Romans 6, 7 & 8 part 9

Chapter 8!

So far Paul has told how not to be sanctified! We are not sanctified by deliberately sinning to invoke God's grace. We are not sanctified by the law. To the Jewish mind, and to most minds we only see these two options, we either keep God's Law or we sin. There seems no other way. In Romans 8 Paul starts by outlining our justification. But that is important because our justification is what has freed us from the law.

"1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Condemnation is the sentence that is passed after we have been found guilty. No one is saying we are not guilty and deserving of condemnation, but Christ has paid the price and set us free.

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

We have been set free from the law that leads to death by another law, the law of the Spirit of life. God cannot break a law. We do not break the law of gravity by flying in the plane, we have to apply other laws to counteract the first. In the case of a plane we apply the law of up lift and force from the engines. In the case of the Law of Moses, God counteracted it with the law that is in Christ Jesus.

"3For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,"

Jesus took on the likeness of sinful flesh but not actually sinful flesh. Rather than condemn us because of sin He condemned our sin in Him.

"4so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

Here we see that God has not bypassed the law, but rather has fulfilled it. We do not walk according to the flesh, we walk according to the Spirit. Here is the first glimpse of how we live out our sanctification. We walk according to the spirit not the flesh. Paul will make more of this as we go on. I will leave it there today. We need to make sure we have fully grasped the point that we free from condemnation and freed from the law. We have a new law, the law of spirit of life in Christ Jesus, it is up to us to walk in it!