Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Eight
OUR TWO IDENTITIES
Scripture Reading: verses 1-4
THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION TO THEM WHICH ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT. FOR THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS HATH MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. FOR WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, IN THAT IT WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, GOD SENDING HIS OWN SON IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH, AND FOR SIN, CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH: THAT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW MIGHT BE FULFILLED IN US, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT.
Here, in the court of divine justice, Paul defends the pardoned criminal. In Chapter 7, he presented two laws or regulating principles which have a bearing on every Christian. One is the law of life, the other of sin and death. Throughout that chapter, he depicted the sorry fact that fleshly man is under domination of the law of sin and death, utterly incorrigible and incapable of serving God by the impetus of his own voli-tion. However, Paul goes further, indicating that a new law has been brought into being by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ – the law of life. Regarding the dominating principle of sin and death, Paul can say: “O wretched man that I am,” but looking on the other side of the picture and realizing the superabundance of the power of the Lord Jesus as Deliverer, he can say: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” The conclusion of that wonderful argument in chapter 7 is found in the first verse of chapter 8: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
It has often been remarked that chapter 8 begins with “no condemnation” and finishes with “no separation.” Throughout this chapter, we find the Spirit of God conducting us through a magnificent gallery of divine truths. However, unless we keep in mind that Paul, the lawyer for the defense, is finding a way whereby the true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ may have a legal assurance, not only of freedom from guilt, but complete deliverance from the threat of divine judgment, we will fail to understand its blessed significance. Paul has taken up the believer’s two identities. He has discussed our identity with the flesh, which expresses itself in our evil nature, our evil propensities which come to the front if given a moment’s opportunity. He has also been indicating our identity with the Lord Jesus Christ after a new order wherein we are regarded as free from sin, as justified on the principle of faith in the faith of Jesus Christ, and as partakers of the divine nature according to the more excellent power that is ours in the risen Christ. We must keep these two identities clearly in mind, otherwise confusion of thought will arise while pursuing the truths of this chapter.
As far as God is concerned, our old identity with the man after the flesh, dominated by sin, is a thing of the past – put out of sight by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to chapter 6, we have died with Him and buried with Him by baptism unto death. That has been a judicial act, recognized by God Himself, and one to which in baptism we express. Every Christian must accept that judicial ruling by God Himself as being final, complete, and irrevocable. Without the acceptation of that truth there can be no settled assurance of salvation. In other words, God Himself reckons the Christian dead; transgressions blotted out. In the risen Christ, God gives the Christian a new life, and that new life is something sin and Satan cannot touch. It finds its origin in the new birth. It finds its expression in the faith exercised when first accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. But no matter how it affects us by way of emotions or feeling, happiness or sadness, success or failure, the moment that spiritual transaction is made between our soul and the Lord Jesus Christ, we are reckoned dead before God. Under the blood of Christ we are put out of sight; our past, present, and future sins paid in full at Calvary’s Cross. Under God’s reckoning, we now stand in the Lord Jesus Christ a new creation, accepted in His beloved Son, justified from all things, from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses.
These two identities may be put under two categories: the first one in Adam, the second one in Christ; the first one in the old man, the second one in the new man; the first one in the man after the flesh, the second one in the man after the Spirit. Now these are actual judicial terms that represent our standing before God, and the first verse in Romans 8 introduces to us this standing before God in these words: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
Here is the candid truth: a born again believer, judicially stands before God in Christ, saved eternally, and as such will never come into judgment. This is a ruling of the court, vouchsafed by the efficacy of the blood of Christ, signed and sealed by the hand of God Himself, and no power in heaven, earth, or hell will ever be able to change it. One in Christ will never come into judgment.
Verse 1 states: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Seven times already in this letter, Paul had stressed the significance of being “in Christ.” Faith (Rom. 3:26), redemption (Rom. 3:24), peace (Rom. 5:1), rejoicing in God (Rom. 5:11), abundance of grace and of the gifts of righteousness (Rom. 5:17), being alive unto God (Rom. 6:11), and eternal life (Rom. 6:22), were all mentioned by Paul as blessings available to man “in Christ” and nowhere else. The expression “in Christ” opens and closes this chapter, and no understanding of Paul’s gospel is possible without emphasis upon this concept.
When Paul says there is “no condemnation” he is referring to man’s justification, defined negatively as a state wherein is no condemnation. The ground of justification is the perfect righteousness in Christ; and it includes the perfect faith and obedience of Christ, in whom the righteousness of God truly exists; and the availability of that righteousness of Christ for the salvation of sinners does not derive from some magical transfer of Christ’s righteousness to them in consequence of the sinner’s faith nor of anything else that the sinner might either believe or do; but it derives from the fact of the sinner’s being transferred into Christ Jesus where the righteousness is. Briefly, salvation1 is not procured by the transfer of righteousness to the sinner, but by the transfer of the sinner into Christ.
Often the question arises: “What if I fail? What will happen?” The answer is that we all fail. Salvation does not depend on a Christian’s success; it depends on the ruling of the court of the universe. Christ has died for our sins; He was buried; He was raised again. Now there is no condemnation for one who stands in Him. But one might say: “Will I be condemned for sins committed after conversion?” Only God can judge the heart, but if we are considering one who keenly desires to serve the Lord, and seeks to walk in the light, then our reply is: the Lord Jesus has borne the penalty of a Christian’s sins. Therefore, under His precious blood, as Christians we are sheltered forever – never to come into judgment. In the last portion of Romans 8:1, the expression, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” is an interpolation. It has been added by the translator – some translations leave it out altogether. The expression can be found at the end of verse 4, where it belongs.
