645 4. Τὸ yao ἀδύνατον τοῦ
b See Ch. vi. v.
both in the LXX (Lev. iv. 33 and passim, Ps. xl. 6, 2 Chr. xxix. 24) and in the N.T. (Heb. x. 6, 8) in the sense of ‘sin- offering ” (usually answering to Heb.
Nw, but in Isa. liii. το to ουν);
but it is not formally necessary. But when the question is asked, In what sense did God send His Son “in con- nection with sin”? there is only one answer possible. He sent Him to ex- piate sin by His sacrificial death. This is the centre and foundation of Paul’s gospel (iii. 25 ff.), and to ignore it here is really to assume that he used the words καὶ περὶ ἁμαρτίας (which have at least sacrificial associations) either with no meaning in particular, or with a meaning alien to his constant and dear- est thoughts. Weiss says it is impossible to think here of expiating sin, because only the removal of the power of sin belongs to the context. But we cannot thus set the end against the means; the Apostle’s doctrine is that the power of sin cannot be broken except by expiating it, and that is the very thing he teaches here. This fixes the meaning and the reference of κατέκρινεν. It is sometimes interpreted as if Christ were the subject : ‘*Christ by His sinless life in our nature condemned sin in that nature,” 1.ε., showed that it was not inevitable, and in so doing gave us hope; and this sense of **condemned”’ is supported by reference to Mt. xii. 41 f. But the true argument (especially according to the analogy of that passage) would rather be, “ Christ by His sinless life in our nature con- demned our sinful lives, and left us in- excusable and without hope”. The truth is, we get on to a wrong track if we ignore the force of περὶ ἁμαρτίας, or fail to see that God, not Christ, is the subject of κατέκρινεν. God’s condemnation of sin is expressed in His sending His Son in our nature, and in such a connection with sin that He died for it—i.e., took its condemnation upon Himself. Christ’s death exhibits God’s condemnation -of sin in the flesh. ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ is to be construed with κατέκρινεν: the flesh— that in which sin had reigned—was also that in which God’s condemnation of sin was executed. But Paul does not mean that by His sinless life in our nature Christ had broken the power of
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c Ch, ii. 26., ἁμαρτίαν ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ.