Romans 8:1-4
Chapter 8
1
Life Through the Spirit
This contradiction no longer exists for those in Jesus Christ.2
In Jesus Christ, the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.
3
The law was ineffective, weak as it was through the flesh. God, planning to destroy sin, sent his own Son in the likeness of those subject to the sinful human condition; by doing this he condemned the sin in this human condition.
4
Since then, the perfection intended by the law will be fulfilled by those who walk in the way of the spirit rather than in the way of the flesh.
Commentaries
Life Through the Spirit.
All the main themes of Paul’s preaching come together in this chapter to present a grand vision of the Christian life and hope, revealed through the mystery of God’s love in its three parts: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Human beings are no longer alone in their struggle. God the Father is fully committed, sending his Son into the world “in a condition similar to that of sinful man” (3). The death and resurrection of Jesus open the way for the Spirit, whom Paul mentions 29 times in this chapter, and show him as a force full of energy: he inspires (5), aims for life and peace (6), dwells in Christians (9), will give life to our mortal bodies (11), helps to mortify the actions of the body (13), culminating in the great revelation of the ultimate gift that sums up and includes all the others: he makes us children of God, allows us to cry out Abba, Father (15), testifies with our spirit that we are children of God (16), heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ (17). The apostle concludes by saying that now, this “sonship and inheritance” (cf. Mk 14:36; Gal 4:6) is to share in his passion, through which we will also share in his glory (cf. Phil 3:10ff).