Romans 8 ~ Wrestling With That Pesky Clause in verses 1 and 4
Although in Romans 8 Paul seemed to have found his answer, it still wasn’t making any practical sense to me. Nevertheless, armed with new revelation, I began to read the chapter yet again…continuing to search for the secret to victory over the ‘body’ that Paul had proclaimed at the end of Romans 7. Romans 8 begins…
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…
As a result of realizing that I could now answer “no” to the question “Are You In The Flesh?“, I was beginning to feel the freedom from condemnation spoken of here. Finally, I was getting somewhere. Maybe I had found Paul’s secret to victory after all. Or maybe not…
As I continued to read the rest of the verse I noticed a qualifying condition.
…who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Oh, no! Here we go again. If this verse had ended with ‘to those who are in Christ Jesus’, then I would have qualified for no condemnation. I had met that condition in accepting Jesus as my Lord. I was doing pretty good when there was only one condition to be met which could be met by my identity instead of my actions….by my WHO instead of my DO. Nevertheless, it appeared there was a part for me to play. This freedom from condemnation had another requirement. Unfortunately, once again, this put the responsibility back on me and my obedience. It left me right where I had started, struggling to walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. I knew what I was supposed to do. I just didn’t know how to do it. I searched for a loophole.
Upon further inspection, I discovered that there is strong evidence that this added clause was actually not found in the earliest ancient manuscripts of the book of Romans. Apparently even the translators couldn’t believe it could be that easy. So with the addition of the clause “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” another condition was added. What a relief it was to find this was not the case. Thus, my freedom from condemnation did not depend on my actions. Jesus bore the condemnation I deserved and I was declared innocent.
I had dodged another bullet…or had I? Unfortunately, as I continued to read Romans 8, the clause shows up again in verse 4 and this time it was in the original manuscripts. Again, I searched for an escape.
I studied the words in the original Greek, but they only confirmed my fears. I was forced to admit that there indeed was a difference between being in the flesh (which spoke of my identity), and walking according to the flesh (which, although I hated to admit it, did refer to my actions). I could not let myself interpret the Word of God inaccurately in order to escape the truth. Seemingly there was still an adverse sentence left for me to endure if I continued to walk according to the flesh. Actually, according to verse 13, the consequences appeared to get worse.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die.
Even though I had seen that I was no longer in the flesh but was now in the spirit based on Romans 8:9, and that I didn’t have to bear the condemnation and punishment for my sin since Jesus had, I was still missing something. Although I was not in the flesh, I still had to uncover the secret that would prevent my walking according to the flesh. I still had to find the key that would ensure that I was not only in the spirit but was walking according to the spirit. I had to find out. What was that key?
My Story continues here
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