simple answers. Rom 8.1-4

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

A guard tower at an abandoned military base, Romania.

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Rom 8.1-4

There is therefore 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 God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

The normal explanation of this is that as Christians we enjoy life in the Spirit and have been set free from sin and death. This is actually almost the opposite of what Paul is saying. As a starting point, it is necessary to understand that:

1. The letter to the Romans is the only time Paul wrote to a mostly-Jewish audience.

2. Not every occurrence of the word "law" is a reference to the Mosaic law.

3. The Scriptures are given by God, for his purposes, to tell us what God he is doing and how we fit in. Any benefit to us is of secondary importance. When he promote our interests above God's, we will not understand.

4. There is nothing wrong with a child doing what the parent says.

5. The controversy between eternal security and being able to lose your salvation (Calvinism vs Arminianism) is a distraction. Neither is true.

The Law’s limitation is the flesh. Paul’s comparison is between flesh and Spirit, not Law and Spirit.

Sinful flesh, not sinful law

Condemned sin in the flesh, not the law

The just requirement of the law

Is fulfilled in us

Those who live according to the flesh (not the law)

To set the mind on the flesh (not the law) is death

The flesh is hostile to God (not the Law)

The flesh does not submit to God’s law

The flesh cannot please God

The discussion with the Jewish believers at Rome was about the flesh, in the context of their understanding.

Paul could have had the same discussion with the Gentile believers at Rome about the flesh, in the context of their understanding

That Paul relates law and flesh does not mean it is the only relation.

This passage could be related wholly to Gentiles if it weren’t for the first part of v 3. That propels our minds upon a trajectory that we cannot resist. But we must, because Paul is not talking about the Law and circumcision. The law of sin and death in v 2 is not the Law of God: it is the law of sin and death. The “law of sin and death” is the Fall: on the day you eat of it you will die. We have lived under that law since then. The law of sin and death is the inescapable fact that sin ends in death. It is not the Law of God. The Law of God has penalties for disobedience, but it is not a law of sin and death. It is holy and good, and it will be fulfilled in us.