Matthew Poole and continuators on Romans 8:3

3. For what the law could not do , in that it was weak through the flesh , God sending his own Son , in the likness of sinful flesh , and for sin , condemned sin in the flesh .

By the Law here he means the moral Law, the Righteousness whereof is to be fulfilled in us, v. 4. What is it the Law cannot do? there are several answers: but this is principally meant, it cannot justify us before God. It can condemn us, but it cannot exempt us from Condemnation. vid. Act. 13.38, 39. Gal. 3.21. Heb. 7.18.

By Flesh, as before, we must understand the corrupt Nature; that is, every man since the fall. This is that which puts a weakness and inability upon the Law. The impotency of the Law is not from its self, but from the condition of the Subject with whom it hath to do. The Law is weak to us, because we are weak to it: the Sun cannot give light to a blind eye, not from any impotency in its self, but meerly from the incapacity of the subject it shines upon.

To justifie and save fallen Man, was impossible for the Law to do; therefore God will find out another way, that shall do it effectually. What his own Law cannot do, his own Son can; and therefore Him he will send.

i. e. Such flesh as sin hath made it now to be subject to many infirmities and weaknesses. Flesh in this clause carryes quite another sence, than it did in the first verse, and in the former part of this verse, then it doth in the following verse; there it is taken morally for the corrupt nature of man, here physically for the Humane Nature of Christ. The word likeness is to be linked, not with Flesh, but with sinful Flesh; he had true and real Flesh, but he had only the appearance and likeness of sinful Flesh. vid. 2 Cor. 5.21. & 4.15. Heb. 7.26. 1 Pet. 1.19.

Either this clause is to be joyned to what goes before, and then the sence is, that God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh, that he might take away Sin. Or, else it is joyned to what follows, and then there is an ellipsis in it. Something is cut off, or left out, which must be understood. The margent of our Common Bibles insert the word Sacrifice. q. d. by a Sacrifice for sin, or by a sin Offering he condemned Sin, &c. This ellipsis is usual in Scripture. Isa. 53.10. When thou shalt make his Soul Sin; that is (as our translation renders it) an Offering for sin, Ezek 45.19. The Priest shall take of the Blood of the Sin, we read it of the Sin Offering. See the like in Hos. 4.8. 2 Cor. 5.21. Heb. 10.6.

The Syriack reads it, in his Flesh. The meaning is, that God severely punished Sin, and inflicted the curse and penalty of it, that was due to us, in and upon the person of his own Son. God laid on him the iniquities of us all, and he bore them in his body upon a Tree. vid. Gal. 3.13. 1 Pet. 2.24.

In this Verse is a farther proof of the main proposition in v. 1. There are two things in sin that may indanger us as to Condemnation, the power and guilt of it. As to the freeing us from the former, viz. The power of sin, of that he had spoken in the foregoing verse; as to taking away the guilt of Sin, of that he speaks in this verse.

Marginal references: Or, was impossible for the [illegible: 1 span].; Or, because.; Or, by a [illegible: 1 word] for sin.