ould not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and _as an offering_ for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh: that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For they that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are
after the spirit the things of the spirit. For the mind of the flesh
is death; but the mind of the spirit is life and peace: because the
mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can it be: and they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if
so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the
body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of
righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead
shall quicken also your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth
in you.

1. St. Paul declares that the Father sent His own Son to redeem us in
'the likeness of the flesh of sin.' The word 'likeness' is the same as
that used in the similar passage[2], where we are told that the eternal
Son in love for us 'emptied Himself' so far as to take the 'form,'
{279} or essential characteristics, of our servile human nature; nor
only its essential characteristics, but also the outward conditions or
'likeness' of common men as they are. The point is that Christ, who
Himself as man 'knew no sin[3],' appeared amongst us under all the
circumstances of sin, and with no outward or apparent difference
between us and Him--'in all points like as we are' with the single
exception of sin in the will or in the nature.

2. In verse 3 the Authorized Version, and the margin of the Revised,
translating the Greek literally, give us, 'God sending His own Son ...
_for sin_.' But the phrase 'for sin' is continually used in the Greek
of the Old Testament for the sin-offering, and in the New Testament
always has the sacrificial meaning attached to it[4]; and accordingly
its meaning here must be so defined.

3. The flesh of man, considered as a material thing, is not evil. It
was that which the Son took, and it was 'in the flesh' so assumed that
He pronounced sentence on sin--in that very flesh which wa