Reflection on Romans 8:1-4
What does it mean: “…what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh…”? When was the law not weak through the flesh? Before sin acquired domination over man. God’s law commanded Adam in Paradise: “You shall not eat … for you shall die!” When he disobeyed God’s law, the punishment of the law came upon him, and Adam died. From that time on, humanity has been ruled by the law of sin and death.
God’s law (the Ten Commandments) convicts us of sin, thus making a diagnosis, yet it can not save us. If it could, Christ would not have come. “God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh (i.e. the flesh of Christ).” The just requirement of the law is: “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus voluntarily took this death on Himself for our sake, and hence fulfilled the just requirement of the law on His body. The term “righteousness of God” means just condemnation of sin on the innocent Son of God for our sake. Therefore, receiving by faith Jesus as our Saviour, we are made free from the just judgment of the law. As for our part, if we want to be saved, we are obliged to receive Jesus as our Saviour and Lord and walk in faith – in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Then we are able by His power to follow Him, and so be healed and liberated from various dependences.
Quotation: “…walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
What does it mean to walk according to the flesh? It means a lifestyle prioritizing a false sense of life. It indulges in vanity, and accepts and promotes various half-truths and lies. At the same time it stifles the voice of conscience, rejecting the objective truth. It does not want to obey God’s laws and God’s will. It is a false path which ends in destruction.
What does it mean to walk according to the Spirit? It means to enter into God’s presence at least for a short moment time and again, to realize that God sees me and to confess before Him my self-will, selfishness, laziness, unbelief… At the moment we do so the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin (Jn 1:7). After this first step of repentance we can share in an interior communion with Christ who works in us by His power (cf. Phil 2). And then: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made you free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:2)
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