“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” – Romans 8:1
A therefore in writing indicates a connection to the previous verse or section. In Romans 7, Paul wrestles with the distinction between sin and the desire to obey God that operate within him. His flesh (sárx) wages war against his mind (noús). He doesn’t want to sin, as he wants to adhere to the law (Torah) with his mind, but his body is unable to accomplish his desires.
If we don’t do what we want to do, then there must be something within us preventing us from doing the thing that we want to do. The climax of course, is the distress over not wanting to do the thing that he is doing, and the implication of having to face the consequence, which according to the law is death.
Even though we don’t want it, death is our ends, regardless of our inner desires. Who should save us from this? Paul cries out, “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25)
Recognizing that he serves sin with his flesh, and God with his mind, he articulates the hope in the Gospel that, therefore there is no longer any condemnation (katakrima) for anyone in Christ. Why? Because we now have life in the Spirit which frees us from our flesh (Chapter 8, vs 2).
The law was unable to accomplish the desire of following God, but the Spirit can.
A few important notes. Life in the Spirit, is not permission to do whatever we want. It is not absolute freedom (8:12 cf. 6:1-3) In fact, it is a new type of obedience, not to the law, but to the Spirit. It is, a new mechanism for pleasing God. Where the law was good but insufficient to produce goodness within us, the Spirit makes an appeal on our behalf, and in our obedience (submission) to it, it accomplishes what we were unable to accomplish by will or effort. To live holy lives and to become like Christ, as Christ is the example of the perfect human and the new Adam.1 If we too want to live in the new creation, we must become like him.
Those who do not live by the Spirit continue to be condemned, but those who live by the Spirit are no longer condemned. Remember, we’ve touched on condemnation versus judgment before. See Justice and Mercy. That there is no condemnation (for those in the Spirit) does not mean that there is no judgment. Assuming that which is not at all assumable that anyone who identifies with Christ is therefore living a life in the Spirit2 there is still the matter of showing the works of our spiritual labors to the Lord that he might assess their worth. In this instance, the worth is the degree to which we were obedient to the Spirit, and the fruits (charity) that were produced. It is the degree to which we have surrendered to the Spirit and allowed ourselves to become like him.
Think once again of the women caught in adultery. While she was not condemned (to death), she was certainly judged. But judgment is done in love. In judging her, Jesus knew his desire for her and how far off she was from it, and so he convicted her to no longer live as she had lived.
The judgment of Christ is mercy.
She could continue to reject his judgment, and live a life hostile to God and hostile to herself, and therefore heap her own condemnation upon herself. That would be to reject the Spirit of Christ that is available to each of us in baptism. Or she could accept it and discover freedom and life, and the ability to become that which she was intended to be. A full human.
How would it have looked had she had theretofore lived a life of fidelity and charity? What would that judgment have looked like? We see many examples in the New Testament about the judgment of Christ and how he will reward based on our fruitful response to his promptings.3 That there is no condemnation does not mean there is no reward in judgment.
I suppose it is like that for us. In the Spirit, God is convicting us of the ways we too are wayward, and healing our wounds. We might reject that judgment, and continue waywardly, to our own demise and condemnation. Or, we might respond to the Spirit, and allow God to do with us what we were unable to do on our own.
In the Spirit there is no condemnation. Out of it, we are rejecting the gift of real freedom from sin, and therefore we continue in our alienation and in our flesh (sárx). And to embrace our alienation is to continue to embrace a life without God. Since God is love and love cannot live with that which is hostile to itself, in rejecting the gift, we are rejecting God’s invitation to abide with him forever.
Therefore, we have condemned ourselves.
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