The Continuing Story of Our Security in Christ
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4
Romans 8 begins with ‘no condemnation’ (8:1) and ends with ‘no separation’ (8:39). In between is one of the best known and most loved chapters in the entire Bible. It sets before us the amazing blessings we enjoy as believers – indwelt by God’s Spirit, adopted into His family, destined for resurrection and glory, and full of hope because of God’s love for us and because of His promise to bring good to us in every circumstance of life.
How does the outline of these glorious benefits of being “in Christ” fit into Paul’s on-going argument in these chapters? The first part of the chapter (8:1-13) has two purposes:
(1) it elaborates the reference to the ‘new way of the Spirit’ in 7:6 after the “interruption” in which Paul has dwelt with questions about the law (7:7-25). In chapter 7 the law and its synonyms were mentioned thirty-one times but the Holy Spirit only once. The essential contrast Paul paints is between the weakness of the law and the power of the Spirit. Over against indwelling sin, which is why the law is unable to help us in our moral struggle (7:17,20), Paul now sets the indwelling Spirit, who is both our liberator from the ‘law of sin and death’ (8:2) and the guarantee of resurrection and eternal glory (8:11,17,23).
The Christian life is essentially life in the Spirit – life that is animated, sustained, directed and enriched by the Holy Spirit. Possessing the Holy Spirit is the mark of being a new covenant believer. While the topic of the Holy Spirit is not the topic of Romans 8, Paul gives the Spirit the key role in mediating to us the blessings of our new life.
(2) 8:1-13 has another, more fundamental purpose. Chapters 6 and 7 are slight detours from the main line of Paul’s argument, in which he deals with sin and the law, two key threats to the security of our new life. He can now return to this main road by continuing his exposition of the believer’s security in Christ. So in this section he will reaffirm our new life in Christ (8:1-4) and draw out its consequences for our moral life (8:5-8), our future ‘resurrection’ life (8:9-11) and the responsibility of the believer (8:12,13)