Paul begins chapter eight with a word concerning condemnation: “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Once again I would say that the condemnation here is inward. Here the writer can praise and declare that there is no longer any condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. When some read this verse, they may say, “I am in Christ Jesus. But how come I don’t have such a cry of victory? Instead, I am still sighing and moaning.” The reason is that actually and practically we may be in 7:24 and not in 8:1. When we enjoy the Lord in a church meeting, we may have a sense of victory. We are then in 8:1. But after the meeting, we may be defeated again and find ourselves once more in 7:24.
We need to pay attention to the tense of 8:1. This verse is in the present tense, not in the future. Paul does not say, “There will be no condemnation”; he says that there is now no condemnation. When a problem comes up, we should remember this and declare, “There is now no condemnation.” For example, when you come home after a meeting and your husband or wife is about to bring up a troublesome matter, you need to remember that at that very moment there is no condemnation. If we declare 8:1 in the midst of our daily situations, we shall see how effective the word of God is.
We need to proclaim God’s word to the enemy, to the demons. Wherever we go, we must declare the word of God. In particular, we must declare that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Satan will lie to us and say that we are defeated, even though we are in Christ. Do not accept this lie, and do not believe it. Instead, declare the word of God. Declare that to those who are in Christ there is now no condemnation.
Paul’s shout of victory in 8:1 is not vain. He has a definite base, ground, to make such a statement. In verse 2 he says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and of death.” In the next verse he goes on to say, “For, the law being impossible in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” According to this verse, God sent His own Son not only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but He also sent Him concerning sin.
In 8:3 sin does not refer to sinful deeds such as stealing. Of course, stealing is a sin. But this is not the sin this verse refers to. In order to understand the word sin in this verse, we must go back to chapter seven. According to chapter seven, sin must be a person, for it can war against us, deceive us, kill us, and capture us. Verse 11 says, “For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.” The fact that sin can deceive and kill indicates that it is not only something personified, but that it is a person. According to chapters five, six, seven, and eight, sin is not merely a thing or a matter; it is a powerful, living person who can capture us and even kill us. To be sure, this sin is much more powerful than we are. Who, then, is this person called sin? Who is this living sin which can deceive us, capture us, and kill us?
Concerning this sin, God sent His Son in the likeness, in the form, of the flesh of sin. This indicates that sin dwells in a certain element, and this element is man’s flesh. Our flesh is thus the habitation of sin. Sin dwells in our flesh. Furthermore, sin has actually become one with our flesh, making our flesh virtually the incarnation of sin.
Most Christians know the meaning of the word incarnation. Incarnation refers to one thing which formerly was outside another thing entering into that thing and becoming one with it. The Lord Jesus is God. But one day He was incarnated; He came as a man. In this way, man became Christ’s incarnation. In the same principle, sin has become one with our flesh, making it the very incarnation of sin. We cannot say exactly when this incarnation took place, but we know that it is a fact. Thus, our flesh is called “the flesh of sin” because sin has become one with the flesh.
Now we must see that when God the Father sent God the Son concerning sin and to deal with sin, even to abolish it, He sent Him not in the reality of the flesh of sin, but in the likeness, the appearance, of the flesh of sin. This means that He sent Him in the likeness of the flesh, which had become sin’s incarnation. In the likeness of the flesh of sin, God sent His Son concerning sin and to deal with sin, to condemn it.
In order to understand verse 3, we need to identify the subject and the predicate. The subject is God, and the predicate is condemned. This verse tells us that God condemned sin. He condemned the enemy that deceives us, wars against us, defeats us, captures us, and kills us. Where did God condemn this sin? He condemned it in the flesh. Now we must ask another question: In whose flesh did God condemn sin? The answer is that God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ, the One who was sent in the likeness of the flesh of sin. In this flesh God condemned sin. According to John 1:1 and 14, the Word, which is God, became flesh. In this flesh, the incarnation of the eternal Word, God condemned sin through crucifixion. When the man Jesus was crucified in the flesh, that was the time God condemned sin in the flesh. Therefore, in the flesh of Jesus Christ and through His all-inclusive death, God condemned sin.
Verse 3 does not end with a period, but with a comma. This indicates that verse 4 is the continuation of verse 3. According to these verses, God condemned sin in the flesh so that “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.”
Romans is a book on both the Christian life and the church life. Regarding the Christian life and the church life, chapter eight of Romans is crucial. If we do not have the experience revealed in this chapter, it is impossible for us to have a proper Christian life and a proper church life. Among the millions of today’s Christians, few have a proper Christian life and proper church life because very few know the crucial secret found in chapter eight.