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When we are reading the Bible and we see the word, therefore, we need to go back and read a few or even many verses prior to the word, therefore, to understand why therefore is there. Here is an example from scripture.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Rom 8:1 ESV
This verse concludes that based on what was just presented in scripture, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Therefore, to fully understand why there is no condemnation for those in Christ, we need to read the previous verses. In this case, we are going to go all the way back and start in Romans 7:1. I am going to leave in the headings that are found in the ESV translation I am using.
Romans 7 Tells Us Why There is No Condemnation For Us
Released from the Law
1Or do you not know, brothersa—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.b3Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.c
The Law and Sin
7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Why Therefore is There in Romans 8:1
So we learn clearly from scripture why there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because we have been released from the law. The law is not binding on a dead person. If you notice, the law used as examples is two of the Ten Commandments, adultery, and coveting. Therefore, we know we have been released from the entire law of Moses, Ten Commandments included.
We also learn that we were released from the law because we died to the law. This happened when we accepted Jesus as our savior and were crucified with Christ in God’s eyes. By faith, we are to agree with God that our flesh died on that cross with Jesus. The verses tell us that sin has been condemned in the flesh and this is why the flesh dies. We have died to the law that held us captive is what Rom 7:6 tells us and we now serve by the Spirit of the law, "love", and not by the letter of the law.
Another reason God released us from the law, is the law aroused our sinful passions – Rom 7:5. This is telling us that the inherited Sin nature we received from Adam, rebelled at the law and wanted to do what the law told it not to do. Do you ever feel that way? That is your flesh talking.
We also learn that the purpose of the law was to make us conscious of sin. Paul tells us that he would not have known sin, apart from the law in Rom 7:7. The law was never intended to make us holy, it was given to reveal our inherited Sin nature so we would see our need for the Savior. The law is holy, but it could never save us, it could only kill us in our fallen state – Rom 7:10.
Romans 7:13-23, reveals that our inherited sin nature that continues to dwell in our flesh even after we are born-again, is what leads us to still sin. This is the struggle that Paul talks about starting in Rom 7:13. This struggle is between our born-again Spirit that does not desire to sin and our still fallen flesh that will never be saved and thrives on sin. This is the main thing that causes suffering in this life for us.
In Romans 7:24, Paul calls our sin-infected flesh a body of death, because this is the only place sin leads us and exactly where our flesh is headed. We learn that we have been set free from our body of death. This is talking about our newly born-again perfected Spirit. Our perfected Spirit has been set free from the dead flesh, the body of death. This is how God sees us, in the Spirit and not in the flesh. The only reason we still reside in this body of death is to remain here and be an ambassador for God’s kingdom. Without our body, we could not be here. But is God’s eyes we are already free.
Rom 7:25 tells us that Jesus has set us free, but that we still serve the law of sin with our flesh. Again, this is why we are to see our flesh and that of other believers as dead. We are to see each other in the perfection of the Spirit. The sins the flesh commits are the sins of the flesh. We are not the flesh, we are set free in Christ Jesus and walk in the Spirit. The flesh dies, because the wages of sin are death. This is why Jesus had to come, to set us free from this body of death that sin has been condemned in.
If you go on and read Romans 8, you will see that God sees us in the Spirit and we have victory when we see ourselves by faith as God does. What God sees is a done deal to Him. We just need to believe His word. God sees us as fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law in Christ, in the Spirit. If we see ourselves in the flesh we see ourselves under the law and under condemnation and guilt. Therefore, we try and perfect the flesh that is dead in God’s eyes. This is a worthless dead work. The flesh is dead and will never be redeemed. This is why we need a new glorified body to complete our redemption. We are to walk by faith in the Spirit. To see ourselves in the Spirit, in Christ, as perfect and holy as the blood of Christ can make us, which is as perfect as our Spirit can be. This tells God we believe His word. This is the faith that pleases God. When we see ourselves like this, we will have victory over sin.
Life in the Spirit
1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.a 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set youb free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For 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 for sin,c he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesusd from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So now you know that when you see the word “therefore", you need to read what is written prior to “therefore” to learn why “therefore” is there.
Many more New Covenant Bible Studies HERE. Jesus poured out His blood for the New Covenant of grace and truth, replacing the Old Covenant law of Moses. Believers are exclusively under the New Covenant, the last will and testament of Jesus that began after the cross.
And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. Luke 22:20
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