Romans 8: no condemnation, life in the Spirit and the love that holds

Romans was written by Paul, probably from Corinth, in the mid-to-late 50s (see the classes on Romans 3 and 5), to a church of Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome. Chapter 8 is the climax of the first major division of the letter, chapters 1 to 8, which move from the wrath of God on all sin, through justification by faith, to the new life in Christ. The chapter that comes before it, chapter 7, speaks of the law's inability to free the person from sin, and ends with a cry of wretchedness. Who is the 'I' of 7:7-25 is one of the most debated questions in Pauline study. Some hold it describes the unbeliever under the law, others the believer in struggle, others Israel's experience, or Paul speaking as Adam's heir. Chapter 8 begins with 'therefore' and with a verdict, whatever view is taken: the condemnation that the law brought is gone for those in Christ Jesus.

The Spirit is mentioned more often here than in any other chapter of the letter. This is the Spirit promised by the prophets, who would put a new heart in God's people and cause them to walk in his ways (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:33). The first readers in Rome lived in a city of suffering and status. The chapter speaks of suffering, groaning, accusation and the threat of persecution: tribulation, distress, famine and the sword. Its comfort is aimed at people who were under pressure.

The vocabulary draws on the exodus and the family. Israel is called God's firstborn son in Exodus 4:22, and Paul uses the language of adoption and inheritance for the church. In Roman law an adopted child had the full standing of a natural heir, which gave the image a concrete meaning for the first hearers.

Romans 8 is part of an argued letter, and the reader should follow its logic. The chapter flows from the verdict (verse 1), through the explanation of how the verdict is possible (verses 2-4), the Spirit's work (5-17), the hope that this work awaits (18-30) and the closing assurance (31-39). Each section supplies a reason for the one before: 'for' and 'because' run through the text. Paul's style moves between argument, family language, courtroom language and a hymn-like close, and each type of language has to be read according to its kind.

The term 'flesh' (sarx) needs care. In Paul it can mean the physical body, but in this chapter it normally means human life as it is in Adam, weak and under the power of sin. This is why the contrast is between flesh and Spirit, not between body and soul. Some English versions render it 'sinful nature'; the contrast is between two ways of existing, in Adam and in Christ.

The chapter also uses images: adoption from Roman family law, creation in labour pains, and a courtroom of rhetorical questions. The reader should take the point of each image and not press details past what Paul says. The long sentence of 8:28-30 should be read as an assurance for suffering believers, not a speculation about who is excluded.

Verses 1–4

'No condemnation' (katakrima) is the opposite of the sentence of 5:16. It holds for those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life has freed them from the law of sin and death. God did what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. He sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering (the Greek phrase peri hamartias is the usual one in the Greek Old Testament for the sin offering), and he condemned sin in the flesh. The purpose was that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in those who walk by the Spirit.

Verses 5–11

Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the flesh, and the outcome is death. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. The flesh cannot please God. But believers are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in them. Anyone without the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he will also give life to your mortal bodies. The Spirit is the guarantee of bodily resurrection.

Verses 12–17

Believers are debtors, but not to the flesh. By the Spirit they put to death the deeds of the body, and live. All who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. They did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but the Spirit of adoption (huiothesia), by whom they cry 'Abba! Father!' Abba is the Aramaic word for father, the family word Jesus used in prayer (Mark 14:36). The Spirit himself bears witness with their spirit that they are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided that they suffer with him in order to be glorified with him.

Verses 18–25

The sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed. Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. It was subjected to futility, not by its own choice, a reference to the curse of Genesis 3:17-19, in hope that it will be set free from bondage to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. The whole creation groans together as in the pains of childbirth. Believers also groan, though they have the firstfruits (aparche) of the Spirit, as they wait for adoption, the redemption of the body. They are saved in hope, and hope that is seen is not hope. They wait with patience.

Verses 26–27

In the same way the Spirit helps our weakness. We do not know what to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes with groanings too deep for words (stenagmois alaletois). He who searches hearts knows what the Spirit means, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Groanings without words are not the same as the gift of tongues, and the text does not say so.

Verses 28–30

For those who love God, all things work together for good, for those called according to his purpose. Whether the subject is 'all things' or 'God' depends on the manuscript, and the sense is the same. The good is defined in verse 29: to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. The chain follows: those whom he foreknew (proegno) he also predestined; those predestined he called; those called he justified; those justified he glorified. All the verbs are in the past tense, treating the end as certain.

Verses 31–39

'If God is for us, who can be against us?' He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will graciously give us all things. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, was raised, is at the right hand of God, and intercedes. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Paul lists trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword, and quotes Psalm 44:22, in which God's people are treated as sheep for slaughter. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Nothing in all creation, death or life, angels or rulers, things present or to come, height or depth, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8 is the fullest New Testament statement of life in the Spirit. It teaches that those in Christ stand free of condemnation because the penalty was borne in Christ's flesh. It teaches that the Spirit indwells every believer, since the one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. It teaches adoption, so that believers are God's children and heirs. And it teaches that the Spirit is the pledge of resurrection and of the renewal of creation. This is a Trinitarian chapter: the Father sends and justifies, the Son dies, rises and intercedes, and the Spirit dwells, leads and prays.

The chapter draws on earlier Scripture. The Spirit given to God's people fulfils Ezekiel 36:26-27 and Jeremiah 31:31-34. The firstborn son Israel (Exodus 4:22) is the pattern for the family of God. The groaning creation looks back to the curse of Genesis 3 and forward to the new heavens and new earth of Isaiah 65:17 and Revelation 21.

The assurance of the chapter is that God's purpose cannot be broken. Paul does not give a theory of election in order to unsettle believers; he gives it so that they may be sure. The 'golden chain' of 8:29-30 runs from the beginning of God's purpose to its end, and its last link, glory, is stated as if already achieved. The concluding questions find no accuser who can win and no power that can separate. The ground is not the believer's grip but God's love in Christ.

The chapter is fulfillment from start to finish, and it gives some of the most compact statements about Christ in the New Testament. The Son was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sin offering, to condemn sin in his flesh (8:3). He died, was raised, sits at the right hand of God and intercedes (8:34); the right hand echoes Psalm 110:1, a text that the New Testament applies to Christ repeatedly. He is the 'firstborn among many brothers' (8:29), the pattern for those who will share his likeness, a note that matches Colossians 1:18 and 1 Corinthians 15:20.

The challenge of 8:33-34, who can accuse and who can condemn, closely echoes Isaiah 50:8-9, in which the Servant says that the one who vindicates him is near and asks who will contend with him. Paul has not quoted it, so it is an echo, but it is a strong one: the vindicated Servant has become the Lord who intercedes for his people. Verse 32, that God did not spare his own Son, is often heard as an echo of Genesis 22:12 and 16, where Abraham did not withhold his son Isaac. The verbal link is close, and the difference is that Isaac was spared and the Son was not.

The Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ (8:9), so the Spirit's indwelling is also Christ's presence. Believers are fellow heirs with Christ, to be glorified with him. The chapter ends with the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.