Four amazing words!
THEREFORE
When you see a therefore ask what it’s there for. What is this connected to? To all that has gone before it. From the beginning of Romans Paul has shown us clearly the desperate nature of our plight and God’s answer to it – the outpouring of grace and peace and many other good things but above all being granted His righteousness when we don’t deserve it. He has shown what we have to do to die to sin and be released and yet shown us through his own experience how we are trapped in our sins and desperately need a saviour.
NOW
Now our situation has changed because God’s righteousness has been made known. It has all changed at this time because God’s righteousness not wrath is toward us.
NO
“No” in English doesn’t carry the power of the Greek word used. In Greek is it not the simple “ou” but rather the compound form “ouden”. The word appears in the emphatic position in the sentence, at the beginning. The sense is “not any condemnation now therefore”. Not only are we not condemned now but we will never be condemned. Wow!
CONDEMNATION
Katakrima is a legal term that involves both God’s sentence against sinners and the execution of the same sentence. Paul has demonstrated clearly that EVERYONE on earth is guilty as charged. All are guilty and worthy of condemnation under the law but lo and behold, suddenly their sentence has been taken by another and although they are indeed guilty they are free to walk away.
These four words are the theme of Romans 8 and what’s more the theme of the whole Bible. The rest of the chapter is premised on this first verse and in fact the first four words. Like I told you, Romans is viewed by many as the fifth gospel and Chapter eight is the jewel in the Crown. In the rest of the chapter Paul will unfold the layers and implication of this thought.
Ponder it, suck it like a sweetie.
Prof Basil Brown
We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.
George Bernard Shaw