Romans 8:2

Romans 8:2. For introduces the proof that there is ‘no condemnation.'

Law of the Spirit of life. ‘Law' is here to be taken in its wide sense, the principle, ruling power, etc. The reference is not to the moral law, or the Mosaic law, or to the law of the mind, nor yet to the gospel as a system, but to the new principle of living which comes from the working of the Holy Spirit, here called the Spirit of life, because it gives life, works life in us.

In Christ Jesus. This should be joined with what follows. The deliverance took place in virtue of union to Him who fulfilled the law and delivers from its bondage.

Freed me. The reference is to a single act; not, however, to justification, but to the first act of ethical emancipation which attends it, because the Spirit then begins its work. The whole verse refers to what occurs in the man who is in Christ Jesus.

The law of sin and death. Not the Mosaic law, as those hold who refer ‘law of the Spirit of life' to the gospel system, but rather, as chap. Romans 7:23-25 indicates, the old principle of sin which held us captive, and which had ‘death,' spiritual and eternal, as its consequence. It is this consequence which is denied in Romans 8:1. There is no condemnation, not only because in Christ Jesus we have the ground of full justification, but because, at our justification, in virtue of our union with Christ, we receive from the Holy Spirit a new principle of life, an act of emancipation occurs, which has as its development and consequence progressive sanctification.