Romans 8:1–11 (ESV)✞: Life in the Spirit
In the last passage Paul articulated that, even though our sinful hearts react badly against the Law, the Law itself isn’t bad. However, the passage wasn’t a dry theological treatise; Paul ended Chapter 7 with an anguished cry to God – and with thanks to God for providing the solution!
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
In this passage he carries on with that thought.
To start, he reiterates the good news:
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This isn’t new, Paul has already articulated our salvation through Jesus’ work, but given all that he’s mentioned in the last passage perhaps he felt it was worth articulating again – or perhaps his praise for God in the last couple of verses of Chapter 7 just naturally led to him remembering the work of Christ.
Why is there no longer any condemnation for our sin?
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
“The law of the Spirit of life” is potentially confusing. What law is that? Is Paul referring to new rules and regulations we’re supposed to follow, given by the Spirit? But no, that doesn’t fit in with what Paul has written so far in the letter. Or maybe the same rules and regulations we always had, but with the power to obey because of the Spirit? Except no, that doesn’t seem to fit with Paul saying that we’re no longer under “the law of sin and death.”
And honestly, I think this is one of those verses where Christian miss the forest for the trees1. I’ve seen Christians trying to parse out exactly what this phrase means, what “laws” we’re now under and what “laws” we’re no longer under, but I think Paul is just using the term “the law of the Spirit of life” as a way of comparing it to “the law of sin and death.” He’s using a figure of speech; he’s being poetic. He’s not saying that the Spirit now gives us new laws (and we need to figure out what those laws are); he’s just saying that now, under the new Covenant, we’re no longer under “the law of sin and death,” we’re set free.
And we’re free because God did the work for us:
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.
I savoured the last half of verse three for a bit: Jesus was sent “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” and he was sent “for sin.” “In the likeness of sinful flesh” means, to oversimplify it a bit, that Jesus looked like sinful people. In fact, that’s oversimplifying too much; it wasn’t just a matter of appearance, we’re told that Jesus was tempted in every way (Hebrews 4:15✞), just as we are. He was flesh, just like we are; anyone looking at Him, if they knew their Christian theology, would have seen a sinful person just like the rest of us. He wasn’t a sinful person, but He was a lot like one, and He suffered like one! “For sin,” however, is the reason He was sent; the purpose for which He was sent.
It’s an important theological point, buried in a small verse. Jesus could have been sent as a sinful person (exactly the same as all of us), or He could have come down as God (not bothering with flesh at all), or God could have sent an angel, but none of these solutions would have allowed God to fix the problem of sin.
- If Jesus had been sinful he couldn’t have saved anyone from their sin. God couldn’t put our sins on Jesus if Jesus had been sinful because He would have had his own sins to deal with! Being punished on the cross would have been the just and righteous response for his own sin, but wouldn’t have been of benefit to anyone else.
- If Jesus hadn’t been a person he couldn’t have paid for sin. I found a great article on The Gospel Coalition website talking about why Jesus had to be both human and “divine” (that is, God), including a bunch of references to Scripture showing that the penalty for sin had to be handled by a human, which Jesus was.
- In addition, I mentioned Hebrews 4:15✞ above, which says: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” There are theological reasons why Jesus had to be a human, but it’s also comforting to me to know that my God has suffered, just as I do. This makes Him different from the “god” of any other religion or belief system; what other “god” not only came to earth and suffered as humans do, but then even went so far as to die?!?
- Why not an angel (as some religions and/or cults believe was Jesus’ nature)? Actually, this is the worst of both worlds! God would be punishing an innocent being (which wouldn’t be just), unless the angel was able to commit sin – in which case he couldn’t have taken our punishment on our behalf because he’d have had his own sin to deal with. By sending His own Son—part of the Trinity—God is solving the problem by taking the punishment Himself on our behalf.
There is sometimes a danger of believing that Paul is getting too “theological” and not “practical” in these passages. There’s even a view that the first eight chapters of Romans (give or take) are “theological,” and the last eight are “practical,” but that isn’t true at all. In the next few verses Paul discusses the practical result of this theology: because we are no longer under the law of death, but now have the Spirit, we can please God:
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.
Keep in mind that Paul is again simplifying things to make a point. He’s comparing and contrasting living “according to the flesh” and living “according to the Spirit,” which makes it sound like an either/or proposition, but as we’ve already seen, he himself feels he is firmly in both camps!
For me, I tend to view it this way: I sometimes (often) give in to my sinful nature, and I sometimes (not as often as I’d like) listen to the Holy Spirit’s prompting and do the right thing. When I sin I know it’s my sinful nature that I’m listening to and I know that I’m to blame; when I do the right thing and properly serve God with all my heart I know it’s the Holy Spirit acting through me and give Him the praise and glory instead of myself.
So all of this hinges on the work of the Holy Spirit. Which raises the question: do I have the Holy Spirit? How do I know? In a sense, Paul says, it’s simple: if you’re a child of God you have the Spirit, and if you’re not you don’t:
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.
It’s all one package.
| Child of God | Non-Child of God |
|---|---|
| is in the Spirit | is in the flesh |
| has the Spirit of God swelling in them | … |
| has life because of righteousness | is dead because of sin |
| the Spirit will give life to their mortal body | … |
There is no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit; there’s no such thing as someone having the Holy Spirit and not being a Christian.
When Paul says to his readers that they are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if, in fact, the Spirit dwells in them, he’s not trying to give them a test. He’s reassuring them. “You know how you have the Spirit dwelling in you? That means you are in the Spirit instead of in the flesh; it means you can please God, you aren’t trapped in your sin. Which means that He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit.”
This may, once again, be one of those verses where Christians get too involved in the details of what Paul is saying and miss the actual point he’s making. “How do I know if the Spirit of God dwells in me? How do I know of Christ is in me?” There aren’t answers to those questions here because Paul is not raising those questions in the first place. Again, he’s trying to reassure his readers that the Spirit will bring them life, not cause more doubt in their minds! If you’re a child of God, you have life through the Spirit – period! Full stop! God has done the work, you are reaping the benefit.
It is worth examining your heart from time to time to see if you’re a Christian; we all have moments of doubt, and this kind of self examination is beneficial. (Though there comes a point, I’m sure, when you’re questioning it so much that you’re no longer questioning yourself, you’re questioning God Himself – at a certain point faith has to come into the picture!) It is not worthwhile—or even Biblical—to decide that you’re a Christian but then try to figure out if you have the Spirit or not. You do. It’s a package deal. There aren’t Christians with the Spirit and Christians without. If you’re a Christian you have the Spirit, which means two things:
- You have life. It has already begun in this life, and will continue forever.
- You can please God. Because the Spirit is with you, you can tap into His strength and obey God in big and small ways. (And when you fail you can ask for forgiveness, and then continue trying.)
Footnotes
- “Missing the forest for the trees” is a saying where I come from. It just means getting so focused on specific details that you miss the big picture of what you’re supposed to be thinking about. ↩
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