Read Romans 8:3-4
We are set free by love, through love, and to love. Paul describes how it came to be that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (vs. 1) and what that means for the lives of all those who are in Christ.
We are set free by love. Notice the first words of verse 3, “For God has done…”. It was fundamentally the action of God that has given us the ability to say that there is no condemnation. It is not attributed to human action but to the action of God. Another way to sum up this statement is to view it through the lens of love. It was God’s love that caused him to act that then gave us the standing of having no condemnation. Apart from the love of God the Father, we would have remained under condemnation because of our rebellion against him. It is easy to skip over these first few words and focus on the mechanics of the rest of this passage, but in these first few words we see the outflow of God’s heart in action. He has done something that only he could do and he has done it for us!
We are set free through love. What was it that God did? How was he able to accomplish something that the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do? The answer is in the last part of verse 3, “he sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” The love of God was made manifest in the incarnation of Jesus. God became flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh in place of all those who are “in Christ.”. This is the ultimate act of love, it is completely selfless and doesn’t hold anything back. God commits himself so fully to his people that he gives his very self to them. It is because of this sending of the Son in likeness of sinful flesh and the subsequent condemnation of sin in the flesh of Jesus that we can then claim to no longer be under condemnation for our sin.
We are set free to love. Verse 4 shows the purpose of love. All of the above was done “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.” God’s purpose in his work of salvation is to transform us from self-interested rebels into self-giving worshippers. The righteous requirement of the law was always to help us in imitating God. God wanted to restore what it meant to bear his image when he gave the law. However, as we saw in chapter 7, in the flesh, there is no ability to keep the law because we continue to have a desire that is contrary to the LORD. In Romans 8, we see what it is like to operate not based on the flesh but based on the Spirit. God works his Spirit in his people and it is by this power that we are able to love as we were originally created to love. We cannot do this in our strength, by our own self-will or discipline. It is only possible through the humility and love of being found in Christ and possessing and following the Spirit. This Spirit-led way of life is described throughout the rest of Romans 8.
Questions
What does Paul mean when he uses the word “flesh” in these verses?
Why is it important to notice that it is God who is the primary agent of action in these verses?
How does Jesus condemn sin in the flesh?
How does the reality of your sin being fully condemned in the flesh of Jesus impact how you live?
Who can you tell about how God has loved you? What would it look like to have this conversation?