Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Romans 8:3

3) For (what) the law is impotent and unable (a) to do through the flesh, God by sending (b) his own son in the likeness (c) of sinful flesh and concerning sin he judged the sin in the flesh.

Based on my understanding of the passage, I re-phrased my literal translation:
For what was impossible for the law to do, God did, by sending his own son in the form of a sinful human and (in so doing) he addressed sin in the flesh.

Also noteworthy is that most Jews in Paul's day regarded the struggles of the Hebrews under foreign/pagan powers to be the realization of the curse of God that is upon those who disobey the Law. Paul apparently sees Israel's destiny as bound up in Christ's obedience (and so conquering the curse). I believe that this understanding of the connection between the Hebrews' destiny and Jesus' address of sin and the Law makes this passage easier to understand.

a) αδυνατος: pertaining to lacking capability in functioning adequately; powerless, impotent; it is the suffix α, meaning "not", added to the word δυνατος, meaning "powerful" or the ability to do something. This is a strange sentence because at first glance it seems to be saying that God was impotent, but it is actually talking about the impotency of the law. The law was not able to save us, but God usurped the law and did what was impossible for the law to do.

b) πεμπω: to dispatch someone, whether human or transcendent being, usually for the purposes of communication; "Above all, the Father sends the son (upon the earth)"

c) ομοιωμα: usually meaning in a state of being similar in appearance, likeness, image, form, etc. but this passage is among only two (the other one being Philippians 2:7) passages talking about Jesus' earthly life. It probably means (based on what Paul says in the context) that the Lord in his earthly ministry possessed a human body that was capable of sinning as human bodies are but he did not lose his identity as a divine being even in the world.

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