Romans chapter 8, is a favorite chapter to many of the Lord’s saints. It is a wonderful chapter, beginning with ‘no condemnation’ in verse 1 and ending with ‘no separation’ in verses 38-39. It contains several verses that are well known and appreciated by so many.

Let’s read Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (NASB) How wonderful to know that we who have Christ as our savior will NEVER receive any condemnation, or judgment from the hand of God. We read in verse 3 that, “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” God has already judged our sins. He judged them in His Son. We learn in 1 Peter 2:24 that the Lord Jesus “bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”

Let’s read John 19:30, “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” This is, of course, the Lord Jesus speaking from the cross of Calvary. Having hung there for six hours, the Lord authoritatively pronounced that “IT IS FINISHED.” This three-word phrase is actually just one word in the original Greek. That word is ‘teleo’. In other places, that same word is translated as ‘performed’, ‘accomplished’, ‘fulfilled’. However, in Matthew 17:24 and Romans 13:6 is it translated as ‘pay’. Let’s read Matthew 17:24, “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master PAY tribute?” So, in effect, from the cross, the Lord Jesus proclaimed, “PAID” as to our sin debt. With His death on the cross, He paid that debt that we owed but could not pay and because of that, “There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Jesus paid it all.

In the King James Version, there is phrase added to this verse which says, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Most translations omit this phrase. Some which include it have added a footnote that the older manuscripts do not include it. In fact, the phrase was copied from verse 4 which says, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Paul was stating plainly that is it US (believers) who “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” To add that phrase to verse 1, does present a danger. There are some who teach that our position of “NO CONDEMNATION” is conditional upon our walking in the Spirit. This is not true because it is not scriptural.

As I stated at the outset, the chapter begins with ‘no condemnation’ and ends with ‘no separation’. Let’s read Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, NOR ANY OTHER CREATURE, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” May we understand and rejoice in the truth that as true believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will never receive God’s condemnation and that there is NOTHING that can “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (246.6)