# Romans 8.1 **Book:** [Romans](/codex/romans/) · NASB95 ## Verse > Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1, NASB95) ## Immediate context (±2 verses) **NASB95** ([NASB95](/codex/nasb95/)) > 7:25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. > > **8:1. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.** > > 8:2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 8:3. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, (Romans 7:25-8:3, NASB95) The verse is the structural pivot of the Pauline argument: chapter 7 ends in the cry of unaided self under law; chapter 8 opens with the verdict of those *in Christ*. The opening "therefore" reaches back not just to 7:25 but to the whole 1:18-7:25 argument. ## Setting - **Speaker:** Paul the Apostle (with Tertius as amanuensis, 16:22), writing to a congregation he had not yet visited. - **Audience:** The church in Rome, a mixed Jewish-Gentile community navigating internal tensions over law, circumcision, and Christian identity. - **Location:** Written from Corinth on Paul's third missionary journey. - **Time period:** c. AD 56-58. ## Theological reading Romans 8:1 is the **Magna Carta of Christian assurance**. It is the verdict-statement of justification by faith, applied existentially. - **Augustine** (*Contra Julianum*, *De Spiritu et Littera*) treats the verse as the answer to the "wretched man" cry of 7:24, and against Pelagian optimism, insists that the relief of 8:1 is *only* through union with Christ, not through reformed effort. - **Aquinas** (*Commentary on Romans*, c. 1273) reads the verse as ground for *certitudo gratiae*, limited but real certainty of grace, distinguished from final-perseverance certainty (*certitudo gloriae*) which Aquinas reserves to special revelation. - **Luther** (1515-16 *Lectures on Romans*; 1535 *Galatians Commentary*) makes Romans 8:1 the sister-text to Romans 5:1 ("we have peace with God") in his *simul iustus et peccator* doctrine: the justified believer is simultaneously righteous (by Christ's imputed righteousness, hence no condemnation) and sinner (in remaining corruption); the verdict of 8:1 is *forensic and present-tense*, not contingent on the believer's moral progress. - **Calvin** (*Institutes* 3.11.1; *Commentary on Romans*) develops the federal-headship reading: condemnation is the verdict against humanity *in Adam*; "no condemnation" is the counter-verdict for humanity *in Christ*. The "in" preposition is load-bearing, see [Federal Headship](/codex/romans-5-12-21/). **The disputed textual question.** The Majority Text and KJV add "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" at the end of v. 1, importing language from 8:4. The earliest manuscripts (P46, ℵ Sinaiticus, B Vaticanus) end at "Christ Jesus" without the qualifier. The shorter reading is decisive on text-critical grounds (the longer reading is a clear scribal harmonization with v. 4) AND on theological grounds: the verdict is not conditioned on subsequent obedience but is the *ground* from which obedience flows. Modern critical editions (NA28, UBS5) follow the shorter reading; modern translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV, CSB) reflect this. The verse anchors the Reformation doctrine of justification (forensic, by-faith, complete) against any attempt to make assurance contingent on sanctification's progress. ## Key words (Greek) - *no condemnation*, *οὐδὲν κατάκριμα* / *ouden katakrima* (G2631): juridical term for a sentence of condemnation already pronounced. The double-negative *ouden* ("no... whatever") is absolute, no kind, no degree, no remainder of condemnatory verdict. - *in Christ Jesus*, *ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ* / *en Christō Iēsou*: Paul's union-with-Christ formula appearing 76 times in his letters; the sphere within which the verdict applies. See [Federal Headship](/codex/romans-5-12-21/) and Union with Christ. - *now*, *νῦν* / *nyn*: temporal adverb, present-tense reality, not eschatological deferral. Justification is realized, not merely anticipated. ## Cross-references - [Romans 5.1](/codex/romans-5-1/), "having been justified by faith, we have peace with God" - [Romans 5.8](/codex/romans-5-8/), the ground of "no condemnation", Christ's death "while we were yet sinners" - [Romans 8.33](/codex/romans-8-33/), "who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies" - [Romans 8.38-39](/codex/romans-8-38-39/), nothing can separate from God's love in Christ - [2 Corinthians 5.21](/codex/2-corinthians-5-21/), the imputation that grounds the verdict - John 3.18, "the one who believes in Him is not judged" - [John 5.24](/codex/john-5-24/), "has passed out of death into life" ## See also - [Justification](/codex/justification-by-faith/), the doctrinal hub - [Federal Headship](/codex/romans-5-12-21/), the union-with-Christ structure - [Original Sin](/codex/original-sin/), the condemnation this verse cancels (Adam-in / Christ-in) - [Penal Substitutionary Atonement](/codex/penal-substitutionary-atonement/), the mechanism behind the verdict - [Romans Road](/codex/romans-road/), gospel-presentation hub using this verse - [Bible Verses](/codex/bible-verses/), master scripture index ## Quoted in **Concepts:** - [100 Verses of Compassion and God's Goodness](/codex/100-verses-of-compassion-and-gods-goodness/) - [Five Pillars of Islam](/codex/five-pillars-of-islam/) - [Justification by Faith](/codex/justification-by-faith/) - [Spirit of Accusation](/codex/spirit-of-accusation/) - [Spirit of Condemnation](/codex/spirit-of-condemnation/) **Lexicon:** - [G2920 - krisis](/codex/g2920-krisis/) - [G5547 - christos](/codex/g5547-christos/) **Passages:** - [Genesis 50.20](/codex/genesis-50-20/) - [Romans 7](/codex/romans-7/) --- _Scripture quotations taken from the **New American Standard Bible®** (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by **The Lockman Foundation**. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [www.lockman.org](https://www.lockman.org)_