Romans 8:3-4 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh… I. WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US. 1. He has done what the law could not do. This moral law is the great code of holy requirement, enjoined by God upon all His intelligent creatures for the double purpose of forming their characters and regulating their lives. Now the law is found totally unable to accomplish this object by reason of our weakness and depravity. It is the flesh which is too weak to bear the pressure of the law, just as there are pebbles too friable to bear the friction of polishing, or just as there are mirrors too distorted and dingy to reflect any light. 2. "God has sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh."(1) We thus see that what the law could not do no creature in the universe could do. To bring any pure created nature into contact with man's depravity would tend not to remove that depravity, but only to jeopardise the higher nature. Thus, with two streams, the one clear and the other turbid, when they mingle, it is not the clear stream which purifies the turbid one, but the reverse. Only God Himself could be trusted to mingle intimately with mankind, and lay hold upon the seed of Adam to raise it up from defilement and misery. (2) He has sent that Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh." The Saviour shared in our infirmities, but yet He was without sin. Though "born of a woman," He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." 3. This was "for sin." If this be taken in the general sense of "on account of sin," or "with reference to sin," still we must think principally of His great atoning death. It was on the Cross that the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world (1 Peter 2:24). 4. God thus "condemned sin in the flesh," i.e., Christ on the Cross condemned sin to lose its hold upon mankind, and despoiled it of its tyrannous control; or else condemned to destruction the sin which is in our flesh. Here we see how Jesus saves His people from their sins. This word "condemned" suggests a comparison with ver. 1. The condemnation which should have come upon us has come upon our sins instead. And thus, while we are forgiven, we are also delivered from the thraldom of sin, that henceforth we should serve it no more. II. WHAT GOD HAS WROUGHT IN US. 1. Nothing is more clear than that Christ intends His people to be actually holy (Titus 2:11, and Titus 3:3-6). Here, then, we see the double glory of the gospel over the law. It can do what the law cannot do, in that it can confer on us a full and sufficient pardon, and also save us from the continued dominion of sin, and cause us to walk in newness of life. If a man hate God and his neighbour, it can make him love them; if he be a drunkard, it can make him sober; if an idolater, it can turn him from his idols; if a liar, it will make him truthful, etc. 2. Let us, then, see how it is that God works this mighty change within us. (1) Our hearts are won to holiness and the love of God by the incarnation and sufferings of His Son. (2) They are set free to a life of holiness by the removal of our guilt and condemnation by the sacrifice of Jesus. (3) They are directly strengthened and vivified for a career of holy living by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the purchase of Jesus' death, and the gift of His exaltation. (T. G. Horton.) Parallel Verses KJV: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: |
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