📘 Passage Breakdown: Romans 8:3

Author: Paul

Written To: Gentiles in Rome (and some Jews)

Date: Around AD 56

Purpose/Context: Paul is explaining how God accomplished what the Law could not—victory over sin through Jesus Christ. Romans 8 builds on the tension of chapter 7, where Paul wrestles with the power of sin and the inability of the flesh to produce righteousness.

📖 Romans 8:3

“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,”

1. “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh…”

✍️ Meaning:

• The Law of Moses is holy, just, and good (Romans 7:12), but it could not save or make someone righteous.
• It was “weak through the flesh” – meaning that the law depended on sinful human ability to keep it.
• “Flesh” here refers to the fallen, sinful nature inherited from Adam (see Romans 5:12).
• The problem wasn’t with the law itself—it was with us, because we are born with a nature that rebels against God.

💡 In other words:

The law could command righteousness, but it couldn’t empower it. Because of the weakness of human nature, the law only revealed sin—it couldn’t remove it.

2. “God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh…”

✍️ Meaning:

• Since the law couldn’t save, God took the initiative to do what the law could not.
• He sent His Son—this speaks of the incarnation, that Jesus came from heaven, not from Adam.
• “In the likeness of sinful flesh” is precise:

• • Jesus came as a real man—He had real human flesh.
  • But the word “likeness” protects the truth that He was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
  • His body was fully human, but not sinful in nature—He did not inherit Adam’s sin.

💡 In other words:

Jesus came looking like any other man, subject to hunger, weakness, and pain, yet without the inner corruption of sin that all other humans carry.

3. “On account of sin…”

✍️ Meaning:

• Jesus was sent “on account of sin”—this refers to the reason for His coming: to deal with our sin.
• This is not referring to His sin (He had none), but ours—the sin of the world (John 1:29).
• It means that His death was a sin offering—He came to take the full penalty for our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).

💡 In other words:

Jesus was sent specifically to deal with the sin problem that we inherited and committed. He came to rescue us because of our sin.

4. “He condemned sin in the flesh.”

✍️ Meaning:

• “He” = God the Father.
• “Condemned” = to pass sentence against, to punish, to judge as guilty.
• “In the flesh” = in Jesus’ human body.
• At the cross, God poured out His wrath on sin—not on us, but on His Son.
• Jesus bore our judgment in His flesh, and in doing so, God condemned sin itself—He dealt with it fully and finally.

💡 In other words:

At the cross, sin was judged once and for all in the person of Jesus. This satisfied God’s justice and freed us from sin’s penalty and power.

✅ Summary:

Romans 8:3 shows the total inability of the law to save us, because of our fallen nature. But what the law couldn’t do, God did—by sending His sinless Son in a real human body, to be a substitute for our sins. On the cross, God condemned sin—He passed judgment on it in Christ, so that believers are no longer condemned (Romans 8:1).

‘For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.’

II Corinthians 5:21