In the conclusion of the first half of his
letter to the Romans, Paul wrote that for those who are in Jesus, “there is
now no condemnation” (Romans 8:1-25). This is because the “law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set them free from the law of sin and of
death.” What the Law of Moses, the Torah, could not achieve
because of human bondage to sin, “God, by sending his own Son,…condemned sin
in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the Law might be
fulfilled in us who walk according to spirit and not according to the flesh.”
The
flesh, it seems, “prefers death, whereas the Spirit prefers life and peace.”
The carnal man produced by Adam’s sin is “hostile towards God for it cannot
submit to the Law of God… and they who have their being in flesh cannot please
God.”
Paul’s
talk of “flesh” and “spirit” is his way of contrasting the old Adamic life in
bondage to sin with the new life free from servitude to it that is now found in
Christ Jesus. The Apostle is not speaking of two “natures” locked in mortal
combat within an individual, the “old man” versus the “new man,” but of the
past life of the “flesh” of the Adamic man versus the new life of the “spirit”
in Jesus Christ.
Believers
do not have “their being in flesh, but in spirit, if at least God’s Spirit
dwells in” them. If anyone has not Christ’s Spirit, "the same is
not his” (verse 9). It is God’s Spirit that enables the believer to walk
righteously (cp. Galatians 5:13-18).
Though
our present physical bodies may be “dead by reason of sin,” if the
Spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, “He that raised
from among the dead Christ Jesus will make alive, even our death-doomed bodies
through means of his indwelling Spirit” (verses 10-11).
Once
again, Paul brings in the future resurrection, and integral to his concept is
the bodily resurrection. Final salvation is realized at the time of the
resurrection and includes the redemption of the individual’s body.
Though
believers have been declared righteous through Jesus Christ, receipt of final
salvation is not a foregone conclusion. Believers are obligated to live “not
according to flesh.” If they do, they will “die, whereas, if by the
Spirit they put to death the practices of the flesh, they will attain life.”
It is men and women who are “led by God’s Spirit that are God’s sons.”
God’s
Spirit within believers “bears witness together with their spirit that they
are children of God.” This means they are “heirs of God and co-heirs with
Christ.” But to be co-heirs with Christ necessitates suffering in this life
so that “they may also be glorified,” though the sufferings of “this
present season cannot be compared with the glory about to be revealed.”
Even
the creation itself has been subjected “to vanity” because of Adam’s
sin. All creation is sighing and travailing-in-birth-throes until the present;
the old creation is “ardently awaiting the revelation of the sons of God.”
At that time, “creation itself also shall be freed from the bondage of decay
into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God” (Romans 8:20-21).
That will mean nothing less than the New Creation.
At
that time, not only creation but, also, “we ourselves who have the
firstfruit of the Spirit, and sigh within ourselves ardently awaiting the
adoption, the redemption of our body” (verse 23). Paul connects
the future New Creation to the bodily resurrection of the saints.
This is the hope “by which we were saved.” But “hope beheld is not
hope, for who hopes for what he sees? If, however, what we do not behold we
hope for, with endurance are we ardently awaiting it” (verses 24-25).
The
New Testament presents a consistent forward-looking faith. Everlasting
life is a future inheritance that will be received at the time of the bodily
resurrection, an event that coincides with the New Creation (cp. 1
Corinthians 15:51-57).
Throughout
this section of Romans, the focus is on the future salvation that Paul connects
with both the New Creation and the Resurrection. Put another way, New Creation
and bodily resurrection are two sides of the same coin. Believers who have been
declared righteous in Christ, who have received the Spirit of God, and who
continue to live accordingly, will receive final salvation at the time of New
Creation and the Resurrection; both events occur at the same time when Jesus
arrives in glory at his ‘parousia’ (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).
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