Romans 8:4

The relation we have just indicated between Romans 8:3-4 forbids us to give here to δικαίωμα, what the law lays down as just, the meaning of: sentence of absolution, which some, and Philippi most recently, have given to it. The matter in question here is not guilt to be removed; and to say that the law itself can henceforth declare as just, the term πληρωθῆναι, to be fulfilled, would not be very suitable. The matter in question, according to the context and the terms employed, is what the law demands of man. All the postulates contained in the righteousness demanded by the law (comp. the Sermon on the Mount, for example) are fulfilled in us, as soon as we walk, no more after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For, as we have seen, the law being spiritual, must coincide at all points in its statutes with the impulses of the Spirit. The participle περιπατοῦσιν, who walk, expresses the condition on which Paul can affirm of believers what he has just said (comp. the τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, John 1:12).

Commentators differ as to the meaning of the word πνεῦμα, spirit. Does it denote, as Lange thinks, the spiritual life in believers? But would this be a very sure standard, and does Romans 8:2 admit of this subjective sense? Most, therefore, understand by the expression: the Holy Spirit. This meaning does not seem to us open to question (comp. also Romans 8:9; Romans 8:11). Only from the use of the word spirit in the sequel (Romans 8:5-8), it follows that the apostle is not speaking of the Holy Spirit, independently of His union with the human πνεῦμα, but of the former as dwelling in the latter, or of the latter as wholly directed by the former. And hence the reason why the one and the other idea becomes alternately the dominant one in the following passage.

But the most important word in this verse is the conjunction that. In this word is contained Paul's real notion of sanctification. How does the fulfilment of the law in believers follow from the fact expounded in Romans 8:3: the condemnation of sin wrought in the person of Christ? The strangest answer to this question is that of Holsten: “The power of the flesh in humanity was destroyed by the death-blow which slew the flesh of Christ on the cross.” But how could sin of nature, objective sin, in humanity, be destroyed by the fact of Christ's death? If sin is inherent in the flesh, the flesh which needs to be destroyed is not only Christ's, but that of the entire human race. As Wendt rightly observes, nothing but the death of all men could secure the desired result.

Gess thinks that the part played by Christ's death in sanctification was to render possible the gift of the Spirit, who alone has power to sanctify (comp. Galatians 3:13-14). But Paul does not say in Romans 8:4: “that the Spirit might be given” (as he does Galatians 3:14: that we might receive the Spirit). He passes directly from the condemnation of sin in Christ (Romans 8:3) to the fulfilment of the law in believers (Romans 8:4). This mode of expression supposes another relation. And this relation is easy to comprehend if the right meaning of Romans 8:3 has been taken. The believer's holiness is nothing else than that which Jesus Himself realized during His earthly existence. “For their sakes I sanctify myself,” says Jesus, John 17:19, “that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” Here, as in other respects, the Spirit only takes what is His, to communicate it to us (John 16:14). Our Lord's holy life on the earth is the type which the Holy Spirit is commissioned to reproduce in us, the treasure from which He draws the renewing of our life (Col 3:10; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18). The holiness of all of us is only this unique holiness which the Spirit makes ours: He is our sanctification as well as our righteousness, the latter by His death (which faith makes our death), the former by His holy life (which the Spirit makes our life). Witness the two διά, through, by, of Romans 5:1-2; and the mysterious by His life, ἐν τῇ ζωῃ αὐτοῦ, of Romans 5:10. Such is the rich and profound sense of the that, Romans 5:4.

The expression ἐν ἡμῖν, in us, perfectly suits this meaning. It says first, that therein we are receptive; then it contains also the by us.

The term περιπατεῖν, to walk, is Paul's usual figure for moral conduct.

The subjective negation μή is used because Paul is speaking not of the fact in itself, but of the fact as being the assumed condition of the preceding affirmation.

Thus the first idea of this passage has been developed: emancipation from the law of sin. What the law condemns was condemned in Christ, that henceforth through His Spirit the law might be fully carried out in us. No doubt the power of sin is not annihilated within, but it cannot control the active part of our being and determine the περιπατεῖν (the walk). There remains the second idea: deliverance from the last condemnation, that of death: death spiritual, Romans 8:5-10, and finally also from bodily death, Romans 8:11.