Romans 8:3-4

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.

For the last two days, we’ve looked at only two verses in total. Today, we’ll look at two more, but there will be a payoff when we see that what Paul has explained in verses 1 and 2 will be put together in verses 3 and 4.

As we have discussed previously, the Law was God’s gift to Israel on Mt. Sinai. It was meant to be a light and a guide, and if followed, it would release blessing and life to the world. The Law was a good thing. The problem was that the Law was working with rebellious humanity, and the good Law could not fulfill its purpose when it was used by bad people. This what Paul means by:

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do [Romans 8:3a].

The Law wasn’t the problem; the people were the problem. But God was planning all along to use the Law as a trap against sin. The Law was the trap and Jesus was the bait, and at the crucifixion, God sprung the trap. Jesus gathered the sin of the world onto Himself, and when He died, He took death down with Him:

3 By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh [Romans 8:3b].

What the Law did was gather sin into one place; what Jesus did was gather the Law’s penalties onto one person. The Law set out clearly the consequence of disobedience—death—and because the Law was given to Israel, the consequences for disobedience fell upon Israel. Jesus, being Israel’s Messiah—the Anointed One—was the representative of His people. Jesus was Himself perfectly obedient, but through His baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, He showed that He completely identified with His people. Jesus, being the perfectly obedient Israelite, died on the cross on behalf of His disobedient people, thereby taking the consequence of disobedience—death—on Himself, and when He died he carried death down with Him. But because Jesus was perfectly obedient and died for the world in an act of steadfast love, He was raised to new life by the power of the Holy Spirit; though He came back up, sin and death stayed down. So, when Jesus was raised to new life in the Spirit, He permanently defeated the power of sin and death and satisfied, once and for all, the terms of the Law:

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 [Romans 8:4].

Because of what Jesus did, the Spirit now enables the Jesus-people to actually fulfill the Law. All of us who are in Christ now live by the Law of the Spirit who gives life.

This is the Gospel in a nutshell:

· God Himself fulfilled the law’s demands by sending His own Son.
· God pulled sin into one place and nailed it to the cross, thereby defeating it.
· As a result, we who now live by the Spirit are actually enabled to live faithful lives.

In the rest of the chapter, Paul will explain the implications for Christians that we now live according to the Spirit.