Free From the Law, O Happy Condition

by Staff March 30, 2015

 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."—Romans 8:1

From Albert Barnes's Notes on the Bible, 1834:

"The apostle having established the doctrine of justification, and answered the objections commonly urged against it, now asserts his triumphant conclusion, 'There is therefore, etc.;' that is to say, it follows from all that has been said concerning the believer's justification by the righteousness of Christ, and his complete deliverance from the Law as a covenant, that to him there can be no condemnation. The design of Paul is not so much to assert the different functions of the Law and the gospel, as simply to state the fact in regard to the condition of a certain class, namely, those who are in Christ. To them there is no condemnation whatever; not only no final condemnation, but no condemnation now, from the moment of their union to Christ, and deliverance from the curse of the Law. The reason is this: that Christ hath endured the penalty, and obeyed the precept of the Law in their stead.

"'Here,' says Mr. Haldane on the passage, 'it is often remarked that the apostle does not say, that there is in them (believers) neither matter of accusation, nor cause of condemnation; and yet this is all included in what he does say. And afterward, in express terms, he denies that they can be either accused or condemned, which they might be, were there any ground for either. All that was condemnable in them, which was sin, has been condemned in their Surety'… )."