Sermon Tone Analysis

No Condemnation

Romans 8:1–4

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life 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.

Having surveyed the entire eighth chapter of Romans in our last study, we return now to the beginning of the chapter, concentrating on verses 1–4.

The first verse tells us, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

This sentence is the theme of the chapter, as I said in the last study.

Everything else flows from it.

The rest of the chapter is basically an exposition of this one idea.

But verse 1 is not only the theme of Romans 8.

It is the theme of the entire Word of God, which is only another way of saying that it is the gospel.

Indeed, it is the gospel’s very heart.

This means that it is what Paul has been explaining all along.

In Romans 1 he spoke of the gospel, saying that he was not ashamed of it “because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (v.

16).

He spoke of the gospel again in Romans 3, adding that “now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known …” (v.

21).

It is the same in Romans 5: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v.

1), and “Since we have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” (v.

9).

He ended that chapter by saying, “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (vv.

20–21).

These are only a few of the many statements of the gospel that have occurred thus far in Romans, and Romans 8:1 is but another.

Always it is the gospel.

Paul seems never to have grown tired talking about it.

Ah, but we do!

Many of us find the gospel wearisome and grace boring.

Why is that, do you suppose?

Why are we so different from Paul at this point?

I think it is because of what Jesus alluded to in speaking of the woman who anointed his feet with her tears and then wiped them with her hair.

She had a sinful past, and those who knew it objected, saying to themselves, like the Pharisee: “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39).

Jesus answered by telling of a man who had been forgiven a great debt and who therefore loved his benefactor greatly.

Jesus’ point was that “he who has been forgiven little loves little” (v.

47).

Isn’t that it?

Isn’t it true that the reason grace means little to most of us is that we do not consider ourselves to be great sinners, desperately in need of forgiveness?

Four Great Words

We cannot appreciate or even understand what Paul is saying unless we recognize that we are sinners and that we have been saved only by the grace of God.

This is taught by the four great words in verse 1.

1. Condemnation.

I spoke about condemnation in the last study, saying that we have a hard time appreciating what this means because few of us have ever been found guilty in a court of law.

“Condemnation,” as Leon Morris says, “is a forensic term which here includes both the sentence and the execution of the sentence.”1

But no human being has ever pronounced a sentence of “guilty” against most of us, and we think therefore that we are all basically fine people.

We are not, of course.

This is what Romans 1:18–3:20 has been teaching.

2. Now.

“Now” is a time word, pointing to the change that has come about as the result of believers’ entering into the justification that Jesus Christ made possible by his death.

We stood condemned by God and were due to suffer the penalty of an eternal death for our sins, the “wages of sin” being “death” (Rom.

6:23).

But that has been changed now because of God’s great grace and favor to us.

3. No.

This word is weak in the English translations.

In our texts it is a simple negative, like most other negatives.

In the Greek text “no” is strongly emphasized.

First, it is not the simple negative ou but the compound and therefore stronger negative oude.

Second, it occurs at the beginning of the sentence, which intensifies the negation.

Commentators do not know how to render this well in English, but they write things like: “Not any therefore now of condemnation”2 and “Not only is the Christian not in a state of condemnation now, he never can be; it is impossible.”3

It is a very strong statement.

4. Therefore.

The fourth great word in this sentence is “therefore.”

To what does it refer?

To the arguments immediately preceding this verse in chapter 7? To chapter 5 or chapter 3? Most agree that Paul’s “therefore” is inclusive, pointing back to the entire argument of the epistle thus far.

It is because of God’s work in Jesus Christ and because of the application of it to us by the Holy Spirit that there is now “no condemnation.”

God’s Work, Not Ours

Here is a point at which we need to make sure we really understand what is being said.

I have pointed out that there is no condemnation for us because of what God has done.

But do we really believe that?

Or do we still think that somehow, in some way, we are contributing to our salvation?

What Paul writes is that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

That is, there are two classes of human beings: those who are in Christ Jesus and who are therefore not under condemnation, and those who are not in Christ Jesus and who are therefore still under condemnation.

What he is promising is for those in the first class only.

But the question is: How do we get out of the one class and into the other.

Is this something we do?

Do we earn it?

Do we attain it “by faith”?

If you have understood what the apostle has been saying up to this point, you will know that it is none of the above.

It is because of God’s work in joining us to Christ.

This is what the last half of Romans 5 and almost the whole of Romans 6 is about.

Here I must deal with a manuscript problem.

Those who use the Authorized or King James text will notice the addition of the words “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” following the words “Christ Jesus” in verse 1.

This is certainly an error, as even the famous Scofield Bible, which uses the King James text, acknowledges in a footnote.4

It is worth pointing this out because, if the clause is retained, it suggests exactly the opposite of what the text actually says.

In its corrupt form the text reads, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” (KJV), which seems to be saying that if we continue to lead a godly life “in the Spirit” we will not be condemned, but that if we fail to lead a godly life we will be.

How did such a serious textual error come about?

We do not know exactly, but it is not hard to imagine how this might have happened.

For centuries before the invention of the printing press just prior to the Reformation, Bible manuscripts were copied by hand, and from time to time the copyists made errors, as we would have done ourselves.

In the vast majority of cases the copyists were accurate.

That is why we have such accurate texts today.

Even where there are errors, we can correct them by comparing the errant copy with the multiplicity of other more perfect manuscripts.

Still, mistakes were made, and this seems to have been the case here.

We can imagine a weary monk working his way through the Book of Romans, perhaps early in the morning when he was still sleepy or else late at night.

He has finished chapter 7 and begins chapter 8, writing, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

…” But at this point he either dozes off or perhaps, weary with the arduous work of copying, looks ahead to the end of the book to see how much more there is to do (he is only halfway through!).

When he returns to his work his eye falls not on verse 2, where he should pick up, but on the latter half of verse 4, where he copies “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

This is a mistake, of course, a serious one, but it sounds right to him.

It flows grammatically.

So he continues by copying verse 2 and the verses after it.

Does this mean that we cannot trust the Bible?

No! There are only a handful of such problems, and besides, they are well known to those who work with Bible texts.

They have been corrected.

Nevertheless, in this case the problem existed for quite a long time.

What I am saying is that these words do not belong.

If they did, our escape from condemnation would last only as long as our next faltering step or sin; then we would be back under condemnation again.

Thank God, salvation is not like that!

Salvation is from God.