Jesus Suffered Injustice for the Unjust—You

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 for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in 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.

He says not in the likeness of flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, for he certainly received the human nature, but human sin he did not received—hence that which He thus assumed he calls not the likeness of flesh, but the likeness of sinful flesh, because though He had the same nature with ourselves, He yet did not have the same character or disposition.  He means, then, that the law having been unable to bring to effect its own design—by reason of the weakness of those beneath its covenant, possessing as they did a mortal nature, and one answerable to infirmities and passions—the only-begotten Word of God, becoming incarnate, by that human flesh overthrew sin, fulfilling all righteousness and admitting no taint of sin; and by enduring the death of sinners, as though Himself a sinner, manifested the injustice of sin, in that it delivered up to death a body over which death had no just claim.  And this then both overthrew and put an end to death: for in thus submitting to death through the unjust sentence of sin (while not at all answerable to it, in that He never committed sin) He became the price of redemption of those justly subjected to death, as one free among the dead.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans" on Romans 8:3-4

Doubly Free in Christ Jesus

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

As [Paul] had just before called sin "the law of sin," so now he calls the life-giving Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life.  His grace, says he, by faith in Christ has bestowed on you a double freedom: not only has it overthrown the power of sin, but also put an end to the tyranny of death.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans" on Romans 8:2

Rejoicing in Deliverance

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

[Paul] calls it a body of death, as being born subject to death—that is, mortal, for the soul is immortal.  Christ alone, he says, has freed us from this bitter bondage by putting an end to death, and promising us immortality, and that life which is without either labor or pain and apart from warfare or sin.  The full enjoyment we shall receive in the existence to come, while in the present we are blessed with the grace of the thrice-holy Spirit, and thereby not only do we set ourselves against the passions but by the possession of such an Helper are enabled to triumph over them.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans" on Romans 7:24-25

The Law Shows Us Our True Selves; Christ Is the Remedy

Therefore God added the commandment that man might thereby learn to understand his own nature and to fear his Lawgiver.  And we may certainly perceive the lovingkindness of that Lawgiver, for He did not add some Law which was difficult to heed but one which could have been easily kept.  He allowed to [Adam] the enjoyment of all the trees, of one alone He forbade him the use; not that He envied him that one (for how could He do so, who had already given him power over all?) but in order to teach him the terms of submission and to render him well-disposed towards his Creator and provide a means for the exercise of his rational faculties.  And if then, by not keeping the commandment he came under sentence of death, this can be no cause for blame to the Lawgiver but to him who transgressed the law.… But indeed the Lord God has treated with every possible consideration and kindness both Adam himself and all his race, and—to pass by all other and come at once to the heart of the matter—for him and his race the only-begotten Word became incarnate and put an end to the power of death, which from him had received its beginning, and promised the resurrection, and prepared the kingdom of heaven, and so He both foreknew his transgression and made ready beforehand the means of remedy to follow.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans" on Romans 7:11-12

Death to the Law and New Life in the Spirit

Likewise, 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.  It would have been indeed in strict consistency with the example adduced to have said, "the law is dead," that is, has ceased, but in consideration of the spiritual weakness of the Jews, for they greatly exalted the law, and from a desire not to afford an opportunity of finding fault with it to the heretics who denounced the Old Testament, he avoids saying that the law has ceased, but declares that we have died to the law by baptism which saves us, and then rising again have been united to Him who has Himself risen from the dead, that is Christ.  And as he had called the faith which is in the Lord a marriage and union, in keeping with this image he shows the fruit also arising from marriage, in order that we may bear fruit for God.  What then is this fruit-bearing?  That our members become the instruments of righteousness.  And most aptly does he show that the law itself leads us to be joined to Christ, for it did not forbid a woman to be married to a second husband after the death of the first.  And then he goes on to point out the difference.

For while we were living in the flesh, that is, according to the law (for the legal ordinances concerning the flesh, as of foods and drinks, of leprosy, and such like, are what he here calls the flesh), our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members.  He says not "in" the law but by the law.  For the law, which is good, does not itself bring about sin, but sin uses [it] for evil.  Neither indeed do our members themselves bring about sin, but the inclination of the soul to the worse has brought its operations to effect by our members.  And what then springs from this?  To bear fruit for death.
 
In these words he has taught us that before the coming of [the covenant of] grace, while we were living according to the law, the attacks of sin to which we were subjected were the most powerful, in that the law showed indeed what ought to be done, but offered no help to do it.  But now we are released from the law.  He still continues in the same cautious mode of expression, and says not, "the law is made to cease," but we are released from the law, that is, it is inoperative as regards ourselves, we are no longer under its polity.  And how are we released from it?  Having died to that which held us captive.  For when we were subjects of the law we came to baptism, and dying with Christ, and with Him rising again, we were united to our Lawgiver, and no longer need the polity of the law, for we have received the very grace itself of the Spirit, as what follows proves, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans" on Romans 5:4-7

Better Than the Next Guy—Not!

How would you convince someone he is a sinner? OK, I confess. It's a trick question. You are unable to convince anyone: that is the job of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-11). But it got me to thinking of ways to let people know that even the best people are doomed. This led me to Romans 1:29-2:5. The first group Paul mentions are those people who live outside God's word. Notice how they are described:

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

Based on this description of their character, almost anyone can assume he or she is better than these barbarians. One wonders what deeds such debased and savage humans would inflect on others to demonstrate the level of corruption to which they had fallen. Paul tells us:

They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Gossips? Boastful? That cannot be the modus operandi of this loathsome scum, can it? Doesn't that describe most of the world's population? Yes, it does. Even the most refined and religious of the world are this way. That is why Paul goes on:

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

If I am a religious person and look on the savage person to judge him for being and acting that way, I need to understand that I am condemning myself when performing the same small sins. It demonstrates that down deep I am just as corrupt.

What is the solution for the human condition?

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-25a)