“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
When I was first saved, it did not take me long to pick up my idea of what Paul meant when he said, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NASB). I thought Paul meant something like “Christians never feel guilty when sinning.” I “knew” it meant that because that is the way I had heard others use the verse.
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NASB)
In time, though, I came to understand the verse differently. The “no guilt feelings” interpretation fails three important tests: the meaning of the Greek word, the immediate context, and the larger context of all Scripture. The word translated into English as “condemnation” is the Greek word katakrima. Following the authoritative Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich lexicon, F. F. Bruce (himself an authority on the Greek language) says katakrima means in this context, “the punishment following sentence…penal servitude.”
Meaning of ‘condemnation’ confirmed by the immediate context
It does not, then, speak of the declaration of our guilt but the bondage to sin that follows guilt. This meaning is confirmed by the immediate context found in the next verse, as Paul says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” We have no more katakrima (or bondage to sin) because (or as Paul says, for) Christ has set us free from this through the Spirit. We are no longer condemned to a life of servitude to sin. If the verse had, in fact, meant that Christians are strangers to all guilt feelings it would have contradicted many clear passages in Scripture, including the two below:
For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it–for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while– I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. (2 Corinthians 7:8-9 NASB)
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Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. (James 4:9-10 NASB)
A healthy spirit is sensitive to sin
A healthy spirit is sensitive to sin. Only a seared conscience does not feel bad when one does bad things. A sensitive conscience works much the same way our nervous system does for our body. Pain tells us when we are doing something (such as sticking a hand in fire) that will damage the tissues. We learn not to repeat the conduct that makes us hurt. I once knew a young man who had lost sensitivity in one of his legs due to an auto accident. On one occasion he propped up his leg on a heater as he dozed off to sleep. He awoke to the smell of his burning flesh. Had he been able to feel, he would have moved his leg before such damage was inflicted.
Feeling bad when we have done bad things is good for us. It does not follow that we should sink into unrelenting depression or that we should ever give up. Nor is it fair to load the notion of a healthy conscience with these two, separate issues. In rejecting these two destructive acts we should not reject the idea of a godly conscience.
The key to understanding Romans 8:1 is understanding what Paul meant, not what our friends mean. Paul did not mean Christians never feel bad for having sinned, he meant that Christians are set free and need not sin.
© Copyright 2013, David Kowalski. All rights reserved. Links to this post are encouraged. Do not repost or republish without permission.
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First published (or major update) on Sunday, January 20, 2013.
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Strong’s definition of katakrima (the greek word translated as ‘condemnation’ in Romans 8:1) is ‘penalty; punishment following condemnation, penal servitude,’; and Strong gives the word origin as katakrino defined as ‘to give judgment against; I condemn, judge worthy of punishment’. This speaks clearly of a law-court/legal/trial situation.
Romans 8:1 is saying that those in Christ Jesus have been delivered from the just, legal condemnation facing all people because of the sin of Adam and because of their own sins (Romans 5:12-21). However, this certainly does not mean that “Christians never feel bad for having sinned”. When we sin we should all feel what David felt in Psalm 51.
Phil Almond
Phil:
Though Strong’s, brief “definitions” are not considered truly authoritative among Greek scholars I would say that his definition of katakrima is essentially accurate and in accord with more authoritative sources such as the Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, and Danker Lexicon, which specifies that katakrima is “not condemnation but the punishment following sentence.” The Greek word thus does not refer to the declaration of guilt but to the consequences imposed as a result of that guilty status. To determine precisely which consequence of the guilty status Paul has in mind in Romans 8:1 one must examine the context of the passage in which the verse is found:
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” — Romans 7:24-8:8 NASB
The context (most especially those parts I have highlighted) vindicate F.F. Bruce’s, scholarly determination that in Romans 8:1 being set free from katakrima refers to the believer’s deliverance from penal servitude to the dictates of the flesh that cannot please God. Strong’s definition reinforces this essential meaning that is more clearly specified by Paul in the context of the passage. You are quite correct that the reference is to a “law-court/legal/trial situation” — one in which the guilty party has been sentenced to penal servitude to the rule of the flesh’s inclinations over the person’s choices. From this penal servitude we have been set free, as F.F. Bruce points out, and become enabled to live according to a higher principle of life (the “law” of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus) rather than the lower principle to which we had been formerly bound (the “law” of sin and death). As another Bible teacher has observed, this is analogous to the physics of flight setting us free from the law of gravity. We are enabled to escape the bondage that keeps us limited to lowly, earth-bound travel. As I said in the article above, “Paul did not mean Christians never feel bad for having sinned; he meant that Christians are set free and need not sin.”
There are many other passages in the New Testament that discuss our deliverance from other consequences of our formerly guilty status but Paul’s specific intent in Romans 8:1 is limited, as the context indicates. As James Hernando (to give just one of many scholars I could cite) states in Dictionary of Herneneutics (http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Hermeneutics-Concise-Methods-Expressions/dp/0882430866), context determines “the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, passage etc. in relation to the larger literary context…” When interpreting the Bible, it is vital to observe this literary context in which a given word is used. Just as with English, Greek words largely depend on usage for precision in meaning, and it is the literary context that informs us of the specific, intended usage in a given verse or passage — revealing the expression of thought in which the word is used — an expression that can at times limit the extent of the idea spoken of at that moment even if additional ideas are revealed in other passages of the Bible.
David
To continue this vital discussion/disagreement I would like to know your exegesis of Romans 8:3. As you will know, Strong’s comment on ‘katakrino’ is “2632 katakrÃnÅ(from 2596 /katá, “down, according to” intensifying 2919 /krÃnÅ, “judge”) – properly, judge down, i.e. issue a penalty (exactly condemn); to judge someone “decisively (decidedly) as guilty.””
Phil Almond
Phil:
You description of our differing ways of interpreting the passage at hand as “vital” leads me to suspect that you think I do not hold to a conservative, Evangelical view of judgement. Let me assure you that I do espouse a conservative view of judgement and have expressed that view many times in preaching and in writing. Still, the matter at hand here is Paul’s precise intent in this, specific passage as inspired by the Holy Spirit. Paul does, indeed, speak of judgement in larger ways elsewhere but the literary context in Romans (especially chapters seven and eight) clearly limits the meaning of this, specific passage — and our goal in interpreting any passage must be to ascertain the original intent of the author as determined by the context and flow of thought.
Regarding your references to Strong’s concordance, I would suggest that you invest in some more extensive and esteemed sources for your study of Greek, though some of these will necessitate your learning Koine Greek to at least some extent. I highly recommend William Mounce’s online courses to those who have not studied Greek in seminary — https://billmounce.com/classes. James Hernando, the scholar I referenced regarding the subject of interpreting Scripture in context, teaches Greek and Hermeneutics at a conservative, Evangelical seminary and he personally emailed me about this short piece, saying it was an outstanding example of exegesis.
As BAGD and other reference works indicate, katakrino, like katakrima, emphasises not a declaration of guilt but the sentencing that follows. In the LXX (ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) katakrino is even used at times to indicate liberation from oppression — again showing the emphasis of action that follows assessment as a kind of necessary consequence. You ask for my exegesis of Romans 8:3, and I must again point out that individual verses must be understood within the larger context of the passage in which they are found. I thus quote the passage below:
“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received [h]a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
The passage is clearly about the problem of indwelling sin and how to be liberated from this in order to walk in the Spirit in a manner that pleases God (on the subject of pleasing God see Ephesians 5:10, Colossians 1:9-10, and 1 Thessalonians 4:1). The obstacle for us all is what Paul refers to as “the flesh.” Though apart from Christ we are all bound by the dictates of the flesh, Christ has gloriously liberated us from its rule by sentencing it to death through the cross, as Romans 8:3 says.
I can see from a subsequent email you have sent that you desire to enter into a prolonged debate over passages not directly related to the one exegeted in the above article. Should I write an article about those passages I will be happy to answer any questions you have at that point. As for now, I think we have sufficiently addressed the passage at hand and concluded that the most crucial factor I believe you have missed is a consideration of the larger context of the passage — one that makes the meaning clear. Again, as for your apparent concern that I do not hold to a conservative, Evangelical view of judgement, I assure you that I do so even though I must limit my interpretation of the specific passage under consideration here to specifically what Paul intends as indicated by context. Elsewhere, Paul does have other things to say about judgement and I recommend Paul’s other writings to you for this consideration. Blessings to you.
I would remind readers that though I welcome comments and questions I do not think that the comments thread of an article is the appropriate format for a prolonged, back-and-forth, debate — especially one that spills over into an exegesis of passages or discussion of topics not covered in the article that the thread follows.
I restate my interpretation of Romans 8:3 as follows: “Though apart from Christ we are all bound by the dictates of the flesh, Christ has gloriously liberated us from its rule by sentencing it to death through the cross, as Romans 8:3 says.”