In summary then of Romans 1-7, Paul has explained the gospel to his readers in terms of salvific righteousness; i.e. a righteousness by faith that God has offered to men throughout history since the beginning of time, first to Jews and then to the Gentiles. God has declared all men condemned to death as the wages of sin and Paul has brought his readers to the reality that man is in a wretched state of being, held captive to this sin in man and is need of being freed from this sin. Paul ends chapter 7 with an outburst of thanksgiving to God for the freedom he finds in salvation that God provides through Jesus Christ.
In chapter 8, Paul explains the specific work that Jesus did for which he is thankful. It is a matter of God forgiving The Sin In Man as opposed to God holding man accountable for The Man In Sin.
Paul has already told us that the law condemns people for their sins (3:7) and declares that their condemnation is just (3:8). The focus is on condemning people, for their sins in which they participate. It is a focus on condemning man involved in sin. What Paul is thankful for is that God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus now condemns the sin itself and not the man. God does away with sin altogether and preserves the person.
In the 8th chapter, Paul clearly states to his readers that by the death and resurrection of Jesus sin itself is condemned and it is not man who is condemned,
“By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”
Paul says something similar in his letter to the Colossians. In Colossians 2:11-15, he writes,
“you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities[i] and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
Paul appears to saying that the solution to man’s sin problem is “canceling the record that stood against us with its legal demands.” The reference to "legal demands" sounds like he’s referring to the law. Through the death of Jesus, God took with him to the cross the law and had the law also nailed the cross along with Jesus, freeing the sinner from their sin. Since the very reason the law exists is that “sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. (7:13) By God's cancelation of the law by nailing it to the cross and by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”
Paul is thankful that, in contrast to the law that condemns man in sin, God in his grace condemns the sin in man, doing away with that sin, (by nailing it to the cross) and therefore he can say,
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (8:1)
There is now no condemnation for man because the law has been "nailed to the cross cancelling the debt that stood against us with its legal demands."
The law is dead and now Paul begins describing a new era. The era of the Spirit. In the book of Romans, Paul uses the word “Spirit” 41 times. In chapter 8 alone, he mentions the Spirit 20 times. Obviously, the Spirit of God is an extremely important topic for Paul in this chapter. Now that the law has been condemned, having been nailed to the cross with Jesus, “who is there now to condemn?” (8:34) Not the law! The law has faded into the background and the Spirit comes into focus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
That is Paul’s message; Salvific righteousness through the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, to the Jews first, then the Gentiles is not a message of which Paul, or anyone else is to be ashamed.
It is the the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,…to the Jew first, then the Gentiles (1:1-5, 16)
Paul has made his case. He has explained the Roman situation to his readers thus; that not only does the readers’ sinful behavior (man in sin) proving the fact that all have sinned (both Jew and Gentiles) and that God is in process of providing salvific righteousness to all (both Jew and Gentiles) through faith, but in addition the law also exhibits the sin in man proving that all have sinned and are in need of reconciliation.
Now, for the next three chapters (9-11), Paul dives deeper to explain the historical phenomena of God’s plan of reconciling both Jews and Gentiles. He thoroughly explains why he is in no way ashamed of the gospel because it is happening exactly as God has intended as he promised and explained through the prophets. Once Paul has finished his explanation at the end of this section, Paul is overwhelmed with emotion and in gratitude and thankfulness, he bursts out in praise,
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor#” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid#”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
In my next blog we will begin to dive into the depths of the riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge in an attempt to answer the question why the Romans believed that the gospel that Paul preached was something of which he and others should be ashamed. We will do that by investigating chapters 9-11 using Paul's question, What If…
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