ANNOUNCER: Romans 8:1 when it talks about, “There is therefore now no condemnation,” is that talking about the condemnation of the Lake of Fire? Or is it about servitude to sin? Are there any clues in the context? Let’s think about this today, friend, on Grace in Focus. Glad you are here. Grace in Focus is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find us at faithalone.org. And on that website there is lots to know and lots to learn about us. We have a bookstore, and you need to know this, the deadline is coming May 1st, for the pre-order of the Grace Old Testament Commentary Volume 1. There is a discount on that if you order before May 1st. Also get signed up today for our National Annual Conference. You’ve heard us talk about this. It is May 18th through the 21st. We’d love to have you with us. All the information you need at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here is Bob Wilkin, along with Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob, we’ve got a question from Christian, and he’s got UGA in his email address. So I think he’s a Dogs fan, but I’m not going to say “Go Dogs.” So his question is about Romans 8:1, and it’s specifically to do with a Zane Hodges translation, which is in the Romans Commentary, Romans: Deliverance from Wrath. So he’s got a lot here. I’ll condense his question down. Essentially his question is, why does Zane Hodges translate the word katakrima as servitude to sin instead of condemnation, which the New King James Version does say condemnation there? So why did Hodges translate it that way? 

BOB: And I think he went on to say he thought it was not really a translation, but an interpretation. In terms of translation, let’s hit Christian’s direct question first. What we need to do when we’re translating to English in the Old or New Testament is we seek to get the meaning from the text, and we don’t want to be clearer or less clear than the original. In other words, if the original has something vague, like when Jesus is talking to his mother in John 2, the Greek literally says something like “What to me to you woman.” Well, if we translated it that way, it would be almost nonsensical. So we have to supply some words there to make it readable. 

But what we don’t want to do is interpret. For example, in Galatians 1:8-9, Paul says, if anyone preaches any other gospel, then what we’ve preached to you, let him be anathema. Well, you could just put, let him be anathema. The King James translated, did that with the word for baptism and baptize. They just took the Greek, baptizo and baptisma and put them into English, and then left it up to the readers to figure out what that meant. But the other option is, what you can do is just give the closest to the English, which in Galatians 1:8-9 should be let him be accursed, or let him be under a curse. But there are several translations that say, let him go to hell.

SAM: Or be cursed to hell, 

BOB: Or let him be eternally condemned, right? None of that is in the text. So now the question here in Romans 8:1, the Greek word is katakrima, and katakrima is a word that, in my estimation based on my study of it, does not mean condemnation. Instead, it means servitude or slavery. How does Zane Hodges translate Romans 8:1? Just as before he gets into interpreting it, how does he translate? 

SAM: He says, “Therefore there is now no servitude to sin,” and sin is in italics, “for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk in relation to the flesh, but in relation to the Spirit.” 

BOB: Okay, so he added “to sin,” because he felt that was implicit in the context, and we see that kind of thing often in the King James, or the New King James, or whatever. But his basic translation is the word servitude. Well, to call that an interpretation is a misnomer because that’s his belief on what the best English equivalent is to katakrima.

SAM: Right, it could have read, therefore, there is now no servitude for those who are in Christ Jesus, and then he’s just changing, do I want to say katakrima means servitude or condemnation based on the context, and then he adds to sin, because the preceding verse uses the phrase, the flesh, the law of sin, and then the following verse also talks about sin. So it’s not out of the question that the servitude in view here is specifically to sin, so he added those extra two words to make it clear to the reader. 

SAM: Now, the word krima would be legitimately translated something like condemnation, but katakrima does not have that meaning. Now, as I recall, it only occurs three times in the New Testament. Doesn’t Hodges mention that in his commentary? I believe it occurs in Romans 5:16, Romans 5:18, and Romans 8:1. And I think those are the only three uses in the entire New Testament. And by the way, in 5:16 and 5:18, although it is translated condemnation in the New King James, servitude would be a better translation in those passages as well. What does he say, does he mention those verses? 

SAM: Yeah, he has “Paul’s exposition of 5:12-21 has shown through one offense judgment has come to all men to produce servitude to sin.” Or I guess the New King James would have said to produce condemnation to sin or condemnation by itself. And then he said in both 5:16 and 18, Paul’s used the Greek word katakrima, which is used again, and for the last time here in 8:1, the rendering servitude has been discussed and justified under the expedition of 5:16. 

BOB: Yeah, and by the way, I think he goes back to a lexicon called Moulton and Milligan, and Moulton and Milligan say this word was used in Koine literature to refer to consequence of judgment, not the judgment itself, but what the result of the judgment is. 

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BOB: So, if a person is judged, the result of that judgment would be servitude. What does he say on 5:16? 

SAM: He has, Paul’s reference here to the judgment, which is the word krima, is undoubtedly a reference to the divine decree that brought death to Adam and to the sinful race, which is descended from him as a result of his single sin, and then he’s talking about in 5:16 that the free gift brings release from that judgment that has been put on humanity. 

BOB: It doesn’t bring the release from death, but what it does bring is release from the servitude that came along with it. In other words, the point in 5:12-21 is Adam introduced sin into the world and all sin. The federal headship view, the idea that Calvinists had that when Adam sin, we all sin. And so, even if we lived a sinless life, we’re going to be condemned forever unless according to Calvinists we’re one of the chosen few. That view is wrong because what 5:12-21 is saying is all sinned because they have inherited through their father every generation inherits this nature or inclination to sin. And so, all sin. Romans 6:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That “have sinned” doesn’t mean we sinned in Adam. It means we all have sinned ourselves. We all fall short as long as we’re living, we’re not perfectly aligned with the glory of God. 

SAM: Could the New King James translation still be a good translation if you understand condemnation there as being condemned to sin not being condemned to death or eternal punishment or anything. 

BOB: Right. If you understood it as condemnation to servitude to sin, I’ve often heard it call “penal servitude” like when you were in prison, you were essentially enslaved to that prison and to the rules and regulations of the prison. So, if you were part of a chain gang, you were required to go out and cut down the weeds or pave the roads or whatever it is you were doing, you’re part of that chain gang. The question here is, is Romans 8:1 a verse about justification or sanctification? 

This is now getting broader than Christian’s question. Because Christian’s question was, is it fair to translate it servitude? The answer is absolutely. Is it fair to translate it condemnation? I would say yes, but that is not the best translation. And if you had it, you’d have to almost include this condemnation to servitude or something. 

But the other question, the broader question is whether Paul is talking here about justification or sanctification. Most people use this verse, right, Sam, to say, hey, isn’t it great news that since we’re in Christ, we’re never going to be condemned? 

SAM: Yeah, that’s the way I’ve heard it most often. 

BOB: And people say this is a beautiful verse, but what the New King James does is it not only has what the Critical Text has, which is “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” But the New King James goes on to what is found in the vast majority of Greek manuscripts, “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” You see, if you took this view that it’s talking about, there’s no condemnation in the sense that I’ve been declared righteous, you would say that’s only true of those who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

You know, the other funny thing is, Romans 8:1 is part of Romans 5 through 8. And Romans 5 through 8 is about sanctification. It’s not about justification. Romans 7 ended with, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Romans 8:1 is talking about deliverance from this body of death. And so he’s saying, there’s no servitude to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. That’s a sanctification verse. 

And it’s saying, we need to be people who walk according to the Spirit. If a believer walks according to the flesh, then he does experience katakrima. He experiences slavery to sin. Not slavery to sin in his position, but in his experience. And you can read Romans 6:16-18 where it says, we’re no longer slaves of sin in our position. But in order to be set free from sin’s bondage in our experience, we need to reckon ourselves dead to sin. And then we need to present our members to God as instruments of righteousness. 

And so I think all Romans 8:1 is doing is going back to what was already said in Romans 5:16 and 18 and Romans 6:16-18 that in our position we’re no longer slaves of sin. And that’s a beautiful thing, but that’s a sanctification thing. So Christian, great question, but I don’t think that Hodges or F. F. Bruce or anybody else that wants to translate katakrima as servitude is somehow interpreting rather than translating. I don’t believe they’re imposing their theology upon the text. They’re simply going based on the meaning of this word katakrima. 

Well I hope this was helpful Christian, and in the meantime let’s keep grace in focus.

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