provided with good works to do. Do we recognize these works and do them when they are presented to us? Or do we miss the opportunity, and kick ourselves about later? We certainly ought to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading, such that we can sense the work to be done when it is presented. We certainly ought to be willing to the Spirit’s leading, such that we gladly do what that work requires. There’s the test. Do we teach our minds to quickly turn from sinful thoughts, or do we dwell on them? Do we flee the sinful action, or do we plunge happily into it? Do we hear the Spirit, and act on His lead, or do we do ‘every man what seemed good to himself?’ I know for myself, all too often the answers to these questions are the ones I’d rather not give. But I thank God that it’s changing. Slowly, I see that my spirit is changing. Slowly, I see that my mind is learning to run from wrongful daydreams. Slowly, I see that my body is starting to come into line with my will to do right. Usually, I see through to acting on the works presented to me. But there are still way too many opportunities missed. There are still those things the Spirit wants done that I either don’t hear, of give myself excuses not to do.

Father, I thank You for the encouragement of progress. I thank You for the spur to do better. I pray that You strengthen my spirit within me, that You tune my hearing to hear You better, that You condition me, oh Lord, to respond wholeheartedly to Your every command and request. For You are my God. You alone.

Romans 7:4 – What an image! Our marriage to Jesus just shines from this verse! And, like any marriage, the consummation lies in bearing fruit. How deeply ingrained in us is the idea that a marriage isn’t really complete unless there are children? There’s a reason for that! The complete person must be fruitful. And this is what God wants of our union with His Son. He wants the marriage consummated and fruitful. If we are wed to Christ, we ought to be bearing children to Him, bringing others newborn into the kingdom, and – and this is critical – raising them. It’s not enough to lead them in, if we leave them orphaned at the altar. This is the cause of so many slipping away. We need to be responsible for our spiritual children, even as we are for our physical children.