I myself. The man out of Christ. Looking back and sum- ming up the unregenerate condition, preparatory to setting forth its opposite in ch. viii. Paul says therefore, that, so far as concerns his moral intelligence or reason, he approves and pays homage to God’s law; but, being in bondage to sin, made of flesh, sold under sin, the flesh carries him its own way and commands his allegiance to the economy of sin.
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CHA RTE Im VII
1. Therefore now. Connecting with vii. 25. Being freed through Jesus Christ, there is therefore no condemnation now.
Condemnation (cataxpiya). As ch. v. 16, sentence of con- demnation.
Who walk not, etc. The best texts omit to the end of the verse.
2. The law of the Spirit of life (6 vouos tod rvedpartos rijs twins). The law, the regulative principle ; the Spirit, the divine Spirit who inspires the law (compare vii. 14). Of life, proceed- ing from the life of Jesus and producing and imparting life. Compare John xvi. 15.
In Christ Jesus. Construe with hath made me free. Com pare John viii. 36.
3. What the law could not do (70 advvatov Tod vopov). Lit., the impossible (thing) of the law. An absolute nominative in apposition with the divine act—condemned sin. God con- demned sin, which condemnation was an impossible thing on the part of the law. The words stand first in the Greek order for emphasis.
In the likeness of sinful flesh. Lit., of the flesh of sin. The choice of words is especially noteworthy. Paul does not say simply, “ He came in flesh” (1 John iv. 2; 1 Tim. iii. 16), for this would not have expressed the bond between Christ’s manhood and sin. Not in the flesh of sin, which would have represented Him as partaking of sin. Not in the likeness oy flesh, since He was really and entirely human ; but, im the leke- ness of the flesh of sin: really human, conformed in appearance to the flesh whose characteristic is sin, yet sinless. ‘Christ appeared in a body which was like that of other men in so far
86 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. ([Cu. VIII.
as it consisted of flesh, and was unlike in so far as the flesh was not flesh of sin” (Dickson).*
For sin (ep) duaptias). The preposition expresses the whole relation of the mission of Christ to sin. The special relation is stated in condemned. For sin—to atone, to destroy, to save and sanctify its victims.
Condemned. Deposed from its dominion, a thing impos- sible to the law, which could pronounce judgment and inflict penalty, but not dethrone. Christ’s holy character was a con- demnation of unholiness. Construe in the flesh with con- demned.
4. Righteousness (d:calwya). Rev., ordinance. Primarily that which is deemed right, so as to have the force of law; hence an ordinance. Here collectively, of the moral precepts of the law: its righteous requirement. Compare Luke i. 6; Rom. ii. 26; Heb. ix. 1. See on ch. v, 16.
The Spirit (wvedpa). From mvéw to breathe or blow. The primary conception is wind or breath. Breath being the sign and condition of life in man, it comes to signify dzfe. In this sense, physiologically considered, it is frequent in the classics. In the psychological sense, never. In the Old Testament it is ordinarily the translation of ruach. It is also used to translate chai life, Isa. xxxviii. 12; n’shamah breath, 1 Kings xvii. 17.
In the New Testament it occurs in the sense of wind or breath, John iii. 8; 2 Thess. ii. 8; Heb. i. 7. Closely related to the physiological sense are such passages as Luke viii. 55 ; Jas. ii. 26; Apoe. xiii. 15.