ACC ~ Romans 8 v3

HIS FLESH NOT ILLUSORY. TERTULLIAN: If the Father “sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,” it must not be said that the flesh in which he appeared was illusory. … The Son was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh in order to redeem our sinful flesh by a like substance, even a fleshly one, which bore a resemblance to sinful flesh although it was itself free from sin. AGAINST MARCION 5.14.

WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO. ORIGEN: In my opinion, Paul here as in many other passages divides the law of Moses into two parts, one of which is carnal and the other spiritual. Moreover, he calls the literal observance of the law its carnal meaning. … This observance is both impossible and inadequate. For what is more impossible than observance of the sabbath according to the letter of the law? For it is commanded that no one should go outside his house, nor move away from his place, nor carry any burden. When the Jews, who observed the letter of the law, realized that these things were impossible, they glossed the law in silly and ridiculous ways. … And what can I say about the system of sacrifices, which is now totally impossible to observe since there is no temple, no altar and no place to perform the sacrifices? In these instances I would say that the law is not just impossible or inadequate; it is dead!

Paul shows that Jesus had the likeness of sinful flesh but not that he had sinful flesh in the same way we do. For we are all human beings who have been born from the seed of a man who has slept with a woman, and we can only say, along with David, that: “In sin my mother conceived me.”But the one who was born without contact with a male but only because the Holy Spirit came upon a virgin and covering her with the power of the Most High gave birth to a spotless body which had the same nature as ours but without the corruption of sin which is passed on by the act of conception. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: Because God has done what the law could not do, we reject Jewish customs on the ground that they were not meant for us and that it is impossible to accommodate them to the needs of the Gentiles, while we gladly accept that the Jewish prophecies contain predictions about ourselves. PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 1.7.

GOD SENT HIS SON IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH. AMBROSIASTER: For whom was this impossible? For us of course, because we could not fulfill the commandment of the law, since we were subject to sin. For this reason God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. It is the likeness of our flesh because, although it is the same as ours is, it was sanctified in the womb and born without sin, neither did he sin in it. Therefore the womb of a virgin was chosen for the divine birth so that the divine flesh might differ from ours in its holiness. It is like ours in origin but not in sinfulness. For this reason Paul says that it is similar to our flesh, since it is of the same substance, but it did not have the same birth, because the body of the Lord was not subject to sin. The Lord’s flesh was sanctified by the Holy Spirit in order that he might be born in the same kind of body as Adam had before he sinned. By sending Christ God used sin to condemn sin. … For Christ was crucified by sin, which is Satan; hence sin sinned in the flesh of the Savior’s body. In this way, God condemned sin in the flesh, in the very place where it sinned. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

HIS FLESH LIKE OURS, EXCEPTING SIN. CHRYSOSTOM: Again it appears as if Paul is criticizing the law, but in reality he is harmonizing it with Christ. The problem with the law was that it was too weak to accomplish what it intended. … And even the law’s weakness was not its fault but the fault of the flesh, by which he means not the substance itself but the carnal mind.

Just because Paul says that Christ came “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” you must not think that his flesh was any different from ours. It was because he called it “sinful” that he added the word “likeness.” For Christ did not have sinful flesh but flesh which, though it was like ours by nature, was sinless. From this it is plain that flesh is not sinful by nature. It was not by taking on a different kind of flesh nor by changing ours into something different that Christ caused it to gain the victory over sin and death. Rather, he allowed the flesh to keep its own nature, giving it the crown of victory and after its resurrection life immortal. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 13.

HE CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH. AUGUSTINE: Here Paul clearly teaches that the precepts of the law were not fulfilled (though they should have been) because those who had the law before grace were given over to worldly goods, from which they were trying to get happiness. Nor did they have any fear except when adversity threatened these goods, and when that happened they easily withdrew from the precepts of the law. Therefore the law grew weaker as its commands went unheeded. This was not the fault of the law but came about through the flesh, because those who went after worldly goods did not love the righteousness of the law but put temporal advantage ahead of it.

And so our deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ, took on mortal flesh and came in the likeness of the flesh of sin. For death is the reward due to the flesh of sin. Of course the Lord’s death was voluntary and not something which he owed. Yet nevertheless the apostle calls the assumption of mortal flesh “sin” even if it was sinless, because when the Savior died he was made sin, so to speak.

But “he condemned sin in the flesh,” for the Lord’s death ensured that death would not be dreaded, that worldly goods would not be sought and that worldly evils would not be feared by those who had previously been wise in the ways of the world and thus unable to fulfill the commands of the law. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 48.

AUGUSTINE: The reason why grace was bestowed on us through our mediator is that we who were polluted by sinful flesh might be purified by the “likeness of sinful flesh.” THE CITY OF GOD 10.22.

DISTINGUISHING SINFUL FLESH AND THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH. AUGUSTINE: What does sinful flesh have? Death and sin. What does the likeness of sinful flesh have? Death without sin. If it had sin it would be sinful flesh; if it did not have death it would not be the likeness of sinful flesh. As such he came—he came as Savior. He died but he vanquished death. In himself he put an end to what we feared; he took it upon himself and he vanquished it—as a mighty hunter he captured and slew the lion. SERMONS FOR EASTER SEASON, HOMILY 233.3.

HE ASSUMED OUR FLESH. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul says here that because of the weakness of the flesh the law could not be fulfilled. When he says: “God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,” he shows that the Son existed before the incarnation and that he took on flesh which was later bound by sin, though he himself assumed it without sin. Therefore it is said that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh, having assumed flesh, and that he condemned sin in that same flesh, because the flesh which he assumed was holy and free from all knowledge of sin. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THE ANALOGY OF SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS BEING GIVEN IN THE NAME OF SIN. PELAGIUS: The law was weakened in the flesh, not in itself. In saying “God sent his Son” Paul counters Photinus, who denied the Son’s existence before the incarnation. … The Son took flesh like that of the rest of humanity and “he condemned sin in the flesh,” i.e., he overcame like by like. Just as the sacrificial victims which the Jews offered under the law were given in the name of sin, although they had no sin themselves … so also Christ’s flesh, which was offered for our sins, took the name of sin. Some people say that by the sin of the Jews, whereby they killed the Lord, Christ condemned in his humanity the sin of the devil, by which the devil had deceived mankind, as Paul says to the Hebrews: “so that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death.”Or it may mean that through the substance of that flesh which previously was a slave to sin, Christ conquered sin by never sinning himself, and in his flesh he condemned sin to show that it was the will which was on trial, not human nature, which God created in such a way that it could avoid sinning. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

WHETHER CHRIST’S BODY WAS MADE OF SINFUL FLESH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: God forbid that Paul should ever say that Christ’s body was made of sinful flesh! Rather, it was in the likeness of sinful flesh, for although it was similar to our bodies it can scarcely be compared with them in the sense that it could not be ill with carnal uncleanness. Even from the womb Christ’s body was a holy temple, and no one is afraid to state that in so far as it was flesh, when it attained the age of reason it behaved in the way flesh normally does. Nevertheless, because the Word which sanctifies all things dwelt in his body, the potential for sin was condemned so that the fruit of this blessing might come across into us as well. For we have been transformed into his likeness, not only in spirit but in body also. When Christ dwells in us by the Holy Spirit and the sacramental blessing, then the law of sin is really condemned in us. So it is truly said that what was impossible for the law, which had been weakened by the flesh, became possible through Christ, who condemned and destroyed sin in the flesh so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

THE SAME NATURE AS WE. THEODORET OF CYR: Christ came “in the likeness of sinful flesh” because, although he took on human nature, he did not assume human sinfulness. … For although he had the same nature as we have, he did not have the same outlook or the same thoughts. For although the law could not accomplish its purpose on account of the weakness of those to whom it was given (for they had a mortal and passible nature), the only begotten Word of God broke the power of sin by taking on human flesh and fulfilled all righteousness, not giving in to the temptations of sin in any way.INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

REMAINING WITHOUT SIN. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: By taking upon himself flesh from a sinful substance while remaining without sin, Christ fulfilled all righteousness and condemned sin in the body. This is proved by his conflict with the spirit in the desert, for the devil is overcome not by sheer divine majesty but by a reminder of the commandment, by fasting and by a legal reply. SERMON 11.3.

BEDE: He who came in the likeness of sinful flesh—not in sinful flesh—did not turn away from the remedy by which sinful flesh was ordinarily made clean. … Not from necessity but by way of example he submitted to the water of baptism, by which he wanted the people of the new law of grace to be washed from the stain of sin.HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL 1.11.

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