v.1-11
1. The appearance of the 3rd law "the law of the life-giving Spirit," after the 2 in 7:23 "a different law in my members" waging war against "the law of my mind"
And it is the solution to the being captive, and the pain in 7:24. 8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Therefore, the picture of ch 7 is totally reversed. We were slaves to sin and the result is death 7:5. Sin is inside of us and we do not understand why we do what we do 7:11, 14, 15, 17. And it is like a constant rule that always happen in me v.21. There is no way out v.24.
v. 1 no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
v.4 who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
v.5 those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit...v.6 the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace
v.9 not in the flesh but in the Spirit
v.11 the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you. Life-giving is not only spirit, but also physical in the future.
2. Explanation
v.5 "live according"="having one's outlook shaped by the things"(NET) Grk “think on” or “are intent on” (twice in this verse). What is in view here is not primarily preoccupation, however, but worldview. Translations like “set their mind on” could be misunderstood by the typical English reader to refer exclusively to preoccupation.
(BKC) In other words, God promises spiritual resurrection life now (6:4, 8, 11) for each believer’s mortal body and physical resurrection in the future for that mortal body (6:5; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:42, 53; 2 Cor. 4:14).
(PNTC) Those in the flesh, he now says, have their minds set on the things of the flesh. They are preoccupied with the flesh; they concentrate on the flesh to the exclusion of all else. It is this verb that Jesus uses of Peter when that apostle rebuked him at Caesarea Philippi, “your mind is not set on the things of God but the things of men” (Matt. 16:23). Peter was not being desperately wicked, but he was looking at things from a completely worldly point of view. Paul is saying something of the sort about fleshly people. They may have good intentions, but their horizon is bounded by the things of this life. The flesh is the focus of their whole life. And because they are concentrating on this fleshly life, they cut themselves off from the blessings Christ offers.
(PNTC) Such people are not intermittently interested in the things of the Spirit; their whole being centers on them. What the Spirit does is their absorbing interest. We should not understand this as a self-centered concentration on the piece of Christian work in which they are engaged. It is rather a delighted contemplation of what the Spirit does wherever the Spirit chooses to move. It is the very opposite of a concentration on oneself, even on the service one renders to God.
Summary: Believers of JC has the 3rd law and we have the potential to live according to the Spirit and attain the righteous of the law. However, do I have the worldview of the Spirit. Paul reminded us that we should because we are in the Spirit, the Spirit of God lives in me, and have the Spirit of Christ and belong to Him.
Reflection: How share I live according to the Spirit, or have the worldview of the Spirit or have my worldview shaped by the Spirit?
Questions:
1. no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
2. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death...By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
3. in Christ Jesus
4. walk according to the flesh: have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, For the outlook of the flesh is death, because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so, Those who are in the flesh cannot please God
walk according to the Spirit: have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit, the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace
5. walk according to the Spirit (in the Spirit)
6. Now: your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness
Future: make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you
7. In Christ, walk according to the Spirit, the Spirit of God lives in me.
8. My life is center on the Spirit.
v.12-17
1. R.W. live v.12, 13,
v.13b (BDAG) to live in a transcendent sense, live, of the sanctified life of a child of God...in the glory of the life to come
How shall we live?
Under obligation to live according to the flesh (and die), but put the death of the deeds of the body (sin nature controlling us) by the Spirit, and live
(BKC) Each believer’s responsibility is a positive one—to live each day in the control and power of the Holy Spirit...But the body is the vehicle by which one’s sin-nature expresses itself (cf. Rom. 6:6, 13). Only by the Holy Spirit’s power can a believer put to death the sins of his former life (cf. Eph. 4:22–31; Col. 3:5–9). This is what Paul referred to when he said “count yourselves dead to sin” (Rom. 6:11).
2. R.W. son v.14, children v.16, 17
son=(BDAG) of those who are bound to a personality by close, non-material ties; it is this personality that has promoted the relationship and given it its character...In a special sense the devout, believers, are sons of God, i.e., in the light of the social context, people of special status and privilege
led by the Spirit and being the sons (PNTC) We should understand the leading of the Spirit as a distinguishing sign of God’s sons, but not as making us sons...As in verse 9, the work of the Spirit is not an option or an extra for the advanced Christian. Being led by the Spirit is a mark of all God’s people. Earle sees the result in their conduct: “They not only belong to the family but act like it!
Live as sons mean= not to fear,
=adoption (with full right of inheritance, NET, in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect), crying Abba, Father (close filial relationship),
=confirmed from the Spirit to our spirit,
=being as heirs (heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ, glorified position in eternity)“if, as is the fact” we suffer with Him, then we will also be glorified with Him.
(BKC) in verse 16 the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence attests the believer’s birth relationship to God (tekna, “children,” is lit., “born ones”). But in verse 14 the Holy Spirit’s control and direction attests the believer’s privileges in God’s family as a “son” (huios means a child mature enough to take on adult family privileges and responsibilities). A son in God’s family is led by God’s Spirit.
Reflection: I do not live an ordinary life, but a sanctified transcendent life. It is a uncontrollable life (as formerly when I live under flesh and controlled by sin), but a outbreak kind of life. What a difference am I going to have with this privilege?
When I live my life this way, it attests that I am in a relationship with God. A relationship with warmth, not fear, not a master/slavery kind of restraint. It attests that I am in a relationship with a kind Father who is willing to adopted me and gave me a new family with full legal right. In other words, no one will be able to live a transcendent, sanctified, Spirit-control life if we are not in such a filial life with the father. The relationship is the motivation to the Spirit-control life. The other motivation is the future glory being part of the family. It is an unthinkable glory (and suffering).
v.18-25
1. R.W. or idea
eagerly waits
v.19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God, (BKC) The verb for “eagerly waits” (apekdechomai) is used seven times in the New Testament, each time to refer to Christ’s return (Rom. 8:19, 23, 25; 1 Cor. 1:7; Gal. 5:5; Phil. 3:20; Heb. 9:28). The revealing of the sons of God will occur when Christ returns for His own. They will share His glory (Rom. 8:18; Col. 1:27; 3:4; Heb. 2:10), and will be transformed (Rom. 8:23). All of nature (inanimate and animate) is personified as waiting eagerly for that time.
v.23 Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies
v.25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance
our present stage:
futility-(BDAG) state of being without use or value, emptiness, futility, purposelessness, transitoriness; (PNTC) Paul is saying that sin, which affected the divine purpose in man, affected also the entire nonhuman creation. Lacking the purpose for which it was designed, it has no purpose. As Bruce puts it, “Man is part of ‘nature’, and the whole ‘nature’ of which he forms part was created good, has been involved in frustration and futility by sin, and will ultimately be redeemed.”
decay-(BDAG) breakdown of organic matter, dissolution, deterioration, corruption, in the world of nature...coming into being and passing away
groans and suffers together, groan inwardly for us who have the firstfruits of the Spirit (BDAG) as much of the Spirit as has been poured out so far and a foretaste of things to come
our future stage:
v.18, the coming glory,
the revelation of the sons of God v.19 (BDAG)-of those who are bound to a personality by close, non-material ties; it is this personality that has promoted the relationship and given it its character
the glorious freedom of God’s children v.21
our adoption, the redemption of our bodies v.23
2. Structure:
v.18-19 Summary statement: no matter the sufferings from struggle with sin (ch 7) (same word as in 7:5 the sinful desires aroused by the law were at work in us), or the suffering for Christ sake 8:17 is temporary (PNTC). Our future glory will be revealed. Even the creation (man and all creation) were eagerly awaits for this moment. v.19
v.20-23 The reason for the creation (man and all creation) present stage was under a curse, no freedom, not willingly with futility, and decay. The evidence of that is that the whole creation (man and all creation) groans and suffers together v.23 The pain is shared even with us until our bodies is redeemed. (bodies, both our physical and spiritual bodies are mentioned in this passage).
7:24 Who will rescue me from this body of death?
8:11 the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.
v.24-25 The importance of seeing this point v.18. We need to have patient in hope. (PNTC-It is the attitude of the soldier who in the thick of the battle is not dismayed but fights on stoutly whatever the difficulties)
Reflection: What is my sufferings now? How do I do in eagerly waiting? Have I experienced the futility or purposeless, decay or the pain of passing away? When I have the foretaste of the Spirits do I groan for the full redemption? What is waiting patiently without dismay?
If people do not struggle with sin or not share the sufferings with Christ, there is no way to have a feelings with this passage. If I go with the flow there is no resistant.
Purposeful or purposeless requirement a person to seek God's will. And the purposeless feeling become stronger when I see my times is passing away. In order not to become purposeless and just decay, I need to seek God's will more earnestly.
v.26-30
1. Just as the previous section (sufferings (v. 18) and groaning (v. 23)) is a continuation of the topic of ch 7 (struggling in sanctification), this passage also continues that topic. Therefore, the weakness in v.26, and the intercession of the Spirit is related to our struggling in sanctification.
v.26a is the main statement: the Spirit helps us in our weakness
How does the Spirit help?
v.26b even when we do not know what we ought to pray for (in struggle in sanctification), it intercedes for us
groanings-(BKC) Natural Creation groans (Rom. 8:22) and believers groan (v. 23), and so does the Holy Spirit. inexpressible -(BDAG) sighs too deep for words
Why is the Spirit able to help?
v.27 God told the Spirit our mind and therefore the Spirit intercedes not only represent us and according to God's will
What is God's will
v.28-30 It is a master plan, every thing work together towards this master plan v.28 and the purpose is this: for those he foreknew, predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (i.e. come to the state that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters) v.29. The details of the plan is in v.30.
2. Question
| 29 | ὅτι | οὓς | προέγνω | , | καὶ | προώρισεν | συμμόρφους | ||||||||
| ὅτι | ὅς | προγινώσκω | καί | προορίζω | σύμμορφος | ||||||||||
| because | whom | he knew before | also | he set bounds before | conformed | ||||||||||
| CSC | ORRMPA | V3SAAI | SN | BX | V3SAAI | JMPAX |
| τῆς | εἰκόνος | τοῦ | υἱοῦ | αὐτοῦ | , | εἰς | τὸ | εἶναι | αὐτὸν | πρωτότοκον | ||||||||||
| ὁ | εἰκών | ὁ | υἱός | αὐτός | εἰς | ὁ | εἰμί | αὐτός | πρωτότοκος | |||||||||||
| of the | image | of the | son | of him | to | the | to be | him | first born | |||||||||||
| AFSG | NFSG | AMSG | NMSG | OP3MSG | SN | PA | ANSA | VPAN | OP3MSA | JMSAX |
| ἐν | πολλοῖς | ἀδελφοῖς | · | ||||
| ἐν | πολύς | ἀδελφός | |||||
| in | many | brothers | |||||
| PD | JMPDX | NMPD | SJ |
| εἰς | τὸ |
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