Romans 8 has three main divisions:

• Verses 1-11 – begins a great celebration as it introduces the chapter, but also as it concludes what Paul’s said in chapter 7 about sin and the Law
• Verses 12-30 – focuses on the Spirit and Sonship, along with suffering and glory
• Verses 31-39 – offers another great celebration
  

Chapter 8 offers followers of Jesus – then and now – incredible

.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.—Romans 8:1 (ESV)

The word “therefore” tells us that what comes after this is a

to what has gone just before it, in chapter 7, as Paul has helped us wrestle with sin and the Law.

This assurance of no condemnation only means something if I…

• have really examined my own personal struggles with sin and recognized and lamented my own inability to consistently
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  it on my own.
• recognize that apart from God’s grace I not only can’t
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  myself, but my eternity has no future.
• understand that God hates sin – not me, but sin – because of the
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  it does to me and every human being who’s ever lived, depriving us of our God-given purpose, stealing genuine joy and peace from us, and causing us to be destructive to ourselves, other people, and, in fact, all of God’s good creation.
• have committed my life to
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  as my Savior and Lord.
  

¹⁰Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”—John 8:10-11 (ESV)

In Romans 8:1 Paul gives us the key phrase that enables Jesus to not condemn us – we are to live our lives “

Christ Jesus.”

¹²… Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. ¹³For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.—Philippians 2:12-13 (NLT)

Paul spends much of the next several verses telling us why, why, why there is no condemnation, each time going

.

²For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³For 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, ⁴in 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 8:2-4 (ESV)
Indeed, in the Greek, verses 2, 3, 5 and 6 all contain the little word that means ‘because’ or ‘for’, indicating that each step in the argument is explaining what has gone before. There is no condemnation, because the spirit-law has set you free from the sin-law, because God has acted in his son and his spirit to condemn sin and provide life, because there are two types of human beings and you are the spirit-type, because these two types are heading, respectively, for death and life. There is no condemnation, because of all this.—N.T. Wright

Paul insists, from three different angles, that the work that Christ, the Messiah, Jesus, and his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, did, fulfilled the actual original purpose of the Law to bring

and freedom as “the law of the Spirit of life,” from verse 2.

… Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.—Romans 7:13 (NLT)

Israel’s sin became

on its representative, the King, the Messiah, God’s “own Son,” and the result was that the Messiah, the Christ, died a criminal’s death on the cross.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.—Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)
… God has done what the law could not do, with the result (verse 4) that ‘the right and proper verdict of the law is fulfilled in us, as we live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit’.—NT Wright
⁵For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.—Romans 8:5-11 (ESV)

“flesh” – “people or things who share the corruptibility and mortality of the world, and, often enough and certainly here, the rebellion of the world” (NT Wright)

Spirit – the Hebrew word meant wind or breath, and it contained the idea of power and life, as the divine power of God in the Holy Spirit; Paul occasionally used word to refer to the human spirit, influenced by the Holy Spirit

The person focused on the “flesh” is proud or jealous and focused on self, and this always leads to eternal death, for the flesh isn’t interested in the things of

.

The person focused on the “Spirit” is seeking

and His Will in order to experience the abundant life and peace God has always desired for us.

The ultimate promise in this passage is that those who are “in Christ,” who have the “Spirit,” will be raised with Christ, for “he who

Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.—Romans 8:1 (ESV)

Our verdict of being right with God transforms

we live today and each day.

Jesus: ¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ²¹But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.—John 3:16-21 (ESV)

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Next Week: Romans 8:12-30