The Work of Christ | Romans 8:3-4

Romans 8:3-4 (ESV)| "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." 

These words explain how God set us free from the law of sin and death. He accomplished something that His law could never do. God's law cannot deliver us from the law of sin and death; it can only condemn us. The problem is not with the law; it's with us. The Bible tells us that God's law is holy and perfect. We, however, are unholy and imperfect. It is impossible, therefore, for sinners to obey God's law and fulfill all its righteous requirements. For this reason, everyone stands guilty and condemned before the one, true, eternal, holy, righteous, and impartial God. The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

God, however, saved us from sin and death by the sending of His Son into the world as "the Savior of the world". His divine, eternal, all-glorious Son became fully human and lived a sinless life, fulfilling all the righteous requirements of God's law. He also suffered and died on a cross as God's perfect sacrifice for our sins. It was there that Christ became our sin, and absorbed God's wrath against it. The sacrificial work of Christ on the cross satisfied God's justice and makes salvation from sin and death possible for everyone who believes in Him.


God punished Jesus at Calvary as if He lived our sinful lives, so that He can treat us as if we are living His sinless life. Christ's righteousness was imputed to us the moment we started trusting in Him as our Savior. Having His righteousness means that all the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us. He took all our sins, and we received all His righteousness. John Calvin called this "the great exchange". 

Being in Christ, we are free from the law of sin and death. Through the miraculous work of regeneration, God made us spiritually alive and capable of living according to the law of the Spirit of life.


"To God be the glory; great things He has done!"