29 May 2009

Again: Sanctification by Gospel

Rom 8:3 - 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 . . .

Rom 8:4 - . . . in order that (hina) the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

8:3 tells us what God has done for us, 8:4 what he does in us; 8:3 focuses on Christ, 8:4 on the Spirit; 8:3 on a point in time, 8:4 on a process; 8:3 then, 8:4 now; using the words in the most broadly theological sense, 8:3 on justification, 8:4 on sanctification. And the second of each pair is result (and perhaps purpose)--"in order that"--of the first.

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