Kalamazoo Mennonite Fellowship
Will Fitzgerald
May 17, 2009
Passage: Romans 8:1-4
After walking through the muck and the mire for a few weeks talking about sin, arriving at Romans 8:1 is like arriving at a garden where the road is easy, and there are delights on every side.
Awake, O north wind,
and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden
that its fragrance may be wafted abroad.
Let my beloved come to his garden,
and eat its choicest fruits. (Song of Solomon 4:16)
It is such a delightful chapter, we shouldn’t gulp it down all at once but enjoy the sweetness and goodness.
“So, now, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”
This proclamation that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus should be read with this in mind: God wants all to be “in Christ Jesus,” and thus to be outside of God’s condemnation. Remember the struggle that is going through Paul’s mind:
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
When Paul “groans” in this way, he is speaking not only as an individual sinner, but as a son of Abraham, a son of Israel, and a son of Adam. He sees no escape—except through the freedom declared by God. Everything the law required and everything the law provided found its fulfillment in Christ Jesus.
As we said last week, the law shows us how to behave rightly before God, but therefore, the law reveals our flaws. And, like Paul, let us remember what we mean when we say “we.” It means every human person (except Jesus Christ), considered as individuals and considered as groups of people. In the particular plan of God, it meant Israel, who received the law. NT Wright points out that first time the 10 commandments spoke to Israel, it spoke a word of condemnation: when Moses came down from the mountain, he found the children of Israel disobeying the first and second commandments, which the Law condemned. But now: “So, now, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”
Note, it’s not that God is saying that God doesn’t care about sin anymore — God didn’t have a change of heart and decide not to punish. The verse doesn’t say, “There is no condemnation”, full stop. It says “There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus,” that is, Messiah Jesus.
Sending Jesus as the messiah of Israel and the world was God’s plan from the start. God knew that our first parents would fall; and God made provision from the very start. It wasn’t the law of Moses that gave life. It is “the law of life in Christ Jesus.” IF you gave the law to a truly good person, it would make that person even better. But, before the arrival of Jesus, there wasn’t a truly good person around. Jesus grew in favor before people and before God—but, in the end, the law grinds down those who are not good; condemning and continually pointing out their flaws.
The law’s good power was “weakened by flesh,” Paul says; and the word “flesh” (the Greek word “sarx”, σαρκὸς) is Paul’s somewhat technical term for our sinful nature. The law’s power was weakened (at least) from showing us the way to act according to God’s pleasure, to mostly just pointing out our failures because of our “fleshly” natures.
It is interesting, by the way, that modern theories of embodied cognition stress that there is not a sharp distinction (or dualism) between mind and body, but everything rises from our being in bodies; this is very Pauline. As people in bodies—both individuals and social groups, we do, in fact, usually like to think about our bodies, what will entertain and pleasure them. We could play a game called “trace the sin!” where we could name a sin, and trace it back to our bodies (do you want to play?). This does mean that our bodies are bad, but “sin in us” take us down; Law comes in and provides the clear condemnation.
But God sends Christ Jesus, and we become aware of “the law of life in Christ Jesus,” that is, the way that God provides for us to live instead of die. And this “law” frees us from the other “law.” Just as Jesus comes to be the true Israel and the true Adam, Jesus comes as true flesh. Note carefully how the Scripture says this: “God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” Jesus doesn’t come as sinful flesh, but he does come as flesh; he looks like us, in our likeness. He was true flesh and bone, but without a speck of sin. God sends the Son, and in flesh thereby condemns sin, and our condemnation is erases. As Paul writes elsewhere, death itself dies, and thus we live; Jesus in the flesh condemns sin, and neither the law nor sin can condemn us any longer. In fact, now we can now begin the long journey into the life that the law is meant to bring.
There is so much here! For the next question is how we engage in that “law of life.” The answer Paul gives is the that we must live the life of the Spirit, but I think we don’t have time this morning to consider this. But just a hint: it has to do with resurrection life and putting our minds on the things of the Spirit, and recognize the truth of our new relationship to God.
I read an old anecdote that illustrates a small part of this (from Bruce Hurt, via David Ker). There was a man who became a follower of Jesus Christ, and the missionary who first shared the gospel story with him asked, later, how he was doing spiritually. The man said it felt like he had two dogs inside him, one good and one bad, that constantly fought. The missionary asks who wins, and the man replied, “Whichever one I feed the most.”
So, too, we need to, and are now able to, through the power of the resurrection, place our minds on matters of life and peace. Perhaps you will read verses 5-17, meditate on them, and share your thoughts in the coming weeks.