From the valley of despair and defeat, the apostle now ascends to the heights with the victorious cry: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!" This can be understood in two ways.
Firstly, there is "no" divine "condemnation" for our sin because we are in Christ. As long as we were in Adam, our first head, there was only "condemnation" for us. But now we are in Christ and thus as free from condemnation as He is. We can proclaim:
First accuse the Savior - can a life be purer? If He had any guilt, it would be true: I am unclean.
Adaptation using the English original by W. N. Tomkins
But it can also mean that we no longer need the kind of self-condemnation that Paul described in chapter 7. We may experience what is described in chapter 7. We realize that we are unable to fulfill the demands of the law by our own strength, but we do not have to stay there. [Verse 2] explains why there is "no condemnation" [1] anymore.
Firstly, there is "no" divine "condemnation" for our sin because we are in Christ. As long as we were in Adam, our first head, there was only "condemnation" for us. But now we are in Christ and thus as free from condemnation as He is. We can proclaim:
First accuse the Savior - can a life be purer? If He had any guilt, it would be true: I am unclean.
Adaptation using the English original by W. N. Tomkins
But it can also mean that we no longer need the kind of self-condemnation that Paul described in chapter 7. We may experience what is described in chapter 7. We realize that we are unable to fulfill the demands of the law by our own strength, but we do not have to stay there. [Verse 2] explains why there is "no condemnation" [1] anymore.
Footnote
[1] The words found here ("who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit"; KJV 1912) are widely considered to have been mistakenly moved here from [Verse 4]. However, they appear in most manuscripts and could simply be an additional description of the people who are in Christ.
 | Author: William MacDonald Rank: Author Posted on: 2024-06-07 Source: Title: Commentary on the New Testament Year (original): 1989 Author: William MacDonald Number of pages: 1504 Publisher/Editor: CLV Print: GGP Media GmbH, Pößneck |
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
He defines here the life according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the Spirit have in the Spirit the power to overcome the body, matter, sin, and the world.
Those who live according to the Spirit have in the Spirit the power to overcome the body, matter, sin, and the world.
 | Author: Shenouda III. Rank: Pope AD: 2012 Source: Title: 21 Wer ist der Mensch? Author: Pope Shenouda III, 117th Pope of Alexandria Number of pages: 159 Copyright: Biblical texts are quoted from the 'Einheitsübersetzung der Heiligen Schrift © 1980 Katholische Bibelanstalt Stuttgart'. Used with the kind permission of the Katholische Bibelanstalt Stuttgart. Print: Egyptian Printing Co., Cairo, Egypt Translation: Egyptian Society of Printing, Sister Sausan |
Walking According to the Spirit
[Verse 1]. After experiencing the struggle to leave the marshes in Romans 7, you now have firm ground under your feet. This firmness is in Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Isn’t this a relief? This is how God sees you and this is how you should see yourself. Every fear of judgment is gone because Christ bore the judgment and rose from the dead.
[Verse 2]. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
[Verse 3]. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us [2Cor 5:21].
When [Verse 3] says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin [Heb 4:15]. He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
[Verse 4]. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
[Verse 5-6]. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again [Rom 5:1-2]. You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
[Verse 7]. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
[Verse 2]. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
[Verse 3]. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us [2Cor 5:21].
When [Verse 3] says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin [Heb 4:15]. He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
[Verse 4]. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
[Verse 5-6]. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again [Rom 5:1-2]. You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
[Verse 7]. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-7
1 [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
 | Author: Ger de Koning Rank: Author Posted on: 2023-12-22 Source: Title: Rom Author: Ger de Koning |
Believers may be chastened of the Lord, but will not be condemned with the world. By their union with Christ through faith, they are thus secured. What is the principle of their walk; the flesh or the Spirit, the old or the new nature, corruption or grace? For which of these do we make provision, by which are we governed? The unrenewed will is unable to keep any commandment fully. And the law, besides outward duties, requires inward obedience. God showed abhorrence of sin by the sufferings of his Son in the flesh, that the believer’s person might be pardoned and justified. Thus satisfaction was made to Divine justice, and the way of salvation opened for the sinner. By the Spirit the law of love is written upon the heart, and though the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled by us, yet, blessed be God, it is fulfilled in us; there is that in all true believers, which answers the intention of the law. The favor of God, the welfare of the soul, the concerns of eternity, are the things of the Spirit, which those that are after the Spirit do mind. Which way do our thoughts move with most pleasure? Which way go our plans and contrivances? Are we most wise for the world, or for our souls? Those that live in pleasure are dead, [1Tim 5:6]. A sanctified soul is a living soul; and that life is peace. The carnal mind is not only an enemy to God, but enmity itself. The carnal man may, by the power of Divine grace, be made subject to the law of God, but the carnal mind never can; that must be broken and driven out. We may know our real state and character by inquiring whether we have the Spirit of God and Christ, or not, vs. 9: Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Having the Spirit of Christ, means having a turn of mind in some degree like the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and is to be shown by a life and conversation suitable to his precepts and example.
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-9
1 [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
 | Author: Matthew Henry Rank: Priest AD: 1714 Source: Title: Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible Author: Matthew Henry |
Paul met the difficulty posed by postbaptismal sin by saying that it is due to our laziness. For now that we are in Christ Jesus we have the power to avoid walking after the flesh, but before that it was a difficult task.
 | Author: John Chrysostom Rank: Bishop AD: 407 |
Paul shows here that those who are under the law, because they live according to the flesh, are under sin and condemnation. But those who are in Christ are not under condemnation because they do not walk according to the flesh. .
 | Author: Diodorus of Tarsus AD: 390 |
There is no condemnation just because carnal desires exist; it is only if we give in to them and sin that we are condemned.
 | Author: Augustine of Hippo Rank: Bishop AD: 430 |
It is true that there will be no damnation for those who are Christians serving the law of God with a devout mind. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
 | Author: Ambrosiaster Rank: Author AD: 400 |
The listed verse explanations of the individual persons have nothing to do with the explanations of the other persons. This also applies to the Bible translations.
