No Condemnation

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are is Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  

Romans 7:24-8:1 

Why is there no condemnation for those who are in Christ? The wrong answer is that they are good people who are morally and spiritually superior. Paul spent the second half of the seventh chapter freely confessing his spiritual difficulties. After crying out, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ he landed upon Christ as the answer to his spiritual deficiencies. The chapter divisions did not exist in the original manuscripts. Therefore, verse one of chapter eight is the continuation of what we see as the end of chapter seven. For our purposes, we have joined them together without the chapter division. After Paul has humbly admitted he continues who struggle spiritually, he goes on to say, ‘there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but, according to the Spirit.’ This person to whom he is referring is the same person he was describing in chapter seven. They are not different people. Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us enables us to walk as we could never otherwise walk. 

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that you lead us by Your Spirit. 
We praise You that because You do, 
we are free from condemnation. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning