Therefore now, no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because the spiritual law of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1–2).

“No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” alone might be heard as a sovereign decree not open to explanation or dependent on circumstances. But “Therefore now” ties it to both explanation in Romans (e.g., “condemnation” in 5:16 and 18) and to events, especially, and with a thought to the recent Christmas commemoration, the event of the coming of God’s son as not only human but servant (8:3; Philippians 2:6–8).
    Romans is often ridiculously complex, and the first ⅓ or so of chapter 8 is as convoluted as any other part. That is my personal statement, and if you find it all easily understood, then you are either way smarter than me (not necessarily a difficult stunt) or badly self-deceived. Maybe both.
    I’ve started on trying to understand Romans 8:1–2 by asking about “the law of sin and death” in v. 2. That law is represented in Genesis 2:17, where God tells the one human, with reference to only one tree in the diversely abundant garden, “Eat that fruit and you die.” Clearly a “law of sin and death,” and, in fact, where sin and death are both first mentioned in the Bible. The one human became two, Adam and Eve, and they, namely all humanity, went ahead and ate that fruit.
    That was just the beginning of troubles. Just as God has regretted what we have become (Genesis 6:5–6), so the “I” in Romans 7:7–25 expresses a human lament for the condition of humanity, held captive by sin and subject to death. The lament is informed by the one point in the Mosaic Ten Commandments that is most able to reach into the most hidden thoughts of a person, “don’t covet.” But it can also be heard as coming from anyone from any background who has thought seriously about the contradictions of human aspiration and human reality. Or about “the law of sin and death.” Or about the oddness of “eternity in the human mind” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Or about “Life’s a bitch, and then you die.”
    Which makes it all the more important to remember where we started from: “the spiritual law of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

• Adam as “all humanity”: see The One Story, p. 81. On the historicity of Adam and Eve, pp. 78–82.
• Identifying the “I” in Romans 7:7–25 has been a major industry in the world of New Testament studies. If what I say about it seems wrong (even obviously wrong) to you, be assured that we each have scholars on our side.