About two months ago my Sunday school class started a study on Romans 8. The leader suggested we all read the chapter daily over the course of the month and write a little something down to share. That week I sat down to read and didn't get very far because of all the writing I ended up doing. I've still not made it all the way through, but as I go along, I thought I'd share my notes. Enjoy!
Romans 8:1
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,”
“Now” is the New Covenant of Christ. By living in it—in Christ—we do not need to fear the condemnation and punishment due to the flesh.
Romans 8:2
“because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
The law of life overrules the law of sin and death. Darkness becomes light. (Eph. 5:13) As the song says: “I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God.”
No longer are we under the law of the Old Covenant, requiring us to provide our own sacrifice to the Lord; rather, in the New Covenant He is the Sacrifice. Our way of placing it on the altar is our acceptance of needing it and humility to lay down sin—sacrificing fleshly life to live through spirit.
In light of Leviticus, the laws of sin and death were continual. The people continually sinned, thus, sacrifices were continually being offered. Burnt, sin, and fellowship offerings are, under the New Covenant, all given in Spirit now continually after having been given once in flesh. Hebrews 7:26-28. Christ's mercies are new every day.
Romans 8:3
“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,”
A law of atonement by animal sacrifice was insufficient because it was detained to the confines of flesh. The flesh of a spiritless animal did not hold the weight on a physical altar that Christ's perfect sacrifice did on the altar of heaven. He took on flesh in order to defeat it. Spirit prevails to conquer "likeness". When Christ took on flesh, He, of course, was not fully flesh, but rather spirit clothed in flesh. Fleshly desire--food, superiority, earthly knowledge... disobedience – – were what brought sin, or separation from God, upon the earth to begin with. The flesh, in that moment in the garden, was allowed to conquer spirit in the fateful decision of defiance. Thus, what flesh brought on, spirit must conquer in turn. The death of Christ, the murder of His flesh, was not the defeat of sin though! The defeat of sin was in spirit! The spirit lived on when the beating of a fleshly heart had ceased. Therefore, the spirit was "alive and active" and capable to revive its flesh. This resurrection, as we call it, this rebirth and return to life, the return of a spirit to cold flesh was what conquered sin and death. The Sacrifice upon the heavenly alter was given once and for all eternity and every person. This made an everlasting bridge over the gap of separation fleshly sin had created.
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