Romanos 8:3

‘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,'

Once again we learn of the weakness of the Law because of man's fleshly disposition (Romanos 7:14 onwards). The ‘spiritual' Law failed because man was ‘fleshly' (Romanos 7:14). So what the Law could not do, make men acceptable to God and deal with the problem of sinful flesh, God did. He intervened. And He did it by ‘sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin'. He Who was the only Son (Romanos 1:3) was ‘born of the seed of David according to the flesh' (Romanos 1:2), and thus came ‘in the likeness of' sinful flesh, although Himself not sinful (2 Corintios 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Pedro 2:22; 1 Juan 3:5). And He suffered for us on the cross, thus being made an offering for sin (Romanos 3:24; Romanos 4:25; Romanos 5:6; Romanos 5:18; Romanos 6:3; Romanos 6:5; Romanos 6:10; Romanos 7:4; compare 2 Corintios 5:21). And as a consequence of His obedience both in life as the Son of David, and in the offering of Himself in death, He ‘condemned sin in the flesh'. His life was a constant condemnation of sin, which was why He was hated by so many. And He condemned sin by His teaching. But above all He condemned sin by dying for it, demonstrating thereby that it was worthy of death. Once He had ‘borne our sin in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness' (1 Pedro 2:24), the power of sin was broken. It could no longer point the finger at those who were Christ's. All it could do was fight a rearguard action so as to affect people's lives. Thus this has in mind both the possibility of present victory over a ‘sin in the flesh' that has been condemned (Romanos 8:4; Romanos 8:10) and final resurrection when the ‘sin in the flesh' will have been got rid of once for all (Romanos 8:11).

‘For sin.' This may indicate that He was being offered up as a propitiatory sacrifice. See 2 Corintios 5:21 where he was ‘made sin for us, He Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.'. Consider also that ‘He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, in accordance with the will of God and our Father' (Gálatas 1:4). There may be a reflection here of Isaías 53:10 LXX where peri hamartias (‘for sin') is similarly used, although the same phrase is used regularly in Leviticus for a sacrificial offering. We need not on the other hand limit ‘for sin' to a sacrificial offering here. The main point is that He was sent to deal with sin as a whole.

‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh.' More literally we could read, ‘The powerlessness (impotence) of the Law being this that it was weak through the flesh -', or alternatively ‘on account of the powerlessness of the Law in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent His Son --.' The point is that the Law was impotent. Having revealed God's requirements it could only stand by helplessly. And this was because of man's fleshliness.