ROMANS 8:3

“For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”

Man, o man! The older I get, the more I feel my body wearing out. It doesn’t matter that I’ve lost a lot of weight in the past year trying to get healthier. It doesn’t matter that I try to walk about three miles every day and even lift some light weights and do sit ups. My body is wearing out, and I cannot stop it. The sin which entered mankind back at the Garden of Eden has corrupted us and caused us to die little by little. That’s okay. I know where I am going when this old body does finally wear out.

Paul talks about the flesh today in verse 3 of chapter 8. I want you to look carefully, though, at how he uses it. The Greek word is sarx which is translated as flesh, meat of an animal, the body, human nature or human being. It’s used 149 times in the New Testament. It’s not the word itself that I want you to see. It’s how Paul put this sentence together. Let’s take a look.

APPLICATION

Paul starts out by saying, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh,…” He is not saying the Law was fleshly. He is saying those who were supposed to fulfill the requirements of the Law were fleshly men who were not able to keep it. Benson says this about this phrase, “The law was not weak or defective in itself. Its moral precepts were a perfect rule of duty, and its sanctions were sufficiently powerful to enforce obedience in those who were able to obey. But it was weak through the depravity of men’s nature, which it had neither power to remedy nor to pardon; and so could not destroy sin in men’s flesh.”

Then Paul says, “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh…” What?! That’s a crazy idea, right? God, You know men’s flesh is weak, so You decide to send Your Own Son in the flesh? Surely, You just made Your first mistake. Wait just a minute. Look at those words carefully. Paul said, “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” He didn’t say “in the flesh.” Christ was truly fully human, but He was also fully divine. His flesh was just like ours. He had to eat, sleep and drink. But His fleshly body did not contain the corrupt nature of mankind. He was without sin!

And then Paul wraps up this verse by saying, “He condemned sin in the flesh,…” How did God do that? Isaiah 53:6 tells us. “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” God took our fleshly, corrupt, bodily sins and laid them all on the sinless, perfect, holy body of Christ. He paid the ultimate price for our sins, for our corrupt flesh. Praise be to God. Hallelujah!

Words will never be adequate to express our gratitude for the sending of Jesus to earth to die for our fleshly sins. Thank You, Lord.

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