Author: Kevin George
This book is a work in progress. Posts on this blog are to enable readers to examine the manuscript and make commentary. These blog posts are NOT the final version!
Updated July 21, 2023
One of the downsides to splitting the Bible into chapters and verses is that at times the context of a passage is split, and readers disconnect two chapters that were originally continuous. We see this at the end of Romans 4 to 5 and again with Romans 7, going into chapter 8. In chapter 7 Paul describes his condition as a follower of the Mosaic law, yet failing in his struggle to attain true righteousness from his heart due to sin being his master. But he found the solution in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the conclusion of Paul’s argument is right at the transition point of chapters 7 and 8. Here is that passage with no marked division, from the ESV, and a few added underlines and remarks in brackets:
Romans 7:24-8:4 “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God [, it is] through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For [/because] the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, 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.” [Brackets are added for clarity.]
Notice that the answer to Paul’s pre-conversion struggle is not a cosmic payment for sin, but rather that Jesus condemned sin in the flesh by his obedience to God. We who are in, or following Christ, can also be free of condemnation by means of internalizing the same spirit of life provided by Christ. This new breath of life fulfills all the righteous requirements of the law, not by rote obedience to the law, but by having a new life, a new spirit within us, the spirit of Jesus. Paul goes on…
Romans 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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, 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.”
Notice that the righteous requirements of the Mosaic law are being fulfilled in us, not for us through Jesus or by Jesus! PSA teachers claim that Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic law and therefore we do not have to. In one sense this is true, in that the Mosaic law as a packaged system does not apply to us, but the basic righteous moral behavior found in the Mosaic law is what God has expected of all mankind since creation. That basic level or morality did not change when the Mosaic law as a system was set aside. Our weak flesh, even with the help of the codified law could not meet God’s expectation of righteous behavior. But because of Jesus and by being followers of him, we now have a real man who has lived according to God’s expectations, and by following him we can fulfill what God wants of us.
Romans 8:5-8 “For 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. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Those who live according to the spirit of Christ do not live according to the unrighteous spirit of the flesh. Those who live lives of sin according to fleshly desires cannot please God, nor can they borrow righteousness from someone else (Jesus Christ) to cover their sins.
Romans 8:9-11 “You, 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. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If 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 dwelling in you.”
This passage makes crystal clear that those who follow the spirit of Christ also live according to the spirit of God and therefore do not practice sinful living. If someone claims to be a believer but does not demonstrate the spirit of Christ, Christ does not belong to him. (This is how things are supposed to work – Paul is not in this passage dealing with the question of what happens when someone fails and commits a sin, he is speaking about the direction, the pattern, the spirit which characterizes a follower of Christ.)
Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew/formerly knew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified/corrected/rightened/set right, and those whom he justified/corrected/set right he also glorified/honored.” (/ words added)
Reformed Theology has made a disaster with verses 29-30. Verse 29 simply states that those whom God knew before Christ, such as Abraham, David, etc., were also predestined to be made in the image of Jesus, so that Christ might be the firstborn, the preeminent one, among many brothers. There is no cosmic or pre-birth selection or predestination to salvation here, rather, the predetermination was that all humans who are granted eternal life will become like Jesus, God’s image of a perfect human. Verse 30 adds that all of these who become like Jesus will be set right and honored, honored with whatever God chooses to grant them in the next life, whether position or influence, or some other special purpose. There is no statement of a declaration of righteousness here, and no transfer of righteousness.
Romans 8:33-34 “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies/rightens/sets right. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (/ words added)
Some have used this passage to try to claim that “justifies” and “condemn” are declarations. However, a second look easily disproves this claim. God’s elect, those who belong to God, are set right because our God is a righteous God, and they imitate Him. A righteous God is demonstrated by the righteous lives of those who serve that God, in the same manner as if our god was a pagan god, then this unrighteous pagan god would be on display in our lives due to unrighteous behavior.
The word “charge”, “enkalesei” in the Greek, is an accusation, a declaration of wrongdoing. Paul’s question is, what human would accuse a godly follower of Christ? The follower of Christ practices right living as Jesus did and there should not be any legitimate accusation to bring. Even if the person was formerly ungodly, now the person is assumed to have been set right in his living because our righteous God has corrected him, and this change of living should be obvious to all around him. The answer Paul expects is, “nobody would accuse because there is no valid condemnation against those who are living righteously, according to God’s definition of righteous”.
In contrast, we can consider what would happen if the person who claims to be “elect” has not been set right, not corrected in his conduct. This bad lifestyle would be a basis for making a charge, an accusation against them as a hypocrite or a fake believer. This false claim of belonging to God brings injury to God for it would be taking God’s name in vain.
Atonement and Reconciliation 