Romans 8:3-4 - Here’s More of that Big Ass Run-on for Ya (Conciliation Series, Part XLVII)
Part IV: God’s Conciliation, Confirmed
For what was impossible to the law, in which it was infirm through the
flesh, did God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sin’s flesh and
concerning sin, He condemns sin in the flesh, that the just requirement of the
law may be fulfilled in us, who are not walking in accord with flesh, but in
accord with spirit.
What a treat these verses are! You guys feel it too?
In the last article, we reached “in the likeness of sin’s flesh.” This goes in line with what I had said, that we are being told what God did to Sin, and how He went about accomplishing His goal. We are going to continue studying these two concepts in just a moment, but first, we must hear God’s reasoning for His ‘what.’ He really gets into the why in 8:4, but we glimpse it here in 8:3 – “concerning sin.”
It’s a matter that has to be dealt with. You can’t really be God and allow your opponents to run rampant forever, can you?? The silly Christian god can’t get enough of this – he just lets Satan run on and on, forever and ever, running his little operation in hell! God won’t ruin that crib, or Hitler wouldn’t be able to get his comeuppance, would he???
The scene is Golgotha. Jesus’ crucifixion is a spiritual warzone. The very faces our Lord promises to reconcile are spitting in His face, forcing Him to carry the weight of the stake He is to be murdered upon. He’s been beaten, forced to drink wine mixed with puke, a wreath of thorns has been scrunched onto His head, and His own mother has had to watch it all unfold. By all accounts, this scene at the cross is enough to show the horrific cruelty of Sin – how her clutches grieve the only Innocent One is enough to reveal the true horror of the corruption dwelling in mankind. We see it every day – the borderline nihilistic murder, political corruption, religious indifference, and more – but no example is greater than the graphic murder of an innocent Man.
God sends His Son concerning Sin. It
is absolutely necessary that He does so. God does not say that He didn’t
plan for this; He planned for His Son to be murdered – here is proof of this,
in 1 Pet. 1:19-20 –
…not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, were you
ransomed from your vain behavior, handed down by tradition from the fathers, but with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a flawless and unspotted lamb, foreknown, indeed, before the disruption of the world, yet manifested in the last times because of you…
God also credits Himself with the death of His Son (Is. 53:9-10.) From man’s limited perspective, being envious of the Righteous One, they murder Him (Matt. 27:18.) From God’s perspective, however – from the One Who already knew that He was going to use man’s transgression to reconcile all flesh (Luke 3:6) – Christ is the necessary scapegoat, as He is the only One that God can logically bring back from the dead into a permanent life, being the only One truly acquainted with every aspect of Him (Is. 53:3-10, 1 Cor. 15:20-22.)
It is this death at the cross that concerns Sin. It is His heartache during His ministry that concerns Sin. It’s Sin’s problem, alright, and Christ turned the tide of the battle against her both in His death, and His 33 years on earth (Phil. 2:8 – obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. These are two distinct concepts.)
God, in sending His Son in the likeness of sin’s flesh, and concerning sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. This is a major game changer. First, and foremost: you are not responsible for condemning your own sin. Your inadequacies are exactly as God planned them. It is not your place to tell the Potter how to make a vessel. It is not your place to tell the Leader how to lead. It is not your place to tell the Master how to rule. He deals with your sin – not you.
Many in Christendom get this backwards. They believe that, in going to church regularly, accepting whatever message the preacher man gives, and, in some cases, giving money to the church, that they are combating their ‘evil’ deeds throughout the week. This, of course, takes God’s power for salvation and brushes past it in favor of their own power. They are not trusting God in doing this. This is why you’ll never hear me label a denomination as “correct,” and oftentimes why you won’t hear me call those in a church “in Christ.” They say they believe in God, and yes, it’s true that they believe in the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful being, but they don’t really believe in God, do they? They don’t have faith that what He is saying is true, do they? Honestly, with everything you’ve read in Romans so far, would you tell me that they are? God’s made it abundantly clear that only Christ’s faith holds His righteousness, and is acceptable to Him (Rom. 3:21-23,) and that it is His faith that truly believes in Him. Otherwise, a man can be devout, but they are simultaneously denying His power (2 Tim. 3:1-5.)
This is the “indictment” I spoke of at the very beginning of this study, and no, we aren’t done yet. God is the One Who condemns sin. He has conducted everything by The Word, Christ (Rev. 19:13,) and He has been the Channel by which any judgment has been made, or any penalty enforced. God’s condemnation was expressed in Christ’s subjection during His ministry, and especially during His murder.
In contrast to Adam, the corruptible man, who through him sin entered and established herself in the flesh of every man, Christ came along, and through Him God condemned and is now removing sin’s power in us. The parallel here is sound, but it cannot just be told to stupid creatures like us. It has to be shown. Sure enough, the same type of temptation offered to Adam is the same type of temptation offered to Christ – transgress the law that you have been given. Adam had the means, motive, and opportunity, and so gave in to the temptation, and was driven out of the garden of Eden. Sin won. Yet Christ, in the wilderness for 40 days, who also had the means, motive, and opportunity to adhere to Satan, did not give in to the temptation, knowing full well that it was not His Father’s will – nor was He daring to transgress the spirit’s law of life dwelling within Him.
Do you see how all of this points to the fact that the Mosaic law is not the source of anything, but a methodology by which things are accomplished – or, rather, not accomplished? It doesn’t allow you the ability to overcome sin on your own terms. You try, and you’ll fail. It’s not possible. Sin will always get the upper hand, if it’s you against her. Yet if it is Christ against Sin, then Sin will always lose. She is already prophesied to be removed entirely from the equation by the end of the story (1 Cor. 15:26.)
In other words: all that bitch can do now is throw a tantrum!
Okay, okay, jokes aside, it’s become very, very obvious that Christ is the only way that salvation truly takes effect. Sin will go with your flesh – as your flesh will die, so will Sin. Christ’s sacrifice at the cross was the beginning of the end of her reign, and everything since that has spiraled for her. Nothing went right! First Christ. Then Peter and his gang. Now Paul is coming around touting this?? Every action God is taking is a swift blow against Sin’s reign, and it’s shown in these words. God’s not going to take these bodies and make them new – He has laid hold of you, your inner self. He is not focused on this outward, mortal frame any more than He was when Adam transgressed. As far as He’s concerned, it really is only a frame. It’s dirt, walking. In fact, He even says He is impartial to this silly frame’s ‘acts of favor’ in Acts 10:34 (and the word for ‘not partial’ used in that verse revolves entirely around the external flesh.)
We will be given new bodies – new frames, as documented throughout 1 Cor. 15. I won’t go into too much detail on that now, as that passage explains more about our expectation, and is an entirely separate study in and of itself. But for now, we can rest in the fact that we are, as Paul said, being rescued out of these bodies of sin and death. Out of them! Our flesh will die, along with Sin, and our spirit will have been perfected for a new frame (1 Cor. 15:40-53, Rom. 8:30.)
One last thing, and then I have a really fascinating topic for you all in the next article. This condemnation is in the flesh. The prepositional phrase “in the flesh” follows the word condemns. This is provable in the case of each word in this sentence. The word “God” in the sentence is in the ‘nominative’ case, so He is the subject. “Son” in the sentence is in the ‘accusative’ case, so He is the direct object. “Sin,” then, is the indirect object of the sentence, as she is the object receiving the action of “Son,” the direct object.
It follows: the word ‘flesh’ here is in the ‘dative’ case. When a word is in the ‘dative’ case in Greek, it is showing the relation of an indirect object to the verb. ‘Condemns’ is the verb in question, and ‘in the flesh’ shows the relation by which Sin was condemned. In a long-winded conclusion: yes, Sin is condemned in the flesh. You? You’re no longer condemned in Christ Jesus because Sin, the very thing your flesh has been subject to, has itself been condemned!
The full prepositional phrase says ‘in the flesh,’ not in Christ’s flesh. There’s a dramatic difference here, because Christ did not have Sin working in His flesh. His flesh is like that of Sin’s flesh – not actually Sin’s flesh. And, the law was not ‘infirm’ in Him, for He fulfilled the law (Matt. 5:17.) It’s the flesh that actually has Sin ruining it; you know, our flesh.
And He did, guys. He condemned Sin in the flesh. What better way to comment on the phrase than by repeating it? We’ve already studied what condemned means. We’ve studied Sin, and her shitty attitude. We’ve studied flesh, in its many regards, and understand the context. We need not undermine or devalue Christ’s accomplishment; He didn’t, like, “give you an example of how to live your life,” because no one in their right minds could live such a life as He. All these people that do the weird stuff, like try and replicate His miracles, suffer on a cross for hours at a time, all that noise? Where the hell did God say to do all that? In the very letter dedicated to understanding His purpose, His character, and His plan with believers now, you’d think we would be entreated to do such a thing, if it were necessary??
But no. Nope! We’re entering chapter 8 of a 16 chapter book – we are halfway through this letter – and we have not yet seen one single request from Paul, save “Let not Sin be reigning,” and we don’t even have context for how to do that yet, because God’s got to lay the doctrinal foundation down first before you are entreated to act at all. And, spoiler alert: when He does begin entreating you, at the start of Romans 12, not once does He say, “Do what Jesus does.” Such a phrase is never found in Scripture, because the implication is that man is capable of accomplishing the acts of a righteous Man.
It’s pride, at its worst. Christ says that He is the Life – He is the Source, not yourself. And He did. He established the beginning of a new humanity here on earth. He is the righteous version of a Tyler Durden; He can do all the things we cannot, and we, being inherently imbibed with Him, are being perfected to an intimate degree. We are the first of this new humanity, with the spirit’s law of life internally driving us, now. We have lost our old humanity, which frees us to this new humanity. Thank Christ for it – He condemned your old master.
- GerudoKing
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