3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
3 For
“For” explains how God achieved our freedom of verses one and two. There is a contrast here between what the law could not do and what God did do.
what the law could not do
Freedom was not achieved through the law. The Holy Spirit accomplishes what the moral law could not do. There is a weakness in the law; it could not give freedom from condemnation, justify, or impart new life. It could not do what only God can accomplish in Christ.
The definite article before “law” indicates that the law here is the Mosaic Law. The judicial basis for our liberty does not come from the Mosaic Law. The law was unable to do what it needed to do because the sin capacity could not keep those requirements. The law is impotent to justify or sanctify.
in that it [the law] was weak through the flesh,
The Mosaic Law was impotent because of the “flesh.” The flesh or sin capacity cannot deliver the believer because it could not meet the demands of the law. This was the thesis of chapter seven: the law could not overcome sin, because of the sin capacity. Even a Picasso cannot fashion a work of art on toilet paper.
PRINCIPLE:
The weakness of the sin capacity makes it necessary that God would intervene in the situation.
APPLICATION:
When it comes to our position before God, there is nothing that we can do for ourselves. The weakness of the sin capacity is an insurmountable obstacle to any effort to please God by the self. Our only hope is what Jesus did for us.
It is as impossible to make man righteous by the law as it is for us to measure ourselves by a false standard. Our property might be 15 yards wide and we want to build a house 25 yards wide. The standard of 15 yards can do nothing to make it possible to build a house 25 yards wide. The standard is good for measuring a standard, but it is not good for making something reach a standard. Everyone comes “short of the glory of God.” The standard for going to heaven is being as good as God is good. No one can live up to that standard. That is why we need someone to declare us as righteous as God is righteous. Jesus met the standard for us.
Please what does it mean to “condemned sin in the flesh…”
Njinkeng, there are 4 studies on this verse. You need to study 8:3d in order to get your answer. All you have to do is hit the verse on the right and you will advance to the next study.
Does that mean God intervened on his own works? After all it was God who created the law when God passed down the Ten Commandments to Moses, forming the basis of Mosaic Law.
Richard, Christ fulfilled all the demands of the law on our behalf (Ro 8:4). Look at how Galatians handles law verses grace: law in NKJV
Galatians 2:16
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
Galatians 2:19
For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
Galatians 2:21
I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Galatians 3:2
This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—
Galatians 3:5
Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Galatians 3:10
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
Galatians 3:11
But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”
Galatians 3:12
Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
Galatians 3:13
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),
Galatians 3:17
And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
Galatians 3:18
For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Galatians 3:19
What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
Galatians 3:21
Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.
Galatians 3:23
But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.
Galatians 3:24
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Galatians 4:4
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
Galatians 4:5
to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:21
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
Galatians 5:3
And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
Galatians 5:4
You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Galatians 5:14
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 5:18
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Galatians 5:23
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Galatians 6:2
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:13
For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
Page . Exported from Logos Bible Software, 4:05 PM May 4, 2020.
I was going through and additional drug Use but the word of God did something I have lesson to the word all the time ⌚ but this what I needed