In Romans 8, is “the law” the Ten Commandments or a natural law?
In Romans 8, “the law” refers to the Mosaic Law, specifically the Ten Commandments, not a natural law such as the law of gravity. The context contrasts the law of sin and death with the indwelling Holy Spirit, who becomes the believer’s law.
Les explains that Romans 8 follows Paul’s groundwork in the first seven chapters, where he shows how sin and condemnation came in and how Christ died for justification and forgiveness. Chapter 7 presents the dilemma of the old Adam, and chapter 8 answers it with the Holy Spirit, whose indwelling presence becomes our law. In verse 3, Les says the context is not merely an everyday fact like the Law of Gravity or the Law of Sin and Death, but the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments—or the whole sphere of Judaism. He notes the law was weak through the flesh. He then references Hebrews chapter 8, verse 7.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
More Questions
Why could the law not save us in Romans 8:3?
The Law (the Ten Commandments, the Mosaic Law, the whole sphere of Judaism) could not do what was needed because it was weak through the flesh.
Why could the law not do what was needed according to Romans 8?
The law was perfect from God's point of view, but it was weak through the flesh—weak from man's point of view—which is why it could not do what was needed.