[There is] then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
These words come right after the long struggle of the previous chapter, where a person cries out to be rescued from himself. Two things decide their force: what "in Christ Jesus" means, and how much of the verse Paul wrote.
The answer to a cry for deliverance
By this point Paul has moved past the question of guilt. One writer shows the difference between being forgiven and being set free:
He finds his sins wiped out. He was unclean, and God washes him. He offended, and God forgives him. He was guilty, and God justifies him. God has made that clear for ever. But the old self is dead before God, and the new self is in Christ. Christ is my righteousness. I was lost, without hope in myself, but now I am in Christ before God. That is deliverance. In Romans 5 you are justified. But in Romans 8, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
The clause that does not belong
Older printed Bibles add a clause to this verse: "who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Commentators agree that a copyist carried these words here from verse 4:
All critics now agree, whatever they themselves believe, that "who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" was wrongly inserted here from the fourth verse. In verse 4 the words fit perfectly. Where they stand, they make "no condemnation" depend on a certain way of living. But that would cancel the apostle's argument... Think of someone groaning because he cannot do the good he wants to do. What comfort is it to tell him that his freedom from condemnation still depends on doing it!
You can reach the same conclusion without studying any manuscripts. Just ask whether any Christian's conduct could carry that weight:
Take the best Christian life anyone ever lived, and the best Christian state anyone ever reached. Even that would give some ground for judgment and condemnation. There is not a Christian on earth who does not have to judge his own state and conduct every day... To be free from all condemnation, we need something that is perfect as God is perfect, and no Christian life is that, or ever was.
Where the believer is placed
The verse does not describe a feeling or an achievement. It describes a location. One writer makes the contrast sharp by naming the alternative:
Rom. 8:1 reads "There is therefore, now, no condemnation to them which are" (not in their sins, but), "in Christ Jesus."
Two reasons why condemnation is impossible
The verses that follow give the reason. They cover both halves of the problem: the new life God gives, and the old nature He has judged:
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And he explains this in two ways. How could you condemn them? "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." How could you condemn a life that is perfectly good? ... But there is another reason. God has condemned sin already... He has already judged my nature. It is not a question of forgiveness. I do not want my nature to be forgiven; I do not forgive it myself.
Sin still in the believer deserves everything the word "condemnation" means. The question is where that sentence of condemnation has already fallen:
Believers still live in mortal bodies, and the flesh and sin are still in them. That flesh and sin are evil beyond cure, and they deserve nothing but the fullest condemnation. But God's condemnation has already fallen in the sacrifice of Christ, and the believer in Christ Jesus is beyond it for ever. For us there is no condemnation. It has exhausted itself in the cross!
Measured by Christ Himself
The phrase is "in Christ Jesus." So the risen Christ Himself sets the measure:
The Lord Jesus Christ bore all our condemnation on the cross. God has raised Him from the dead, and no condemnation of any sort can apply to Him now. How could there? Then there can be none for those who are in Him.
The force of "now"
The verse does not promise a favourable outcome at some future hearing. It settles the present:
If it said that we believers will escape condemnation on the day of judgment, that would be wonderful. What it does state, however, is that there is NOW no condemnation. Christ has borne the condemnation and used it up for us. We now share the life of the risen Christ, so we are as clear of condemnation as He is.
Summary
- Therefore — the verse answers a cry for rescue, not just a plea for pardon. Forgiveness clears what I did; this clears where I am.
- No — a copyist carried the clause about walking by the Spirit in from verse 4. What Paul wrote carries no conditions.
- Condemnation — God did not waive it. It fell on Christ at the cross and burned itself out there, and it judged sin in the flesh with it.
- Now — not a verdict awaited at a future court, but a present standing already settled.
- In Christ Jesus — the risen Christ Himself is the measure. Nothing can be charged against Him, so nothing can be charged against those in Him.