Romans Chapter 8 Vs. 3

 

Life in the Spirit

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: Rom 8:3

What the law... Was it could not deliver sinners from its penalty. Because of the sinful corruption of unregenerate men, the law was powerless to produce righteousness.

Fifteen Things that the Law Could Not Do:

1. Justify (Acts 13:38-39; Gal. 2:16)

2. Free from sin and death (Rom. 8:2)

3. Free from condemnation (Rom. 8:1-4)

4. Redeem (Rom. 3:24-31; Gal. 3:13-14)

5. Give inheritance (Rom. 4:13-14)

6. Bring righteousness (Rom. 8:4)

7. Impart Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:2)

8. Perform miracles (Gal. 3:5)

9. Free from the curse (Gal. 3:10-14)

10. Impart faith (Gal. 3:12)

11. Impart grace (Gal. 5:4)

12. Make perfect (Heb. 7:19)

13. Control sin in man (Rom. 7:7-23; 8:2)

14. Keep man from sin (Rom. 7:7-23; 8:7)

15. Enable a man to obey (Heb. 7:18)

it was weak... Greek: astheneo, weak, impotent. The law was powerless to control the flesh, for sin already had control of it before the law came (Rom. 5:20; Gal. 3:19). Sin would not permit the flesh to obey the law (Rom. 7:7-23).

God sending his... God had to undertake man’s deliverance from sin so that the flesh could be liberated to fulfill the righteousness that the law demanded (Rom. 8:3-4).

likeness of sinful... Reasons Christ Has Sinless Flesh:

1. Christ had no fall and was therefore sinless.

2. Christ did not submit to Satan and to his spirit and sinful nature (Eph. 2:2; John 8:44; 1Jhn. 3:8).

3. He came from the woman but was not of the seed of man (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14; 9:6-7; Mat. 1:18-23; Luke 1:32-35; Rom. 8:3; Gal. 4:4; Phlp. 2:5-11; John 1:14; 1Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:9-18). Man is recognized as the head of the race in all Scripture (Gen. 2:20-22; 2Cor. 11:3; Rom. 5:12-21). The iniquity of man, not woman, was passed as a curse upon children (Exo. 20:5; Num. 14:18; Deut. 5:9; Jer. 31:29-30; Eze. 18:2-4).

4. Mary was merely the means of God in bringing His own Son into a human body. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, not by man who could not produce sinless offspring. God is holy and cannot produce sinful offspring. This is according to the law of reproduction in Gen. 1:22-28. Thus by means of a woman God could send Christ in the likeness of the flesh controlled by sin, and yet not of sinful flesh controlled by sin and Satan (1Pet. 2:22)

In Christ’s incarnation when He became fully man, He took only the outward appearance of sinful flesh, but yet He was completely without sin.

God’s condemnation against sin was fully poured out on the sinless flesh of Christ.

Having stated the fact of freedom, Paul then explained how it is achieved. He declared again the impossibility of attaining freedom over sin through the (Mosaic) Law. It was powerless to free from sin. Not that the Law was weak in itself (as many translations suggest), for it was good (Rom. 7:12). But because of sinful human nature, the Law could not deliver from sin. The words “sinful nature” translate sarx (lit., “flesh”), which can mean either human sinful corruption or human weakness (cf. Rom. 7:5, 7:18, 7:25; 8:4-5, 8:8-9, 8:12-13).

God accomplished deliverance over sin, however, by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man (lit., “likeness of flesh of sin”). Jesus was sent not in sinful flesh but in the likeness of it. His human nature was protected and preserved from the indwelling principle of sin that has plagued all other human beings since Adam (cf. Luke 1:35). He was also sent, literally “concerning or for sin” (peri harmartias, not as the NIV has it, to be a sin offering). In other words He came to do something about sin. What He did was to condemn it; by His death on the cross, He condemned sin (katekrinen, “passed a judicial sentence on it”; cf. katakrima, “punishment,” Rom. 8:1) so that those in Christ are not condemned.